Out of date kit and kilo brew kits

[wagonteeth]

HI all

 

Ive had a brewing hiatus for a few years and I'm looking to get back into it but all my brew cans are ranging from 9 months to about 1.5 years out of date and the brew enhancers have also been sitting there for a few years all have been stored in cool dark place. 

My questions is do you think the brew enhancers and brew cans could still be used or just cut my losses and buy new ones?

Cheers

Edited April 28, 2020 by wagonteeth

[Journeyman]

Yes, can still be used. 

It's likely the yeasts will be a bit tired so either buy some fresh stuff or make a starter to revive the yeast and build up the number of viable cells.

[wagonteeth]

thanks for your help, what would be a good all round yeast to buy? i normally just brew the cooper pale ale cans.

[Journeyman]

I like to use Nottingham. Wide range of temps it works nicely at, good flocculation (how the yeast clumps and drops out at end of ferment) and high attenuation. (how efficient it is at converting sugar to alcohol, i.e. more bang for buck  )

Other yeasts have different characters but Nott is quite neutral, so it doesn't add other flavours etc. to your beer. Of course sometimes, in some styles, you WANT the yeast to be noticeable. 

[YeastyBoy]

37 minutes ago, wagonteeth said:

thanks for your help, what would be a good all round yeast to buy? i normally just brew the cooper pale ale cans.

Welcome back to brewing.

US05 11g smack pack for Oz Pale Ale gets my vote.

Just sprinkle on top of FV 23 litre brew around 20C & wait for the magic to happen.

Your brews with out of date tins may be a little darker than fresher (not out of date) extract tins.

Alternatively you could always post the old tins to me and buy a complete fresh batch of tins?

Cheers YB

[Instigator]

13 hours ago, wagonteeth said:

thanks for your help, what would be a good all round yeast to buy? i normally just brew the cooper pale ale cans.

Most home brew shops will have US-05 as a reliable and common ale yeast.

If you want to add a touch more DIY to your brew, you can buy a 6 pack of Coopers Pale Ale stubbies and harvest the yeast. Here's what to do with it: https://www.diybeer.com/au/brewing-support/#video9 . I've personally had really good results using this yeast, but it's a bit of extra work.

Edited April 28, 2020 by Instigator