extract freshness date?

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godrick

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Sep 5, 2009
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Location
W.Mass
Hi all,
I've read that it's important to buy fresh ingredents, including malt extract. I asked my HBS about a freshness or use by date on the cans of malt extract, and he said that he didn't know of any. The cans of extract (Muntons) that he sells have all kinds of numbers printed on them, but they are obviously in code so that the consumer cannot easily read them. For exapmle, the can in front of me is stamped: 3519 XB35105 9098 and 71212. Does anyone know what the hell the numbers mean? Any reference to where I might find information regarding these numbers? I tried the Muntons site with no results.
Cheers :mug:
Godrick
 
If you find out let us all know - this has been a stick in my craw for a long time.

And it's not just Muntons.
 
I highly recommend not buying extract in a can. It tends to make all of your beers taste the same. Buy fresh extract or DME.

Forrest
 
The cans are coded, but the yeast will have a simple date on it.

But, Forrest is right. Buying from a high-volume source is the way to go. When I got started, my LHBS had 55 gallon drums of extract on the floor and each one had the date of manufacture. They rarely had a drum over 4 months old.
 
I'd suggest just bying from AHS because it's the only place i've found that's not selling a can or milk jug container of extract. They measure out the extract to exactly what you want and will even combine for individual brews, which is super convenient.

Not to mention the small buckets it comes in make great fermenters for small batches or for doing comparisons on yeasts or dry hoping.
 
Plus - you can completely fill up your garage with packing peanuts over time.

+1 AHS

You do want the stuff to get to you in good condition, right?

Take them to a store in your town that ships things. They will thank you for it. Those peanuts are expensive.

Forrest
 
Take them to a store in your town that ships things. They will thank you for it. Those peanuts are expensive.

Yeah! The last place I worked at have this big peanut bin on a pulley so they could lower it and dump all the incoming peanuts into it. Then the roof leaked and all the corn-starch peanuts got weird.
 
If I remember AHS does not use Corn Starch peanuts???? Somethign about mice loving them.

OH - I was not complaining (except when my bag tipped over on a windy day).
 
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