18 month old LME?

Went to the not-so-local-HBS last weekend and got the ingredients for my Soontobenamed Nut Brown Ale. Long story short, last night I looked at the can of Coopers Amber LME for an expiration date of some sorts. I didn't see an expiration date but I DID see what looked to be a code date: 137/07. Having worked in the food manufacturing industry many many moons ago I'm guessing that this LME was manufactured on the hundred-thirty-seventh day of 2007. I could be (and hope) that I am wrong.

Question is, does anybody have a can of Coopers LME handy that can look on the bottom and check the code date? I'd like to know if I did indeed use 18 month old LME in my beer. If so, it may be time to go online and order from here on.


ETA: I don't know why I didn't think of this in the first place. I emailed Coopers to see if indeed that number is a Julian code date.

It's canned sugar dude, I wouldn't worry.

I have two cans here beside me now and while they don't say when they were made one says best before JUN 2010 and the other APR 2010.

Yeah, I know I shouldn't worry but when it comes to what I put into my beer I'm anal like that.

Coopers emailed me back I was correct, that was a Julian code date for the 137th day of 2007, meaning that it was made in May of last year. So basically it sat around for almost 18 months.

I'd still like to know exactly where it sat around, the Coopers warehouse or my LHBS. Are there any vendors who can chime in on how fresh the LME is that they have on the shelves?

18 months seems a little long to me but the guy at Coopers assured me that the LME wasn't old.

I forsee a quick jump to AG.

...and then you can worry about how long your malted grain sat around a moth-infested warehouse, and how much of it is actually mouse-turds, not grain. Unbend a bit.

R, DW, HAHB.

Ecnerwal said:

...and then you can worry about how long your malted grain sat around a moth-infested warehouse, and how much of it is actually mouse-turds, not grain. Unbend a bit.

R, DW, HAHB.

Click to expand...

what an ass....i prefer not to think about that.

As for the sugar, it has such a high osmotic pressure that its really hard for anything to grow in it. Not saying that it cant, but its the same premise behind preservation of jars of strawberry jam or high sugar candies.

Ecnerwal said:

...and then you can worry about how long your malted grain sat around a moth-infested warehouse, and how much of it is actually mouse-turds, not grain. Unbend a bit.

R, DW, HAHB.

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm pretty sure that I can tell the difference between grain and rat turds and I'm pretty sure that moths don't crap grain, or eat rat turds for that matter.

Thanks for the thought though.

So I just picked up a couple cans of Coopers Wheat extract today with a stamp on the bottom of 099/09. I guess that means it's about 3 years old. Should take it back? Or will it still be good? Never bought Coopers before.

See above - it should be fine, though they shouldn't have charged you full price for it.

As long as it isn't bulging and you use fresh yeast, you'll make beer.

Welcome to the board!

Chers!

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Yeah, I guess I know better now.