Stocking Up - Brew Kits

[Nicknack]

I'm new to brewing - on my third batch. Since I had a coupon and there was a sale on top of that, I decided to take advantage and bought several beer kits. I now have 9 kits in my closet. I intend to brew them as quickly as I can but with just two big mouth bubblers and only so much room in my chest freezer, it's going to take some time.

That being the case, what should I do to keep the ingredients as fresh as possible? Is stocking up like what I did not a good idea?

I already took out the yeast from all of the brew kits and they are in my chest freezer resting comfortably at 67 degrees. Should I store the hops, grains and extract in the same manner? These are all 5 gallon extract kits.

 

[arnobg]

Put your dry yeast packets in your refrigerator and leave them there.

Put your hops in the freezer.

Store the liquid extract in the fridge if you have room until you want to use it, then set it out to room temperature for a day so it pours easy. If you didn't know already, sit the liquid extract in a hot water bath when you're bringing your brew water up to temp on brew day to loosen it up and help it thin out to pour easier.

I assume your grains are crushed? Those are going to be the tricky part. Generally crushed grains should be used ASAP however, they should be good a month later if stored cool and dry. General rule of thumb is to taste them. If they're stale I would not use it. If tastes good then you will still have good beer.

For future reference, all of the above applies to extract kits even when they aren't being stored for longer periods of time. As soon as your kits come refrigerate the yeast, put the hops in the freezer, and so on.

 

[Calder]

Hops in freezer.

Grains are ok dry at room temp, but cooler is better.

LME darkens with time. You might slow it down by storing in fridge, but ok at room temp.

 

[Nicknack]

Sounds good... thanks.

Yeast already has been in the fridge (chest freezer at 67 degrees). This evening I'll take the other ingredients to their proper place (hops to the freezer and LME to the fridge). The crushed grains will remain in my closet which is about 72f.

 

[flars]

It is better to store dry and liquid yeast at 38° to 40°F.

 

[ArthurDigbySellers]

It is better to store dry and liquid yeast at 38° to 40°F.

Someone should tell my LHBS that then because all of their dry yeast is hanging on the wall! I agree about liquid yeast, but I have had dry yeast packets of S-05 sitting in my kitchen cabinet for 6 months or longer and have used them with no issues.

 

[flars]

Someone should tell my LHBS that then because all of their dry yeast is hanging on the wall! I agree about liquid yeast, but I have had dry yeast packets of S-05 sitting in my kitchen cabinet for 6 months or longer and have used them with no issues.

You don't need to store dry yeast in a cool environment, but less viability will be lost if it is stored cool.

 

[arnobg]

Sounds good... thanks.

Yeast already has been in the fridge (chest freezer at 67 degrees). This evening I'll take the other ingredients to their proper place (hops to the freezer and LME to the fridge). The crushed grains will remain in my closet which is about 72f.

Take them out of the chest freezer and put them in your refrigerator. We wouldn't tell you to store them in a refrigerator if 67 degrees was the best....

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I always store the hops by recipe in a ziplock bag and label them for the recipe with the date that I received them on it. That way I know which is the oldest. Same with the yeast, put the date received on them after looking at the expiration date. I store my steeping grains in the refrigerator.

 

[Calder]

Someone should tell my LHBS that then because all of their dry yeast is hanging on the wall! I agree about liquid yeast, but I have had dry yeast packets of S-05 sitting in my kitchen cabinet for 6 months or longer and have used them with no issues.

And you probably will not have any issues if you use the yeast within the use by date. The use by date is probably a couple of years from manufacture and is due to viability loss expected if stored at typical room temperature. If you store in the fridge, you will have virtually no loss of viability; I think it is estimated to be 4% per year, so you will still have a healthy pitch after 10 years if for some reason you didn't use it.

It is made to be easy to use and store - storing in fridge is best.