Do I need to buy fresher Go-Ferm, DAP, or Fermaid K to replace old?

[otherchuck]

Greetings all,

I have brewed a few batches of mead in the past, but it has been at least a couples years ago now (maybe three) since I brewed my last one. As a beekeeper for the last couple years, I have now perpetually have more than enough honey, so I am returning to the mead-making hobby. I forget almost everything I used to know, but I think I can relearn it.

I am about to order some Lalvin ec1118 (in the past, I have only used DV10), so that particular ingredient will be 'fresh.' But I recall that I will also be adding DAP, Go-Ferm Protect, and Fermaid-K at various points in the process. I have those three ingredients in bags in my cupboard, untouched, for at least two or three years. Fermaid-K was well sealed, and is still very powdery, The DAP was poorly sealed, but still has a sugary powder texture. The Fermaid-K was well sealed (I thought) but it is kind of cake-y, but I can break it up into a powder texture pretty easily. None of those bags has an expiration date. Do those products expire at all, or are they probably fine to use as is?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Otherchuck

 

[CanadianJesus]

If you are following Bray's One Month Mead, you should take a look at his Fermaid-O protocol. It removes the need for DAP, as if you add DAP AFTER the 2/3 (final) sugar break, you end up with an absolutely horrible off taste. (I know this from experience sadly and will be dumping an entire 5 gallon batch so I can use the bottles to make a new batch with the Fermaid-O method). I have however, successfully made two 1 gallon batches with the original DAP method with excellent results, if you go with the original protocol, make damn sure you don't miss that final sugar break!

Sorry I couldn't answer your questions about the aged nutrients. I have some DAP and other brands of nutrient that are a few years old that I have used in other wines and nothing bad happened. If they're sealed well there shouldn't be much if any bacteria in there that can spoil your batch. I use baby food sized spice jars to store all my nutrients and other chemicals like Sparkalloid.

 

[biochemedic]

I would say it has a lot to do with ambient temps. Is your cupboard at room temp? Is room temp for your house 72 degrees or 66? Is your cupboard in a relatively cool basement, or in your un-airconditioned garage? The point being is that most chemical's viability is based on ambient storage temp, and I agree with CanadianJesus that they're probably fine...but do you want to spend 10 bucks on new nutrients and be sure or take a chance with your hard earned honey?