Embarrassingly Old Extract w/ Kveik. Why not

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mhgodzilla

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I made a nice pseudo lager with Kveik. Saved a ton of yeast. Days later found a 10 year old Mr. Beer kit in my late father m’s things. Brought it home then decided- what the hell I’ll make one. Made Canadian Ale a pre-hopped basc low abv brew with a corn sugar booster. After a 5 min boil, and quick cool to 80, I pitched some of my ample supply if Lutra Kveik.

As I expected, it smelled ok and surprisingly had some bitterness still. It is super dark now like a Porter. I’m expecting it to have attenuation issues, but maybe it will be ok-ish to toss in some swing tops. If not no harm done.

Anyone else tried a hack brew with embarrassingly old LME recently? Maybe this is the record?
 
Haha, these posts always come in pairs!
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I had a can of Cooper's Stout (made in Australia), bought in a Seattle area homebrew shop, hand carried to Shanghai where it sat for a few years, was included on a furniture shipment on a slow boat from China to Seattle, sat in the garage for a few years in Seattle, then brewed. Prolly 6-8 years old and had the benefit of being in a container on a sea shipment for about a month.

Drinkable but far from my best beer.
 
Gents, It’s alive! Lots of Kveik forming on top and bottom 15 hours later. If anything can digest decade old extract it’s gotta be Kveik. I don’t like the Mr. Beer notched lid airlock, unsatisfying.
I’ll post a couple of pics of this Frankenstein brew and a tasting at some point.
 
24 hours later. Lutra Kveik krausen and much more on the bottom. Warmed to 88 with seedling mat to spice up the ferment. Kveik can handle that, maybe that will encourage it. I‘m expecting this to be real sweet if usable at all. Dark as it gets as old extract would do. My pseudo lager is carbing up beneath so I’ll be quaffing that soon.
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I used the Mr Beer kit fermenters quite a bit. A few brews down the road, I always had issues with random contamination. Not every time, but enough to piss me off and toss 'em in the trash. I simply couldn't get those things reliably clean. You have to pull apart the spigot and everything else. It might be my sanitary practices, but I think the fermenters hide some little nooks that are hard to clean. Your mileage may vary.

If you want to try the Mr Beer fermenters, they usually go on sale for $7.50 or $10 each around a holiday like Memorial day at the end of this month.
 
If you want to try the Mr Beer fermenters, they usually go on sale for $7.50 or $10 each around a holiday like Memorial day at the end of this month.
Given my mileage being so far from you I agree. Unlikely to find one here it would just be an ornamental quirk if I discovered one.
 
I brewed a dry irish stout with old LME once. Tasted like it had dish soap in it so I dumped the batch.
Yeah they can be VERY hit and miss. I brewed two beers in succession with expired kits when I just started. They sat in a guy's garage for years, never used. I brewed them with the included yeast and everything. One came out really well, and the other was simply undrinkable.
 
Not beer but a mead. I found a bucket of honey that I had put in the cold room when we moved into our house. I found it 25 years later. and made a mead from it my second one acuatly. It is very nice but the mead taste like sherry.
 
I made some Dunkel in 2020 with some old Gold LME from 2016 that I found shoved in a kitchen cupboard beyond view.

Wasn’t supposed to be a Dunkel, but with the darkening of the LME that’s what it became.

Turned out good. After lagering 6 months was VERY good. Fear not... !
 
I've got a bulging can of Brewferm Diablo in my basement from the mid '90's. I'm pretty certain that it was old and expired when I got it. I just looked at it and there are no dates or anything on it. It still has the yeast pack and directions. Maybe an experiment is in order??

K
 
I've got a bulging can of Brewferm Diablo in my basement from the mid '90's. I'm pretty certain that it was old and expired when I got it. I just looked at it and there are no dates or anything on it. It still has the yeast pack and directions. Maybe an experiment is in order??

K
Bulging may mean it’s gone bad
 
I've got a bulging can of Brewferm Diablo in my basement from the mid '90's. I'm pretty certain that it was old and expired when I got it. I just looked at it and there are no dates or anything on it. It still has the yeast pack and directions. Maybe an experiment is in order??
FWIW, I knew people who were experienced with dented canned goods.

The first thing they did with a bulging can was throw it away.
 
Bulging may mean it’s gone bad
FWIW, I knew people who were experienced with dented canned goods.

The first thing they did with a bulging can was throw it away.

Its been sitting in my basement for decades, bulged. Not going to change any time soon, and I'm not dumb enough to try to drink anything I brew with it!

Yes, there is a high likelihood that there's something growing that I don't want to ingest. Kinda neat to see if it splits open at some point though. I move it every couple of years, and when I looked at it this morning I appeared to be slightly more bulged than the last time I paid it any attention. Seems something is active!

K
 
I’m looking for that picture that says “It’s more efficient to throw away old extract than it is to dump a batch of beer made with old extract. Change my mind.”

That said, I’m guilty of doing it once in a while too. I mostly regret it every time I do.
 
I recently used up some 5-6 year old extract that and added a large amount of hops I had preciously used for dry hopping. It was Amarillo, Mosaic and Eldorado and I added it 30/10 and 5 in the boil. Not the best beer, but not bad either. For something I was going to throw away, it came out better than I expected. What I really wanted to do was experiment with recycling dry hops and it actually worked very nicely for me.
 
I’m looking for that picture that says “It’s more efficient to throw away old extract than it is to dump a batch of beer made with old extract. Change my mind.”

That said, I’m guilty of doing it once in a while too. I mostly regret it every time I do.


... and more recently ...

There are also a couple of experienced brewers here who talk about successfully using older LME to make big stouts.

So @bwible, thank you for moving the LME discussion forward in a positive way (using older LME to make big beers).
 
i have a few mr beer fermenters.
I use them for small test batches.
easy to bottle from.

but i got them from a thrift store so old.
I made one of the beers that came with once.
it didn't taste very good.

I do have a few kits someone gave me last yrs.
I think i'll make them just to see how they turn out.
 
Guys next weekend I plan test the fermented Kveik yeasted decade old Mr. Beer. I’m not sure the beer will not get trashed but I’m willing to try free beer out of curiosity.
I’m not even sure I need to keep a Mr. Beer fermenter either. I have fermenters and prefer to monitor the airlock. Does not appear to be very durable, but again free.
Yet ...Even if it’s drinkable. I’ll likely not make the other cans. My time is not free. Might as well make a fresh mini extract brew.
Next update when I taste it and decide - bottle vs draino.
 
I have a 5 gallon batch in a keg and waiting for keezer space that was made with 4 very old Mr Beer kits. For me, this is a hobby, As long as it is fun, I am good. I have done an expired kit before, I would do it again. I tasted between the fermenter and the keg, not bad. I will make final judgement when I get some space and can carb it. It is actually the result of another thread, got into an expired LME discussion and decided to go for it.
 
I have a 5 gallon batch in a keg and waiting for keezer space that was made with 4 very old Mr Beer kits. For me, this is a hobby, As long as it is fun, I am good. I have done an expired kit before, I would do it again. I tasted between the fermenter and the keg, not bad. I will make final judgement when I get some space and can carb it. It is actually the result of another thread, got into an expired LME discussion and decided to go for it.
Well said Blue.
 
I’m not even sure I need to keep a Mr. Beer fermenter either. I have fermenters and prefer to monitor the airlock. Does not appear to be very durable, but again free.

Nothing against Mr Beer. but I bought about 5 Mr Beer fermenters and found 10-20% of the time had infections. It coulda easily been my sanitation practices but jus' sayin' I gave up using these fermenters. Your mileage may vary.
 
Its been sitting in my basement for decades, bulged. Not going to change any time soon, and I'm not dumb enough to try to drink anything I brew with it!

Yes, there is a high likelihood that there's something growing that I don't want to ingest. Kinda neat to see if it splits open at some point though. I move it every couple of years, and when I looked at it this morning I appeared to be slightly more bulged than the last time I paid it any attention. Seems something is active!

K
But, that said..... since you are gonna boil it... that will kill any sort of pathogens that could make you sick. Soooooooo, why the hell not?
Except maybe, that you could be wasting a bunch of hops and probably yeast and a fair amount of time...
I’m all for experimenting!
 
Gents, it’s the end of the Embarrassingly Old Extract experiment. I sampled the uncarbed finished beer to see if bottling was warranted. Verdict was NOT to bottle. It did ferment and did have bitterness, but the malt character was gone. It was sort of bitter, ciderlike hooch. You could drink it, but I’d rather move on to trying another mini-brew in my dads old Mr. Beer fermenter or make a full batch in my all grain setup instead. I was not surprised by the outcome but part of me did hope it might work out. Thanks for all the replies and stories shared kicking this around. Moving on to other Kveik Yeast beers with my stored supply.
 
His expressions are hilarious. He wants to like it, but his face says “this sucks balls”. My favorite part is when he says “tastes like when you burp after eating breadsticks”.
 
It is pretty funny. Can fast forward to ~7:00 when he cracks the fruit of his labor and then critiques it. Well worth a few minutes of your life.
 

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