• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

How long will ingridents last

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

grubb

Active Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2010
Messages
40
Reaction score
0
Location
MI
bought some ingridents and were wondering how long they will last.

Crushed grains
dry yeast
liquid yeast
 
As far as I understand, there is no definite timeline. The lifetime depends on storage conditions. For liquid yeast they can be stored in the fridge (without freezing) for up to a year. A starter would then be required for the yeast but the yeast would be fine. Dry yeast in the fridge would probably last about as long. Grains are tricky since they tend to get stale pretty fast when exposed to air and humidity.

Use as fresh as possible and don't worry about how long they last. Certainly fresher is getter.
 
White labs has a best buy date on the vial--4 months after the date of production. I'm not experienced enough to throw out exact numbers, but to my knowledge the older the yeast (especially liquid), the less viable it is and the greater the need to make a starter even if 1 vial would have been enough for the batch. I've also heard if it turns the color of peanut butter, its no good. Of course, it should be stored in the fridge. Dry yeast has a much longer shelf life. For what its worth I just took a look at a pack of s-04 I've got in the fridge, purchased a few months ago, with an expiration date of 7/11 printed on it.

My practice with liquid yeast has been to brew as quickly as possible after receiving it.
 
The dry yeast that came with a kit I bought says to keep refrigerated on it... but I didn't notice that until today. It has been at room temperature for about 2 weeks... does anyone know if it should be ok? Thanks and sorry for hijacking this thread :D
 
Two weeks at room temp won't be a problem. Your LHBS has beer kits w/ dry yeast sitting at room temperature for longer than that.
 
Crushed grains should be used within a week provided that you've kept them refrigerated. Both yeast(s) should be refrigerated also. Use them within a year from date on package. Dry yeast are not that fragile and can be used after the date on package. Liquid yeast should be used within the year on package. Keep cool don't freeze or keep near freezing.

Now go and make some beer dammit!
 
if it has only been a couple weeks your grains should be fine. If you are going to store them for a long period of time I would reccomend putting them in an air tight container. Heck I bet if you vaccum sealed them and put them in the freezer they would keep for a bit.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top