old brew

[bierhunter]

I have taken a year off of brewing, and now I am back. I had a few Coopers kits lying around (refrigerated) and decided instead of throwing them out (1 year past expiry date) I would do a partial mash with them. I read somewhere(Zymurgy I think) that the grain supplements the lost FAN in the extract and the beer turns out pretty good. This is a good way for me because I can use my stove if I am only doing a half batch of all-grain. Anyways I also had some S-05 dry yeast which expired 8 months ago, and used 2 packs of that. This morning it is fermenting like crazy, it seems one pack would have been enough. My point in all of this is that despite much advice I have read on here that old kits should be discarded, I believe one should never throw them out, there is always a way to rejuvenate them through partial mashing(unless they smell bad of course). I also have a few packets of expired S-04 left over which I will use on the next old batch, but just one packet because S-04 is a beast anyways.

 

[Dynachrome]

Yeah, I would agree. The kits should be fine.

I might keep a backup packet of yeast or two in the fridge tough.

You can place the yeast in some water. It will hydrate. It will look like a floating yeast cake.

I get mine going for a little while, usually less than an hour, sometimes overnight. I use sugar. Others recommend against that as they feel plain sugar will "train" the yeast wrong. My method has had good results for me anyway.