Shelf Life of Extract kits

[Griz514]

I'm completely new to homebrewing so I have a stupid question. I was given 3 kits that were bought in February 2016. I know the yeast won't be any good, but should I toss them all or will some ingredients be ok? Thanks!

 

[flars]

LME or DME for fermentables? LME probably no good unless it was stored at near freezing temperature. DME lasts as long as it wasn't exposed to moisture. Hops may be good if they were refrigerated and are in nitrogen flushed packaging. Grains you would have to taste. Vacuumed sealed and stored in a freezer they may still be good.

 

[triethylborane]

From briess:

STORAGE AND SHELF LIFE
Store at temperatures <90o F.
Best if used within 24 months from date of manufacture. LME naturally darkens with age. Storing in a cool, dark location helps to minimize this effect.

http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_CBWPilsenLightLME.pdf

 

[Griz514]

Thanks for the info. One kit has LME and DME and the other kits have just LME. 2 of the kits have steeping grains. I think I'll test everything right before brew day and replace what I need seeing as I have to replace the yeast anyway. Much appreciated.

 

[Calder]

It is all good, even the yeast (dry I assume - liquid would be different).

Dry yeast will be Ok for about 4 years at room temp (4 years gets you to about 50% viability), and 'forever' in the fridge (maybe lose 4% per year).

Liquid extract will darken with age, but taste OK.

Hops may have a question. Depends on how they were packaged, and stored. Some hops will lose 50% of their active oils in 6 months at room temp when not packaged. There are on-line calculators that can tell you how much they have degraded based on hop type, temp, and packaging. You probably need to add some more hops.

 

[Griz514]

I'll look into the hops calculator. Everything else seems to be ok so far. Thanks for the info.

 

[JohanTheMighty]

A couple years ago I realized that I had a couple kits in the fridge that were 6 months past the "expiration" date. I knew the yeast was done, but I went ahead and brewed both batches anyway, and everything was just fine. Now, it may have been the packaging, the fact that I keep my fridge on the coldest setting, I'm not sure but nothing went bad. I'm sure that I'm about to open myself up to being crucified for saying so, but when it comes to the the expiration dates on these kits, I see them more as a "best if used by" sorta date, yeast notwithstanding. The only thing I don't screw with when it comes to expiration dates is milk.

 

[TwistedGray]

At the risk of sounding wasteful, I might just replace the whole thing if it was me considering the amount of time investment. It would be pretty disheartening for something to have gone bad at the end and no way to confirm if it was due to "expired" ingredients or something else.

 

[Griz514]

Update:

I went ahead and brewed a kit anyway. The only thing I did was replace the yeast. The kit ended up being about 18 months old. I tried one last night and it actually was decent. The hop flavor and aroma are almost nonexistent, but it's definitely a very drinkable brew. I'm not much of a hophead anyway. Thanks to everyone for the info!