30 Year Old Beer In The Making

[Aeros]

Hi All,
This is not a question because I need to know your answer, I will find out the answer on my own. This is just a question to see if anyone can divine the answer.

Ok, my dad is a horder. He has hordered a many of things. One such thing is a Cooper's Home Brewer kit from about 30 years ago. This was before home brewing evolved to wort syrups rather than 21 litre wort solutions. Yes, its like your wort (plus brewing sugar) diluted to 21 litres. Any my dad asked me to make a brew out of it and I reluctantly agreed. Webpostings on this stuff says that it doesn't have a long shelf life. Anyway, not to waste good yeast I used the generic yeast from an old cooper's kit (stored in fridge). The specific gravity started at 1040 and it was nicely fermenting at around 20C. What do you think the resultant beer will taste like?

(a) As horrible as an infected beer (B) Worse than a © Drinkable, but I rather not (d) Drinkable (e) This'll pass (f) Not too bad (g) I quite like this (h) effing awesome (i) best effing beer I've ever tasted

Leave your response with a short answer why.

 

[rendo]

hmmmmmmm SH!T.....cause its 30years old

but I'd drink it anyway....do tell us what it is like!!

 

[zabond]

I"d go for A
If its been sitting in a can for 30years thers a fair chance the inner can lining has broken down leeching metal into the extract,if you are game to taste it dont take a big mouthful straight off, any hint of metalic taste and you may not make it to 10 posts :icon_vomit:

 

[Pennywise]

I think what he's talking about is like a FWK, still, I wouldn't hold much hope.

 

[manticle]

Hi All,
This is not a question because I need to know your answer, I will find out the answer on my own. This is just a question to see if anyone can divine the answer.

Ok, my dad is a horder. He has hordered a many of things. One such thing is a Cooper's Home Brewer kit from about 30 years ago. This was before home brewing evolved to wort syrups rather than 21 litre wort solutions. Yes, its like your wort (plus brewing sugar) diluted to 21 litres. Any my dad asked me to make a brew out of it and I reluctantly agreed. Webpostings on this stuff says that it doesn't have a long shelf life. Anyway, not to waste good yeast I used the generic yeast from an old cooper's kit (stored in fridge). The specific gravity started at 1040 and it was nicely fermenting at around 20C. What do you think the resultant beer will taste like?

(a) As horrible as an infected beer ( B) Worse than a Drinkable, but I rather not (d) Drinkable (e) This'll pass (f) Not too bad (g) I quite like this (h) effing awesome (i) best effing beer I've ever tasted

Leave your response with a short answer why.

If I understand correctly it's like a Fresh wort kit?

I reckon it will taste stale.

 

[Supra-Jim]

Not too much to lose fermenting though, except maybe a little time. Go for it and report back!!

Cheers SJ

 

[zabond]

even if its been in plastic container, unless stored under ideal conditions plastic phenols will leach into the wort that may be tastless but stil toxic,plastic has advanced a lot in 30 years but if you spoke to any manufacturer I doubt they would garentee no leaching in 30 years of a sugar based product

 

[Bribie G]

I used to sell these when I ran a LHBS in Maryborough 30 years ago and indeed they were Fresh Work Kits and were magnificent Coopers Wort straight out of the kettle. The plastic was exactly the same as today, high density polyethylene. The kits came in two varieties, Sparkling Ale and Stout. The freight was killing them so shortly afterwards Coopers built a vacuum evaporation home brew kit department, and the rest is history. IIRC the cubes were around $11 at the time that Brigalow cans were $3.99 so they were for crazy maniac brewers only.

I would guess that it's gone a bit stale in 30 years but you may be lucky. Keep us posted.

:icon_cheers:

 

[brettprevans]

whats the half life of the protective coating in a tin of coppers kit? 5 years? now take into account it was 30yrs ago. it probably didnt even have a protective lining. so i recon the wort would have leeched the metals out of the tin as per Zabond's post.

seriously for the $10 for a new tin i wouldnt be risking it. your going to have to buy yeast for it anyways and i recon the cost of the yeast is more than a 30yr old tin of coopers deserves.

but hey, by all means brew it.

edit: well bribie has said that there shouldnt be any leeching. but still its 30yrs old. stuff that., spend $10 and brew up a new tin.

 

[Bribie G]

C M, what he has there isn't a tin, it's a fresh wort cube which is either a cube or a bag in a box, like a giant wine cask thingo (Coopers experimented with both types in the late 1970s). Like I said I don't hold out a heck of a lot of hope, but he may be lucky. If it turns out ok he can drink a few, put on his disco suit and do John Travolta impersonations then go for a drink-drive in his orange Valiant Charger with no seatbelts and pick up chix and bring them home for a fondue evening and maybe a game of naked twister.

Ah nostalgia, well we had to do something while we were waiting for the Internet to get invented. :icon_cheers:

 

[brettprevans]

ahh bag of death style. ok cool. still....... 30yrs old.

 

[boingk]

If it turns out ok he can drink a few, put on his disco suit and do John Travolta impersonations then go for a drink-drive in his orange Valiant Charger with no seatbelts and pick up chix and bring them home for a fondue evening and maybe a game of naked twister.

GOLD!

Reminds me, gotta give my Val some love this weekend...

Anywho, I'm in the 'brew it and see' camp. Might be alright, might not. I'm guessing probably not. But hey, if it works it may well be one cracker of a beer. Not to mention it's probably the LAST of its kind anywhere in the world. May even consider giving Coopers a yell, sure they'd be interested - especially if it turned out ok.

Cheers - boingk

 

[thekelsobrewer]

I would recommend adding some extra hops as after 30 years it will have lost all hop flavour, even in a can kit nearing it's use by date or just past it all hop flavours diminish as they would with a normal commercial beer, I can remember these old Coopers kits, brewed them in a plastic garbage can, unused of course, the first one was pretty cloudy and I think the 2rd or 3rd one the yeast may have not worked so it was a failure and that was the end of my first brewing attempts, mind you I was only 19 to 20 at the time.

 

[HoppingMad]

Would agree with Kelso that the hop in this FWK would surely degrade over time you'd think. It may not be too bitter anymore? And that's the element that makes Coopers great - their yeast and their liberal dose of Pride of Ringwood in the bittering department.

Even so, it sounds like you and your Dad are wanting to know what the stuff tastes like as a pure retro-funk 30 year old 1979 kit - so for experiment's sake I say don't add to it, brew it pure! Would be interesting to see if you could taste any hop after all that time - it's the sort of experiment no one could ever normally do.

+1 on letting Coopers know your results - you might even get a freebie out of it. They'd think someone using their kit after all this time is a classic!

Good luck and post back here, would be fascinated to know how it goes.

Hopper.

 

[crundle]

Definitely in the "give it a go" camp, and I reckon it will be passable, but not brilliant. If it really tastes how Chappo so eloquently described something once as like a cats @ss, then you can always do a massive hop addition to it to mask it and give it to your mates to drink, and see what it does to them!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained....

Crundle

 

[RdeVjun]

FWIW, a colleague gave me a few bottles of some ale that he'd filled about four years ago and rediscovered when rooting around under the house. Absolutely no hops presence whatsoever, even bittering. Was pretty disgusting and I tipped out all but a mouthful from each bottle.
Yeah I know, OP isn't about bottled beer, but I think there's a parallel or two, and yeah I know some folks age particular types, I'm just not sure this is one of them. But good luck with that stuff guys!

Say, it might make decent starter wort perhaps? A monster starter, but I've heard that some lagers are fussy... :icon_cheers:

 

[Wonderwoman]

seriously for the $10 for a new tin i wouldnt be risking it. your going to have to buy yeast for it anyways and i recon the cost of the yeast is more than a 30yr old tin of coopers deserves.

he didn't pay anything for the yeast either...

Anyway, not to waste good yeast I used the generic yeast from an old cooper's kit (stored in fridge).

so it cost nothing but time and a little effort. I'm interested to see (taste :icon_vomit: ) the results

 

[Bribie G]

Well it's been ten days, so how's it looking?

 

[sinkas]

any photos, I would like to relive the funny looking thnigs, I have many of the bladders as kids toys

 

[jayse]

I wouldn't expect a reply, he died of botulism last week :lol: