Kegged beer - shelf life?

[Dan Dan]

I recently bid on and won a keg fridge set up on ebay, complete with three kegs. When I went to pick it up, the bloke said he had another two kegs that were full, but I could have them too. He said they had been sitting around for at least 12 months. I was too excited about scoring two free kegs to listen to much else he had to say...
Assuming that they had been gassed to remove headspace, would these beers be ok to drink? What's the longest anyone has left their kegs for before drinking? One was a milk stout, and the other an Asahi clone, if that makes any difference.
I'm of the opinion there's only one way to find out, but it's prolly better to be safe than sorry (and disappointed).

 

[Moad]

only one way to find out? worse case u tip them out... best case they keep you going till your first kegged batch is ready

 

[Cube]

I'd toss the beer and nappy San the shit out of the kegs. Better safe than sorry.

 

[bum]

I'm fairly certain that you've gotta stuff a beer up really bad so that it'll make you sick - even if it is old.

What seems to be more important to me, however, is that this guy had it for a year and didn't drink it himself and couldn't get his mates to drink it. I think that says a lot.

To the lawn with it and fill with them with something good.

 

[Dan Dan]

Bum, that was what worried me the most. But I also want to know why he listed it on ebay as three kegs instead of five!! Maybe he was onto a good thing. My brother in law is coming up on the weekend. He drinks that lime infused crap in the clear bottle that costs about $35 a carton. Maybe he might like it....

 

[chewy]

I drank a crown stubbie once that was 3yrs past its best before date and had spent the last 12 months outside under a tank stand..... So I'm probably not the best one to ask...

 

[manticle]

Just tap it and try some. A simple sniff will tell you all you need to know. The only way it is likely to make you sick is if you drink too muxh of it. Human pathogens have a hard time getting anywhere in beer.

 

[CONNOR BREWARE]

Simple, try it before you dump it.

 

[joshF]

If the bloke went to the effort to keg both of them back 12 months ago, he must have assumed they were decent enough to drink. If he said 'heres a coopers pale ale and a coopers stout' then i probably wouldn't touch the shit. Making an asahi clone and a milk stout gives the impression the guy wasn't a complete noob.

If he listed 3 not 5, maybe he was just downsizing his setup, moving house, planned to use them later, the wife wanted them gone or something but then changed his mind after he listed the first 3.

Just think of the glass half-full approach or if its shit then go for the garden-full approach :lol:

 

[bbqbug]

Have you got a mather inlaw LOL

 

[FuzzyDropbear]

Hmm, I found about 20 bottles of homebrew under the missus' house from the previous owner. She's been living there for approx. 5 years, so thought, what the hell, how bad could it be (no growth etc. evident inside the bottle).......... One mouthfull and :icon_vomit: worst stuff I've ever tasted... But that was over 5 years old. Have a sip and see if you like it, if not turf it and hurry up getting beer in the keg!

Just thinking about it makes my tongue tingle..... blech!

:beer:

 

[JaseH]

Milk stout is probably just hitting its straps! Give it a shot. Asahi clone mightn't handle the aging as well.

 

[iralosavic]

I'd say home brewed beer would keep longer in a keg than a bottle in normal circumstances because the keg is purged of oxygen and bottles (filled using a typical wand) aren't. Obviously a thinner beer will exhibit more age related flaws than a thicker one too. Taste and only turf if you don't like it or you suspect it's off (which you shouldn't like the taste of anyway).

 

[Dan Dan]

Well, the good news is the stout is fine. Bloody good, even. Unfortunately, I only have the one tap, and couldn't be bothered changing the connections over, but for now, I'm taking this as a win!

 

[treefiddy]

I got my bottles from my girlfriends father who gave up brewing about 10 years ago.
During the extrication process from his little garden shed we found a few intact bottles of a 10 year old K&K (or possibly an ESB 3kg kit) Coopers dark ale clone.

It was a little thin, but pretty smooth. Not at all bad.