Old Coopers tin from kit

[AGGS]

Morning gents,

After much procrastination, I finally unpacked the coopers kit that I purchased for my father many years ago which went unused. It also sat in my own garage unused for a couple of years now too

Got everything cleaned up, poured in and sealed on the weekend, only forgetting the small strainer attachment for the tap to help with bottling later on (oops)

After a couple of hours, not much seemed to be happening. After about 8 more, same situation at which point I found the very slick AHB forums and starting looking up info only to discover that the tins actually have use by dates! A quick inspection after a dig through the recycling bin and behold, the can was about 5 or so years past the best before date :huh: . 48 hours later without action in seemed to put the final nail in the coffin that this old tin would indeed be an issue

BUT, due to a lack of time, a couple of days passed before we got to today when I went to drain the fermenter to begin cleaning for round two only to discover that what i was draining was actually producing a head and actually had quite a beer like smell. I popped the lid and it seems that science had eventually begun in there anyway!

My questions are:

1. Just how bad a situation is this likely to be if I let it proceed? Am I brewing a batch of poison as my wife insists, or will I just possibly end up with not so perfect results?
2. If I am brewing something not so desirable, is there still value in continuing as a whole test run of the process, or am I better off cutting my loses now and getting on with something else?


Cheers

 

[manticle]

Won't be poison.
Possibly will be awful. Finish it off to train your palate how bad homebrew can be then strive to make something much better.
it is entirely possible to make the worst beer and close to the best beer ever at home.

 

[citizensnips]

Read and learn on these forums and then find yourself cackling at how bad the first home brew you ever made was

 

[Forever Wort]

Definitely let it attenuate and give it a drink. If it is that awful you can always salvage it by mixing it into another, better beer you've brewed.

 

[RobboMC]

The 'can' was probably fine, if a bit old. The issue would have been with the packet of yeast.
Where was the carton stored, if in a garage it could have got very hot and killed off most of the yeast.

That begs the question then of what may have caused fermentation to start, perhaps stray yeast from somewhere else?

Keep it as close to 20 deg C and let it finish brewing. You may as well bottle it, if for nothing but the practise.

 

[maxim0200]

Would it be to late to pitch a spare kit yeast on it anyway?

Brew it up and tell us how it goes.

 

[manticle]

Definitely let it attenuate and give it a drink. If it is that awful you can always salvage it by mixing it into another, better beer you've brewed.

or alternatively ruin another, better beer you've brewed, perspective dependent.

 

[Toper]

It's not just the yeast issue,after so many years the extract would have darkened to a fair degree unless refrigerated,which it wasn't.I've seen a Coopers Wheat beer kit 2 years over the use by date that would have made a damn fine Flanders Red,colour and flavour wise.You get what you brew with,old extract = poor beer,

 

[AGGS]

Thanks for the feedback guys

As RobboMC suggests, will probably go through the motions if for no other reason that if i am going to botch the bottling or some other process it would be best to do it on a batch I don't have high hopes on anyway

From what I can see through the sides, still some surface action happening so I will probably begin testing in a couple of weeks

 

[yum beer]

Botle it up and let it sit for 6 weeks, then when it tastes like arse, and not good arse, you will get to learn the feeling of tipping out 20 odd litres of beer.
It will be a story that you will keep forever. You have time to be better prepared for the next batch.

 

[hoppy2B]

My experience has always been, that if you don't boil the whole volume of water, your beer will be crap regardless of the can and yeast you use.

 

[ian4379]

i brewed an out of date tooheys new can, i think it was 2 years past, it brewed with the kit yeast, was very dark in colour and after 3 months still had a massive kit twang. i even dry hopped 30 gms of cascade into it to try cover up the twang. but you know what, i drank it, it was still better than tooheys red, vb and hahn ice

i too then discovered this site, that was in july and i now have 4 all grains under my belt , 3/4's of a kg of Yob's hops in the freezer and 7 hop rhizomes growing in the garden :beer:

 

[AGGS]

At worst I will have 20L to top up the beer traps in my veggie gardens

Snails wont know what hit them

 

[yum beer]

**** them snails.