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Have a beer kit that's WAAAY past the due date.

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Awesome! I'm glad you did it!

I have to confess I now again have absolutely no idea where I put the can of extract. :) I think it's somewhere with my microphone!
 
OK so update time. I left it to sit until yesterday, and took an SG reading. It came in at 1.011. It's not as low as I had hoped, but low enough to give me an ABV of 4.1% pre-carbonation. I'll take another measurement this afternoon and take a look, and then add the finings to get it bottled probably on Friday.

Regarding what came out - I'm not overly impressed with the result yet, but I suspect it's because I smelled and tasted a warm (22°C) and flat beer that's not been cleared or anything yet. I must add that I'm not experienced in tasting these beers at all, but if I have to imagine this as a carbonated, cold drink I don't think it would be bad at all. It has a strong, bitter "bite", consistent with other beers (like pilseners) when they've stood outside overnight. Smell is quite fruity, with a strong whiff of malt. The malt taste also made it into the beer, but I guess that's because I brewed with an old kit and a bag of DME.

Let's see how it goes over the next day or two! :D
 
Alright, so this is where we stand:

Beer was tested with the hydrometer and the FG taken as stable over a period of a few days. It's at 1.011. It's not as low as it's supposed to be, but I'm going to chalk that up to the age of the kit. After the reading was confirmed as stable, I added the beer finings as per the instructions in the packet, but I think it might be a tad too expired. It's not clearing the beer as nicely as it should, but I don't mind at all. The unfined beer is already pretty clear, as you can see:

20180125_164956.jpg


The colour is a tad darker than it should be, but again, that can be partly chalked up to age. The rest of the reasoning would be because I used DME as fermentable sugar, and not plain dextrose. I like the colour:

20180125_164947.jpg


Regarding the beer. Obviously the above images is from a flat set of samples taken over 2 days, with no carbonation (in fact, I de-gassed it to get an accurate FG). Keeping that in mind, it still tastes good. Like, really good. I didn't expect it to be this good, in fact, for such an old kit. My wife took one sip and calls it "vrek lekker" as well, so it passes that test.

The nose and taste is very similar - fruity, malty and with a good amount of bitter. Unfortunately the age of the kit plays a role here, and the metallic taste is there. This is apparently normal for an extract kit, so it doesn't bother me. It's also not "bam" in your face, and you won't realize what it is unless you know what to look for. Overall, I'm HIGHLY impressed.

The entire fermenter is currently cold crashed, residing in the deep freezer, varying between around 0°C and 6°C, so that all the crap can settle out a tad faster. I'll be bottling this afternoon or tomorrow, still have to decide when exactly, but I'm really looking forward to it!
 
And this weekend I bottled:

A breakfast-type kitchen counter works like a charm, to be honest. Bottled in sets of 12, since the crates I have take 12 bottles at a time:
IMG-20180127-WA0003.jpeg


First 12 done, second 12 ready to go for carbonation drops and so on after santizing:
IMG-20180127-WA0005.jpeg


And the first 36. Didn't take a snap when done, unfortunately, but I got out 51 bottles in total - 45 x 440ml crown caps and 6 x 450ml Grolsch swing-tops:
IMG-20180127-WA0007.jpeg
 
OK so I kinda forgot about this thread here, but as a final update to this:

Beer was a success. Flavours smoothed out a while after bottling and they're being enjoyed regularly now. Head is nice and thick, and while is disappears a bit quick, it's better than some others I've seen:

20180201_193328.jpg


On a related note as well, my last expired kit was also brewed. It's a German Lager kit, way expired as well, very darker than it should be and currently cold crashing to clear before bottling. Bottling will probably be this weekend, and I'm hoping for a quicker drinkable beer since it's been sitting in the fermenter for...almost 4 weeks now. Not bad at all, IMO.

Next batch will be a cider, also a kit (since I don't have the equipment to do all grain brews and juice is just too expensive). In parallel with that I'll be doing two batches of BOMM, but with some tweaks (because I have to).
 
Awesome! You've inspired me to look for that can.

I have 5 gallons of honey to make into a fermentable beverage first.
 
codybene said:
Sounds like a waste, unfortunate.
Click to expand...

It was a free kit that was expired anyway, so it cost me money in the single-digit dollars, actually. A waste still, but a very small one at that. I'm not too bothered.

That being said, I'm done with expired kits unless someone gifts me more. I'll definitely make them, just won't bargain on them.
 
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