BeerBorg

Brewdemon sells refills that are past their sell by date at a huge discount. How bad of an idea is this???

breez33 wrote:Brewdemon sells refills that are past their sell by date at a huge discount. How bad of an idea is this???

It depends on how far past their sell date they are and how soon you will use them. If they're not too old and you'll use them soon, they can be a good deal. The finished product may be a bit darker than intended and it may finish with a bit higher gravity, but otherwise, it should be fine. I'd probably use a different yeast than the one that comes under the lid.

I don't often buy kits anymore, but I'll sometimes buy some of those. I've had fairly good results with them (except for some that I didn't get around to brewing until they were LONG past their seen by dates).

I bought some of those when I had good momentum going with my brewing, but then life really got in the way. I decided to store them in fridge to slow down the mallard effect and aging. Is that a good idea, a bad idea, or a makes-no-difference idea?

joechianti wrote:I bought some of those when I had good momentum going with my brewing, but then life really got in the way. I decided to store them in fridge to slow down the mallard effect and aging. Is that a good idea, a bad idea, or a makes-no-difference idea?

I'm not sure of the effect on canned extract, but my LHBS sells LME in bulk for a good price and I'll buy a lot at once and store it in the freezer to keep it fresh. It would probably help to store the cans in the fridge, if you have room.

joechianti wrote:I bought some of those when I had good momentum going with my brewing, but then life really got in the way. I decided to store them in fridge to slow down the mallard effect and aging. Is that a good idea, a bad idea, or a makes-no-difference idea?

You should have stored yourself in the fridge, I mean, look at the wrinkled up old man in the picture.

Yes, refrigeration will slow the maillard reaction.

I store all my extract in my fridge, or even freeze it if I'm not using it soon (not sure about freezing cans though).

Makes a huge difference. Look at the picture of my first batch of NE IPA. That was a PM + frozen morebeer extract. Extract stays very light for a long time if you freeze it.

I've bought and used quite a few of the "past by their sell by date" refills from BrewDemon, they all worked and tasted fine, and that's using the supplied yeast. However, I'm thinking they were a little darker or that may just have been my imagination too. I didn't think about refrigerating them, that's a good idea.

I don't know why I didn't refrigerate these right away. Of course they should be refrigerated. I probably wasted several cans of HME by leaving them in a hot room.

All my LME is now in the fridge or freezer except what I need for tomorrow.

FWIW, sometime back BrewDemon had a past good date sale on their 6 gal.recipes,for like 11 bucks each.I got the Pilsner,IPA and the Witbier.They were like 5 months past the date,but I used them as 2.5 gal.batches and they were good w/o any additions. This week I received my order of 14 regular Demon cans which with some DME,small amounts of xtra hops and better yeast I've come up with 10 recipes for 4-5 % abv brews.Just what I need when I resume brewing in the fall. Cheers.

Thanks everybody. So, I'm going with the consensus and trying it. I certainly won't mind anything a bit darker.

what kits were you thinking about getting? Some of the most fun I had with canned HMEs was using them as a base and then "doctoring them up" into something a little more unique. could be as simple as blending 2 cans together, or adding some hops (either in the boil or dry or both!) or citrus zest.
what yeast does the demon give you BTW? I recall the "old" MB yeast being some basic do-it-all from either coopers or muntons...which produces a fine beer, don't get me wrong. BUT, you are already going to be investing a bit of time, money, energy, patience in this endeavor...so I would actually like to steer you towards at least considering a specialized yeast strain. Be it dry strains like S-05 for a dry crisp APA, IPA, or blonde, or S-04 for a more malty/full finish with a hint of esters. then there is the whole can of worms that is liquid yeast! you can get super specific here...or just use something awesome like Wyeast 1968 for damn near everything! sure these things cost a bit more, but it really can take your beer from "wow that was good" to " holy s--t! I made that!" regardless of whether or not it started out in a can or cracked grain. just saying...and those that know me, know I am a cheap bastard!

When I got back into brewing with very little time, I used to use very specific old Mr. Beer HMEs that I thought were ok as my "bittering addition" and then just build on that to make all sorts of different beers.

But then later after Coopers bought them, I would also avoid certain Coopers HMEs that were strongly bittered, as they bitter with a hop called "Pride or Ringwood" and that hop to me tastes like I'm sucking on tree bark. And I can taste it no matter how long it is boiled, canned, processed. Pretty much anything with more then 27 IBUs or so out of the can, and I couldn't use it, unless it was one of the very dark/malty refills that covered it up somewhat, but those didn't make god "bases" to build on as much. I could bury the flavor with a lot of specialty malts and hops but once you go that far, you may as well just start using DME/LME. Especially once you figure out you can make all sorts of beer with short boils and all late addition hops, if you use the right kind of high AA hops.

RE: the yeasts that come with the kits:

Old Mr. Beer yeast was SafeAle S-33, and it's what BrewDemon uses now. It is good in that it supports huge range of temps without throwing off any crazy flavors, but it is not a totally clean yeast, as in it does have "a flavor". There is nothing wrong with that flavor as long as it doesn't bother you. I am not a "hater", but nor am I a "fan". Basically, I'd rather use something else.

Current Mr. Beer yeast is a Coopers Ale yeast, which is not a bad yeast, it's somewhat clean even at warm temps (it's like a mild British yeast) but it much prefers not being fermented too cool. It throws off acetaldehyde if you try to ferment with it below 64. Maybe some people don't taste it, but I do. If I used it again, I'd ferment with it 66-72 degrees all the time. But that's what makes it good for new brewers.