What is the shelve life of a northern brewer beer kit?
when I won’t get to a beer for more than a month, i’ll put any liquid extract into the fridge…as is, i would say that you wanted to use a kit within a year and best before 6 months; i have seen extract that is older than two years, opened it and threw it away; looked and smelled like ink.
yeast is a different topic; i use liquid and make starters…if you aren’t going to use it within 2 weeks of getting it, I would make a starter, wash it and store in the fridge…rinse and repeat every few months, or just throw it away.
If you have pre-crushed specialty grains, I think that’s the only real area of concern. The hops can be tossed in the freezer. I’ve used Wyeast packs that were in the fridge for six months with no issue and other members here have used much older ones. Make a starter a few days before and you’ll be fine.
I had a NB Dry Irish Stout Extract Kit that I had bought back when I went through my cancer surgery and chemo, I didn’t brew it right away because I was to sick from the chemo. I put the hops and (04) yeast in the refrigerator, I vacume sealed the crushed specialty grains and put them back in the box with the malt extract and put the box on a shelf in our walk in pantry. The box sat there for over a year and one day I figured I would give it a try. I brewed it and it was a great beer. I don’t know if it was luck or what but I didn’t notice any ill effects from sitting that long.
Cheers!
jazzman
