StillDragon® Community Forum

Welcome!

Be part of our community & join our international next generation forum now!

In this Discussion

16 Kegs of "Out of Date" Beer

edited December 2015 in General

Hey fellas, Merry Christmas to all!!!

I'm looking for some ideas of what would you do.
A friend has been given 16 kegs of out of date beer (3yrs old) from a local pub. My friend runs Darwins only local brewery and will use the kegs for his beer. But what to do with the out of date beer still in the kegs. Most of it is craft beer. I'm thinkin 2 things. Either strip it and reflux it to extract the alcohol to a neutral OR do a single pass thru 4 plates and have a go at a beer whiskey!!

Any thoughts?? Anyone done this before???

Cheers H.

«13

Comments

  • I'd drink it. So long as it's been stored well it should be not too bad.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Whiskey, neutral or just beer - You are winning either way!

  • 16 kegs and these guys just say "Drink it".

    Love the enthusiasm here.

  • Just tallied up my brew days for the year for our home brew forum, 1100 odd litres (290 gallons) and that's average for me, but it's not all i drank..

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • Pot still it twice and age in a charred barre

  • edited December 2015

    @FloridaCracker said: 16 kegs and these guys just say "Drink it".

    Love the enthusiasm here.

    He is in Darwin. 16 kegs to a Darwinite is nothing. Should last a week to 10 days i think.

    Northern Territory drinks most alcohol in the world @ The Daily Telegraph

  • edited December 2015

    Distill once on a 3 plate column, should make a fantastic beer brandy. We have done that last year with a local dark beer during our Masters of Booze (MoB) training, though I don't recall how old that beer was. The smell and taste of the distillate was truly amazing, I think we still should have a sip around here somewhere... ;)

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • edited December 2015

    @SDeurope said: Distill once on a 3 plate column, should make a fantastic beer brandy. We have done that last year with a local dark beer during our Masters of Booze (MoB) training, though I don't recall how old that beer was. The smell and taste of the distillate was truly amazing, I think we still should have a sip around here somewhere... ;)

    Thats what im looking for!!! I mean ....thanks boys for your advice to drink the beer, which I'm sure there will be a few kegs that we will. But I wanna try something different with some of the beer,

    So SDeurope, 3 plates, collecting in cuts, air it for a few days. Did you age it or down it straight away. Tell me more..........

  • Beer brandy? Why the naming deviation? Clearly it is not.

  • @grim said: Beer brandy? Why the naming deviation? Clearly it is not.

    Thinking the same thing. If it was made with grains it would be whiskey.

    Brandy would be fruit.

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • as someone who has done more than 100 kegs worth of beer, I say treat it like normal fermented barley wort.. hearts-of-hearts for whiskey, rest for neutral...

  • @Heef71 said: There is water in beer. We call it..... dehydration!! :D :D :D

    Ah #$%! REHYDRATION!!!!!! Hey my glass is empty.

  • @CothermanDistilling said: as someone who has done more than 100 kegs worth of beer, I say treat it like normal fermented barley wort.. hearts-of-hearts for whiskey, rest for neutral...

    Thanks CothermanDistilling, hearts of hearts for whisky! I could try aging on french and american and see which one works.

  • @Heef71 said: So SDeurope, 3 plates, collecting in cuts, air it for a few days. Did you age it or down it straight away. Tell me more..........

    That one was bottled straight away, but of course I'd try to put some on oak as well.

    Brandy has nothing to do with fruit per se, it is the only proper translation for Edelbrand. Other translation attempts would be noble brandy or fine spirit.

    So beer brandy is the only valid and legally covered naming for such a product here in Austria (more likely whole EU, because it's explained in the European Food Codex).

    I wouldn't agonize about the naming, as long as you know what's meant. ;)

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • Oh, and don't forget the anti-foam!

    image

    image

    image

    StillDragon Europe - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Europe & the surrounding area

  • Australian whiskey aged in French and American oak? All you need is some UK in there somewhere and you've got the makings of a WW2 allied whiskey.

  • Why only heart of hearts?

    StillDragon North America - Your StillDragon® Distributor for North America

  • I have to say that from 80% of reports i've read of people distilling old beer, especially hoppy beer is that it's a taste that very few people can appreciate and they would not repeat the exercise.
    That's the reason i advised to drink it, specially when you said 'craft beer'.

    If it had been budweiser or something like that with no hops and no taste my response would have been different.
    As it is i would say hasten slowly. Try a small charge and see how you go before stripping 400 litres.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • edited December 2015

    +1
    Spirits distilled from a hoppy beer taste like shit - IMHO. The flavor carries over through numerous successive distillations too.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • I haven't done it myself, but I've heard that it is very difficult to get the hoppy resin out of your still when doing a hoppy beer. It can taint successive runs.

  • edited December 2015

    I meant the flavor stays in the spirit after repeated runs.

    The boiler and still? Not so's you'd notice.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • I hearin ya all. I'm still waiting for a list to come thru of what beers he's got, Then decision time.

  • I have done IPA's that were just off the mark for what the label said, and not really 'bad', (yes, threw one in my kegerator and drank it, and friends drank every last drop) but it was IPA, and 3 months old is 'old' for IPA that is best drank fresh...

    never really had a problem with any resin or other issues of a hoppy beer, and anything that was attributed to the hops was not unpleasant int he hearts at all... going to neutral or putting hearts in oak makes for fine spirit..

    Corsair uses a gin basket to put in lots of hops, and that is a different taste... a taste that is not noticeable in distilled beer in my opinion.....

    As far as anti-foam, I have tried many methods of skimming with a strainer(12" or so strainer has a coarse mesh for strength, and a fine one for straining). I leave the manway open to let it form a light crust that looks like krausen until the still boiler gets to 185-190, then I use a strainer to remove the thick foam and lower the heat.. I wait until the vapor temp hits 170, cut the heat, open, skim the thick foam (floor drains are REALLY NICE), close it, and put the still back on low heat for the first 30 min, then can crank the heat...

  • edited December 2015

    The IPA style (India Pale Ale) was originally designed to survive the trip from England to the Indian colony (by sea around Africa) before refrigeration. The two natural preservatives in beer, alcohol and hops, were increased to keep the beer in a palatable condition.

    I doubt that it took many ships or firkins of beer three years to make the jouney. However, it is highly unlikely that three year old beer will be in such poor condition that it will make you sick if you drink it. The worst case is if the keg(s) got some oxygen and acetobacters in them. Then you might have some malt vinegar.

    Don't expect the three year old beer to have much hop character left. Most likely they will have a stale malty sweetness (kinda caramelly).

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Take one down, pass it around, 15...

  • I've distilled braggot and triples from a HB buddy and a bunch of leftover beers I didn't babysitting around anymore as I didn't like the taste. Must say, I looked the whiskey a ton

  • Now I understand your forum name... B-)

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Crap. Totally auto-co-wrecked!

Sign In or Register to comment.