Aussiedistiller, Home Distilling, Moonshine, Home Brew

Here is something interesting for those of you with out of date Fermentis Safspirit Malt.

I was in contact with a supplier over in WA, who was sent this document from Bintani (Australian distributers for Fermentis).

It appears to be a certification to extend the shelf life date from Fermentis.

Neither I or the supplier had heard of this before, but he sent it to me anyway. He was also notified by Bintani, that ALL of their stock is out of date, and it would be highly unlikely to find any in date product available to the public.

For reference, the batch mentioned has an expiry printed on the packet of 11/12/12, and they appear to have extended that to June 2013.

For those with blocks marked with an expiry of Sep 2012, maybe we could assume that they would be just as viable until at least April 2013?

Here's the doc anyway, I had to convert to a jpeg as the forum would not allow pdf or word doc to be uploaded, so hopefully you can read it:

yeah thats all fine if it has been stored at optimum temperature of 4 deg since the product was made.

Would this of happened? No way lol. Bet it was posted in none refrigerated boat/plane/truck and prob sat on the shelf in the HBS if they are not a decent one.

Would be good to find out how they base there expiry? like is it based on optimum storage or shelf storage or extreme (ie: it might get to 40deg for a few days)

In all fairness KG most HBS store yeast refrigerated but the point is hmm bit dodgy to base the expiration date on how much unsold product ya have. Kinda seems a bit reminiscent of another merchant to me anyways ;-)

I know of 1 place out of 4 around here that stores them refrigerated and the turbo yeasts are still not refrigerated. So I am not sure if the safspirit is as he was sold out when he was telling me about it.

The first place I went to told me its alright to ferment my beer in my shed when it was 38+ deg and just told me it would ferment faster :laughing-rolling: yeah it tasted like a burnt shoe :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Is the place you're talking about "Mark's" KG?

would you eat out of date fish and expect to feel ok in the morning?

There's a reason it has a best before date printed on it at time of manufacture ;-)

Yeah I know Mac, I just hadn't seen anyting like this "certificate" before and found it interesting.

They must be having trouble getting sales completed for certain batches, so release a document like this to keep the sales going.

The reason I bring my yeasts over from the US early winter here...transport temps.

Never had an issue with 1kg lots so far.

I wonder if they simply printed the wrong dates on the initial issue...seems reasonable on that basis. I couldn't image a major player risking issues for such what is to them a small percentage of their production.

bt1

I've just read elsewhere this morning, that they have extended these dates on several of their safspirit yeasts including American Whiskey batch as well.

Does seem strange :think:

The expiry on yeast usually refers to their ability to ferment in the proper way, when a yeast gets the date on the pack it can or can't do its thing based on how its been kept, I'v used out of date beer yeast before that I'v done a good size starter and they have been fine.
My guess would be that they have found that the yeast is still working well producing great product. I'd have no problem using it.

Yeast doesn't suddenly stop working when it hits its expiration date . It is estimated that upto that point stored properly is will be 100% viable, some time after that date if will begin to deteriate . That means after that date it won't be 100% viable . The viablity will slowly decrease but stored well may last for yrs longer to a degree, just you will need more or like already stated some eficeint starter or depending what % is no longer viable maybe both .
Thing is its not ethical to charge full price for a product that is in all likely hood not 100% viable and its definitely not ethical not to disclose this, if that is the intention here .

Has anyone emailed them to find out their reasons?

bt1

If ya planning on doing that I wouldn't mention the sauce as that bloke might get the sack for revealing that

it's fairly common practice for manufacturers to use accelerated stability testing rather than full length testing on product and the use by date calculated from that. it's generally just covering their arses to say "yeh this is how long we feel confident we can guarantee it will work as advertised". sometimes they make adjustments to this if they get more data, and sometimes it's because there has been a demand for a longer shelf life and the product has been re-tested. yeast is still regarded as a food product and is fairly universality regulated by the appropriate authorities in that country. if an extension of shelf life issued by the manufacturer is genuine, they would be in deep shit if it was not correct. :naughty: