Old equipment...how usable is it?

Hello, all ... new member here, needing some advice. Back in the mid nineties, I got into homebrew for about a year. Then home life & work got hectic, and all my equipment went into the attic until things settled down. Well, that was almost 20 years ago, and now I have some time available. Last weekend I pulled all my equipment out of the attic and checked it out (there's a LOT of new stuff available now that wasn't around back then) but the questions is, how good is this old gear now?

I think the carboys (5 gallon glass) will be fine, and the bottle tree & capper, and maybe the plastic fermenter bucket? But wondering if all the tubing, stoppers, air locks, and other plastic items should be replaced before the first run? Had been expecting much to be dried out and brittle, but not so in many cases. Would appreciate any input and/or opinion on this.

Thanks,
bhf

I am using 25 year old airlocks still.

Hi, Scott, thanks for the reponse ... guess I'm not as worried about the age itself as about the gear being stored for 20 years in a hot (think Texas summer temps) or cold (freezing and below sometimes in winter) attic, the only protection being an equally old cardboard box. Just a bit leery that the integrity of the plastic would hold up, and not  pass on some musty flavors and odors.

I would be leery of any old plastic that comes into contact with post-boil brew. Siphons, tubing, buckets and such. Rubber deteriorates over time. Airlocks should be fine, as well as anything made of metal or glass.

Even if you replace your old bucket fermentors, don't throw them away.  I use an old bucket fermentor for StarSan.

I too would be worried about the integrity of old plastic containers.  Many years ago my father was making a brew and from another room I heard a loud expletive.  On checking what had happened I found that the bottom had fallen out of his 6 gallon plastic fermenter as he carried it across the kitchen.  All of the brew was washing around the floor and he was not a happy man.  Since then I have always refrained from lifting plastic containers with much more then 2 gallons of wort in them.

So, if you can afford the cost, I would go for new (plastic) containers for the important contents and save the old ones, as suggested by Scott Ickes, for other aspects of brewing.  Glass containers and airlocks should be fine if fully sterilised.

Merry Miller

It depends on your goal.  Mine is to make great beer I enjoy drinking and not full of funk and stank.  So, why not mitigate the risks of screwing up a days work to save a few bucks unless said few bucks are critical to survival?  Then again, you are not planning to save much money making beer at home either.

Bungs /stoppers and airlocks can be soaked in hot PBW and rinsed with Starsan (or equivalents but I never use anything but 5 Star products especially because folks say the other stuff works as good as 5 Star why not use what everything is compared to).  If the bung is cracked, brittle or in any way weird, toss it.  The bucket should be relegated to hot PBW or Starsan to soak other stuff in.    Toss old tubing and get all new tubing.  It might hide old funk or may leach chemicals you don't want leached.

Take apart everything that can be taken apart and soak it in you newly repurposed hot PBW bucket.  Sanitize in your other newly repurposed Starsan bucket.  Put it back together wet. 

Glass carboys probably only need sanitization.  That is a great thing about Starsan.  just pour from container to container.  You should be able to see anything in the carboys that would require soaking in PBW.  Avoid anything cleaning utensil that may scratch the glass.

Be sure to use all cleaning and no-rinse sanitization products as directed on the packaging. 

Now relax and make beer.

Thanks for the responses, I'll take them to heart ... hope to be back soon, things have changed a LOT in almost 20 years.