Beer Forum

So a friend at work gave me 7lbs of amber LME that have been sitting in a plastic air tight container in her basement for the last 6 years. I opened it up and it smelled fine, there was no mold or anything. How bad would a beer brewed with this be? I have some hops in my freezer and could rack onto a fresh yeast cake in the next day or two. Would it be a waste of time to use this or might it make something drinkable?

Thanks in advance.
PB

Pharmbrewer wrote:So a friend at work gave me 7lbs of amber LME that have been sitting in a plastic air tight container in her basement for the last 6 years. I opened it up and it smelled fine, there was no mold or anything. How bad would a beer brewed with this be? I have some hops in my freezer and could rack onto a fresh yeast cake in the next day or two. Would it be a waste of time to use this or might it make something drinkable?

Thanks in advance.
PB

I wouldn't make beer with it, you need fresh malts and hops to make good beer. Maybe use it for making starters?

Westco

A buddy of mine had an old kit laying around that was over a year old before he got off his ass and brewed. The resulting beer was clear, clean, and slightly sour, but still drinkable. From what I've been able to gather, the malt had heated and cooled several times over the year which likely caused the malt to sour ... kind of like doing a sour mash. He still drank the beer since it didn't taste bad ... just a bit sour.

Since the malt was free and the yeast is a re-pitch, you are just going to be risking a few ounces of hops and a little time. For the couple of dollar risk to maybe make 5 gallons of drinkable beer, I say go ahead and brew it up. I wouldn't plan on entering any competitions with it, but you will probably still find your old buddy ... buzz.

Westco wrote:

Pharmbrewer wrote:So a friend at work gave me 7lbs of amber LME that have been sitting in a plastic air tight container in her basement for the last 6 years. I opened it up and it smelled fine, there was no mold or anything. How bad would a beer brewed with this be? I have some hops in my freezer and could rack onto a fresh yeast cake in the next day or two. Would it be a waste of time to use this or might it make something drinkable?

Thanks in advance.
PB

I wouldn't make beer with it, you need fresh malts and hops to make good beer. Maybe use it for making starters?

Westco

Yeah thats kinda what I'm leaning towards, I get a limited amount of brew days so why waste one on a risk. I'm always in need of starter wort anyway.
Thanks
PB