1 year old wort, use it or dump it?

I seem to be in a strange situation. A buddy of mine who had some crazy situations with him having to take care of family happens to have some wort he never used. He says its been sealed but a lot has evaporated away over the year and thinks there is 2 gallons left and postulated the crazy idea of using it in the boil with another beer.

I know about doing sour mashes, but this is obviously totally different. I would think that lactobacillus or maybe pediococus would have gotten to it and eaten all the sugars, but what else could have happened? Should I even consider boiling this up?

I've got some second runnings of a big stout I brewed, and a little bit of DME I could add, and wouldn't mind giving this experiment a shot. It might taste like ass, possibly be unsanitary, or could be some weird experiment that turns out unremarkable other than using 1 year aged wort.

Comments?

does he know the orig recipe?
Based on the description is sounds like a partial boil batch, taking evap into consideration, Take a gravity reading, if it below 1.040 i wouldnt use it.

Smelling it may give you an answer.

Yea, smell it and taste it. If it doesn't have furry colonies on top and it tastes like beer or wort, I say use it.

I will smell it, and I'm prepared for it to totally smell like ass. Wort that was brewed 8 hours previous starts to smell funky if it was never boiled, and I once did a sour beer with a 2 day sour mash and that smelled horrendous.
I'm not hearing any overwhelming opinions that this should be dumped, so I guess I'll throw it in the boiler.

saq said:

It might taste like ass, possibly be unsanitary, or could be some weird experiment that turns out unremarkable other than using 1 year aged wort.

Comments?

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When your 3 possible outcomes are:

1. Might taste like ass
2. Might be unsanitary
3. Might be unremarkable

Is it really worth the time? Just buy $20 worth of fresh ingredients and make a decent beer.

rph33 said:

Is it really worth the time? Just buy $20 worth of fresh ingredients and make a decent beer.

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+1. I can't see putting time and effort into something that will almost certainly not be worthwhile. C'mon, 1 year old wort?!?

rph33 said:

When your 3 possible outcomes are:

1. Might taste like ass
2. Might be unsanitary
3. Might be unremarkable

Is it really worth the time? Just buy $20 worth of fresh ingredients and make a decent beer.

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Yes those are the three outcomes. For that same reason I say go for it. That way you can tell the story while...

(A.) regaining conciseness because the smell knocked you out.
(B.) explaining to the doctor in the ER.
or
(C.) you enjoy the beer.

You could die! Do not taste old wort. Botulism!!!

The only thing I see against it having botulism, is that the wort was packaged in the presence of oxygen. Although I am not an expert on the subject and its entirely possible that it could be infected. Personally, I would not use it.

I really don't understand the consideration here. Are you seriously okay with the situation where the best that you can hope for is that the final product is not terrible?

There is virtually no chance that it will be of benefit to the final product. While fermented beer cannot support life threatening pathogens, sugar water is the ideal breeding ground for them.

Even in the absence of health threats, any malt extract, even ones that are optimally stored (i.e. bathed in nitrogen and removed from all light), begins declining in quality almost immediately after boil.

Have fun while you are at it but you are in for one TERRIBLE beer.

WBC said:

You could die! Do not taste old wort. Botulism!!!

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I hope he reads this before he goes and tries:cross:

If a person thinks more of a batch of beer (which has been exposed to air and half evaporated) than his life, then let him take the risk of brewing this. Me, I think this bloke is posting a load of rubbish and everyone else should ignore this post.

Waste of time.

wtf... 1 YEAR old wort? That's absurd... I wouldn't use 1 week old wort.