Recipe for identifying unmarked dry malt extract

Hello everyone.

I am the happy recipient of a gift of 40, 1lb bags of dry malt extract. I received them from my brother in law who has a friend who works for the railroad. He told me that his friend gets some sort of deal where he gets to pick out some bulk food items for free each month. I really don't know all the details of it, but his friend knew I brewed beer and was told that the malt extract was for brewing beer so he grabbed it for me.

As a partial-mash brewer, I am very happy to have it, but the only issue is that it is all unmarked and I have no idea how old it is. I opened one bag and tasted it next to some extra light and light malt extract that I have and it looked and tasted pretty close to the light malt extract.

My question is, how can I tell if it's any good? I know the answer is to brew something with it, but what should I brew? Should I brew something that is extract only with no steeping grains and go light on the hops just to make sure it tastes ok?

Thanks for any insight / ideas you guys have.

As long as it doesn't have bugs in there and the bags are sealed I'm sure it's good. As for the color, there's only one way to know for sure. Like you already said, make something. I'd to a really simple session ale with it.

I would use it for starters. Drink the decanted liquid if you want to figure out what it is. As Double D said, it's likely OK if it's sealed. It will not affect the final flavor of the beer if you wash the yeast after running the starter, but will still be very useful.