Leftover Night

Is it ever a good idea to use up old extracts and grains, or is it usually going to lead to bad flavors and a waste of a brew day?

For example, I have of a 2 year old BB kit with LME, hops, and steeping grains, as well as some newer crushed grains and DME. Would a hodgepodge brew be a worthy experiment, or should I just throw the old ingredients away. The old kit is probably 2 years old.

Perhaps its just my upbringing but I am a proponet of not wasting things- I would go for it! The LME I would probably skip (hypothetical ball-point ink flavors!), but the grains and DME should be ok. If you are concerned, maybe just do a 1 gallon batch (or three! depending on fermentation vessels and what ingredients you have available). If it makes beer, its better than just throwing things away.

I also have to say, I really hate super nit-picky recipes that call for an ounce of this and an ounce of that. (Recently picked up Clone Brews). I understand with some of the super powerful ones like black patent, roasted barley, or peat smoked malt, but seriously are you really going to taste 1 oz of Aromatic Malt in a five gallon batch? My LHBS doesn't sell grains by the ounce, so after a couple of recipes, I'm going to be left with many partial bags of grain that I'm going to have to figure out something to do with. Therefore, I try to do everything in lb and 1/2 lb increments (other than the super powerful grains as mentioned), it ends up being way more economical in the long run. Just a thought.

The grain I'm sure is way passed it's prime. If you taste it will be stale. The LME might be okay. Hops are like spices when they get old they loose there kick, but they never really go bad. The DME is fine as long as it was kept dry. It might be like a gigantic malt ball if some humid air got inside.
personaly, i would write it all off as a sunk cost and get some new ingredients. ... And and not tell my wife about wasting that money by not brewing it two years ago.

Thank you for the replies, those two arguments are basically the back and forth I was having in my head. LME will get tossed. If the small amount of grains taste stale, I'll get rid of those too. I think I'll just figure on the hops being a little less AA% than stated, and use them accordingly in a recipe as bittering hops.

Good input, I appreciate it. Now that I am back into homebrewing more regularly, I will have faster turn around on ingredients, and keep my hops refrigerated.

Any reason to throw crushed grain in the freezer or LME in the fridge until it is ready to use?

Put the hops in the freezer. The grain the the fridge. LME and DME in your basement / pantry.

Additionally, if you happen to have a food saver (and if not, it is a good investment!)- you can vaccuum pack crushed grains (in addition to partial bags of hops) and store in your freezer and they will keep quite a while this way.