Something to do with John Bull

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spacebarcowboy

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Hey Fellas!

Tomorrow I was gonna rack off a somewhat botched (but still tasty) ESB brew to secondary and thought I would brew up something quick to put on top of the healthy ESB yeast cake that is in my fermenter. I have 2 cans of John Bull prehopped Light extract that someone gave me recently, and he said that they are probably a year or more old. Anyone have a good suggestion of a simple way to liven that up, or you think I should just do it as it?

I can't make it to the homebrew store or anything, so if I were gonna spice it up somehow it would have to be with ingredients I have or can get at the grocery. Any ideas? I do have some additional dried wheat extract and some muntons extra light dried extract around. I also have quite a few frozen peaches and blueberries.

I have never made a plain straight-from-the-can beer. Even though I am an extract brewer I have always at least steeped specialty grains or used hops, but maybe the cans are decent as is too! If anyone has a suggestion, I would love to hear it!
 
I've never used straight-from-the-can beer kits either. I say just use it as is, and maybe some aroma hops of some kind with 5 minutes left in the boil.
 
I'd brew up the tins. Keep in mind you really don't need to boil them much more than five minutes. Hell, when I make my quick-n-dirty Zomerbier, I dissolve the hopped extract in hot water, ramp it to a boil, and shut the burner off immediately I see it bubble. That's enough to kill any nasties. Chill as desired and knock out to the fermenter.

Options:

1. Ferment with a Belgian yeast
2. Fruit in secondary
3. Spices - coriander, orange peel, lemongrass, clove, paradise seed, cardamom, chamomile

There's more. I like the idea of using a Belgian yeast and aging the beer on blueberries in the secondary. Mmmmmm....

Bob
 
Great suggestions! I am gonna just bring them to a brief boil and dump them on my ESB lees. Then I think I will just do something in secondary, either dry hop or fruit or both. The same guy that gave me the John Bull also gave me some older saaz pellets, which I could use to dry hop, assuming they aren't bad. Thanks again!
 
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