Old, cheap kit....worth using?

I have an old "Vino-Create Your Own Beer" kit that my brother bought at a thrift store. The yeast in it expired a year ago so it's pretty old I guess. I've never made beer before (so far my experience is just cider). Do you think it would be worth it to make beer with the kit? Or will it just taste horrible and be a waste of time?

Is the malt extract dry or liquid? Dry extract will stay good far longer than liquid.

msa8967 said:

Is the malt extract dry or liquid? Dry extract will stay good far longer than liquid.

Click to expand...

It's labeled "Amber Dry Malt" but looks like a solidified liquid. (sorry..total beer noob here)

The extract may be good if it's "dry extract" and not "liquid extract", but the yeast should go in the trash and if there are any hops I'd say trash them too if they are over a year old as well. You should be able to get fresh hops and yeast from any brew shop, or online, for about $10.

What type of equipment is in the kit? I'd personally not even risk the extract, and if you have all the equipment to brew, just go buy an extract kit and start with that. Just my $0.02

I don't have any brewing equipment yet (except what is in this kit). My cider uses a fancy pants balloon for an airlock ;-)

The kit has a collapsible cube with an airlock (that fits into the screw cap that goes on the cube), plastic screw cap bottles, and a tube for siphoning. I suppose if nothing else I can make use of the bottles and dextrose.

I live in a small apt. and am a poor grad student so I haven't made the leap yet to get into beer brewing but we do have what seems like a pretty good home brew store.

How big is the cube(gallons?)? If you have a big enough pot to boil 3-4 gallons of water, you could easily do a partial boil extract and ferment it in the cube if it's big enough. In which case just get an extract kit from your local brew shop and you're good to go.

Edit: Not sure how tight of a budget you are on, but you can get a brew setup for less than $100. Midwest sells a basic kit with buckets for $59(http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-basics-equipment-kit.html), that would atleast get you going if you wanted to get into beer brewing, though that kit assumes you have a pot to do the boiling in.

The cube is 1 gallon.