how will these "leftovers" turn out? should i bother?

[DaveLovesBier]

So Im new, got my first batch bottled and waiting for it to taste good, and want to start a second batch (I have a secondary 5 gal carboy I can let something hang out in til Im ready to bottle)

My cousin loaned me all his equipment, bottles, etc and even gave me some ingredients. God only knows how old they are, so I have no idea if theyre even worth using.

2) 3.3lb cans Muntons Dark Extract
1) pkg active dry yeast (some 2005 date, odds are that stuff is flat out dead considering it was in his shed)
1) 1 oz sealed pkg willamette hops. no idea how old it is, but its been in his fridge the whole time

any chance the extract and hops are worth bothering with or should I just pitch it all and forget I had it?

/pretty sure I know the answer, but maybe Ill be surprised

 

[Nurmey]

You'll never know unless you try. All it will cost you is the time.

 

[avidhomebrewer]

The extract should be ok. I bet there is a date on there somewhere, but it is canned. I'd get some fresh dry yeast to use. For a couple of bucks, it will be worth it. The hops probably won't contain as much acid as they once did (for bittering), but go ahead and use them.

 

[DaveLovesBier]

Kinda screws me on doing anything til I get some yeast, then. I know yeast keeps quite a while if kept cold/frozen but I really dont want to go through all the work and have the yeast be the issue...maybe when I buy more stuff Ill get some yeast, and a little extra hops to be on the safe side, and see if the guys there have any interesting suggestions for some other additives. *shrug*

 

[Bob]

This could be a real tasty, basic beer.

Get some more yeast. It's good to have some extra dry yeast in your fridge anyway. For this recipe, use S-05. Get 4 oz of lactose (milk sugar). Get 4 oz of Chocolate Malt (crushed).

Get an ounce of fresh Willamette pellets.

In whatever amount of water your kettle can handle, steep the cracked Chocolate malt in a grain bag. After 30 minutes at 150-160F, remove the bag, drain, and drizzle a quart of hot water over it.

Dissolve one tin of extract, bring to boil. Add 1 oz of new, known-AA% Willamette. After 40 minutes, add 0.5 ounce of old Willamette and lactose. After 55 minutes of boiling add 0.5 ounce of old Willamette. After 60 minutes of boil, switch off heat and dissolve second tin of extract.

Cool to pitching temperature, then pitch yeast. Leave the fermenter alone for a month.

Bingo. American Brown Ale.

Notes:

1. The lactose is to increase the body slightly. Roasted malts - like Chocolate - tend to highlight a dry finish. Moreover, Muntons extracts have a reputation of finishing quite dry.
2. Muntons Dark Extract is formulated with pale, Crystal and Chocolate malts. Steeping a small amount of added Chocolate malt will add some flavor and darken the color slightly.
3. American Brown Ale should have some hops character. Willamette are American hops (though not the optimal variety for ABA). Your old Willamette is uncertain for bittering purposes, so use them for flavor and aroma addition while using known AA% hops for bittering.
4. S-05 is an excellent American Ale yeast, and it's always useful to keep in your fridge as "backup" yeast in case your ultra-special liquid yeast goes blooey.

Good luck!

Bob

 

[Beer_Guy]

You could just get a sixer of something bottled conditioned and dump the trub in it from the bottles as you drink them. Maybe drink a couple or three before you brew up the wort. Worth a shot and you are gonna be buying beer anyway.

 

[wonderbread23]

You could just get a sixer of something bottled conditioned and dump the trub in it from the bottles as you drink them. Maybe drink a couple or three before you brew up the wort. Worth a shot and you are gonna be buying beer anyway.

Unlikely to work. Dregs need to be carefully grown up with stepped starters (starting at a low gravity) to get enough healthy yeast to ferment a full batch. Just throwing the dregs into that much wort is severly under pitching and wouldn't really result in a good end product.