I've been homebrewing on and off since 2008, but you'll notice I'm still posting in the beginner's forum. On May 1 of this year I brewed batch number 22, a LME with grain bag recipe kit, Falconer's Flight Pale Ale from Austin HBS. Here's the thing, though: I ordered the kit in 2018 and never brewed it because I was living in Austria at the time and never felt the need to brew on account of the selection of affordable and delicious lagers abound!
Now that I've relocated to a location in SE Asia where the beer is expensive and plain, I decided to brew my kit. I don't think anything can go wrong with the LME over time. The grain bag was vacuum sealed, but still 3 years old. Bottling day was the first time I didn't enjoy drinking the wort. It was both sour and bitter at the same time, a wee bit like the taste of vomit (forgive the details), but no overwhelmingly so. I bottled it anyway. It's only been in the bottle two weeks, but still has the same taste. What's the verdict, bad batch? Give it a few more weeks in the bottle? I guess I was bound to have a bad batch eventually. But I don't know if it's due to the age of the kit or maybe just contamination during the process. I still have another kit from the same 2018 shipment that I'm considering brewing. Appreciate any thoughts.
Now that I've relocated to a location in SE Asia where the beer is expensive and plain, I decided to brew my kit. I don't think anything can go wrong with the LME over time. The grain bag was vacuum sealed, but still 3 years old. Bottling day was the first time I didn't enjoy drinking the wort. It was both sour and bitter at the same time, a wee bit like the taste of vomit (forgive the details), but no overwhelmingly so. I bottled it anyway. It's only been in the bottle two weeks, but still has the same taste. What's the verdict, bad batch? Give it a few more weeks in the bottle? I guess I was bound to have a bad batch eventually. But I don't know if it's due to the age of the kit or maybe just contamination during the process. I still have another kit from the same 2018 shipment that I'm considering brewing. Appreciate any thoughts.