6 year old kit

[twistyboy]

hi,

i got a Baron Redwood ale Kit. Its been sitting in my friend basement for at least 6 years. Its a liquid mix that come in a bag. i know that the yeast and hop will not be good but i wonder if the mix still good. Theres no exp. date on it. Any idea if its still good?

 

[TopherM]

The yeast is probably the only thing that's actually fine.

The hops are definitely going to impart a musty/vegital taste to the beer, and the extract is going to be stale. Extract has a reasonable fresh shelf life of about 8-10 months before it starts going downhill, and is always better the fresher it is.

You can brew it and make a beer, just don't expect it to be particularly good. There are hundreds of examples here on the forum board of people brewing old kits they find, and they always make beer that's not disgusting, but undoubtedly sub par.

Also, next time publish this type of question in the beginner or extract brewing forum. This is definitely not a DIY project

 

[Thedutchtouch]

I made an extract kit that was a year old a while back and it turned out just fine. That said, yours is much older. All you have to lose at this point is your time and however much it costs for the water/heat to brew. Give it a go, it probably won't be good but who knows. You'll likely be able to tell if the ingredients are old/stale when you open them, particularly the hops.

 

[uatuba]

I made an extract kit that was a good 3 years old...the refrigerator I was keeping it in was plugged into an outlet controlled by a switch (don't ask why...I didn't do it and hadn't yet connected the wires and bypassed the switch in that home). Anyway...my girlfriend at the time turned that switch off (she's now my wife and leaves every damned switch in the house on...but I digress) and shutdown the fridge. I don't know how long it had been shut down, but it was noticeably warm when I discovered it and all of the frozen goods were completely ruined (this was my secondary beer fridge and I had been on a beer hiatus for quite some time...I used the freezer compartment as an overflow for frozen goods).

Anyway...I brewed it a few months later, replacing only the liquid yeast, and it was pretty dang good. It was LME, too. Brew your beer--don't expect to win awards with it, but it'll likely be better than what you can buy at the Shop n' Save...