Outdated Kit?

[danthebugman]

Buddy of mine recently from college won a brew kit at a company Christmas party a few years ago. He's been moving around some the last two years and never bothered to open the box. He moved back to the area a few months ago and was asking me about it. I expect the answer is that the ingredients are toast at this point, but the thrifty part of me can't help but see if there's anything that could be done with it. The ingredients list reads:

1 pkg containing Cara-Pils malted grains
1 pkg containing a mixture of Wheat DME, Malto-Dextrine, and bittering hops
1 pkg hop pellets for finishing

The yeast that came with it was expired, but I have extra US05 (which is what was in it) so that's covered. If I bought fresh hops for the end of the boil do you think it'd still turn out okay? Maybe get a few pounds of base grain and do a mini mash to get a fresher flavor?

 

[Wyrmwood]

Replace the yeast and you are good. As long as the hops are vacuum sealed you are probably good. Hops do lose potency over time, but not too much if they've never been opened. Even then, you are only talking 5% loss in 6 months if you keep them in the freezer. Unless it's an APA/IPA, I wouldn't bother with new hops.

 

[duboman]

Honestly, if it's been stored well and everything is still in the original sealed bags you will probably get something decent assuming you use fresh yeast and hops but in reality it doesn't appear to be a very expensive kit so how much is your time worth?

 

[danthebugman]

It's been sitting in his garage so the temps have been up and down the last few years. Everything is still sealed in the original bags though. I don't really care about my time, it's brewing beer which sure beats a lot of things I do (like work). I just don't want to have his first experience turn out a bad beer.

 

[duboman]

It's been sitting in his garage so the temps have been up and down the last few years. Everything is still sealed in the original bags though. I don't really care about my time, it's brewing beer which sure beats a lot of things I do (like work). I just don't want to have his first experience turn out a bad beer.

Then get a fresh kit and you at least take that element of the unknown out of the equation

 

[kh54s10]

Get another new kit and do them both. Then the worst should be only half bad. The kit is probably OK with fresh yeast. It might not be a bad idea to get new, or add, some hops if you know what they are.