A few weeks ago a freind and I decided to combine our efforts in the pusuit of fine homebrew. When I was at his house he showed me his setup and all his equipment and a box. In this box was Liquid and dry extract, a ton of assorted hops and a few packs of dry yeast. This box was shipped to his freinds in a far off country, not used, and brought back when the tour was up. Since then, they have sat in the box in his garage. The integrity of these ingredients was questionable at best but, being a cheapskate, we must use them. Since I was already brewing yesterday and everthing was out and clean and sanitizing was commencing so I decided to test a small sample of these ingredients to see what I can do with the rest of them. I brewed a 2 gallon batch with 1 3.3 pound can of LME, some northern brewer hops to bitter and some liberty for flavor. I may have overdone the hops a bit but my fear was that the compounds had deteriorated to a point htat there may not be any bittering or flavor left in them. Time will tell. I rehydrated a packet of yeast and it took off like wild fire so I assume it will ferment this beer. I am going to rush this one to bottle so we can sample it and decide what to do with the remaining stuff.
I do anticipate another double brewday soon but cant settle on what we should brew. I am going to brew my stout soon, I do love it. I have aged some of my Stout stout, Pumkin ale and Sparkling Apple wine. I'm trying to hold out until November to bust into them.