Beer Forum

I have some liquid malt extract from Northern brewer that is about 2 years old. It was in the fridge the whole time and was the fresh kind that they pack in the plastic milk style jugs. Is it possible that it is still useable? Is there any easy way to tell if it is not usable? There is no bulging of the containers. I know that it won't be optimal, but I hate the ideal of throwing it away if I
can still turn out a relatively drinkable beer out of it.

Try it and report back. I have no idea how good/bad it would be, but would welcome a first hand report so we can pass on the word.

Has it darkened considerably? You could always try tasting a bit to see how it comes across on the palate. You have a much better chance of it being okay since you kept it in the fridge the whole time (well done BTW).

If it has gotten a bit stale, you could always use it for making yeast starters if you are going to decant most of the spent wort anyway. Seems like that would be a reasonable use for it even if it isn't really up to snuff for a batch.

I wouldn't want to spread out old starter extract into a bunch of different beers. Better to brew the experiment, understand whether 2yr old extract tastes like shit or not, and get rid of it all at once.

Or just figure that not fucking up a batch of beer is cheaper than the cost of one thing of extract and just pitch it and get new. Wasting $30 to avoid wasting $10 is just throwing more money after it.

I would do 2 batches.

Build up a large yeast starter, buy another kit & use the starter to pitch both batches at the same time. I definitely wouldn't throw a lot of money at it, but if you've already got the yeast, throwing in a few hops isn't all that expensive. I wouldn't put much effort into it though - no specialty grains, minimal hops & done.

Any news, Iz? How was it?