Toss or bottle?

Northern Brewer General
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Greetings. So I’m inherited some kits and equipment from a friend who got really excited about brewing and them got even more excited about a redhead. He had brewed several recipes and ordered quite a few kits. He took me down to the basement, probably at the behest of said redhead, and offered me the lot. The kits are are NB extract and are still in the shipping box, unopened, probably two years old. Are the kits still brew Worthy? I know I would need fresh yeast and probably hops. But would every thing else be ok?

Now here’s the gnarly question. There are two buckets and a carboy that have been sitting in a closet for a good three years(?). Bud’s record keeping skills aren’t the best.

Bucket one,when opened had what looked like three inches of brains on top. Got tossed immediately. Question is whether this bucket can be redeemed or does it restart life as a container for next year’s tomatoes?

Bucket two has what appears to be a stout. He said he thought that one was a “Mexican brown sugar porter”. No discernible brains floating on top. Used a thief for a taste test, came out very hot, still reeling from the taste test. Tasted winey with a strong dried fruit taste. Could this one be salvaged and bottled? Bucket safe to use again?

5 gallon carboy is said to contain a pale ale. Again,no brains on top. Tasted very chalked when sampled. Think I’ll toss it, but again, the question whether the carboy can be sanitized enough to use again.

Thanks for the help.

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The bucket should be salvageable. I’d rinse it out as well as possible then if there’s any crud on the sides I’d fill it with water and let it soak for several days. Then I’d give it a bleach water soak. After really rinsing it out well I’d give it a soak in oxyclean or something similar. And finally a dose of star san.

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As @rookie_l_a said, the equipment should be fine with aggressive cleaning. As for the porter, it depends on how bad you want to drink 2 year old(?) “brown sugar Mexican porter”. :confused: It probably won’t hurt you.

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Don’t use anything that can scratch the plastic when you scrub the fermenting bucket. Pad of paper towels and Barkeepers Friend will finish the cleaning after the bleach soak. Rinse very well.

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Toss it out. And clean well so you can start brewing. Think your kits are bad. But dont know for sure. The dme might be old

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I don’t think I would bother saving the buckets. They don’t cost much to replace.

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2 years is a long time… I would throw the lot of it out…. You’d have too much time in brewing a batch to find out it went a wry…. Sneezles61

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Definitely toss. Plastics have a habit of picking up flavors and odors and I can only assume some pretty funky flavors have made their way into the plastic.

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Sounds like I’ve got a couple of tomato buckets for next year. Thanks for the advice.

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