18 year old malt effects on final gravity

a friend of mine found three cases of 18 year old malt. 2 "gold" and 1 amber from northwestern malt company.
as one not to give up on free beer, i decided to try it.
brewed up an apa and an ipa. both are still in primary, coming up on four weeks now.
apa OG = 1.041, current 1.015
ipa OG = 1.046, current 1.014
both current gravity readings seem a bit high, though i'm fairly confident that fermentation is complete after four weeks.
does old malt result in a higher fg?
thanks

I'd be completely happy with those reading. Even new lme cans don't always get that low. Look at other threads about people's kit lme brews stalling at 1.020 fg....

Also depends on the yeast. Some attenuate lower than others. I'll be interested to see how this turns out.

used a wyeast 1056 american ale smack pack. got a nice slow and steady fermentation, two weeks worth of bubbling.
after the gravity reading i tasted it; it had the appropriate qualities, but a STRONG chalky flavor. i chalked it up to lack of bottle conditioning (unfortunately, pun intended). i'm thinking it might actually work.
however the "pale" ale in now black.
thanks for the tips.

several months later and the official verdict is in . . . absolutely foul. as an experiment it was fun, but it is wrong on so many levels.
moral of the story: 18 year malt - great for scotch, bad for beer.

Thanks for the update

I found out the hard way as well. My Dad had two Better Brewer Oktoberfest kits that he didn't want as he has been concentrating on wine for the last few years. I ignored the fact that they were 2 years past their expiration date and brewed one anyway. It turned out terrible. The LME didn't smell too good out of the can and the beer has that same smell and an even worse taste. I'm not at all optimistic about this batch but at least I gave it a chance. Gonna give it a few weeks anyway.


The color is wayyy darker than I expected for this style and it tastes like raisins soaked in dumpster juice!

manco171 said:

tastes like raisins soaked in dumpster juice!

Click to expand...

brilliant description. follow that up with a finish that tastes like sidewalk chalk, and that about sums it up.

i know that there are a LOT of cheapskate homebrewers, i'm one of them. learn from our mistakes: stale malt isn't worth it. brew fresh!