10 year old malt extract question

Ok, one of my friends parents gave me some malt extract, both a bag of liquid and a bag of dry. The liquid is dated APR 01 2000 and the dry does not have a date, but its hard as a rock. I know this will probably not make a good beer, but I want to know if it could be dangerous at all after a long boil. I do not plan on using it in a beer with any new ingredients, other than some hops and maybe some steeping grains, so if it comes out gross it will just be a throw away batch.

yea 10 years old .... toss it.

it wont be dangerous just stale as all get out.

If you don't mind going through the trouble of brewing it, I'd say go for it. Like you mentioned, I would just buy some steeping grains, hops, and dry yeast. You won't be out much money if it turns out undrinkable.

Let us know how it turns out!

Why waste your time? It's $10 worth of malt extract, for goodness sake.

My frist beer was an 10 plus years.. It was no good, or I didn't know how to brew yet.. But it did ferment out, just did not taste very good.

Well, since I'm a college student on break (sort of) I have time, but not a lot of cash. There are 6 pounds of LME and 2 of DME. Ill probably brew it up in a dark stout to hopefully cover up any off flavors

I think you should set up a paypal account, and we'll all donate $1 so you can buy some fresh DME and get yourself drunk right proper.

wendelgee2 said:

I think you should set up a paypal account, and we'll all donate $1 so you can buy some fresh DME and get yourself drunk right proper.

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hah, but that wouldn't be as exciting would it? Half of what makes homebrew so fun is the experience.

I don't have any experience with old liquid extract, but I'm surprised it stayed liquid after 10 years. I would assume it would find a way to dry out. That's some impressive packaging.

Yeah, it looks and feels?(I haven't dealt with bagged LME before, but imagine it would feel about like this) like new. You don't want to see the bag of DME

that don't look new to me ... looks like your Amber LME has turned into Dark LME. or maybe its just the lighting.

If you insist on using it, a stout is probably the best bet. Get some fresh ingredients-- roasted barley, black patent malt, etc.-- and use generous amounts of them.

I think you would be wise to cut this with some fresh LME. And when you are doing the sanitizing heating/boil, add a drop of olive oil (one drop).

I used some 1yr old LME that was kept in the fridge in a sealed plastic container. It turned darker from age. I used it in a sour beer that turned out great. I would make an oud bruin out of it.

$bill said:

If you insist on using it, a stout is probably the best bet. Get some fresh ingredients-- roasted barley, black patent malt, etc.-- and use generous amounts of them.

I think you would be wise to cut this with some fresh LME. And when you are doing the sanitizing heating/boil, add a drop of olive oil (one drop).

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Yeah, I was thinking maybe 8oz roasted barley, 8oz black patent and 12 oz crystal 60L or something like that.

Whats the olive oil for?

haha oh man id definitely give it a try. would be a hell of an experiment.

if your like me you have a buddy that will drink anything you put in front of him, so if I did this I would know I could just give it to him.

I once gave this guy a litre of disgustingly infected stout that I made from some crappy kit. I almost threw up dumping the stuff down the drain; it smelled like soy sauce. This guy drank every drop I gave him and enjoyed it.

I made a stout with 8 year old LME. Not bad. Tossed it on a yeast cake, so all it cost was for 8 oz of C80L and the same of roast barley, plus some propane.

Damn the torpedoes, and pitch the yeast! Argggh!!

*Said with a pirate tone*

My stepdad brewed up a porter with some 9 year old DME and LME. it was roasty as all get out, and he didn't even have any roasted barley in it, just the extract and a handful of hops for bittering. It was definitely drinkable, if a bit plain, actually.

I made a Porter with 4 year old LME and entered it in the HBT Homebrew comp. It was not my best scored brew but they did not say it was god awful either

Ok, so its been brewed, it tastes pretty good good, but, I have a problemI I seem to be stuck at 1.018 its still a little sweeter than I would like, any ideas how I can get another .003-.005 out of it? 1.018 is at the egde of the range, but i think a little bit more would be nice.


Old Malt Stout
Oatmeal Stout


Type: Partial Mash
Date: 1/30/2010
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Steve
Boil Size: 6.00 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (6+gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (5 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract (12.5 SRM) Extract 69.36 %
1.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 11.56 %
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 8.67 %
0.40 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.62 %
0.25 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 2.89 %
0.25 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 2.89 %
1.00 oz Cascade [7.50 %] (60 min) Hops 26.0 IBU
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.80 %] (15 min) Hops 6.2 IBU
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.80 %] (5 min) Hops 0.8 IBU



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.056 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.055 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.45 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.82 %
Bitterness: 33.0 IBU Calories: 248 cal/pint
Est Color: 25.2 SRM

Thanks for the update! It sounds like maybe some of the old malt has become unfermentable. I'm impressed your FG got as low as it did. How long in the primary?

its been in primary since the 30th

Maybe try some amylase enzyme if you can get your hands on it easily.

If you just want to boost the alcohol you could always add some corn sugar (1LB or less).

foltster said:

Maybe try some amylase enzyme if you can get your hands on it easily.

If you just want to boost the alcohol you could always add some corn sugar (1LB or less).

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A few drops of Beano oughta do it.

Old malt isnt unfermentable but it will make the final product taste off, soapy if you will.

Works just fine for starters

You could also try raising the temp a bit, if it's low at all.

hmm, If I were to use beano, could I use the tablets instead of the drops? it looks like the drops cost about as much as another batch of beer. Is there stuff that shouldnt be in the beer in the tablets?

How much could I raise the temp? its at 67 right now with some apfelwein going next to it. I could pull the apfelwein out and throw it in the closet as its about done with its stinky phase

UPDATE: Well, I went ahead and bottled it a week and a half ago anyway

Its just starting to get carbonated and its actually delicious! Probably my best beer yet (only out of 5 or something though). Nice and thick, black as motor oil, lots of body with an aroma of brown sugar, a hint of chocolate. Finishes like a bowl of oatmeal

I cant wait until its fully carbonated

This was defiantly worth the effort

Good work! All worth the worry.

Everyone loves a success story!

Mista_Sparkle said:

UPDATE: Well, I went ahead and bottled it a week and a half ago anyway

Its just starting to get carbonated and its actually delicious! Probably my best beer yet (only out of 5 or something though). Nice and thick, black as motor oil, lots of body with an aroma of brown sugar, a hint of chocolate. Finishes like a bowl of oatmeal

I cant wait until its fully carbonated

This was defiantly worth the effort

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Whaaat???? No TWANG?? But it's ten years old!! I can hear the TWANG!
TWANG! TWANG! from here! Like Gene Autry tuning up!

People report stuck fermentations on this group all the time, yet it
it's only when someone says they are using 10 year old extract that
they say it's due to the extract.

Ray

I am eating my hat. It's delicious.

From the Briess web site:

"The other important note to make is that flavor differences between 2-Row and 6-Row malts are more detectable in lighter flavored, lightly hopped beers. When you don't have flavor masking by specialty malts or hops, that's when you may want to reach for 2-Row base malts. When a beer's flavor intensity is at about the level of an Oktoberfest or beyond, or when a beer is more heavily hopped, the difference between the two malts becomes negligible."

And likely true for "twang" as well.

Ray

Dude. 10 years old? Are you f'in kidding me? Throw that stuff out. Start with some fresh stuff. At least with fresh ingredients you can start on a level playing field.