Expert: John Snyder - 3/7/2009

Question
I have been brewing for over 20 years. I recently bought a new 50 lb bag of 2 row pale malt. I mashed at 151 degrees F as usual, and the first two worts from this malt have a much lower SG than I usually get, around 1.048, instead of 1.055 to 1.060. Does malt vary in its sugar content, or change content if it gets old?

Answer
There are a number of possibilites,beginning with the malt,itself,here are a few of them

1--was the malt properly modified?
2--is the malt low in gums?
3--is the enzyme capacity enough to degrade the starch to simple sugars?
                Brewing

Was your conversion time normal?
How was the runoff?slower than normal?
What was the remaining S.G. in the mash,after runoff,was it higher than normal.?
If any of those brewing processes were different,one could basically say it was the malt
Does a malt specification sheet,come with your purchase?

Malt sugar (maltose) can vary in content.One has to remember that barley & malt produced is derived from natural living material and subject to all variations which can occur as a result of genetic and enviornmental conditions.No two batches of malt are alike

 Any further assistance needed,will be glad to assist

              John