I inherited a slew of brewing equipment and ingredients from a friend, but am not sure if it is usable, it's been in storage for a while. Specifically the malts have melted into chunks(a dry imported malt sold by brewcraft(partially used, ei opened)and a briess Pilsen light from crosby&baker). I am reasonably sure of the other ingredients but have found nothing about shelf life of malts.
Thanks
Dry malt extract, when not completely sealed air-tight, will start sucking moisture out of the air, and the resulting block of DME takes quite a bit of hammering pulverize. Or, you could slowly boil it and stir the crap outta it to get the chunks to dissolve.
Your malt extract is probably fine, so long as you don't see any funky molds growing on it. However, replacing it wouldn't be that expensive, so its up to you.
Although I'm unclear on the 'melting' that happened (specialty grains are usually whole grains, but dried extract will solidify with a bit of water) the malts probably got wet and may have grown mold. Don't waste your time with them.
