Grey wort

[Mr Majik]

Hi all, I mentioned before I had a funny colored wort.

Today I did another batch, 1kg of malt went in. 5g of challenger hops.

This is the colour it turned out.

Any ideas?

Oh, and iv decided to splash out on a mill what do you recommend?

 

[Loetz]

:sick:

I don't know what it is, but it doesn't look right. I hope the grains arent going rancid or something while you malt them. Have you tried tasting some of them before you use them to brew?

I'm happy enough with my corona mill for now. Other people might suggest something different that costs a bit more, but I think it's a good mill for beginers. Once you have a fermentation fridge, you can justify splurging on a nice 200 euro mill.

 

[Mr Majik]

They were malted 3 weeks ago, milled a couple of days ago and taste fine. There is however an unusual peanut smell in my malted grain bucket, maybe some have turned? (Hope not, there's 7kg in there!)

To compare, I'll throw some in to germinate Sunday and do a batch with that when its ready in a couple of weeks.

Has anyone else ever seen anything like this? The wort itself smells and tastes ok (a little bitter but that's challenger!)

 

[PD]

never seen anything that colour before ! brewing wise that is.

certainly doesn't look very nice....

 

[SloeBrewer]

I have to say, you're a braver man than me for trying it! i would have tipped it down the drain :sick:

 

[bunkerbrewer]

Wow, that does look unpleasant!

Sounds like you're doing your own malting? Is it something fungal...?

 

[Mr Majik]

Dodgy malt? Something fungle? After tonights expirience i think you may all be onto something.

I just had a look at the batch i did last week, same odd colouration of the wort. Just looking at the demijohn was a sure sign of something wrong. It went from its unpleasent looking grey colour to a WORSE looking putrid "i dont know how to discribe that" colour.

Then it got worse, i took the airlock off and had a whiff :sick: that was about an hour ago and its still pungent in the ol' olfactory..factory

A couple of whiskeys and a galette (yes its that time of year) later and i can STILL smell its pong.

Perhaps it got infected during transfer? Possible, but im quite convinced now that i fluffed a batch of malt and that something survived the boil. Can that happen?

 

[carl_saint]

Wow! Never seen anything like it! I'd get rid of that!

 

[Mr Majik]

Oh and on the other subject, iv had a good hunt around and for now im debating a Bare Bones roller malt mill. Any comments thoughts on that, or should i post this in a separate thread?

 

[Mr Majik]

I want to get rid of it, i really do, but i don't dare take the bung off... Im kind of scared its going to jump out and do horrible things to the local populous.

 

[SloeBrewer]

Check your grain. Fungal infections would make it smell musty, but I don't advise sniffing too deeply and getting a lung full of spores! Ergot is particularly nasty, gives you hallucinations and makes you very ill.

 

[Loetz]

Im kind of scared its going to jump out and do horrible things to the local populous.

:shock: :rofl:

 

[wilsoa1111]

woah and i thought beer was meant to be safer than water impressive ive yet to make something so dangerous looking, post it to the UN and threaten to release it unless they send beer :grin:

 

[Mr Majik]

Culprit of the odd colour found!

With the mention of possible fungle contamination I erred on the side of caution and drained 8L as well as binning the remaining 5 kg of malt.

Then I turned to my kit, got ready to disinfect everything!

Bottles, buckets, bins, utensils... Then I took my little hand mill apart...

This is a tiny grain mill made to make flour (and its a royal pain hence I'm treating myself to a BB mill)

For a courser mill I added a couple of washers. They are fine, however the one washer that came with the mill had worn down to practically nothing!! Too mall an amount to notice while grinding, but apparently enough to colour the wort during boil.

So to sum up my BB should be here some time next week and ill get some grain in germinating on Sunday.

Back to the drawing board!

 

[wilsoa1111]

thanks for posting about the cheap grainmill- was seriously considering buying one, might just save up for a proper one for next christmas/birthday combined and a electric drill :)