HELP: Can you scald or burn DME??

[Tetsuo1981]

Bit of a panic, boiled some water to mix with extra light DME to make a yeast starter and it's gone ever so dark and I'm worried I've buggered it

Put the DME in the sterilised demijohn, took the water off the boil and poured it in an mixed it. Is it screwed? I've not put the yeast in yet thank god

Cheers

 

[MyQul]

You may have 'caramalised' it so it went darker. I think it should be ok if thats the case as there are many recipes whereby you caramalise some of the wort on purpose to get extra flavour

 

[Tetsuo1981]

You may have 'caramalised' it so it went darker. I think it should be ok if thats the case as there are many recipes whereby you caramalise some of the wort on purpose to get extra flavour

So it's still usable? I'm so glad you replied!!

 

[MyQul]

So it's still usable? I'm so glad you replied!!

IF that's the reason why its darker. Why dont you start again with some fresh DME?

 

[Tetsuo1981]

IF that's the reason why its darker. Why dont you start again with some fresh DME?

I can but that'll be nearly all the DME I've got for this brew...
Stupid question, should I have cooled the water THEN added it to the DME? When I've used DME before I've just slung it in with boiling water and the can

 

[MyQul]

I can but that'll be nearly all the DME I've got for this brew...
Stupid question, should I have cooled the water THEN added it to the DME? When I've used DME before I've just slung it in with boiling water and the can

AFAIK it shouldn't make a difference

 

[Tetsuo1981]

Hmmm. I might let it get to temp and see how it behaves with the yeast, and get some more DME and yeast and see how it is after 3 days. It smells OK and the glass of the demijohn is a funny colour. Would you mind if I PM you after I see how it goes? It's OK if not, I'll post back here

 

[MyQul]

No, I dont mind

 

[Tetsuo1981]

You're a superstar. Promise I won't be 'that guy' and nag the crap out of you, and feel free to tell me to bugger off at any time. I'll experiment and see how it goes and let you know

 

[MyQul]

You're a superstar. Promise I won't be 'that guy' and nag the crap out of you, and feel free to tell me to bugger off at any time. I'll experiment and see how it goes and let you know

No problem (invoice is in the post btw )

 

[Tetsuo1981]

No problem (invoice is in the post btw )

Not a problem!!

 

[Banbeer]

I always add DME to my kits in boiling water and never had a problem apart from it clumping up but as soon as I add cold water and stir it in it's fine, you will have no problems.

 

[Tetsuo1981]

I always add DME to my kits in boiling water and never had a problem apart from it clumping up but as soon as I add cold water and stir it in it's fine, you will have no problems.

Cheers for that, just had a bit of a twinge. Likewise I just normally sling it in with everything and boiling water. Once I mixed it with cool water in a food processor to avoid lumps which worked quite well but it never went this dark. I slung 500g of hopped light in an ipa I've got going under the stairs with boiling water and I'm sure it didn't go that dark though. I think I'm paranoid as I'm using it for a starter and I've never done it before. And trying to get any ingredients is a ball ache at the moment.

 

[Banbeer]

trying to get any ingredients is a ball ache at the moment.

I was lucky in that I sort of could see what was going to happen so ordered **** loads of kits and DME, LME, etc etc and a few AG kits so I think I have it covered until Winter this year if I don't drink it too quickly (on Furlough so can't promise anything) good luck

 

[Tetsuo1981]

I was lucky in that I sort of could see what was going to happen so ordered s**t loads of kits and DME, LME, etc etc and a few AG kits so I think I have it covered until Winter this year if I don't drink it too quickly (on Furlough so can't promise anything) good luck

I was skinted out from moving house just before lock down and it didn't even enter my brain that homebrew stuff would be in high demand (duh on my part!). Typical as I now actually have a workshop to brew in and it's tough getting anything. Oh well, got an IPA on the go but that's promised to people who helped me move, the I can get this Cerveza on the go I should be OK. Sorry to hear about the furlough, I'm still at work but can't decide if it's a good thing or not!!

 

[Brew_DD2]

What colour was the DME to begin with? That looks like the product of Dark DME to me. Boiled water isn't going to caramelise sugar.

 

[Tetsuo1981]

What colour was the DME to begin with? That looks like the product of Dark DME to me. Boiled water isn't going to caramelise sugar.

It was this colour

I think my **** up was not letting the boiled water cool before slinging it on top of the DME. I turned the hob off and it'd stopped bubbling and I threw it in. Hindsight maybe not the smartest move. Managed to get some more DME ordered so will either try and see what this does or wait and try again. It'll put my brew day off but it'll give me a chance to modify my brew fridge

 

[MyQul]

What colour was the DME to begin with? That looks like the product of Dark DME to me. Boiled water isn't going to caramelise sugar.

I think it depends how much water was in there. I dont know if youve ever made belgian candi syrup or golden syrup, but basically you mix water and sugar and heat it and eventually it goes darker and darker as the sugar gets caramalised

 

[Tetsuo1981]

I think it depends how much water was in there. I dont know if youve ever made belgian candi syrup or golden syrup, but basically you mix water and sugar and heat it and eventually it goes darker and darker as the sugar gets caramalised

The more I mull it over the more I thing that's whats gone on, never made candi syrup but have cooked with sugar / caramel. It was 2litres of boiling spring water onto 220g of DME. Think I jumped the gun with the water temp which is my bad. But it could have been worse, I've learned something and used my demijohn for the first time so not all bad. Might write this one off, wait for mor DME and boil THEN cool the water before adding!!

 

[MyQul]

@Brew_DD2 you may be right in that sugar may not caramalize in water. I'm aware of the malliard reaction, although I dont fully understand it but looking at the wiki page it states that caramalization and the malliard reaction are different. This may in fact be what has happened to the OP's DMEif not caramalization

Maillard reaction - Wikipedia