The Malt Gets Darker And Darker And

[fergi]

well about 3 months ago i bought 14 kg light liquid malt"it was light" 6 weeks ago i made another brew and it was a bit darker,today i made another brew and it was darker again,well almost like an amber really,does this affect the taste or anything else or does it just make the beer darker
cheers
fergi

 

[warrenlw63]

Fergi the darkening indicates deterioration. In other words it's going stale. Yes it will effect the flavour, probably for the worst.

IMO you most likely saved money buying 14kg of the stuff. However if it's in the one big bucket it's a bit of a false economy. You'd be better off with 14 x 1kg containers.

Warren -

 

[tangent]

i think POL posted a great tip about putting a valve in your lid and pressurising your container with CO2 so there's no oxidisation and easier to pour.
Might be worth a go on the next one.

 

[GMK]

i will disagree - i store liquid malt - stored it for months with no ill taste effects.

I agree taht it gets darker with age.
If it is stored in a sealed container - it should not go off or stale.
But POL's idea of CO2 purge is a good one though - might look at a way of doing taht.
But as of yet - been using bulk liquid malt stored in an old fermenter for over 5 years now - with no ill taste effects - the bucket gets cleaned prior to refill.

If u get an old Can of goo 18months old and compare it to teh same brand and type - you will see the th can has gone darker too.
Now this from purchasing some old cans at a garage sale once - still made good beer - i had to up the bittering on it though.

Hope this helps

 

[pint of lager]

As other members have pointed out, the darkening malt is aging and deteriorating with associated loss/change in flavour.

A few ways to try and circumvent this.

If you have a CO2 cylinder, set it up for carbonating PET bottles via a tyre filler chuck and tyre valves. Buy your bulk malt and use a malt gate to dispense with, some HBS sell them or apiarists suppliers have them cheaper. Fit a tyre valve to the lid and use this to add CO2 to the bucket. Purge the headspace like you do with your kegs, then use the CO2 to push and dispense with.

If you don't have CO2, then gather all your cleanest plastic tubs with lids, write the weight of the container on the lid, sanitise them and fill them all with your LME. This way you are limiting the number of times the malt is exposed to oxygen. Writing the weight of the container down makes it easy to judge how much and which containers to use in a brew.

Aim to use the LME sooner rather than later and store cool/cold and in the dark.

If you get some sort of growth, scoop this out with a sanitised spoon including some of the extract just under the growth.

All LME that does not come straight out of a can should be dissolved in water and boiled prior to adding to your fermenter.