Has anyone ever tried using molded extract? I bought a bit too much the last time, with intentions of brewing 4 or 5 batches. But honey-do lists pile up and brew days get pushed back. Long story short, my bulk of light extract has some creatures growing on it. I am thinking it would be safe to use, surely someone has run into this problem before right???
Please, please do not use that extract. Even with a boil you are looking at staled or soured extract, and it won't taste good. You could potentially have health risk issues too. It's happened to me before too- I had about 5 or 6 lbs lme go bad on top of my fridge where it was too warm to keep the extract from souring. I dumped it and bought some more. There's no saving it now.
Dang I was hoping that wasn't the case. I have about 20lbs or so left over. Damn bulk packaging. Its all on me though. I guess I will be tossing it this evening.
Too late now, but when I was using LME pretty regularly, I would store it in the freezer. DME stores much better, so you might want to consider switching (lots of other benefits, too - cheaper being one of them)
If you want to purchase malt extract in bulk the better option is DME. If you store DME in a cool, dry place it will last for years. For example, buy this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/briess-dme-pilsen.html 50 lbs. for $134.99 from Northern Brewer (or purchase it from your LHBS). Cheers!
Thanks for the suggestions...I realize that with a newborn, its hard to find a lot of spare time to brew. I will just bite the bullet and buy in smaller quantities. Better to pay a little extra than having to throw out all of that LME. DANG!!!
While you COULD use it, I would recommend NOT using it. It won't kill you, but even if you scoop the mold off the remainder of the exract is clearly not fresh and won't produce the best testing beer... You're putting too much effort into brewing to not use the best ingredients you can.
