Old Extract kit, may have mold.

Hi guys,

I picked up a vanilla oatmeal stout partial mash in January '06.
For various reasons I haven't got around to it, usually messing around with another batch before I could get to this one.

Nothing has been opened and has been stored at room temperature. Today I went to look at the kit, the grains were fine, however the Plastic jar of 7lbs of light extract had some "white" inside of it. Not a lot but enough to almost make me pitch it (but keep the grains).

The jar has never been opened and still bares the original obligitory clear tape wrapped around the lid. I assume what's inside is Mold? Or is it a harmless happy mold. Brown algae is good, maybe this is too?

Appreciate your thoughts

You don't have to take my word for it, but LME has such a low water content that mold has a really hard time growing in it. The reason there is surface mold is from what ever humidity was left in the headspace. Now that being said, the LME can go "stale" with time, soooooooooooo...... In reality, you can scrape off the mold and use it since you are about to boil the living hell out of it anyways, but it may have picked up stale off flavors.

Scrape the mold out & dump some vodka in the tub to sanitize the top. Or just scrape & boil. LME can darken with age, but 18 months isn't all that long & it's a stout anyway.

I am new to brewing but I have worked in the food industry most of my life. The white that you see could be the sugar crystalyzing. When sugar gets old, it crystalyzes. If you were to leave a chocolate bar in your refrigerator for a long time, it will start to turn white. Being that extracts are sugar, it could be the sugar crystalyzing. Extracts are sweet like sugar, try tasting the extract and see how it tastes. If it is mold, it wont hurt you(unless you are alergic to pennicillin), it will just taste funny. If it tastes moldy, scrape off the white part and toss, if its sweet, just use as normal. Like I said, I am new to brewing so there may be experts who have seen this before.

Thank you for the help!

Realizing that 7lbs of extract is easily half the cost of the kit itself, and it's a harmless mold, I'll just scrape and boil.

It doesn't appear to be crystalization, although I'd be happy to be wrong. It's a white pasty glue like substance stuck to the sides.

Appreciate your time.