HBS LME stored ok?

The HBS in my area keeps there LME in 55 gallon white plastic drums mounted on their side with a tap on it. I was noticing that they have the long bar mounted flourescent lights in the ceiling above the drums and they are exposed to that light for at least 8hrs a day.

Can that storage method lead to low quality LME? Especially if you are getting the bottom of the barrel (which I just did!).

Nope, it's perfectly fine. What'll kill LME is exposure to oxygen and germies which you won't get when it's pushed by sterile CO2 into the bucket.

EvilTOJ said:

Nope, it's perfectly fine. What'll kill LME is exposure to oxygen and germies which you won't get when it's pushed by sterile CO2 into the bucket.

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From Pugilist's post, I get the impression that it is gravity fed from the drums, not CO2. In this case, the remaining LME in the drum would have contact with oxygen.

I agree with indolent that it is probably gravity fed LME. However, I disagree with indolent in the statement that the remaining LME will have contact with O2. I think the LME near the tap will have contact with O2; seeing as LME is rather viscous, I doubt the rest of the drum will have contact with O2 past the spigot. The drum itself will not allow UV penetration (to a point). Ask your LHBS if they brew with the same LME from that same drum; if not, question as to why not and why you (the customer) should.

Thanks for the input guys. What raised an eyebrow with me was when they poured warm water on the outside of the drum on a cold day to make it easier to get out of the spigot. That coupled with the basically see through packaging had me a little concerned.

I am going to use some muntons extract on my SNPA clone so will be curious to see if there is a difference.

I only mention the CO2 because that's how my LHBS does it. it's a ginormous barrel on its side, and has a CO2 canister hooked up to it. They open the spigot on the barrel, and then turn on the CO2.

UV isn't a problem for extract.

My original LHBS used the gravity feed method. They have 4-5 barrels going at once.