Black flakes in beer

So I'm on my 8th batch of extract beers. I'm pretty consistently getting floating black flakes in my finished beer. I'm fairly certain it is due to the Extract hitting the bottom of my kettle and burning when I'm making my wort. Then when I stir or boil it, the burn marks come off and float around in the beer.

How do you usually avoid burning? Any other ideas what this could be due to?

I use a 7 gallon pot and cook on my stovetop on top of two burners.

Welcome to HBT!
Your floaties could be scorch flakes or hop flakes. The trick to not scorching is a good pot with a thick bottom and removing the pot from the burners while adding extract. The second factor is to leave your beer in the fermenter until everything has settled to the bottom.

How long did you let your beer sit in the fermenter? Did you use a bottling bucket when you bottled?

Nurmey said:

Welcome to HBT!
Your floaties could be scorch flakes or hop flakes. The trick to not scorching is a good pot with a thick bottom and removing the pot from the burners while adding extract. The second factor is to leave your beer in the fermenter until everything has settled to the bottom.

How long did you let your beer sit in the fermenter? Did you use a bottling bucket when you bottled?

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The current batch was in the primary for 9 days. Then I moved to the secondary for 7 days. I don't bottle, I go straight to a 5 gallon keg.

I get a decent trub off the primary. The secondary doesn't usually have too much that settles out.

What pots would you recommend? I had a nice 7 gallon that was handed down from an older brother who brewed. I'd debate about picking up a new one if it would help. I'd like to get another large one though, so I can cook the whole 5 gallons of wort.

I picked up a nice 7 gallon stainless pot with a nice thick bottom at Wal-Mart for about 50 bucks. I don't have any problems with scorching.

You could turn off the heat when you add the extract until its very well mixed. Then if you wanted you could add only a part of the extract at the beginning and add the rest when 15min left in the boil (turning the heat off for both additions).

The beer was moved a couple weeks earlier than I would but that doesn't sound like the problem. I wonder if you have gunk built up in your keg tube.

I have a ridiculously priced SS pot (+$200) purchased from a restaurant supply house with a 1/2 inch bottom that I used for extracts. I don't know where someone could get on of those for a reasonable price. I also have a pretty nice stock pot (couple gallons) that I bought at Walmart that has a thick bottom but I don't know how big they have. I brew AG now and have a great 15 gallon SS that is pretty thin but that's another story all together.

I actually got black flakes for the first time in my ESB, but I do not extract brew - all grain only so I don't think it is the extract that causes the flakes (unles you got different flakes than me). It is more likely the hop particles. My beer has no off flavours, does yours?

I was getting black flecks, flakes, particles, in my glass, they look exactly like this guy's
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=250569

I didn't find a definitely answer online but I did discover the reason I was getting them (so I post this for anyone else who is looking for an answer). I feel like an idiot now, but I had no idea the picnic tap could be completely disassembled. I was opening it up, rinsing, soaking in PWB, soaking in Star-San, and it all "looked" clean. But I finally discovered that the "cap" on the top of the picnic tap will unscrew, and you'll have the base (the path that the beer flows through) in one hand, and the stopper and lever in the other.

Immediately I could see that the stopper was caked in the black flakes that were showing up in my beer. It looks like just dried up old beer gunk. It flakes off exactly like the particles that were ending up in my glass.

Further exploration discovered that with a little upward pressure on the base of the stopper, you can slide the top lever forward, which detaches it from the plunger/stopper and completely disassembles the whole top of the tap. Then you are left with the plunger/stopper itself (an elastic rubbery material where almost all of my gunk was), a spring, the top lever, and the round cap.

Completely disassembled and easy to reassemble. If I had known this, I would have disassembled every time I kegged. As cheap as picnic taps are, it would not be unreasonable to just buy a new one, but my home brew store is an hour away and not exactly convenient. So this is a good solution for me until I can get to the store on other business.

I hope this helps someone else.