Clumping malt

Has anyone else noticed that when you add malt to boiling water it clumps up! How long will it take to desolve? I have pitched the yeast and sealed the fermenter and dont anticipate any dramas but will this affect the final product?

Blaine said:

Has anyone else noticed that when you add malt to boiling water it clumps up! How long will it take to desolve? I have pitched the yeast and sealed the fermenter and dont anticipate any dramas but will this affect the final product?

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Do you still have clumps of malt in the fermenter? I would have expected it to dissolve during the boil. If it made it all the way through the boil and into the fermenter, it might never really dissolve. The beer should come out fine, but that undissolved malt means your gravity (and thus ABV) will be a little low. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

To avoid this, I use a whisk to rapidly stir the water in my kettle... get a nice whirlpool going. Then, continuing to stir with one hand, I slooooooooowly dump the malt in with my other hand. I don't get any clumps this way.

Did you stir it in? When I add my DME I stir it good and it all disolves fine. Are you turning off the heat to add then bring it back up to a boil?

I stir while adding DME as well and never have any problems with clumps persisting for more than a few seconds.

As the above folks have said, stir while adding the DME and try adding it slowly instead of dumping it all in.

Iwas running into the same problem.but it's kind of hard to hold that bag while dumping and stiring so what i do is put the dme into a plastic pitcher so you have more control while you add and stir..and yes take it off the heat and add real slooow.

Unfortunatly I dumped it in. I took it of the heat but obviously didn't stir enough. I normally add the malt to cold water and mix it in then bring to the boil but this time I tried something different. Oh well I guess you live and learn. There were still clumps when it went into the fermenter so it seems the ABV may be a bit low.

When I first started brewing, I did a "no-boil" IPA kit. I used 3lbs of DME instead of the corn sugar. Dumped the bag of DME in the funnel on the carboy and started shaking it down. "Gosh, this is taking forever" I said as I started pouring the boiled water in to wash the DME down the funnel...

It took forever pushing 3lbs of solid malt candy through the funnel.

No, it never dissolved completely, and it never fermented completely.

The Happy Mug said:

When I first started brewing, I did a "no-boil" IPA kit. I used 3lbs of DME instead of the corn sugar. Dumped the bag of DME in the funnel on the carboy and started shaking it down. "Gosh, this is taking forever" I said as I started pouring the boiled water in to wash the DME down the funnel...

It took forever pushing 3lbs of solid malt candy through the funnel.

No, it never dissolved completely, and it never fermented completely.

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How did you bottle it if it was not competely fermented?

I assume only the clumps would still be fermenting so as soon as it was bottled the fermentation would stop (assuming no clumps made it into the bottles).

The Happy Mug said:

When I first started brewing, I did a "no-boil" IPA kit. I used 3lbs of DME instead of the corn sugar. Dumped the bag of DME in the funnel on the carboy and started shaking it down. "Gosh, this is taking forever" I said as I started pouring the boiled water in to wash the DME down the funnel...

It took forever pushing 3lbs of solid malt candy through the funnel.

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LOL.

I would have paid to see that brew session!

Blaine said:

How did you bottle it if it was not competely fermented?

I assume only the clumps would still be fermenting so as soon as it was bottled the fermentation would stop (assuming no clumps made it into the bottles).

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I didn't have a hydrometer at the time, so I didn't know it wasn't finished when I bottled (I was still a beginner). It had been in for two weeks, and the other three batches I had done were ready in two weeks. The clumps remained in the bottom of the carboy, all stuck together. The beer had a really sweet malt taste (rediculously so) that never went away, even months later. No overcarbonation or exploding bottle, it just never fermented fully. I wondered if the yeast was all that healthy, but it carbonated decently.