LME exploded while in checkout line... well overflowed

I went to the LHBS today, got some liquid wheat extract from their tanks. It had white splotches in it, but I didn't think too much of it.

Went to check out, the dude says "oh we'll have to discount that for you, looks like it's starting to ferment. You brewing soon"? I said yah, and he said "oh, don't keep these containers air tight." as he went to unscrew one, it foamed out and went everywhere. I said "uhhh I'm not brewing til next weekend, is that not soon enough?" He said no way, you better switch to dry... so I did.

I asked him what happened and he said air must have gotten in the tank, and they'll have to switch it out...

Glad it happened at the checkout stand instead of 1 week later when I went to brew!

I hope they don't have too much in the tank you got it from or they better brew it up real quick in the back room to at least do something with it.

Lucky you that you didn't get stuck with it.
Unlucky you that you could not purchase what you wanted to.

I've seen LME get moldy, but there would have had to been a lot of moisture in the tank for it to dilute enough to ferment. Wonder if it was good, old Clostridium botulinum?

I'm not sure I would buy anything from that store. If there's something growing in the LME that makes it explode on the counter, I wouldn't want it in my beer, boiled or not.

Since when has botulism hurt anyone?

neuron555 said:

I'm not sure I would buy anything from that store. If there's something growing in the LME that makes it explode on the counter, I wouldn't want it in my beer, boiled or not.

Click to expand...

I dunno. Stores are subject to getting bad ANYTHING from suppliers. I went into my LHBS a week ago to stock up for a wicked dark pale ale I wanted to try. I asked for some light LME, and the store owner opened a jug which she'd just opened days earlier, looked at the top, looked in the jug, and growled. She then grabbed a brand new, fully sealed jug, cracked it open, and voila! Foam on the cap and in the jug, followed by expletives too numerous to count. Spontaneous fermentation. Seems stores can get bit just as badly as brewers.

I do find it odd that they tried to just discount it to get rid of it, though I don't know everything about LME. I certainly wouldn't buy it, but YMMV.

hmmm... so now I'm wondering. The last time I brewed I had a sealed package of LME from an online store. The package had a little white in it... when i squished it around it didn't really go away. I brewed with it anyway. So far the beer in the 2nd week of fermentation tastes normal...

Any ideas what that "white" in the LME package was?

thats just crazy... some bad Q and C at the corp level...