Rock hard DME

So earlier today I had a dme brick that I laboriously broke up. A solid brick, not powdery in the middle. Hammer blows were not very effective so I used a combination of a chisel and drill with a screw tip.

I just discovered that this work is not necessary if u have some time. I left some big chunks in warm, ~130, water and it's melting. It's not fast, I think its taking 2 hrs or so for the 2 half lb blocks but it's going.

I figure I'd post it I case anyone else had hard bricks in their inventory. Happy brewing..
-william.

Curious Grizy; how did this turn out? Any off flavors in your brew?? I have some DME bricks at home that I'd like to use up. I thought about maybe softening them up in the microwave first, as I've used that trick several times with hardened brown sugar and it works great.

i purchased 10lbs of DME that was brick like (i got a great deal on it. $5). i just broke off the weight i needed and added it to warm water and stirred and stirred and stirred. beer tasted pretty good. i added some extra hops to try and mask any stale flavor.

stevedis said:

how did this turn out? Any off flavors in your brew??

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Stevedis, i didnt notice any off flavors in mine. I had a 50lb sack of dme that was used for about 4 batches. I thought DME would be a time saver, turns out it was a PITA. Its sticky, hard to portion out w/o making a mess, and turns to bricks requiring additional time to melt. We'll see how all grain goes.