So yesterday I decided to brew a simple extract batch. I use a 4 gallon stainless pot for my boil kettle. Normally I put it over two burners on my stove, but for various reasons I decided to try it with just one.
Took a long time to get to any sort of a boil - like an hour? I had put in about half of the extract and was stirring occasionally. As it slowly approached boil it began to form a foam as one might expect. What struck me as odd is that, at some point, the foam began to change from a normal beige/brown to a sort of gray color. Looking closely it appeared to have some sort of dary gray flakes in it. Very odd. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid so I let it go. The beer eventually came to to a boil and everything else went normally. The later extract addition did not exhibit the same gray color. However, when I cooled the wort and put it in the fermenter, it seemed a lot more cloudy than ususal with a kind of odd color.
After washing the equipment, I noticed that the bottom of the brew pot was discolored from heat (rainbow effect). More concerning was that there are dark gray scratches all over the bottom of the pot where my spoon had scraped while stirring. I use a plastic (nylon?) spoon and hardly gouged the pot. The spoon shows no evidence of melting or other damage. Is it remotely possible that the pot was somehow damaged in the lengthy boil process? It seems totally bizarre, but now I'm wondering what caused the gray foam, and am worried about what might be in my beer.
Thanks!
Chris
Took a long time to get to any sort of a boil - like an hour? I had put in about half of the extract and was stirring occasionally. As it slowly approached boil it began to form a foam as one might expect. What struck me as odd is that, at some point, the foam began to change from a normal beige/brown to a sort of gray color. Looking closely it appeared to have some sort of dary gray flakes in it. Very odd. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid so I let it go. The beer eventually came to to a boil and everything else went normally. The later extract addition did not exhibit the same gray color. However, when I cooled the wort and put it in the fermenter, it seemed a lot more cloudy than ususal with a kind of odd color.
After washing the equipment, I noticed that the bottom of the brew pot was discolored from heat (rainbow effect). More concerning was that there are dark gray scratches all over the bottom of the pot where my spoon had scraped while stirring. I use a plastic (nylon?) spoon and hardly gouged the pot. The spoon shows no evidence of melting or other damage. Is it remotely possible that the pot was somehow damaged in the lengthy boil process? It seems totally bizarre, but now I'm wondering what caused the gray foam, and am worried about what might be in my beer.
Thanks!
Chris