Malt keeps clumping

[gavinski]

Having only ever brewed with extracts and used brewing sugar, started using malt lately with good results, accept the stuff keeps clumping up when added to wort! I have to get out a kitchen whizz and whip it up! Froths up all over the place which I have heard is good for oxygen.

 

[Hopfan]

It may clump when you first add it to the boil, but keep it stirring and it will break into solution fairly quickly.

 

[Ol' Grog]

I'm with hopfan. Don't sweat it. Just keep stirring, the heat will eventually dissolve it all unless you have a super saturated boil going. I'm talking something in the neighborhood of 20 plus pounds of DME in 3 gallons of water...in that case, you'd have syrup.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Add one pound at a time and stir to dissolve it before adding another pound...repeat process...

 

[Bobby_M]

Screw that ;-) I dump 6 pounds of DME in at once and just keep stirring. It dissolves in less than a minute.

 

[Bobby_M]

Having only ever brewed with extracts and used brewing sugar, started using malt lately with good results, accept the stuff keeps clumping up when added to wort! I have to get out a kitchen whizz and whip it up! Froths up all over the place which I have heard is good for oxygen.

I get the impression that you're trying to dissolve dried malt extract into cold water and not boiling. By the way, extracts are malt whether it's liquid syrup or dried powder. Sometimes the liquid version comes with instructions that don't require boiling but I've never heard of the dried equivelent suggesting the same. Boil water, remove heat, stir in DME until dissolved, return to boil.

 

[david_42]

I have to get out a kitchen whizz and whip it up! Froths up all over the place which I have heard is good for oxygen.

A really, really bad idea for HOT wort. The only time you add oxygen to the wort is when it is cooled.

 

[MariaAZ]

My first batch (the second is in the fermenter) came with 6 lbs of DME. It was a partial mash recipe where I simmered a bag of grains for 25 min. After the 25 min. I turned off the heat, removed the grain bag and added the DME, and turned the heat back on. The malt clumped like crazy, but I kept stirring with a spoon and by the time the wort came to a boil, the clumps had all dissolved.

 

[dibby33]

Yeup, just keep stiring. I had 7K of DME in 12 litres of water and it was a good long stir.

 

[Chipman]

Today I had something pretty interesting happen. I just gently dumped the DME into the warm water (around 150 degrees F) and watched it. The DME just absorbed into the water over the course of about 10 seconds. No stirring. No clumping. No fuss. It was amazing! I've been a diligent stirrer but this turned out to be just about as easy as it gets.

I scraped at the bottom of my kettle too, just to be sure, and there was little if any undissolved DME down there.