DME yeast starter has particles in it

[mikehoover]

After boiling a batch of DME for a yeast starter, I noticed that there were particles floating in the wort. It looked as if I had taken it straight from an all-grain boil. The boil pot was clean, the DME was nice and dry and looked good and the water was clear before the boil. I don't use DME often but don't remember having the particulate matter after boiling. The DME is about a year old and was stored in the original package (opened once before) inside of two ziplock bags and sealed in a plastic container the whole time.

 

[JonM]

I bet it's just hot break. I pressure can jars of DME wort, and they always look like egg drop soup because of all the break material.

 

[wardens355]

In addition to hot break, I think sometimes I get a little bit of burnt extract if I don't stir it in too well when boiling and it settles to the bottom, gets burnt. Little dark flecks in my starter that at first I mistook for fruit flies since they moved around pretty swiftly on the stir plate.