I left some DME in an open container for sometime, is it still usable?

[omazing]

hello there, after I did my last batch, I forgot to seal the bag that contained the DME. I believe it was left open for good 2-3 weeks until I discovered it. I quickly sealed it of course.

Now I'm thinking of brewing again, I wonder if its still usable or not. Has any one gone through a similar experience?

 

[Broken Crow]

One day when cleaning up my brew pantry I decided to use up all my old ingredients that had collected there. I had a 1lb. bag of dark DME that had turned to rock. Smashed it up as best I could, dropped it into a small SS pot suspended just inside my keggle and used my pump to recirculated into it at a low boil to try and melt/dissolve it. Not worth it! It took forever and burned my wrists a bit and still left me with a handful of large sticky chunks, and out of the bits that made it into the kettle it took me ages to clean a number of small sticky lumps out of my kettle screen.
In short: If it's hard, toss it...(or use it for experimental baking.. one big lump I attempted to use for brownies made a sort of stiff chocolate/malt 'cookie' type thing that I was gonna throw out but my girlfriend enjoyed it.)

 

[omazing]

One day when cleaning up my brew pantry I decided to use up all my old ingredients that had collected there. I had a 1lb. bag of dark DME that had turned to rock. Smashed it up as best I could, dropped it into a small SS pot suspended just inside my keggle and used my pump to recirculated into it at a low boil to try and melt/dissolve it. Not worth it! It took forever and burned my wrists a bit and still left me with a handful of large sticky chunks, and out of the bits that made it into the kettle it took me ages to clean a number of small sticky lumps out of my kettle screen.
In short: If it's hard, toss it...(or use it for experimental baking.. one big lump I attempted to use for brownies made a sort of stiff chocolate/malt 'cookie' type thing that I was gonna throw out but my girlfriend enjoyed it.)

thanks for the reply. No its not hard at all, its still powder-ish. but i'm debating whether i should bother with going through brewing process or not with it.

 

[Broken Crow]

Just don't do what I did and try when you've got everything else in motion. Try disovling it in a separate pot before you even start and watch out for small lumps that can clog things up.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I find that DME dissolves easier in warm (140-160F) water than cool (75F) or boiling/steaming water.

 

[Toblerone]

If it still looks/smells OK, and there is no evidence of contamination (by bugs/rodents), I wouldn't worry about it. The boil will kill most "bad" things. (Unless you are going for an award-winning brew, and the ever-so-slight risk of oxidation-related off-flavors really worries you.)

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

FWIW, similar (not identical) current topic here (link).

 

[MHBT]

I made a starter with solid DME before it didn’t hurt the beer, i wouldn’t have used it as a main fermentable though so to answer your question starter yes main fermentable no, just my opinion

 

[Steveruch]

I find that DME dissolves easier in warm (140-160F) water than cool (75F) or boiling/steaming water.

I did a batch on Thursday and dissolved the dme in the low 130s and it went very well.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I did a batch on Thursday and dissolved the dme in the low 130s and it went very well.

The range is pretty large: I did it once at 120F with good results.

Currently, adding the DME at 140F fits into my brew day process nicely.

If the recipe involves adding steeping grains, I add currently will them at flame-on, then remove them at 160F. So adding the DME at this point works well for me.

 

[Steveruch]

The range is pretty large: I did it once at 120F with good results.

Currently, adding the DME at 140F fits into my brew day process nicely.

If the recipe involves adding steeping grains, I add currently will them at flame-on, then remove them at 160F. So adding the DME at this point works well for me.

I steeped my specialty grains in a separate pot while I mixed in the dme.