Is my malt mold because there is mold in my compost?

[Finlandbrews]

I brew some batches in my summer house where I have a compost outside where I throw in spent grain and hops after brewing. I have noticed that the spent grain and hops is getting molded in the compost which is totally closed by the way. Someone told me that because it is getting molded in my compost means that my grain is probably molded, can that be true?

Also my last batch was ruined, with every single bottle (45 bottles) gushing and a pronounced phenolic paint/medical smell. I know that gushing can be caused by mold but can it be something else? Can small parts (0.1/0.2 ppm) of chlorine in my water also be responsible? Or can too much yeast concentration in the bottle be a reason for gushing?

Finally, how is it possible to check freshness of malt?

 

[RevKev]

Chlorine will result in a possibly medicinal plastic off flavor in beer. Assuming that you had a rolling boiling during your brew day and that your town uses chlorine and not chloramine to treat water.. the action of boiling most likely rid your brew of most all of the chlorine. But if you want to be sure... Use some campden tablets to treat your water before you brew next time.

What else do you compost? Mold spores are everywhere, they just need an area with enough nutrient and a dark and moist environment to germ, I think that you grain is fine as long as you store it in airtight, dry container and out of direct sunlight. You would know if you grain was moldy, right when you pull it out to mill.

Briess has been know to say that crushed malt is good for up to and over a year when properly stored. And it's a theme of people having grain that is stored unmilled for a year or two maybe longer, all depends. But you would be able to taste it and see if it's gone stale

 

[flars]

The best way to check the freshness of grains is to sniff and taste. If it smells off and the taste is more like mold or cardboard the grain may not be good any more. Sacks of grain that are kept cool and dry in a bin can remain fresh for a couple of years or longer.

Spent grains will start showing mold in a day or two. This is not because the grains were bad but it is the grains are like cooked food and not refrigerated. Prime growth medium for all the natural mold spores in the air.

Any chlorine or chloramines in brewing water will produce an off taste in the brewed beer. The style of beer will determine how noticeable it is. The treatment level of your municipal water also does not remain the same throughout the year. The amount that is added is determined by water testing for contaminants. Sometimes there is more bacteria in the water source or lines so extra chlorine or chloramines will be added.

Bottle gushers are usually from too much priming sugar or infection. CO2 production in the bottle is limited by the amount of priming sugar. The amount of yeast won't increase carbonation pressure. I would look at all your bottle equipment for built up crud. Especially the equipment you haven't dismantled and cleaned on a regular basis like the bottling wand or spigots on buckets. You may need to replace plastics that are hard to clean or won't withstand a strong bleach solution for disinfecting.

 

[soccerdad]

Spent grains will start to mold at outdoors temps within acfew hours of coming out of the mash. This would not indicate mold in the grain prior to mash.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

My spent grain usually begins to mold within a couple days. It's the perfect environment.

Warm, humid temps. Ample food. And if you are mashing outside, anytime you open the lid, the spores will fall in.

And when you drop it in the compost heap, there is already ick in there. It's just the circle of life.

 

[MaryB]

Spent grains make an awesome compost tea in about 2 weeks! I use a black 40 gallon garbage can that gets rain water runoff in it from a roof. Between the water and sun they break down fast(and smell horrible!).

 

[RM-MN]

I brew some batches in my summer house where I have a compost outside where I throw in spent grain and hops after brewing. I have noticed that the spent grain and hops is getting molded in the compost which is totally closed by the way. Someone told me that because it is getting molded in my compost means that my grain is probably molded, can that be true?

Also my last batch was ruined, with every single bottle (45 bottles) gushing and a pronounced phenolic paint/medical smell. I know that gushing can be caused by mold but can it be something else? Can small parts (0.1/0.2 ppm) of chlorine in my water also be responsible? Or can too much yeast concentration in the bottle be a reason for gushing?

Finally, how is it possible to check freshness of malt?

Only wet grains will mold. Dry grain will not.

Gushers can have several causes. Most common would be insufficient time in the bottles as suspended yeast will cause the CO2 to come out of solution as it provides nucleation points. Spices in the beer will do it too if you do a spiced holiday beer. The next most common is bottling too soon where the beer isn't quite at final gravity. Using your hydrometer can help you avoid this. Time in the fermenter will help too.

Adding too much priming sugar causes gushers for the same reason as bottling too soon. It creates too much CO2 in the bottles. Finally, an infection can cause that too as some wild yeasts and some bacteria can eat some of what are normally unfermentable sugars and provide more CO2 than predicted.

 

[Finlandbrews]

Only wet grains will mold. Dry grain will not.

Gushers can have several causes. Most common would be insufficient time in the bottles as suspended yeast will cause the CO2 to come out of solution as it provides nucleation points. Spices in the beer will do it too if you do a spiced holiday beer. The next most common is bottling too soon where the beer isn't quite at final gravity. Using your hydrometer can help you avoid this. Time in the fermenter will help too.

Adding too much priming sugar causes gushers for the same reason as bottling too soon. It creates too much CO2 in the bottles. Finally, an infection can cause that too as some wild yeasts and some bacteria can eat some of what are normally unfermentable sugars and provide more CO2 than predicted.

Can gushers ever taste good? Cause that batch was bad so I would say it is unlikely a problem of too much sugars but maybe too much sugars for the yeast that was in suspension... Now I bottled a new batch and I put 2 Oz. Belgian candi for 3.5 gallons which was around 38/45 Farenheit. I'm conditioning the bottles at 71 farenheit. I tasted the beer too and it seemed pretty good, a bit bitter but maybe the priming could balance it. Are these fine? I cold conditioned/crashed my fermented beer for 10 days at below 36 farenheit. I thought I should get less yeast sediment in my bottles and I also dumped 1 gallon as the bottom of my FV was 1.5 inches thick of yeast.

How important is it for starsan to have dried in my bottles when I bottle my beer? I wondered if that could have caused my off flavor... Or as someone say, I think it can be these cheap plastic tubings which have leaked because for I discovered that for some reason some of them were sticky and smelling strong plastic, really weird... Could that be related to a too long soak in a starsan solution?

Thank you all for the comments regarding the mold in the malt that will help me a lot in the future! What a great community HBT is, the best!

 

[soccerdad]

Use Star San wet. Don't wait for it to dry.

 

[Finlandbrews]

Chlorine will result in a possibly medicinal plastic off flavor in beer. Assuming that you had a rolling boiling during your brew day and that your town uses chlorine and not chloramine to treat water.. the action of boiling most likely rid your brew of most all of the chlorine. But if you want to be sure... Use some campden tablets to treat your water before you brew next time.

What else do you compost? Mold spores are everywhere, they just need an area with enough nutrient and a dark and moist environment to germ, I think that you grain is fine as long as you store it in airtight, dry container and out of direct sunlight. You would know if you grain was moldy, right when you pull it out to mill.

Briess has been know to say that crushed malt is good for up to and over a year when properly stored. And it's a theme of people having grain that is stored unmilled for a year or two maybe longer, all depends. But you would be able to taste it and see if it's gone stale

No chloramine is used and my chlorine is around 0.1/0.2 ppm. I get rolling boils without problem. I was told that chlorine should really be 0 because 0.1 ppm and even less could already cause off flavours, the chlorophenols come before boiling so it would be too late already, I believe so but please correct me if I'm wrong. I used campden salts in my last batch and taste seemed cleaned pre bottling. I compost all sorts of plant matter matters, fruits, vegetables and weeds and off flowers... Cheers

 

[rezance]

is it possible to check (see or smell) mold in grain ?? or it can be hidden, and only way how to test it is in laboratory
i have high humidity in my area, i am storing malt in original packing, fortunatelly i have never seen/smell mold.

 

[seatazzz]

Mold spores are everywhere...can't get away from them. Dry grain doesn't offer them much to grow. Mold needs water to procreate. As long as your grain (milled or whole) is dry and kept that way, it won't get moldy.

For what it's worth (and what I remember from high school biology so many years ago) yeast and mold are in the same family of organisms. Both single-celled, both needing water, carbohydrates, and oxygen to procreate. One is good for beer, one is bad. Yeast however are the BAMF of the single-celled organism group.

 

[ong]

Compost just gets moldy when it’s damp for awhile and temps are lowish. You can turn it more, or try to add more “browns” like leaves or grass clippings. I wouldn’t think it indicated anything in particular about your grains.