Black Chunks

Northern Brewer General
1

When I opened the spigot on the brew kettle to transfer our cooled Saison to fermenters, I noticed a few black chunks go flying down into the bucket, presumable because we didn’t clean the spigot good enough.

Should I be concerned about this sitting in the fermenting beer?

My thought is that whatever it was is sterile now from the boil and will settle out during cold crash.

2

[quote=“stompwampa”]
My thought is that whatever it was is sterile now from the boil and will settle out[/quote]
I concur. Not ideal, but no reason to worry.

3

Could be char from the bottom of the kettle, or mold from inside the spigot.
The mold I would worry about.
Was there char on the bottom of the kettle?

4

I’m not sure. I don’t recall seeing anything…but I wasn’t really looking for it either.

Would mold ruin the batch before we got to bottling or would it show up on a carbed up tasting day?

It’s a 10 gallon batch, so the black chunks only made it into the first fermenter.

5

Obviously live mold would be bad. Charred mold would be OK. Though may give an off flavor.

6

If it’s from the kettle (I’m very sad to say this from experience) then it would be flakes. Any bits that got burned in the wort during the boil wouldn’t be chunky… IME.

7

Could’ve been flakes too…I dunno. Just saw some black things come flying through the spiggot. Whether “flake” or “chunk” - no idea.

I guess time will tell.

8

did you use hop shots?
Those leave little black BB’s in your wort. I was freaked the first time I used them wondering where the hell they came from

9

Well, if it’s a scorched wort issue I can promise you you’ll taste it a little bit, but if you didn’t see a ton of the stuff then it’s very likely it’ll be a subtle off-flavor (just enough to piss you off) that will fade with time… not completely, but it will fade.

:cheers: on and on we go.

10

Chunks could have come from your ball valve on the kettle. If you are like most homebrewers, you rarely take yours apart to clean it. Problem is that crud gets stuck between the ball and the valve body, trapped there by the valve seats. It cooks and gets sticky there until one day when you turn your valve, out it comes. Ewwwwe nasty.

11

rarely?

12

rarely?[/quote]
Or never?

13

rarely?[/quote]
Or never?[/quote]

I guess I know more people that clean then don’t clean.

14

You may count me among those who do as well :cheers:

But there was a time, long ago…