Weevils

[MrC]

I just discovered that some of my specialty grain had weevils (I think) living in it.  Tiny little brown bugs approx 3mm long crawling around in side my bags of malt.  I ended up throwing away three bags of specialty malt about 500g each as the bugs seemed to have spread to all of the malt that I had stored in the same container.

 

I suspect that it was the Pale Chocolate malt that had the bulk of the weevils which I know think explains the odd flavour I've had from my last two beers that contained Pale Choc malt.  Sort of a marmite taste that I has been putting down to a yeast/fermentation problem.  I rinsed out the container that had a few weevils in the bottom with hot water and the smell was the same as what I've been experiencing in my beers.  Yuk!  I don't think I'll be ableto drink the remaining 15L of mild that I recently brewed with it :(

 

Has anyone else had a weevil problem and experienced any associated off flavours?

 

Any tips on how to kill or prevent weevils from living in my grain?

[Andrew]

The big thing with Weevils is that you can only really try to prevent them. I always check malt when I get it and keep it in a sealed drum. I got one from Brewers Coop for $10-15 and its holds a 25kg bag no problem. If you've got weeveils in your grain the only thing you can do is chuck it and thoughly clean everything. You could probably spray them too but your not going to be able to use the malt after that.

      The bigger issue may be that I think you should really report this to the supplier. If you've got Weevils, chances are there might be an issue in the supply chain somewhere and you really don't want those little buggers getting in the chain because they can do alot of damage.

[Ralph]

I have not had weevil problems, but then Chch has been pretty chilly.

 

Plastic containers with reasonably airtight lids should keep them out. If they cannot get in there to start with then your grain should be safe. This would also keep the rats and mice away.

 

This reminds me that I must get around to putting my grain into buckets with lids!!

[jt]

I've not had any bugs in the grain, though a couple of slaters found their way into the kettle once, came to the top in the boil. All the vessels get a pre-brew check these days

If anything I'm more vigilant about rodents, they love the spent mash that I put in the compost bin for them.

 

Hope the clean up goes well Mr Cherry

 

cheers, jt

[MrC]

My malt has always been stored in airtight containers but I store multiple malts in the same large container which left me open to cross contamination. I've done some googling on the topic and it looks like it might be best to just throw away all potentially contaminated malt which in this case is about 5 kg of various specialty malts, about 10 different types. Not to mention 15L of Weevil Mild. A sad day for my brewery :(

[JoKing]

A sad day the brewery... but a good day for quality assurance.