The Sinamar Saga - Part I

As mentioned in a previous blog update, one of my upcoming brews will be of an experimental nature.  I would like to create a black lager, and am modifying a known recipe by adding a liquid malt extract that is designed to darken the beer without changing its taste or any of it's outward chemical properties - alcohol content, bitterness, and color.

The product in question is Sinamar which is made in Germany and is only sold through a very small number of retailers here in the US.  From the manufacturer's website:

"SINAMAR is perfectly suited for coloring foods such as: baked goods, beer, non-alcoholic drinks, spirits, pharmaceutical products and tea etc. Use 1.25 fl.oz. to darken 1bbl of beer or wort by 1° Lovibond. [Note, "bbl" here means "beer barrel", which in the US is 31 gallons]. Unopened containers have a 18 month shelf-life. Once opened, contents should be used immediately and stored cool."

It is sold domestically in 4 oz sealed containers, and one such container is enough Sinamar to for 99.2 gallon-SRMs worth of darkness.  In other words, if I dumped the whole container in 99.2 gallons of beer, it would darken it 1 SRM.  If I dumped it in 1 gallon, it would darken it 99.2 SRM.  For my 2-gallon fermenter, the whole bottle would yield 49.6 SRM - or 12.4 SRM for every ounce.

Okay, I'll knock off the math now.

Anyway, my package arrived today.  But when I opened it, I found that the product had leaked out of the bottle.  I lost about 1/4 of the liquid, which from the photo above you can see made a mess of things.  Worst yet, the reason it leaked was because the bottle wasn't sealed.  So here I have a food additive, unsealed, and likely contaminated.  The manufacturer says it should be stored cool once opened, but the shipping box sat on my 80-degree porch all day while waiting for me to return home.

I've contacted the seller for help, but this particular bottle of Sinamar will not be touching any of my beer.

Watch for Part II when I get a response.  I've never dealt with this seller before, but they do a LOT of home brewing mailorder business - I am certain they'll make it right if given the opportunity.