Dry Malt vs Liquid Malt

[NathanW9]

Is there a difference between body/mouth feel and flavour between the 2? Wanting to start going to all malt and not use any BE's and dextrose if i can but would say 1kg dry malt taste different to say the liquid light malt 1.5lt?

[Canadian Eh!L]

Hey N,

 

It`s a good idea to move to all malt. There is no noticeable difference in taste. I think the equivilent DME:LME is 1:1.2.

[King Ruddager]

Oh cool, that's really good to know! So the Coopers malt cans are 1.5kg, right? That would mean using 1.25kg of dry malt in its place, yesno?

[Muddy Waters]

Generally you'd just replace a 1.5kg can with 1kg of LDM [rightful]

[Damien E1]

Oh cool' date=' that's really good to know! So the Coopers malt cans are 1.5kg, right? That would mean using 1.25kg of dry malt in its place, yesno?[/quote']

 

That's about right. Most of my recipes I use between 2.5 - 3.5 kg dry malt extract, depending on what I'm brewing.

[GregT5]

Damien, what sized brews are you doing?

 

I usually use 1kg LDM in my 23 litre brews with about 200g of dex.

[Damien E1]

Damien, what sized brews are you doing?

 

I usually use 1kg LDM in my 23 litre brews with about 200g of dex.

 

21, no pre-hopped can.

 

If using a can I'd use 750 g- 1.5kg depending on what I was making.

[Muddy Waters]

I didn't really think about my last post...If using a prehopped can I used to just add 1kg of LDM in place of a full can of liquid malt but for extract brews I generally start with a base of 2.5kg of LDM (and then tweak it a bit depending on stlye and volume of course).

[GregT5]

Where's a "light bulb moment" smiley when you need it?[unsure]

[ScottH19]

Please bear with my dumb newbie questions; this will be my second batch of beer, and my first using a Coopers product, -- in this case, the "English Bitter" ingredient kit.

 

I have a 1.7 kg can of the English Bitter mix, and a 1.5kg can of malt extract (not the 500g of LDM suggested in the instructions). I hope to use the malt extract, and to be sure I understand the correct proportions, am I correct that I should use 600g of the extract (500g +120% =600g)?

 

Thanks for any and all help!

[Hairy]

That's close enough. It's a bit early in the morning to work with numbers, and without coffee.

 

I think the conversion is LDM divided by 0.8.

 

Therefore, 500g of LDM is equal to 625g Liquid malt.

 

I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

[Damien E1]

Please bear with my dumb newbie questions; this will be my second batch of beer, and my first using a Coopers product, -- in this case, the "English Bitter" ingredient kit.

 

I have a 1.7 kg can of the English Bitter mix, and a 1.5kg can of malt extract (not the 500g of LDM suggested in the instructions). I hope to use the malt extract, and to be sure I understand the correct proportions, am I correct that I should use 600g of the extract (500g +120% =600g)?

 

Thanks for any and all help!

 

It depends on what alcohol% you're aiming for. For example, The English Bitter kit with a full 1.5 kg can of light liquid malt extract made to 21 litres will come out at around 4.6% before bottling. If you only use 600 grams it'll come out to around 3.4%.

[ScottH19]

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still confused. The instructions say to use 500g of LDM with the 1,7kg bitter mix can, and I have seen elsewhere ( in the above discussion, for example) that you use 120% of extract compared to the required LDM amount. Is that right?

 

What is the effect of using more malt than the recipe calls for? Ideally, I'd prefer the higher alcohol content, but not at the expense of what I think of as bitter's smoothness. Will the correct amount of extract taste different than the LDM?

[Damien E1]

Thanks for the replies, but I'm still confused. The instructions say to use 500g of LDM with the 1,7kg bitter mix can, and I have seen elsewhere ( in the above discussion, for example) that you use 120% of extract compared to the required LDM amount. Is that right?

 

What is the effect of using more malt than the recipe calls for? Ideally, I'd prefer the higher alcohol content, but not at the expense of what I think of as bitter's smoothness. Will the correct amount of extract taste different than the LDM?

 

No. Pure unhopped malt extract cans are the same as dry malt, only they haven't had as much of the water from the manufacturing process removed. That's the only difference, and that's why you need slightly more for the same effect.

 

The effect of using more malt is to raise the malt flavour and mouthfeel of your beer, raise the alcohol and lower the perceived bitterness due to the higher level of other flavours. The bitterness numbers won't change, but the way you taste them will.

[ScottH19]

Thanks Damien. This is good information.

 

So I gather that the amount of ME I should use is up to me, within reason, yes? Why do some brewers call for extra sugar?

[Jimmy]

So I gather that the amount of ME I should use is up to me' date=' within reason, yes? Why do some brewers call for extra sugar?[/quote']

Absolutely. The more malt extract you use, the fuller the flavor and mouthfeel of your beer. Sugar (usually dextrose) is only used to increase the ABV and it doesn't really affect the flavor.

[ScottH19]

Thanks guys, this is great. I look forward to seeing you around the forum!

[Guest]

Sugar (usually dextrose) is only used to increase the ABV and it doesn't really affect the flavor.

 

I know what you are trying to say and you are correct. However, one must be aware that too much Dextrose will in fact change the taste and the drier the beer will turn out.

[AdamH1525226084]

Scott, have a look at the BJCP style guidelines which will give you an idea of what the OG and FG should be for a particular style (note that they are guidelines).

Then you can use a brewing tool to work out what the ingredients will do to affect these numbers. The tools won't tell you what it will taste like though, and how the mouth-feel is etc, just purely numbers.

Free tools are : Brewmate or IanH's spreadsheet which you can either get from the AHB forums or someone nice on here.

The next level from that is BeerSmith which you can use in demo for 30 days.

[Jimmy]

I know what you are trying to say and you are correct. However' date=' one must be aware that too much Dextrose will in fact change the taste and the drier the beer will turn out.[/quote']

Yup, hence the word "really". I was talking about using a small to moderate amount of sugar in addition to malt extract, but I guess I could have made that clearer.

[Guest]

[cool]

[ScottH19]

Scott' date=' have a look at the BJCP style guidelines which will give you an idea of what the OG and FG should be for a particular style (note that they are guidelines).

Then you can use a brewing tool to work out what the ingredients will do to affect these numbers. The tools won't tell you what it will taste like though, and how the mouth-feel is etc, just purely numbers.

Free tools are : Brewmate or IanH's spreadsheet which you can either get from the AHB forums or someone nice on here.

The next level from that is BeerSmith which you can use in demo for 30 days.

 

Thanks Adam. the BJCP Guidelines look to be very useful, but because Brewmate itself runs only on PC's (i.e., not Macs), I can't use it. What does brewing software do for you? (I have downloaded the BeerSmith demo, which I will use for my next batch, then buy it if it works for me.)

 

And here is another general question about the Coopers Bitter mix: the instructions seem to indicate that you only boil 2 liters of water to dissolve the fermentables, then add cold water for all but the final few liters, which might be cold or hot, in order to get the best temperature for fermenting, rather than the lengthy boil that I see is more standard for most recipes. Do I have that right?

 

[AdamH1525226084]

I iBrew or iBrewMaster is a tool for Mac and iPhone, and will talk between them.

[Guest]

When I was doing kits I found that if I boiled the jug it gave me enough hot water to do what I wanted. The hot water in the instructions is not necessary to get exactly 2L, it is only there to give the right temp at the end and possibly to help dissolve ingredients. Just use the amount that works right for you to achieve this and you'll be fine.

 

I don't see a need for you to start using Brewmate or Beersmith unless you are going to AG. Ian's spreadsheet is great and what I used to use with no need to download any proggies.

[AdamH1525226084]

Yep IanH's spreadsheet is da bomb. I've compared the results of it with BeerSmith and Brewmate and it's pretty much the same. And of course, also with the actual readings I take [biggrin]