# Malt Extract



## junior06 (21/12/05)

Hey lads...

Doing some xmas shopping yesterday as all of us have done i'm sure @ one time or another my mind drifted to home brew and cost cutting...

Had a look @ 1kg Malt extract @ woolies fairly cheap and was wondering if this could be used in a brew rather than the exy stuff from the HBS.
Still new to kit brewing, this is what i had in mind


- Morgans Blue Mountain Lager Can
- 1kg Malt extract
- 500g dextrose(or if there is a better suggestion)
- Halerateu Hops(15g or so)

Am i way off here or would this turn out ok?

Cheers
Andr


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## deebee (21/12/05)

I have heard/read that the malt extract next to the honey or in the health food aisle of coles is not suitable for brewing. And I am surprised to hear that it is cheaper than the stuff in your HBS. When I have looked, I noticed it was more expensive. Remember that when you buy it from the brewshop it is usually in larger tins. Aren't they 1.7kg?

If you want cheap extract, buy it in bulk. If you buy 20kg of dried extract the price comes down to around $6/kilo. Makes a lot of beer.


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## dickTed (21/12/05)

Saunders Malt Extract at Safeway/Woolies 1kg can $6.70.

I used a kilo with a Coopers Bitter kit about 6 months ago. I also used 250g brown sugar, boiled the extract up with 25g Amarillo pellets for 15-20 mins, then dry hopped in secondary with 25g Amarillos too.

Didn't mind the beer. No off flavours. Better than commercial beers.

Been meaning to make my normal extract brew with it sometime.


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## JaCk_SpArRoW (6/1/06)

Crown Lager Clone
1 x can Morgans blue mountain lager
500 g x Coopers powered light malt. 
250 g x dextrose
250 g x powered corn syrup
5 g x brewing yeast
1 x teabag Morgan's P of R finishing hops

Dissolve BML, MALT, DEX, CORN in 4 litres of hot water
Place teabag finishing hops in a mug of hot water and soak for 15 min, tip mixture into fermenter. Stir and float teabag in it. Sprinkle yeast on top and leave to ferment for 5 - 7 days. Bottle and leave for approx 2 months. (although can be tried after 10 days, full taste doesn't mature until the 2 month period is up). :super:


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## tangent (6/1/06)

what brand was the malt Junior?
it's probably the same stuff you're buying in your HBS but they're ripping you off
hard to compete with woolies

edit - i think your recipe will turn out very drinkable


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## JaCk_SpArRoW (6/1/06)

Hi tangent...I originally bought the malt from the a HBS but upon speaking to other people in my area, I realised the same thing, I was being ripped off!
I have since changed to another HBS who has been a wealth of info & no intention of ripping me off in the future!

I am hoping this or a Canadian blonde will be my next brew...only limited by the number of longies I have at the moment! :angry:


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## Thunderlips (6/1/06)

tangent said:


> what brand was the malt Junior?
> it's probably the same stuff you're buying in your HBS but they're ripping you off
> hard to compete with woolies
> [post="101204"][/post]​



I'm curious about that too so I did a quick google and found a link over at Grumpy's where some seem to think that it might not be very suitable for making beer while at least one person thinks it would be ok.
https://www.grumpys.com.au/read.php3?id=18031 (it's an old post).


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## tangent (6/1/06)

is it liquid malt extract Junior's talking about or a 1kg bag of dried malt extract?


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## T.D. (6/1/06)

I used the Saunders stuff in a partial mash recipe once and it came out just fine. I couldn't see any difference between it and the stuff you get from a home brew shop. I've never made a beer entirely out of the stuff though.


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## T.D. (6/1/06)

tangent said:


> is it liquid malt extract Junior's talking about or a 1kg bag of dried malt extract?
> [post="101212"][/post]​



Tangent, the stuff I used was liquid - it was in a little tin.


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## JaCk_SpArRoW (6/1/06)

> is it liquid malt extract Junior's talking about or a 1kg bag of dried malt extract?



It is powdered malt Tangent....I had heard that lme would not be suitable


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## tangent (6/1/06)

that's the best way is to cut through the hearsay and try it yourself
well done :super:


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## JaCk_SpArRoW (6/1/06)

I was even gonna maybe try lager yeast in primary then ale yeast in secondary before bulk priming...what do you think?


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## tangent (6/1/06)

do you have 12C refrigeration?
if you can't keep you beer cool over a LONG period of time, i'd stick with ale yeasts atm.


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## JaCk_SpArRoW (6/1/06)

I have an old upright fridge that I use with frozen water filled coke bottles...its a cheap alternative at the moment...unless you can suggest something that I can use inside the fridge to keep temps down?....maybe turn it on at the highest setting as I heard yeasts produce around 3-4 degrees


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## tangent (6/1/06)

if you could put the fermenter in a tub of water, filled with frozen bottles, in the old fridge - that might work. it's worth a try. going to take a lot of checking and balancing temps though
if you can keep it cool, i wouldn't bother changing yeasts

edit - there's heaps of posts on this site about modding fridges but the simplest was probably the timer rather than the thermostat option for a start.


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## pint of lager (6/1/06)

There are different types of malt extract available for different purposes.

The word malt has different meanings depending on who you talk to.

To a pro brewer, malt means the process of sprouting barley and stopping the sprouting at precisely the right time by heating, drying and kilning the grain.

To a home brewer, malt means liquid or dried extract.

To a baker, malt is a powder that is added to bread mixes.

To a milk shake drinker, malt is the powder you add to the milk.

Malt extract as used by brewers has a range of different malt based sugars in it such as maltiose and maltriose. The ratios of these are very important, they determine how fermentable your wort is. 

Manufacturers can easily manipulate the ratios of malt depending on what the malt is used for. If you end up with the wrong type of malt, your wort will not fermnet out.

How to check. It is highly unlikely that the tin gives you any idea if you have the right sort. So you are going to have to do some experimenting. Measure out a litre of water, add 100 gms of malt extract to it and dissolve. Measure the sg, it should be close to 1.040. Add some yeast. Wait till it finishes fermenting and measure the sg. It should be around 1.007-1.010, if not, the malt is not suitable for brewing. You can use small amounts, around 300-500 gms in a batch, but it will affect the final sg by making it too high and the beer will be out of balance and sweet.

Your cheap malt may be fine from the supermarket or it may be unsuitable. After spending alot of effort making a brew and bottling it off, it may be better to buy the correct malt from the hbs.


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