Liquid Vs Dry

[King Brown]

So I recently recieved via mail order a copy of Brewing classic styles by John Palmer and Jamil Zainasheff. I've read all the chapters on brewing the recipes in the book, and I'm keen to start trying out some of them. I think I've decided to start with the Old Ale recipe in the book, as by winter when it will be the best weather for an old ale should be coming along nicely in age.

The recipe calls for just over 6kg of english pale ale lme, along with some treacle and steeped specialty malts. I've usually used around 3Kg of lme for most my recipes in the past, boosted up to gravity with ldme. Im wondering if I replaced the liquid with dry extract (using 80% of the weight, of course) Would I get a beer that was inferior to the one in the book? It will be much cheaper to by dry extract in bulk than to buy that much lme (it will cost about $46 to buy 3 1.5kg cans, or over $30 for a 5kg bucket from craft brewer)

Otherwise I'll probably be looking at $60 - $70 for the brew!

Alternatively should I make the leap to brewing all grain? And just do a half sized batch?

What are everbody's thoughts?

 

[matti]

What is the the size of the batch?
Sounds like 50L batch with Sg around 1.04
Still $40 for 50L of beer is cheaper the milk.

If you doing a 23 litre batch
work on 3kgs all together extracts.

Look around in WA for a cheaper buys of malt then online.
I know some old brewers that do extract 23 litres batches and buy from $15-20

Sorry to answer you question wheter you'll get an inferior beer then the recipe using dried malt.

If the recipe require the malt to simmer for a certain time you probably need to ensure that the dried malt extract gets fully disolve so you don't over caramelize it.
I dont think you 'll get an inferior beer using the dried malt if the malt is of similar colour as recipe suggests.
matching liquid malts available to dried malt which mostly are generic I think it will all come down to trial and error.

 

[King Brown]

Its 23L, Its quite a heavy old ale (1.022fg) and the recipe has no adjuncts so another alternative is to add a bit of raw sugar to make up alcohol, of course the final gravity will turn out much lower this way too.

Of course however much I spend on this beer will still be cheaper than the same quantity of a commercailly bought beer, but for $40 odd dollars of extract, around $15 for a pack of wyeast (A beer this heavy will need a good liquid yeast, but I guess it can always be cultured up to last several brews) plus hops and specialty malts it looks to be a pricey affair, it better be a damn good brew! :icon_cheers:

 

[matti]

Fair enoug KB
You should bump this one to get some more feed back on exchanging the LME for DME.

But there is no doubt that a brew like this will cost a few $$ especially if you buy every thing in asmall quantities.

I brew mainly AG and I found the cost was getting close to $50 for a small batch of 22l.

Solution: I buy hops and grain in bulk and reusing yeast whenever I can and when time allows I harvest too.
The ingredient have gon down to about $30 but now I run a two fridges.

In a little hiatus at the moment but i hope to get into brewing this winter once I've finnshed somwe work around the house and so forth.

It isnt a cheap hobby but cheaper the others an more enjoyable.

 

[cdbrown]

Hey King,
http://www.homebru.com.au/ in bibra lake (Stoke Road Markets) aren't too far from Leeming and seem to have the best price I've seen for bulk malt supplies. 20kg LDME is $110 = $5.50/kg

I get all my specialty malts and other bits from Nev at http://www.gryphonbrewing.com.au/ (don't try to order anything until Feb as he's holidaying).

Where are you buying your cans from?? A craft shop local to me (Big Bubble) seems to sell LDME 1kg bags for about $13, but 1.5kg Coopers LME at $12 (roughly same as bibra lake).

Can you put down the recipe here and perhaps someone could offer some advice on small changes. Remember that if you are planning on building up the yeast, you'll need a few days to do that before you do your brew.

 

[boingk]

If you're going to culture up the yeast anyway, why not try culturing the yeast from a good commercial example? You'll save money, have a beer to drink, and get a primo yeast too.

- boingk

 

[jamilz]

Dry malt extract is fine. In fact it is more shelf stable, so often it can be fresher than liquid. So always base your choice on freshness. If the liquid is not very recently manufactured, go dry.

 

[Swinging Beef]

LDME or liquid will give different results.
Not bad nor good, just different.
Try it and see what you think.

On a side note... is that really meant to be over 9.5% beer?
Thats a really big malty brew.
Bigger than most barley wines.

Im sure itll be nice, but its gonna be huge.
Make sure you have a nice big startr for that and lots of hops to balance out the residual sweetness.

 

[King Brown]

Dry malt extract is fine. In fact it is more shelf stable, so often it can be fresher than liquid. So always base your choice on freshness. If the liquid is not very recently manufactured, go dry.

wow, straight from the horses mouth!

Thanks Jamilz, dry extract it is :beer:

 

[WarmBeer]

The recipe calls for just over 6kg of english pale ale lme, along with some treacle and steeped specialty malts. I've usually used around 3Kg of lme for most my recipes in the past, boosted up to gravity with ldme. Im wondering if I replaced the liquid with dry extract (using 80% of the weight, of course) Would I get a beer that was inferior to the one in the book? It will be much cheaper to by dry extract in bulk than to buy that much lme (it will cost about $46 to buy 3 1.5kg cans, or over $30 for a 5kg bucket from craft brewer)

I had a similar question the other day, but nobody knew anywhere in Aus that sells English Pale Ale Malt Extract (liquid or dry).

Has anybody here had any luck finding it, or know of a good substitute (hint, hint, JZ )

 

[Weizguy]

I had a similar question the other day, but nobody knew anywhere in Aus that sells English Pale Ale Malt Extract (liquid or dry).

Has anybody here had any luck finding it, or know of a good substitute (hint, hint, JZ )

Muntons DME should be available at most brew shops. I know my local has it. Try your local or check out some online stores.

I used to buy 20kg boxes of Muntons 60% wheat DME and made some delicious weizens with it. Also bought the odd box of the Muntons barley DME, and really enjoyed the Brit pales that I made with it.

If anything, I favour the DME over LME, but that's a personal choice, based on my preference for mouthfeel and flavour.
Les