Malt Extract Addition

[Fish]

On the weekend I did my first all grain brew. I only did a half batch (13 litres) as I didn't have a big enough pot to boil 30 litres of wort.

My question being if I had wanted to increase it to a full batch (23 litres) by adding light malt extract - how would I calculate how much to add?

Doing a half batch was a great lesson in what gear I need for full batches. I will no doubt be pestering people / looking up old threads for keg conversion tips, burners to buy, etc... in the not too distant future.

Fish

 

[Justin]

Get Promash (the evaluation version is free and a full working version, except for printing) and then have a play. You can select malt extracts in the grain addition section (so you can add grains and extracts) and play with amounts to get different SG etc. Get it from here; www.promash.com

Have a look and a play and then report back with any questions. It really is a simple program to use. Try to enter your recipe from the other day and then you can up the batch size to 23L and see how much malt extract you need to add to correct for the increase in volume.

Good luck.

Justin

 

[Batz]

As a rough rule of thumb

1 kg of LME = 1.25 kg of grain

 

[Batz]

Or better still download beersmith , even easier to use

Sits back and waits now :huh: :lol:

 

[Gough]

I'm with you Batz

Shawn.

 

[Justin]

:angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: <_<

Beersmith!!! Why would you waste your time with beersmith?!!

Nah...kidding. Never used it so can't comment. Promash can be a little daunting but the real basic bits are easy, like the recipe formulation section. I still don't use all the functions of Promash but I love it.

But Beersmith! Really Batz...

 

[wee stu]

Saw Beersmith in operation for the first time at Chiller's yesterday. The front end seemed a lot less daunting than Promash, and generally speaking easier to follow all round. Definitely worth having a squiz at. Whether it has all the bells and whistles of Promash, I don't know - but my needs are pretty simple, at the momemnt!

 

[Guest Lurker]

How much malt to add?

Well it depends what starting gravity you need.

If your 13 l batch had a starting gravity of say 1.050 then that is the same as 50 points.

If you added water to make it 23 l then the starting gravity would reduce to
50 x (13/23) = 28 points = 1.028 (or you could have just measured it rather than calculated it)

In a 23 l batch, 1 kg of Dry malt extract (DME) will add about 16 points and 1 kg of Liquid malt extract (LME) will add about 13 points.

So in this case 1.4 kg of DME would have lifted the gravity from 1.028 to 1.050 for 23 l.

 

[wedge]

how do you find out what each item it worth? (ie How many points)

 

[Fish]

My fist all grain is bubbling away happily - what a glorious sound.

Thanks for the info. I have downloaded pro-mash and will have a tinker.

I will add DME to my next half-batch to make it up to 23 litre. I will then be very curious to compare the two.

Does anyone know of a commercial Maibock that is available in Melbourne - keen to compare against this also.

Cheers

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Wedge, the CAMRA book "Homebrewing" will give you all the figures and formulas for calculating OG, IBUs and guestimating FG

Jovial Monk