Question About Malts

[Flash_DG]

G'day guys,

Been reading every thing I can on this site the last few weeks having only started brewing about fathers day.
Today I went down to my local HBS and got me all the ingredients for a Coopers Sparkling Ale
After looking over these ingredients I asked my self why x amount of Liquid Malt Extract and then x amount of Dry Malt? :huh:
Not knowing the answer I am now here asking as my first post in these most helpful forums.

 

[Pennywise]

Welcome Flash_DG

Is the liquid pre-hopped extract or un-hopped?

Edit: sorry, should be more specific. On the tin does it just say pale liquid malt extract or is it a Coopers sparkling ale kit?

 

[Flash_DG]

ah yeah sorry

• 1.5kg Thomas Coopers Light Malt Extract
• 500g Light Dry Malt

Those are the 2 different Malts I am talking about
neither hopped.

 

[Fourstar]

From memory (old days of extract brewing) liquid malt is 20% water so you will usually need more of that than DME. Im unusre why most people sub DME into LME brews or go 1/2 1/2.

Unless it comes down to cost or to topup the OG im not too sure why people write recipes that way. I used to always use just LME for the bulk of the malt bill, topup the OG with some DME or use DME if i could not get my hands on the correct colour/type LME. E.g. Amber or wheat LME.

Cheers

 

[raven19]

Liquid Malt Extract contains hop oils as I understand, the Dry Malt Extract does not.

Two different malts will also give you a different flavour profile rather than all the one type, so you can then experience some different flavours intertwined in the beer.

This is only my 2c though.

Welcome to the forums also!

 

[Fourstar]

Liquid Malt Extract contains hop oils as I understand, the Dry Malt Extract does not.

You can get Unhopped LME, which is what you use after going off kits if you are not interested in partials. I would use this with my own hop sdchedule and steep specialties. Post that, i went direct to all grain. It felt pointless to bother with a partial mash for me.

 

[Pennywise]

I would say if you're following a specific recipe then they'll be suggesting you boil your hops with the dry extract (in about 5litres water to get good utilisation from them). Then add the licquid once the boil is over as licquid extract in tins doesn't need to be boiled to sanitise it, it's already been done for you and it's in a sealed container. The benefit is, that you'll only need a small pot for this. Out of curiosity, what is the batch size you're making?

 

[Flash_DG]

Straight off the Coopers site,

Coopers Sparkling Ale - 23 litres

Ingredients

* 1.7kg Premium Selection Sparkling Ale
* 1.5kg Thomas Coopers Light Malt Extract
* 500g Coopers Light Dry Malt
* 300g Dextrose/Sucrose

so the sparkling ale has the hops in it, I understand that but just wanted to know why you would use liquid and dry in the same recipe
it's not only this recipe it is others I see that have the liquid and the dry.
I am just curious as to the why? why not use 2kg of liquid? or 2kg of dry? maybe half and half.

 

[Pennywise]

So you are using a pre-hopped kit. Since most licquid malts come in 1.5kg tins, they are just using the dry stuff to get to the correct OG, rather than trying to get you to make a larger batch with 2 tins of licquid

 

[bum]

Looks like the dry is to top up the OG and the dex to top it up some more (can never have too much, hey!) and thin the body out a bit.

Should be a good one.

 

[bum]

So you are using a pre-hopped kit. Since most licquid malts come in 1.5kg tins, they are just using the dry stuff to get to the correct OG, rather than trying to get you to make a larger batch with 2 tins of licquid

I think he's using both hopped extract and unhopped.

 

[Flash_DG]

Cool I got it now

@Bum, I hope so mate :icon_drool2: I love me a nice cold Coopers Sparkling Ale.

This will be my third batch of beer and the first with so many different ingredients, and I haven't even tried hops yet ^_^

 

[Pennywise]

Ooooh, wait till you do, there'll be no turning back, steeping grains, licquid yeast, it just goes up hill from there :icon_drool2: :icon_cheers:

 

[ianh]

I think it just Coopers promoting their products.

You could replace the LME with DME, just use 80% of the weight.

For a Kit it should produce a good brew (being mainly malt) and about 6% alc on bottling

 

[Flash_DG]

Ooooh, wait till you do, there'll be no turning back, steeping grains, licquid yeast, it just goes up hill from there :icon_drool2: :icon_cheers:

I'm already hooked as it is haha!

 

[Supra-Jim]

I'm already hooked as it is haha!

LOL, you think you are now, but wait a few months with a few more brews under your belt and big more information crammed into your noggin, then you'll really be hooked!!

Have a read here: www.howtobrew.com (invaluable resource!!)

Cheers SJ

 

[WarmBeer]

Dry Malt Extract (DME) is more stable due to the lack of moisture content.

Liquid Malt Extract (LME) comes in pre-measured quantities so is less flexible, is more expensive per gravity point, and will go "stale" relatively sooner.

So, why on earth do we buy LME?

 

[Flash_DG]

LOL, you think you are now, but wait a few months with a few more brews under your belt and big more information crammed into your noggin, then you'll really be hooked!!

Have a read here: www.howtobrew.com (invaluable resource!!)

Cheers SJ

Yeah I know it's bloody terrible ain't it :beerbang:
First day I walked in to a HBS it was more of a blur had no idea what any of it was for, read, read, read, go back a few days later and have another look and WOW what a difference.
The first batch I made was the Coopers Lager that came with the HBK, it's been in the bottle almost 3 weeks.
I tried it at 2 weeks to see get a taste of the stages of conditioning it was ok but not the sort of taste I could knock a few down easy.
The second Batch I made was the Coopers Mexican Cerveza made to can recipe but I also had done a lot more reading by then and understood it all a lot more.
I left that one in the fermenter for a week longer and controlled the temp alot more 19-21c was best I could keep it. Looking forward to trying this lot.

 

[Pennywise]

Most LME we buy in HBS are made for brewing, where as DME is not, it's made for the confectionary industry. Aslo some people find DME to not produce as good a beer as LME, personally, I can't tell the difference, which is why I use DME. I do ocasionally use licquid though if it makes things alot easier

 

[Tricky Dicky]

Is there a significant difference between the bog standard light DME you normally get in the local HBS and a branded light DME such as Briess ?