Rossco Get's His Wrists Slapped.

[DrewCarey82]

Yeah I know I've actually quit going to brew shops because once you get down the basics of hygene, technique & temp then they are useless. Getting told not to use dif yeasts, or do any of the fancier stuff was off putting.

Luckily I have a guy that gets me my morgans gear and other brands at cost price.

I am a self admitted LHBS hater, been to about 3 and all very average and no help. - Typical small minded, small business owners grubby and rude.

 

[colinw]

Question about the Morgans stuff.

Back in my kit & extract days, I used a mix of Coopers and Morgans, and nearly always had better results with the Coopers. To this day, some of my best beers were partial mashes made with Coopers LME or Coopers wheat extract.

The problem I had with the Morgans stuff was
- much more prone to that "tang"
- poor head retention compared to beers made with Coopers extract
- getting beers darker than expected, particularly with their lager malt and wheat malt.

I suspect this all points to stale / heat damaged stock.

With extract & kit brewing freshness is the key, and one of the reasons I eventually went all-grain. I'd make a great beer with extract & grains, or a kit & grains. Then a repeat of the recipe would have that extract flavour.

As far as kits go, I actually had more luck getting fresh kits dated well ahead of their use-by in some of the bigger local supermarkets than at HBS. Eg. if I want to make a good partial mash beer, I can always count on being able to get a nice fresh Coopers Draught or Canadian Blonde at woolworths or big-w.

 

[DrewCarey82]

My kits come pretty much straight off the production line.... plus Under half price of some homebrew shops!

And yep with some homebrew shops particularly with their ridiculous mark ups, I can imagine they sit their for donkeys years, while @ big w where they may not be as quality, are very fresh as well.

 

[barneyhanway]

I've always been of the opinion that the people who maintain that extract brews are every bit as good as all grain fall into the small category of "those who can get fresh as a daisy malt on demand".
At a guess (and thats all it is) Mr Papazian himself would fall into that category, from what I can ascertain online its easier to get really fresh extract in the USA.

Don't know about aussie, bit in NZ its just not the reality.

 

[colinw]

That matches my experience with kit & extract brewing.

When I could get really fresh extract, I made beers that are every bit as good as any all-grain I've made. But then there were the "other batches" ... :-(

All-grain is not without this hazard either. A certain HBS in Brisbane told someone in our club that weevils in malt were normal, and not to complain!

I also had some diabolical results with some Weyermann Munich Malt which must have got damp. Every beer I used it in had a wierd acidic tang, and until I realised that it was the only common ingredient it kept happening. I then munched on a few grains and got some which were incredibly tangy and acidic.

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

Extract Brewing Q's

How old or young should LME be to be considered fresh?

Should it be refrigerated?
I had not really thought about these questions till now.

I use Baccus and Barley and have seen them Wheeling the freshly filled 44's into the back of the shop for canning.
I have had a can sitting in the shed for the last fortnight, but it has a useby date of (Just wait, gotta run out to the brewery)......

.......Oh. No Use by date.

The guy in the "Brew and Grow" in Edithvale (Julian), has always been really helpful to me and I cant imagine him having the kind of attitude discussed in this thread. He in fact got me from K+K onto Extract and partials.

BTW. One of the reasons I have not yet graduated to AG is that I have been so immensley happy with my Extract and partials (And even my K+K).

Still, cant wait to give it a go. Just need to collect some equipment.

cheers

ATOMT

 

[colinw]

I've never had a problem with LME within 2-3 months of manufacture, particularly if kept in the fridge.

Once it gets close to the date on the can, particularly if stored at room temperature, those "cidery" flavours seem to become inevitable.

DME keeps better, but I've always had attenuation problems with all-DME beers.

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

Thanks Colinw.

I probably should have started a different thread there as this one has started to drift from "Ross getting a wrist slap".

Actually, that title probably would be a bit more appropriate for another thread thats getting a run at the moment.

ATOMT

 

[ausdb]

I also had some diabolical results with some Weyermann Munich Malt which must have got damp. Every beer I used it in had a wierd acidic tang, and until I realised that it was the only common ingredient it kept happening. I then munched on a few grains and got some which were incredibly tangy and acidic.

[post="128823"][/post]​

Sounds like you managed to make your own sauer malt, have a crunch on some acidulated malt and you will probably taste the same thing. They purposely innoculate it with lactobacillus to get some lactic acid happening and then kiln it off.