Extra Light DME for all DME needs

I see here and there that some people say to go with XL DME and added grains in lieu of using light, amber, dark, etc DME. They claim it is better for some reason. What is the reason?

Won't impart as much color and flavor. It's a nice way to add fermentables with being able to control flavor and color with steeping grains.

When I am formulating any extract with grain recipes I ALWAYS base it around Extralight DME, then I get all my flavor and color complexity from my steeping (or partial mashing) grains. That way you get to use more and varied grains.

For example, let's say you are making an amber ale....If you based it around amber extract, you have very little room to get complexity from roasted or crystalized grains.....you run the risk of muddying the flavor and ending up too dark for your recipe.....

Staying with my Amber example...The Srm range for that style is SRM: 10 – 17 so if your base extract already puts you into 14 srms, you son't have much room to move around it....you may be able to sneak in a pound of crystal 30 let's say in it.

But if your Extralight DME has a color of 5 SRMs, you can really get into the recipe and play around with different combinations of grains until you get into the right color and Og range for the style.

And that will also get you a deeper, more complex flavor.

It's kind of like making model airplanes....remember the "snap together" types that you started out with? You had maybe 8 pieces; 2 body halves two front wings, 2 rear wings and maybe 2 pieces for a cockpit, or two pieces for landing gear...

But if you got one of those 500 piece b52 bomber kits....you had a much more complex final product.

Not to mention that using the light DME gives you a better sense of your recipe as a whole. This may be a far stretch, but it is more comparable to making a recipe in AG brewing where the light DME is just your standard 2-row and all of your additions give it the color and flavor.