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calman · 05-30-2006, 10:31 PM

I got mix opinions over this question, let do a poll and see the number.

**Gabe** · 05-30-2006, 10:52 PM

Only done LME though have been told DME is way better!

**budbo** · 05-30-2006, 11:16 PM

I have never tasted a difference, DME is much easier to work with though.

EvilTOJ · 05-30-2006, 11:25 PM

I only use LME because it's $1.70/lb out of a bighuge tank right into my plastic pail at my LHBS. DME is $3.69/lb there, so I almost always LME, even when a recipe calls for it.

Beer Snob · 05-30-2006, 11:31 PM

Many years ago I went to radio shack. Just for something simple. I wanted a real cheap headset. Real cheap... the kind you find at the dollar store with the little foam pads. Nothing special. Well I had a real "saleman" I was dealing with. He just went on and on about how I'd be better off getting this one or that one. The sound quality is so much better he tells me. Did not give me much of a chance to really say much.

He finally took a breath. I pointed to my ears.... "I'm deaf.... just what kind of sound quality do I need?" (for all who dont know... a person with hearing aids puts thier aids on telephone mode when using headphones. The telephone mode just is a magnet that picks up signals of another magnet (in the case of a telephone the magnet is in the reciever), in the case of headphones the magnets are the small speakers of the headpieces. 0.99 cents ones work just as good as $500 ones....)

Perhaps I need two beers of the same type... one with DME and one with LME as a taste test or something. I've used both and can't say that I taste any difference. This is not to say that the can in that thread "I dare you use this" would taste like Sh*t. Nowdays though the stuff we buy is of pretty good quality one way or another compaired to years back I'm sure. I would guess that if you brewed a beer and it tatsted like Sh*t that you might have a dozen other reasons why it did before you got to that you used LME and not DME.

magno · 05-31-2006, 01:10 AM

I voted "other". I do not taste a difference between the two, although a side by side comparison would be the only way to really tell.

I use about one half to two thirds light LME and the balance extra light DME on most recipes. I do this because I my LHBS does not have extra light LME and DME is so much more expensive. I add most of the LME at the beginning of the boil and the rest of the LME and all of the DME in small increments up until about 20 minutes before flameout.

Quote:

Originally Posted by budbo

DME is much easier to work with though.

Thats interesting I find LME easier to deal with. The DME always clumps up, where the LME pours in. When most of it is out of the bucket I ladle in a few cups of near boiling wort into the and get the rest out.

- magno

homebrewer_99 · 05-31-2006, 01:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magno

...DME always clumps up, where the LME pours in. When most of it is out of the bucket I ladle in a few cups of near boiling wort into the and get the rest out.- magno

I use DME almost exclusively. I used to get clumps, but not anymore. I've learned that if you use warming water it will not clump.

You only clumps if your water is too hot because it carmalizes the malt on the outside (producing clumps).

When I use the "late boil" technique my DME does not clump either. I've learned to add it only 1 pound at a time then stir it in to dissolve. The first pound takes about 5 seconds to completely dissolve, the last about 20 seconds.

Ivan Lendl · 05-31-2006, 01:57 AM

i think that dme is easier to work with, and stores better, and produces a lighter beer, i dont know if all that combined makes it better, but for me it does.

brewhead · 05-31-2006, 02:39 AM

i'd go dme every time.

Cheesefood · 05-31-2006, 01:06 PM

I'm used both and haven't noticed a significant difference. DME has the advantage if you're mail-ordering, since you use 10% less weight. I also think there's more variation with DME's than LME's, but that may be due to lack of investigation. The two brews I currently have in process are LME's.