murppie

Recipes 

So this might be a dumb questions (I know, no dumb questions, just dumb people) but here it goes:

I'm looking at some recipes and was wondering about extracts. I looked at some that call for specific extracts (specifically here John Bull plain dark malt extract syrup) and was wondering if I'm going to be miserable if I sub in a different dark malt extract syrup? Am I ok guys? I'd love to get brewing here, but I don't know that I have these available at my LHBS.

Thanks for the help!

shuf

Recipes 

You should be fine substituting one for another, but you might want to check to see if either is prehopped. For most beers you can get by with light DME and use steeping grains to adjust the color and flavor.

PT Ray

Recipes 

John Bull? Sounds like you're going old school. Are you refering to a Papazian recipe? I didn't think they were still around so had to check. They are. It's an UK extract so I would stick with an English product. In which case all I've seen at least in my part of the country is Munton's.

Calder

Recipes 

With a very few exceptions (Laagerlander being one), you can sub any manufacturer's extract for anothers. It will not be the same, but if you have not tasted the original, you will not know the difference. ...... You will probably get more variation from the brewing process that from the difference in extract.

As Shuf said, not if it is pre-hopped or not. Replace like with like.

After you have done a few batches, I would recommend you just stick to recipes that use light/plain/pilsner/X-light extracts and specialty grains. They will have a lot fresher flavor, you will know what goes into the beer, and you will get an understanding of how the specialty grains affect the flavors.