Waste my $$ on British DME?

Monk · 03-01-2010, 06:44 AM

Hi Guys,

I'm thinking of buying a bunch of DME from an online place. I'll be using it for the majority of the fermentables in my batches. My question to you all is, do you think there is much difference in flavor between, say, Briess light dme and munton's light dme?

I know there is a difference between American 2 row and Maris Otter, but does the difference carry over in dme as strongly? (I just spent a while fruitlessly googling to find out what base malt is used by munton's to make its dme).

Any experiences you care to share would be appreciated.

Thanks.

monk

maida7 · 03-01-2010, 01:53 PM

It's my understanding that Muttons uses Marris Otter. Briess make's there's from domestic 2 row and pilsner malts. So yeah there is a difference. Depending on what kind of beer your brewing it may or may not be worth the extra cost.

Monk · 03-01-2010, 02:31 PM

That's what I needed to know. Thanks man. In the end, there isn't much diff in the cost, just buying from one place rather than another. Why is "English" dme and lme so scarce now? All the big online suppliers used to have it. Now Morebeer and a few others don't.

maida7 · 03-01-2010, 02:35 PM

I suspect cost and freshness. by limiting the inventory to just a small range of products they can move them fast and buy in larger quantities. More beer has freaking awesome rock bottom price on Liquid extracts. And they move tons of it so it's always fresh.

Bob · 03-02-2010, 12:23 AM

Muntons doesn't say anywhere what variety of barley is used to malt their Pale Ale malt. Neither do they say what base malt is used in their extracts (for that matter, they don't have any information as to what ingredients go into their extracts). Thus it's a mistake to assume they use Maris Otter.

If it were my money, I'd choose Briess. Muntons extracts have a distressing tendency to ferment too dry in my brewery. I suspect it's because their extracts are designed to work well with the yeast they package in their "kits-in-a-tin", which yeast is frankly crap. If they don't want their tinned-kit beers to end up too thick, they need to do something.

Cheers,

Bob

Monk · 03-02-2010, 03:04 AM

Interesting points, bob. I have some experience with the muntons fermenting out dry myself. I'm just trying to figure out a way to use English malt in extract form. (I am super lazy/busy and don't want to go back to full mash)

Bob · 03-02-2010, 12:44 PM

If I were you, I'd buy enough from each source - good, fresh DME - and brew two identical batches where the only real variable is the brand of DME. Kind of like a SMaSH beer. Hell, do a SEaSH beer. Keep it simple. Then taste and see which malt profile you like best.

Me, I'd go with the Briess, primarily because of freshness. Any product coming out of Wisconsin is going to be fresher than product coming off the slow boat from UK.

Besides, I like Briess's products.

But I think you'll have to do a side-by-side to be sure. You could ask 500 people and still get a response diametrically opposed to your taste buds.

So buy some extract and start brewing!

Bob