Differences between extracts?

I am looking at a Jamil recipe for an American Amber. He calls for British Pale Malt Extract. I did some searching and found that a Muntons brand extract would fit the bill for this. However I have a couple of issues with this. First of all the Munton's is more expensive than domestic extracts, and second, I am concerned about using a canned extract due to "twang".

Would an American pale extract work just the same? Are there noticeable differences? If I decide to go with the Muntons, how do I make sure it's fresh? I have a gift certificate to NB so I was going to buy from them - do you think their Muntons would be fresh?

I have not noticed the difference between one to the other, even the liquid vs dry. And Northern Brewer is a fairly reputable and busy place, so their cans of liquid don't sit around for long. Thats usually the main concern, small homebrew shops that stock old extract and let it go stale.

So my guess would be the American labled pale extract would work fine, as long as its not pre-hopped.

munton's makes dry malt extract, which is much less prone to spoilage and twanginess. northern brewer has it, i've ordered it from them before and made some very good beer with it.

i've never worried too much about mutnon's versus briess etc., just used what i had. supposedly there are some differences, but i can't say that my briess beers have turned out consistently or noticeably different than my munton's.

the difference between liquid extract and dry extract, however, is noticeable. especially if the extracts are old.

There is very little difference between British and American pale malt extracts, just as there is little difference between British and American pale malt. If you are trying to be 100% true to a certain style it might matter to you, but for the most part you can substitute at will. My guess is Jamil is listing his preferred extract.

As for LME vs. DME, if you order from Northern Brewer or Austin Homebrew you shouldn't get twang from their LME as it is all very fresh. Personally I stick with DME though, why pay for water?

Muntons is indeed an English extract, in that it's manufactured in UK from UK ingredients. I rather like Muntons ingredients, and used their malts exclusively for some years.

However, I urge you to consider that American Amber Ale made with UK-sourced ingredients isn't really American Amber Ale. See my HBTWiki entry on AAA. Briefly, AAA is at its core English Pale with the twist of being made with American ingredients.

Far be it from me to disagree with the great JZ, and his recipe may be great, but AAA ain't AAA unless it's got all American ingredients. QED.

Bob