Munich LME

I'm planning on brewing a recipe from Jamil's "Brewing Classic Styles" next, the Robust Porter. It calls for 8.6 lb of light LME and 1 lb of Munich LME. First off I wanted to try substituting DME for the LME, so I plugged the original recipe into Beersmith and made a modified version that looked ok with the numbers (using the 80% DME/LME ratio in my calculations).
Then I looked into Munich. As I understand it, there's no real substitute for Munich LME (except mashing, and I've been told I'm not going to mash). And my LHBS only has Briess Munich LME. Looking on the Briess site, their LME comes in 3.3lb can and is actually 50% "base malt" and 50% Munich. So I was wondering, what if I take that whole 3.3 lb can, assuming that's 1.65 lb of Munich and 1.65 lb of Light, and decrease the amount of Light DME to compensate? Well, I plugged the numbers into Beersmith for a third version of the recipe and I'm left with:
5 lb Light DME
3.3 lb Briess Munich LME
(I'm just not mentioning the steeping grains here, but i left them the same as the original recipe)
So my question is, is this a reasonable thing to do? Or am I talking crazy? This is the first time I'm using Beersmith and the first time modifying a recipe on purpose...
Thanks!
-bill

I guess it would depend on whether Jamil's recipe accounts for the 50/50 blend typically found in Munich LME, or not. If not, it seems reasonable to adjust accordingly to me.

How would we know whether he intended the Munich to be 50/50?
I've never used Munich... how much difference will it make in the flavor?
-bill

It might be mentioned somewhere in his book.

From what I've found in another thread on this forum, Jamil used a Munich LME which was 100% Munich. The thread mentioned that it was stated in the early part of the book.

Great, I read the beginning part of the book a while back. Yeah, checking back, on Page 32 it says 100% Munich. Thanks! My search-fu failed me this time; I did try the forum search first!
Okay, I'll do the substitution, it'll be a little different but hopefully still good
-bill

Hope your brew turns out good.

Cheers!

You could go to Brewmaster's warehouse if you want all LME. They measure out exactly what you need and put it all in one bucket. You would probably have to go something like 6.6lb Gold LME and 2lb Munich.

Having brewed with both LME and DME, I think I prefer the DME... but thanks for the tip on the measured LME; I bet that will be helpful. Was not finding a source for that.
-bill

Can you buy Munich DME?

Man, between this thread and another extract thread I feel like I am really pushing LME over DME.

logan3825 said:

Can you buy Munich DME?

Click to expand...

I've never seen it, although, I have never exactly looked for it either.

I tried, but didn't find it... some threads on here seem to indicate it's not available.
-bill

HeuristicsInc said:

......I've been told I'm not going to mash.
-bill

Click to expand...

How's that?

This is a perfect scenario to do a PM.

thughes said:

How's that?

This is a perfect scenario to do a PM.

Click to expand...

He was likely planning on extract with steeping grains. But you are correct. This would be an opportunity to try a PM if the OP so chooses. Although, it sounds to be as though he is trying to simplify things.

Since I'm doing my brew during naptime for kids I was told I couldn't take the extra time to do a mash.
Extract with grains is what the plan is.
-bill

Well I knew there had to be some type of logical explanation!

Heh, did not remember this old thread at all. And, looking back, things have definitely changed - as people have recommended, now I am doing partial mashes with LME. What was I thinking??
-bill

HeuristicsInc said:

Heh, did not remember this old thread at all. And, looking back, things have definitely changed - as people have recommended, now I am doing partial mashes with LME. What was I thinking??
-bill

Click to expand...

Be careful. Next thing you know you'll be doing a full mash BIAB and wonder why you were spending the money for extract.

Or, like me, doing " mostly mash" with only about 2 1/4lbs of extract...

I built one of the cooler mash tuns, and generally work up the recipes to just use one of those 3.3# canisters of extract. Although the LHBS has bulk LME so I can use as little as I want
-bill