Looking for a cheaper price on bulk DME

CornyKegs 728
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Best prices I have found on light DME is at GW Kent. Steep a little Crystal/Caramel 40 with it and you got amber too. The grape and grainery has the best prices for amber DME. I'm in TN so the delivered pricing might be different for you. I'm also 2 hours from the nearest HBSS so it's the web for me. Check your local guy to save on shipping, but be sure to figure in tax too.
 
Probably a typo for NCM (North Country Malt). They no longer sell to homebrewers.
 
best price I could find on (syrup) extract was at Austin Homebrewers, and the free shipping on orders >$100 plus lack of tax made them a pretty good deal. sure it works out the same for DME.
 
@Wegchef, Lots of homebrew clubs, or just homebrewing buddies, will place their orders together. If I am ordering a 50lb bag of malt some companies won't bother with me. However, if there are 12 people ordering a bag of malt as well as a few bags of specialty malts, it comes out cheaper and the company will gladly fill the order.
 
I was chasing this issue for extracts and have noticed by far LME is much cheaper than DME. I noticed that Williams Brewing is selling 32lb bags for $50-$54 (depending on type) + shipping, which is based on your distance from California. I live in Idaho, so it shipping is under $13.

For american light extract, my calculations put this at $1.96 per lb of extract shipped ((49.90 + 12.68 shipping)/32). http://www.williamsbrewing.com/SYRUP-MALT-EXTRACT-32-POUND-PACKS-C271.aspx

I think a 32 pound bag is a nice balance for those who want to get a bulk deal, but don't want to invest hundreds of dollars.
 
jonnystar said:
I was chasing this issue for extracts and have noticed by far LME is much cheaper than DME.
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Remember that LME contains a lot of water weight. That williams site says that their LME is worth 32 gravity points ("degrees") per pound of extract in each gallon. Briess claims 44ish for their pilsen light DME, which I get at around $2.30-2.50 depending on shipping. 44/32 = 1.375, which is to say that one pound of the Briess DME is worth 1.375 pounds of this Liquid Malt Extract. Your 1.96/ pound is now about $2.70 per pound equivalent (1.375 pounds of LME) of DME -- not cheaper at all really . . .
 
I know North Country Malt still sells to homebrew clubs if the club has ordered from them before. I cannot attest to shipping because I live an hour away from Chicago but they do sell a 50# bag of DME for $70. I know this doesn't work for everyone but if you are in the area maybe look for a local club and see about a group order.
 
whatamidoing said:
Remember that LME contains a lot of water weight. That williams site says that their LME is worth 32 gravity points ("degrees") per pound of extract in each gallon. Briess claims 44ish for their pilsen light DME, which I get at around $2.30-2.50 depending on shipping. 44/32 = 1.375, which is to say that one pound of the Briess DME is worth 1.375 pounds of this Liquid Malt Extract. Your 1.96/ pound is now about $2.70 per pound equivalent (1.375 pounds of LME) of DME -- not cheaper at all really . . .
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I don't have time to do the math right now vs the Briess one, but I did take the 20% water weight into consideration. I did not however take the gravity points you list into consideration. Can you point me to the place on the Williams site which lists their LME as being worth 32 gravity points (I assume your not confusing the 32lbs product weight)?

Strictly on price, it seems to me that LME almost always wins.
 
Keep in mind that DME stores much better than LME. I can buy a 50lb sack and just toss it in a couple of buckets with lids and it's good for over a year. LME not so much, you want to keep it refrigerated and once opened the clock really starts ticking.
 
It also takes more lb of LME than DME to reach the same gravity.

There are conversions but a good rule of thumb is that 1lb of DME will give you the same gravity as 1.25lb of LME.

Of course this depends a little bit on the malt manufacturer and how many ppg each type of malt is rated at. But this is a good average figure.
 
Update ---- I went through farmhouse brewing, 50 lb. bag of Briess Golden Light and various other hops/yeast included in the order, shipping was 24.99 for the whole load, which I thought was reasonable considering the bag was 125.00. My local is 155 plus tax, not much of a savings but FB's yeast and hops are literally half price, and my local doesn't carry Apollo, which I can't wait to try.
 
I don't have time to do the math right now vs the Briess one, but I did take the 20% water weight into consideration. I did not however take the gravity points you list into consideration. Can you point me to the place on the Williams site which lists their LME as being worth 32 gravity points (I assume your not confusing the 32lbs product weight)?

Strictly on price, it seems to me that LME almost always wins.
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See Section 4.1 of their FAQs ("product questions"). It's actually 34ppg that they list, so it takes 1.294 pounds of this LME to equal the ppg of the Briess DME.

The comparison to Briess DME is $2.54 per pound-equivalent, which makes it very close -- not really worth considering more expensive than Briess DME from NCM for all intents and purposes.

Anyway, LME is easier to use since you don't have to stir it much, and as long as you use it within it's shelf life, you'd have to be a real snob to notice the difference (I doubt most beer enthusiasts could even tell all-grain brew from extract in a blind test, let alone LME vs DME, for that matter).

So go for the LME -- after all it's threads like these that get homebrewers cut off from big distributors like NCM in the first place. It's a moot point comparing to NCM's Briess price since no new accounts are being taken anyway. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have been grandfathered in to their accounts list and shut up about it before I ruin it again . . .
 
I ordered my 50lb bag of Briess DME from Farmhouse. John is a great guy and it was the best deal I could get. I'm planning on ordering another from him.

You should too.
 
^^^ I'll second that for sure, his hop price are insane, and you can order as much as you want. My LHBS has them for roughly twice the price, and its a 3oz. limit as of last I heard. I like my LHBS and all and am in there several times a month, but Farmhouse Brewing has my hop business for the foreseeable future.
 
Thanks. Good to know about that FAQ, the language kinda implies a generic formula not their specific formula. Anyhow, I use both the LME and DME. My main gripe is when I get stuck buying small amounts for recipies at the LHBS and pay top dollar. One thing that is nice about the Williams LME is that it is actually four 8lb packages.

I agree with you about actually telling the differnce between all grain/LME/DME.. I mean its beer.. everyone is a winner!
 
asimms1 said:
Label Peelers has DME 50 lbs for $97 until Sunday (May 20th.) Less than $2 a pound!
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Only $13 FedEx ground shipping here to Ohio -- makes it about $2.20/lb. I'm all over that, esp. since my LHBS charges about $5 to $5.50 per pound and that's usually ~60% of my costs per batch.

Thanks, Asimms!
 
asimms1 said:
http://labelpeelers.com/briess-cbw-golden-light-dry-malt-extract-50-lb-p-2426.html

Label Peelers has DME 50 lbs for $97 until Sunday (May 20th.) Less than $2 a pound!
Click to expand...

Update on this....FedEx ground got it to me in like a day and a half -- probably due to proximity, they're over in Eastern Ohio somewhere and I'm in Columbus (middle of the state) so it didn't have far to travel. Had to pay OH sales tax which added another $10 to the cost, but at ~$2.40/lb that's still only half of what my LHBS charges.

Got a large pet food storage container yesterday, and then used the first 8 lbs of the DME for a Liberty Ale clone. Left the remaining 42 lbs in the bag (rolled down tightly) and stuffed it into the pet food container....just by a little bit, it wouldn't fit, so I wrapped the whole thing in a garbage bag to keep moisture out. (Once I take another 7 lbs out for the next batch, the container ought to fit just right.) For good measure I left a couple ziplocs half-full of powdered sugar (and open) in the garbage bag to try and suck up any moisture before it gets to the DME.

Basically, so far so good, and my costs are now down under $40 instead of up near $60 ... which makes SWMBO very happy.
 
K-Bizzle said:
Actually I think thats LME (Larry's Homebrew, Kent Wa. $2.25 per lb)
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You are correct, it is bulk liquid malt extract dispensed from food grade plastic drums.
Any thoughts from anyone (from the Seattle area) who's brewed with it ?
 
devaspawn said:
Also, I am currently only doing extract and SWMBO is going to flip if I bring in all the equipment that I don't have for AG. I have to do this piecemeal.
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Like slowly turning up the heat on a frog in a pot. If you do it slowly enough, the frog never notices.

Anyway, about DME, why not try to join a group buy? Sometimes they can get extract. I got a little extract because I want to go back to extract from AG for some batches.
 

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