Shawn Hargreaves
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised I haven't been able to find more information about how various brands of malt extract compare against one another.
As a partial mash brewer, I typically use around 3 lb light DME per 5 gallon batch. So far I've generally used Breiss, just because that is what my LHBS has in stock.
But I find myself wondering, would I see significant differences in color, attenuation, or flavor from varying my brand? For instance I've heard a rumor that Muntons extract tends to ferment drier than others. Has anyone experimented with enough different brands to be able to compare them?
From my own experience, I've tried various combinations of Briess DME and LME. I vastly prefer DME because it gives more consistent results. With LME, I would get noticeably different color and attenuation from one batch to the next, presumably due to differences in the age of the extract. But with DME, I get the exact same result every time (plus this is a little lighter than the average I was getting with LME).
As a partial mash brewer, I typically use around 3 lb light DME per 5 gallon batch. So far I've generally used Breiss, just because that is what my LHBS has in stock.
But I find myself wondering, would I see significant differences in color, attenuation, or flavor from varying my brand? For instance I've heard a rumor that Muntons extract tends to ferment drier than others. Has anyone experimented with enough different brands to be able to compare them?
From my own experience, I've tried various combinations of Briess DME and LME. I vastly prefer DME because it gives more consistent results. With LME, I would get noticeably different color and attenuation from one batch to the next, presumably due to differences in the age of the extract. But with DME, I get the exact same result every time (plus this is a little lighter than the average I was getting with LME).