How Much Fermentables in Malted Grain?

I was just wondering if there is a general rule-of -thumb to figure out how much fermentable sugar you can get out of malted grains.

for example:
if i steep 1 lb of grain in 1 gallon of water for 1 hour, how much sugar or DME/LME would that be equal to?

Well, none actually. Or close to none.

In order for the starch in the crushed grain to be converted to fermentable sugars, there are some enzymatic reactions that are required. This means the correct amount of water (to get the correct pH) and temperature. For a pound of grain, using 1.25- 2 quarts of water in the temperature range of 145-158 would allow this process to happen.

As far as the amount of fermentable sugars, you usually can extract 60-85% of that grains potential. Each grain is a bit different, but you can plan on getting about 1.050 from 10 pounds of grain. That would be roughly equal to 6 pounds of DME, if my math is ok.

thanks, i'm not even really sure what i'm asking makes sense

so, let's say i steeped 1 lb of grain in 2 quarts of water at about 150 deg., how much DME or LME would that equal if i added it to a extract kit in replace of just plain water?

i basically want to make the coopers IPA kit and use DME and some grains to replace the dextrose called for in the instructions.

i only have a 3.6 gallon (~14 quart) pot to boil in, then for the rest of the sugar i will use DME to get the gravity up to above 1.050 somewhere.

is there a way to calculate how much DME i will have to add?

will this even make a difference if i only do a 3 gallon steep and maybe a 1 gallon sparge?

The easiest guestimate is that 1 pound of grain = .75 pound LME = .6 pound DME.

The easiest way to figure the math for what you want to do is simply run it through some brewing software. You can input the LME and the rest of the ingredients, and simply change the sugar for DME to get the same numbers. If you don't have brewing software, one of us would be glad to do it for you.

Remember that corn sugar (dextrose) is more fully fermentable than DME or LME, so using extract instead of the sugar will give a fuller bodied beer. It's a good swap!

Here's a couple things to try...

First, read through this: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html. It'll give you a lot of good information on mashing, volumes, temps, grains, recipe design and basic brewing. It'll help you understand the mashing process. If you want, you can just skip around first and read the relevent chapters, but the whole thing is a great resource.

Try using this: http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe. You can enter the recipe for the coopers kit as it is, note what the starting gravity is, then you can take out the dextrose and add some 2-row until the SG is the same as with the dextrose.

And +1 to Yoop's suggestion of using some extract to replace the dextrose. You're not going to be adding that much so replace it with extract would just plain be easier than mashing a small amount of grain for it.

Hope that helps!

ChshreCat said:

Try using this: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html. You can enter the recipe for the coopers kit as it is, note what the starting gravity is, then you can take out the dextrose and add some 2-row until the SG is the same as with the dextrose.

Hope that helps!

Click to expand...

not sure if you meant to post the same link twice but thanks! i will definitely try using some brewing software. maybe there's some good open source ones for linux

since i don't have the space or money to buy a 6 gallon pot right now, i think using the coopers kits with some all grains, DME/LME and some hops, and some better yeast is the best way to go for me right now

HBT rocks!! :rockin:

I fixed the link right after posting it. It was just being a pain. The second link is a recipe generator site. It should be fixed now.