Possible Extract Twang Explanation

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feedthebear

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I was reading through Darryl Richman's book on Bock beers in the Classic Beer Style Series. He talks about some studies regarding the differences in chemistry between LME worts and all grain worts. DME was not included.

To sum it up, he says there are three problems with LME: potential oxidization during handling and storing, low Free Amino Nitrogen (FAN) content, and adulteration with sugar syrups.

By "adulteration" he isn't stating that the makes of LME are cutting LME with glucose syrups. But "somehow" the percent of glucose in some LMEs are far greater than they should be.

If the LME is packaged with oxygen, the melanoidins (associated with darkness of wort and malty taste) can become oxidized and cause off flavors. The longer the LME is stored, the more oxidization can take place and more off flavors produced.

LMEs are typically low in FAN. Some contain between 1/2 and 1/3 the amount of FAN that yeast needs in a wort for a healthy fermentation.

LMEs may become adulterated with glucose syrups. This both dilutes the FAN content of the LME and creates in imbalance in the sugar balance. For a normal all grain Bock, 25% of sugars are glucose and 45% are maltose & maltotriose. A LME that is adulterated with glucose syrups could easily have these percentages reversed.
This means there are too many simple sugars and too few complex sugars. This prevents yeasts from having high reproduction rates early in the fermentation which increases the potential for long disordered fermentations and wild yeast to gain a beachhead in the wort.

One possible reason why DME may not be exhibiting the "twang" is because it is made in a partial vacuum. This means that there is less potential for oxidization of the DME.


Darryl Richman suggests two possible ways for eliminating the problems associated with brewing with LME. 1) Use the freshest LME possible. This way any potential oxidization is reduced. 2) Partial mash. This helps to restore the FAN content of the wort to what it should be. It also introduces more complex sugars to the wort if the LME was adulterated with glucose syrup.


As for me, I've never noticed the "twang". But I always partial mash, even if its just 8oz. of Carapils for mouthfeel. The only time I have been disappointed in my use of LME was the one time I used Munton's LME. The rest of the time I've used Coopers and I haven't had any problems.
 
Interesting read. But some of us are pretty limited to having our LME shipped to us and only hope it's fresh. My closes HBS is about an hour North of me.
 
from what I read, some LME makers DO add crap like corn sugar and other low FAN fermentables.

not many, but a few...its worth reading the LME label to look for indicators of shoddy ingredients.
 
One thing that I think contributes to flavor differences between extract and all grain is the mineral content of the resulting wort. Extract is essentially wort that was made with the municipal water of the manufacturing company, and thus it contains the entire mineral profile of that water. When you then add your municipal water to that, you're essentially doubling up on that mineral content. If you have low mineral content in your water then you might not notice any ill effects, but if your water is hard like mine then it can do funny things to the flavor and hop bitterness. I would guess that you'd have the best results from using distilled or reverse osmosis water with extract. It might even be a major contributor to the "extract twang" people talk about.

The only extract brew I did that did not have a strange sharp bitterness was the first one I made. Every one after that seemed to have an unpleasant bite to it that I just couldn't explain with the bittering hops I used. Initially switching to all grain mostly eliminated that, and then beginning to filter my water got rid of it entirely. I'm guessing that it was the chlorine or chloramine content that was causing it, but I'm not sure. What I do know is that all grain brewing ultimately allowed me to use my municipal water rather than store bought with no drawbacks, which made my brew day preparations a lot simpler.

I like the flexibility that all grain brewing affords me as well. If I brew something that I like, but think could be better, I can tweak it on a very basic level to really dial in the beer I want. I also like light colored, pretty beer. It's a bit easier to get that with all grain. I know it's just a cosmetic thing, but it's pleasing to me.
 
Old thread but. I believe it is a combination of variables, water, extract age, what extract, brewing process and more.

I have made extract batches using liquid extract and others with only light DME, both had specialty grains. I use charcoal filtered municipal water in both my extract and all grain batches. My municipal water seems to be extraordinarily good.

I haven't done a side by side taste test, but have never had "twang". One of my extract batches I would still rate in my top 10 of 93 batches.
 
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