West Coast Blaster

[PaulD428]

Hi,

I'm trying to brew the West Coast Blaster recipe from Jamil's book and I have two questions

1) It calls for adding 8.75 lbs English Pale Ale LME and 1.0 lbs Munich LME. Since extract usually isn't sold in these increments I was wondering how I would be able to measure out the specified amount of extract.

2) At my LHBS I only have access to Briess and Munton's Light, Pale Ale and Amber LME. Would any of these make an adequate substitution for the English Pale Ale LME he has listed in his book which I'm yet to find anywhere (online or in store)?

Thanks,

Paul

 

[dbreienrk1]

1) a scale.
2) I'd go with briess, but that's my personal opinion.

 

[PaulD428]

Great, thanks dbreienrk1. Is there something specific you like to weight your extract out into? Also, do you have a trick for getting as much extract out of those containers as possible? I always feel like I'm leaving too much behind.

 

[DubBrew]

Set the extract container I'm warm water before pouring and use a rubber spatula on the remnants.

 

[hwilshusen]

Dip hot wort into the container in a couple times.

 

[PaulD428]

Thanks so much, guys. It's great to see such quick and helpful responses.

If anyone has a trick or technique for weighing out the extract on the scale, I'd really appreciate it. It seems like it has the potential to be a very imprecise process...

 

[midlo-brewer]

I personally use an electric scale and place a large enough bowl onto the scale, zero it out with the bowl on it, then proceed to measure out the extract by dumping it in or even scooping it in with a spoon or scoop until you reach the desired weight. Good luck!

 

[jwplessner]

If your LHBS carries DME, you can buy as much LME as possible without going over, then calculate how much more you need and top off with DME.

 

[PaulD428]

Awesome, using DME would make my life a thousand times easier. So, just to confirm. I've read that I should use 80% the weight of LME if I'm converting to DME. In this case, since I can only get LME in 3.3 lb containers, that would leave me with an extra 2.15 lbs of LME (8.75-6.6). This would equate to 1.72 lbs of DME.

Also, would it be preferable to add the DME at the beginning of the boil, or just at knockout to pasteurize it? Does it even make a difference? Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks again for all the help, guys.

 

[BuddyWeiser]

I have not noticed any difference from adding DME to the start or end of the boil. I heard LME can get darker color if boiled for too long (no idea what too long is/never expermented with it).

The only issue I have had is mainly caused from using too small of a pot to boil full 5 gal in (i can only boil 2 max), but resulted from me pouring my LME in at the start (7 lbs approx). I had to stir constantly and yet still ended up with some burnt extract on the bottom of my pot.