Briess vs. Muntons Extract

[Patrick87]

I've noticed that all my beers I've used Briess (sold under NB's name) LME have a faint undefinable off flavor (to me at least). It's almost like a faint soapy-sort of taste. Hard to describe. It's faint, but I can pick it up in my 80+IBU IPA's.

When I make beers using Munton's Plain Light DME, the strange flavor isn't present. I haven't used enough Briess Gold DME to make a judgement call there, but I have used a lot of the LME. I know I'm not letting it scorch on the bottom of the kettle.

Am I the only one with this problem? I know Muntons uses 2 row from the UK and Briess uses US 2 row, but I've had plenty of IPA's that presumably use US grains and I've never picked up the off-flavor in commercial beers.

Anyone else come to this conclusion, or am I alone?

 

[bobbrews]

The easy solution is to switch from LME to DME, or better yet, Extract to Partial Mash or All-Grain.

Muntons and Briess offer wonderful Light DME products. They are very similar. Muntons has a bit more flavor for me, but not in a detracting way for an AIPA.