Help: Is This "dme" Ok For A Starter

[PaulStat]

Sorry for the caps, but I think I might of been sold the wrong thing by my HBS (brewers droop). I went in and asked for some light DME for a starter and he gave me this big blue tin that said "EDME DMS Diastatic Malt Extract", hmmm DME sounds right to me I thought.

Anyway I just opened it up and it's like big tin fully of runny caramel!!!! My impression was DME is a powder. I'm thinking even if I can use this for a starter, how the hell am I going to keep the rest of it!

Edit: This!

 

[mattmcl]

DME in recipes generally refers to "dried malt extract." I'm not sure what you have there.

 

[ajf]

I used to use that back in the 1970's. I had no idea that it was still made. Perhaps it's 30 something years old.
Nowadays DME is Dried Male Extract (a powder). That's the equivalent of today's LME with the exception that it can be used to convert up to about 20% of it's weight in adjuncts without having to mash a base malt.
If they sold that when you asked for DME, then the guy who sold it to you must have been out of touch for about 30 years.

You could use it for a starter. Use 1 1/4 times as much by weight as you would use DME, but I have no idea how you could keep the remains.

-a.

 

[Mirage]

Is it just LME with a different name? Or am I totally off base here?

 

[PaulStat]

Is it just LME with a different name? Or am I totally off base here?

From the information I've now found yes it does seem to be LME. Quote from Graham Wheeler (the Brits version of John Palmer)

Aha! One of the problems with the Americanisation of British home brewing, and an ever bigger problem with people forever using abbreviations because they think it makes them sound cleverer. In English, DME traditionally meant diastatic malt extract (Diastatic Malt Syrup), but in American it means dried malt extract.

Yes, you can use it for your starter no problem.

Storing it may be a problem. You may get some surface mould on it, after a while, but it's harmless. Some beer kits have a cap on them (or used to have), and they are useful for resealing such tins. At the moment you are left with the cling-film option or transferring it to some sort of (preferably collapsible) bottle (so that you can collapse the air out of it) and storing it in the coldest place you can find.