Atticmonkey said:
I always figured lme must be the best for use in brews since most pre-made recipe kits include lme and not the dried. Any insight?
The kits include LME because LME is cheaper to produce than DME.
All extract starts out as a liquid. From there it is either reduced in volume (by boiling) and canned as LME or it is sprayed into a hot, rotating cylinder where it crystalizes and is then bagged as DME.
The act of boiling the liquid to reduce it causes it to darken. This is why light LME is darker than light DME.
As for the general question of longevity....
Think of it like maple syrup. As long as you keep it in the fridge, it will last for several months.
I've also got a 30lb jug of LME in the fridge that I bought at the LHBS and about 20 lbs of DME, too. My personal opinion is that DME is superior to LME in many many ways.
(1) DME is lighter in color. I can produce a VERY light colored beer with it, but I cannot do the same with LME. I can always darken a DME batch with specialty grains, so I have a broader range of color possible from DME.
(2) DME stores longer than LME. As long as you keep DME sealed in an airtight container away from moisture, it should last a very VERY VERY long time.
(3) The beers I have made with DME generally have a better flavor than those I produced with LME. (Noticed this after looking over notes from many previous batches and noting that I always raved about the flavor of my DME batches, and even had some batches that I repeated with both types of extract, and the DME had more positive tasting notes.)
(4) My DME beers seem maintain their flavor better in the bottles. My LME beers usually start to taste a little off after about 3 months, but the DME batches are fine for much longer than this (never had one make it past 6 months, but it was very good at 6 months.)
-walker