Newbie Unusal Problems

[pi_brewer]

First of all, I'm Jerry, an expat living in the Philippines, and there are no LHBS here. So that gets to the heart of my problem right now. Extract brewing is not my cup of tea (or bottle of beer), Coopers make a nice selection of kits, that the HB has very little control over, basically 6 gal per or 5 gal per LHBS.
You either like what they package or %^&*+*^%%$. Well I am not spending $$ to drink what was great 30-40 years ago, I want some good wheat, Belgian, German wit beers, or Blue Moon clones that look good, taste good and have a decent cost structure.
So my problem is, Time in Transit, cost of freight. First is the cost of freight to LA for ocean shipping. The $7.99 total cost shippers are to be # 1 on my list for almost any item, unfortunately Midwest suppliers don't have this option, Northern Brewers doesn't seem to have much of a selection of the type of beers that I'm interested in. AHS has the selection, But for a PM, is high for me.
So I'm thinking of buying DME, pale and wheat but I don't really know what grains are replaced by the DME.
Here is a AG bill, and say I want to replace what I can with A DME, can someone show me?

How about a 5.5 gallon grain bill?

5.5 lbs two row Replaced by ??
2.5 lbs corn Can this be replaced by DME?
1.0 lbs rice Ditto


At the end of the day, I want to keep the total costs down, have plenty of stock on hand, both specialty and DME, Last type of beer I want to brew is Arrogant Bastard, or hopped up IPAs.

Thanks in advance, Jerry.

 

[brewtus_]

A little confused. First you say that an extract brewing is not your cup of tea, yet you look to replace your ingredients with DME. Why not just do all grain?

 

[pi_brewer]

Yes, maybe I could have been plainer on HB (extract) kits vs PM and AG. At this time I don't know of a Blue Moon type in an extract kit. Or a Shinner's, or a Fat Tire. I see clones in a PM, but it looks to me like the PMs are priced dear.
If I were to do all grain, how many types of grain would I need to stock? And what kind of shelf life could I expect? Have been looking at the BIAB but at the moment limited to 5 gal pot.

 

[Chingis74]

I think you are trying to change an all-grain recipe into an extract kit. Is that wrong?

If so, the 2-row can be replaced with DME. as far as the rest. It would be good for you to go with a partial grain. Use DME as the base (replacing the 2-row) then get some specialty grains and then go from there with your hops

Hope that helps.

 

[broadbill]

the number you need is the OG...this tells you how many fermentables are in a gallon of finished wort.

e.g. 1.050 OG means there is 50pts/gallon of wort. If you recipe is for a 5 gallon batch, then you need a total of 50*5 = 250pts.

DME is 45 pts/lb. Therefore you need 250/45=5.6 lbs of DME.

Using other fermentables confuses the calculations a bit, because then you need to know what % of the total points is contributed by the corn and the rice, subtract those out, to figure the points contributed by the 2-row, and redo the calculation above.

You can then use the specialty grains and hops like you would for the AG batch, you will be close, but not dead on...

Hope this helps.