get er brewed LME?

keppler

As the title says, I'm just wondering if anyone has used their own brand light liquid malt extract? It's only 5euro for 1.5kg at the moment. I've recently got into extract brewing and while it seems great so far I'm a little surprised by the cost of the ingredients. Does anyone here have any experience with it?

loyatemu

Haven't used GB's LME (it's currently out of stock) but there's a comparative test of HBW's own brand LME with the more expensive Craft Range LME here.

I'm a bit wary of LME as I think it introduces a bit of a homebrewey "twang" - however DME is even more expensive, think it might be time to go all-grain.

neoanto

With the LME the twang i think is that it is already caramelised in the process that it takes to make it.
So doing a full boil makes it worse.
I think its recommended to only boil the majority of the LME for 15 mins, although you would obviously need some in from the start of the boil in order for the hops to work.

loyatemu

neoanto wrote: »

you would obviously need some in from the start of the boil in order for the hops to work.

I think you've got that backwards; hop utilization decreases with increasing wort gravity. You can boil the hops in plain water and add the extract right at the end.

keppler

I don't get this All of the people I've talked to (some of them all grain brewers) told me that moving to extract should eliminate the "twang" and that the end product is often as good as all grain. I eff'in hate twang in my brews, its been present at some level in nearly all of them and one was chucked out completely.
Also, all the tutorials I've watched on youtube show the lme being added just after the grains have been steeped and the water is being brought to the boil?

RasTa

I never got rid of it either so switched to all grain. Think I did about 4 or 5 extract. However most of my beers were usually all gone a month after bottling.

keppler

RasTa wrote: »

I never got rid of it either so switched to all grain. Think I did about 4 or 5 extract. However most of my beers were usually all gone a month after bottling.

How long were you leaving it to ferment? Has it disappeared now that you've switched to all grain?
I have been thinking of moving to all grain. I was planning on buying a large cooler box around the 35 - 40 litre capacity and instead of modifying it with a tap and filter system just buy a large grain bag and use it in conjunction with the cooler. This would allow me to do a mash and then just lift the bag from the cooler leaving the already filtered wort in the cooler.
Has anyone ever mashed this way?

RasTa

keppler wrote: »

How long were you leaving it to ferment? Has it disappeared now that you've switched to all grain?
I have been thinking of moving to all grain. I was planning on buying a large cooler box around the 35 - 40 litre capacity and instead of modifying it with a tap and filter system just buy a large grain bag and use it in conjunction with the cooler. This would allow me to do a mash and then just lift the bag from the cooler leaving the already filtered wort in the cooler.
Has anyone ever mashed this way?

You can mash that way or just buy this as you'll still need something to boil in and cool it down

https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/biab-starter-kit-peco-boiler-chiller-mashing-bag-mash-kit-p-2805.html

I was waiting 2-3 weeks when doing extract before bottling, pretty sure I just did IPA's when I said feck that. Twang is gone since moving.

keppler

RasTa wrote: »

You can mash that way or just buy this as you'll still need something to boil in and cool it down

https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/biab-starter-kit-peco-boiler-chiller-mashing-bag-mash-kit-p-2805.html

I was waiting 2-3 weeks when doing extract before bottling, pretty sure I just did IPA's when I said feck that. Twang is gone since moving.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that I already bought a peco boiler for extract brewing and I just made my own wort chiller. Yeah I've seen those biab kits before but I dont really get them. Everything I've researched up till now is telling me that temp control is crutial during mashing so how do you control temp in a peco boiler? Plus, is it's 33 litre capacity not a problem or are the biab kits that are being sold just for smaller batches, say enough grain for only 20L of finished beer?

RasTa

Whatever temp you mash in the boiler can usually hold it for the hour. You can just turn it on for a few mins if you need a boost, cold water if too hot.

Since you have the boiler I'd buy the bag and a false bottom so you don't burn the bag.

To get the kits up to a 23L you usually dunk sparge ie dunk the bag of grains into 4-5L water you have heated up to 76-77 and leave for 10-15 mins

You can also batch sparge if you want

http://www.geterbrewed.ie/stainless-steel-false-bottom-for-peco-boiler/

http://www.geterbrewed.ie/sparging-bag-for-peco-boiler-for-biab/

macnug

keppler wrote: »

How long were you leaving it to ferment? Has it disappeared now that you've switched to all grain?
I have been thinking of moving to all grain. I was planning on buying a large cooler box around the 35 - 40 litre capacity and instead of modifying it with a tap and filter system just buy a large grain bag and use it in conjunction with the cooler. This would allow me to do a mash and then just lift the bag from the cooler leaving the already filtered wort in the cooler.
Has anyone ever mashed this way?

I did it this way for my first ag just last week. I was sick of paying high prices for dme and get a little twang from lme. A cooler and a bag is all you need to get started if you have boiler already. Cooler I got isn't the best though and dropped two degrees, think it was from the lid. Got about 60% efficiency. I'll make it into a proper mash tun at some stage, just don't have the time right now.

keppler

macnug wrote: »

I did it this way for my first ag just last week. I was sick of paying high prices for dme and get a little twang from lme. A cooler and a bag is all you need to get started if you have boiler already. Cooler I got isn't the best though and dropped two degrees, think it was from the lid. Got about 60% efficiency. I'll make it into a proper mash tun at some stage, just don't have the time right now.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I think thats what I'll do. I've one extract very hoppy IPA on at the moment along with the ingredients for a 7% chocolate coffee stout (feckin ingredients came to 40e for that one) and after I taste those I'll make the move.
Have you any advice on where to get a decent cooler? The only one's I've seen are only around the 25 litre mark and have a bit of a cheap feel about them.

Just to be clear, are you saying that you didnt get any twang when using dme but did when using lme?

macnug

keppler wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Yeah I think thats what I'll do. I've one extract very hoppy IPA on at the moment along with the ingredients for a 7% chocolate coffee stout (feckin ingredients came to 40e for that one) and after I taste those I'll make the move.
Have you any advice on where to get a decent cooler? The only one's I've seen are only around the 25 litre mark and have a bit of a cheap feel about them.

Just to be clear, are you saying that you didnt get any twang when using dme but did when using lme?

Yea I got this cooler,
http://www.mybeerandwine.ie/home/309-picnic-cooler-35-litre.html

Which is great for the price but seems to lose a little bit of temp from the lid, id say a blanket round the top will sort it. That ag cost me 12 euro, compared to the 26 I used to pay for a dme extract beer.

For some reason I get a little twang from lme. For me its like kits have major twang (even bitter ones like coopers ipa) then lme full boil would have some twang and dme (especially extra light) and ag have none at all. I think it might be a personal thing though.