Liquid Malt Extract - Help needed

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Kurtcat

Kurtcat

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Ok, i may have made a very newbie mistake on my second ever batch of home brew.
Basically i wanted to pimp up a cheap Wilko Golden Ale kit. I'd seen packs of dried malt extract and read on various sites about using instead of brewing sugar. On Amazon i found what i thought was a 1.5kg tub of DME but it turned out to be LME.
Today i made the kit, replacing the recommended 1kg of sugar with 1kg of LME but now i am slightly concerned that this will not work, i also used an american pale ale yeast instead of kit yeast and was looking to add some dry hops for four days after fermentation.
At the moment there is no obvious fermentation happening (its been 5hrs).
Have i made a terrible 'newbie' mistake, obviously nothning ventured etc:blush2:
 
Calm down! What lme did you get? Changing yeast won't be a problem. ...unless you are aiming for a specific beer type. 5 hours ......look again in another 20...leave the lid on and don't fiddle with it!
 
Clint said:
Calm down! What lme did you get? Changing yeast won't be a problem. ...unless you are aiming for a specific beer type. 5 hours ......look again in another 20...leave the lid on and don't fiddle with it!
Click to expand...
Hi Clint, Its a barley malt extract
41sezng1yRL.jpg
 
Not used it but lots on here use the Holland and Barrett stuff and have no problem ....I'm sure it will be fine! Patience really is your best friend!
 
Kurtcat said:
Today i made the kit, replacing the recommended 1kg of sugar with 1kg of LME but now i am slightly concerned that this will not work, i also used an american pale ale yeast instead of kit yeast and was looking to add some dry hops for four days after fermentation.
At the moment there is no obvious fermentation happening (its been 5hrs).
Click to expand...

Yeast can take up to 3 days to get going so don't worry.

Dry hopping is a good idea with that kit, it's actually pretty decent with a bit of pimping.
 
Cheers for answers, it was the 3kg tub as shown (not 1.5kg) and cost £13.15 but if bought on 'subscribe and save' it comes down to £12.49 per tub with one tub delivered every two months, not sure how that compares to Holland and Barrett.
 
Some yeasts will start quickly and you will get airlock activity within a few hours, others may take up to a day to get started. My limited experience of American Pale Ale yeast is that they are slow starters. And beware relying on the airlock. The seal between the lid and the FV itself is not guaranteed to be leakproof although it might appear to be .
 
Kurtcat said:
Cheers for answers, it was the 3kg tub as shown (not 1.5kg) and cost £13.15 but if bought on 'subscribe and save' it comes down to £12.49 per tub with one tub delivered every two months, not sure how that compares to Holland and Barrett.
Click to expand...
H&B LME is currently £2.99 for 454g. I buy it when its on offer usually buy one get one half price, and you get a little extra discount if you have a card. Personally I don't think your Suma LME is very good value. You can buy Coopers 1.5kg cans of LME from on line Homebrew shops for about £9.50 and if you buy a few it will work out cheaper even paying P&P. And there are other 'homebrew' brands out there as well. Try this
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/ingredientsadditivessteriliser-liquid-malt-extract-c-3_38.html
 
terrym said:
H&B LME is currently £2.99 for 454g. I buy it when its on offer usually buy one get one half price, and you get a little extra discount if you have a card. Personally I don't think your Suma LME is very good value. You can buy Coopers 1.5kg cans of LME from on line Homebrew shops for about £9.50 and if you buy a few it will work out cheaper even paying P&P. And there are other 'homebrew' brands out there as well. Try this
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/ingredientsadditivessteriliser-liquid-malt-extract-c-3_38.html
Click to expand...
Hi Terry, the SUMA LME was just over £13 for 3kg and i have amazon prime so no delivery charge so probably a little cheaper however not sure about quality etc.
 
Kurtcat said:
Hi Terry, the SUMA LME was just over £13 for 3kg and i have amazon prime so no delivery charge so probably a little cheaper however not sure about quality etc.
Click to expand...
Ok. Might be a deal then. :thumb:
The only way of finding out it to brew with it. Based on extract brews, I have found that H&B malt is OK, but other cheap LME isn't, whereas the more expensive LME is fine.
 
Thanks for replies, fermenting nicely now, will let you all know how it turns out:thumb1:
 
Maltmiller sell a 25 kg jerry can for £62 .....that's £2.48 kg. Plus postage.
Only problem would be storage unless you got a spare fridge or maybe decant into sterilised pots and freeze...or...a big set up and brew the lot at once!
 
ExpatBrewer said:
Are you aware they're not actually equivalent in terms of fermentability? I believe 1 kg of table sugar would be roughly equivalent to 1.5kg of LME.
Click to expand...
unfortunately yes, i wasn't at the time and did only add the 1kg LME, i took an alcohol reading yesterday and it will be pushing a 3% abv, I've dry hopped yesterday as tasting suggested little body or flavour, there is still some fermentation happening, probably too late i suppose to add some more sugar to it before barreling??
 
a bag of brewing sugar from wilcos at £2.50 will do. it's very fine stuff add 500g or slowly sprinkle a bag of muntons dme in? also available from wilcos. you could add a spirit to the bottling bucket to up the abv. I did a gin & orange beer that was quite groovy :cheers9:
 
Kurtcat said:
unfortunately yes, i wasn't at the time and did only add the 1kg LME, i took an alcohol reading yesterday and it will be pushing a 3% abv, I've dry hopped yesterday as tasting suggested little body or flavour, there is still some fermentation happening, probably too late i suppose to add some more sugar to it before barreling??
Click to expand...
In addition to finding that different additions can provide different results there are two more lessons in there as well. First 1.5kg kits might be cheap but that means they are light on malt and probably hoppy goddness too. That's fine if you are going to brew very short (say 15 litres), but unless you are going to add a lot of extra malt (which makes the original cheap purchase less attractive) it's not a good idea in my view to brew to 23 litres. Second if you are going to tinker with additions to kits then use Brewers Friend calculator which will predict the OG and an estimated FG with good accuracy in my experience.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/
 
dad_of_jon said:
a bag of brewing sugar from wilcos at £2.50 will do. it's very fine stuff add 500g or slowly sprinkle a bag of muntons dme in? also available from wilcos
Click to expand...
Sadly adding brewing sugar will up the ABV but will do little to address the lack of body. And if you sprinkle DME in there it will clump together, it always does, it's a sod to get it to dissolve even in very hot water, and as a result it probably wont all ferment out. If you are going to add anything to this beer to try to 'correct' it, in my view its just try some more LME, which the OP has still got in abundance. But personally I'd just bottle it as it is, spend no more money on it, put it down to experience, and treat it as a session beer, or add lemonade and drink it as shandy!
 

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