DME or LME Extract?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Jones on -
This is a good time to support one of the local Homebrew shops. They have a fairly high turnover for LME and you'll only save a few bucks over an internet order. That way, you can check the LME quality and are not stuck with whatever shows up in the mail.
It would be fairly easy to find an extract recipe that you could piece together at the shop. Also, yeast don't do very well being shipped here in the summer. They sit in the delivery trucks, they sit in the mailbox or on your porch in 100+ temps.
DME is a little more heat tolerant from what I understand.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Masaryk on -
The main issue is the way that each one is processed. LME is boiled down to a concentrate under low atmosphere (a vacuum chamber. This allows them to use lower heat on the boil which, in turn, decreases melanoiden formation but it doesn't eliminate it. This basically means that you're going to have a richer malt flavor than you may want in some styles even if you pick the lightest LME you can find.
DME goes through a more flavor and color preserving dehydration process instead of being boiled and concentrated. This is why you can get very light colored DME, much lighter than LME. It usually costs a bit more but is better quality and easier to work with. I did extract brewing for almost 10 years and found that the best beers were produced by starting with the lightest DME you can find and then adding specialty malts for steeping or even mini-mash to get where you're going.
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Permalink Reply by John Dorner on -
Thanks for the info. I need to check out mini mash, it may be a good next step, as I get closer to whole grain
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