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Malt Extract
Quick question about recipes that require specific amounts of malt extract:
I just made a recipe last night that required 7 lbs of malt extract. I bought two cans weighing in at 3.3lbs each, leaving me .4lbs short. I didn't think it was that big of a deal at first, but the more I think about it, the more i wonder what kind of an impact this will have on my brew. Certainly the ABV will be lower and ... right? Should I have added the .4lbs in the form of sugar or just bought a third can of extract?
Good question, I'll be checking this one for the answer.
Cans of extract come in diffrent sizes. From 3.3 to 4 lbs.
Wish I could help with an answer.
The sooner I go to all grain the better.
The only difference will be a little less alcohol in your brew and possibly a little lighter in color, but I doubt it. You can mix and match extract. Marv mentioned different sized cans and he's right on. YOu can get cans or bags and they usually come in either 4 lbs. or 3.3 lbs. respectively. Don't forget that you can also use dry extract in order to dial in exact amounts of extract. But remember that dry extract is more potent than liquid extract.
As important as the amount is, the fermentability is really key. Each extract is more/less fermentable than the next. So using something like Briess malt extract will make a totally different beer than if you used Laaglander. The beer made with Briess is likely to be dryer and less malty, while the Laaglander will have big malty base.
DT
You can mix and match extract. Marv mentioned different sized cans and he's right on. YOu can get cans or bags and they usually come in either 4 lbs. or 3.3 lbs. respectively.
But what if a recipe specifically calls for a certain type of malt. For instance, if a recipe (or your tastes) call for 8 lbs of John Bull Light malt extract, but you can only buy 3.5 lbs cans, should you mix different extracts?
How about adding less water? It means less beer, yes, but a more accurate reproduction of the recipe.
Look up the program qBrew or QBrew. It's really a great program for figuring out what substitutions are truly equivalent for color and SG for extract recipes. I noticed that it doesn't do calculations like other programs for strike temps if you're doing all grain, but it does take a lot of the guesswork out of putting a recipe together in the first place and knowing what your end result is likely to be or making substitutions with similar results. QBrew is free, BTW, and very easy to use.
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