[ericwp]

Noobie extract brewer here. Be gentle.

I've made several 5-gallon batches of beer kits from Northern Brewer and most have turned out much better than expected. These typically consist of 6#s of LME, 1# of DME and some specialty grains, plus hops and yeast of course.

In an attempt to spread my wings and get beyond beer kits, I've read a couple of books on brewing including The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, How to Brew, and Brewing Classic Styles. In most cases, the LME recipes in these books call for an obscure amount of LME such as 8.3 lbs, 6.6 lbs, 7.5 lbs, 1.1 lbs or even 0.5 lbs. For example, the American Pale Ale recipe on page 134 of Brewing Classic Styles calls for:

- 8.1 lbs of Light LME
- 0.5 lbs of Munich LME
- 0.5 lbs of Wheat LME

To make this recipe, does one really need to purchase two 6 lb containers of Light LME from Northern Brewer to accommodate the first ingredient above, along with two different 3.15 lb containers of the last two LMEs above? At this rate, the cost of making a batch of beer seems prohibitive and wasteful. Am I missing something???

Also, can/should you refrigerate the unused LME or do you just throw it out?

Finally, how come some recipes in the same book use all LME, whereas others use all DME? Confusing for sure.

Your words of wisdom are appreciated.

Thank you.

[Joe Sr.]

One of the draw backs of LME is that it only comes in certain amounts and it's a pain to try to store it. So yes you typically need to overbuy for LME recipes. DME is similar in that it comes by the lb but it stores much more effectively. I would recommend DME and the lightest you can find. There are conversion calculations but I don't have them in front of me. My recollection is LME = 1/2 lb grain and DME 3/4 as far as recipe formulation goes.


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[ethinson]

My LHBS has bulk LME, you can ask if your's does as well, then you can get the exact amount you need (and usually cheaper than the cans).  You can also tweak the recipes to suit your system and procedure.  I started creating my own recipes usually based around 4-5 lb of LME(3 gallon batches) depending on gravity and then small amounts of grain. 

For your reference recipe, I would use the 8 lbs of pale LME, and then for the 1/2 pound quantities use actual grain, i.e. 1/2 pound munich malt and a 1/2 pound of malted wheat.  I typically do a 150F steep for 30 minutes.  Usually I'm only looking for color/aroma from my speciality malts.

If you're ordering from NB does that mean you don't have a Local store? That does make things more complicated.

[dmtaylor]

I see this as very easy to resolve.  Don't use LME.  DME is better in pretty much every respect I can think of.  Just substitute any and all LME additions for DME.  Problem solved.