LME vs Brew Tin

[Brewbru Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Brewbru]

Good Day Master Brewers


I have a question on Liquid Malt Extract (LME) and the Extract Kits such as Coopers & Mangrove Jack's.


Are the commercial extract's simply LME that has been hopped with hop extract & darkened according to the Beer Profile they are representing or is it that the extract is "pre-brewed" at heat with hops, filtered and then packaged?


The reason I'm asking is that if it's a case of "hopped" LME then it would be more financially viable to buy LME & Hops, create a hop extract and "Extract Brew" that way before I move over to the more involved Full Grain Mash i.e. "Big Boy" method of brewing at a later stage.


Not that R180 to R230 for a "Brew Tin" is an exorbitant amount of money to spend on beer for the month but if one can do it for half of that cost and be more in control of the flavour why not?


As always thanks in advance for the input & knowledge shared!

[Guest Close AtronSeige]

Extract kits are LME. Lets start there.

Long story short: LME is concentrated wort. The "brewer" who made it has used one or more malts, possibly hops and have done the water adjustments for you. All you need to do is follow the steps. Easy!

LME is not filtered as fas as I know.

How/why do you want to make a hop extract? You just add your hops to the boil.

You get "pure" LME. This will be Light/Medium/Dark Malt Extract. These extracts are NOT hopped and they are not for a specific beer. Problem: I have never seen these in SA.

Next, you get the "Blended" kits. These may or may not be hopped. These are your Cooper/Mangrove Jack kits. These are generally made for a style of beer. If it is a hopped extract, then have very little to do!

Now, to expand: Your blended kits can also come with extra sugars. This will have various effects on the beer, depending on the sugars and the amount thereof.

You can do a partial mash with specialty grains to increase the flavours of the beer.

I recommend reading this (and the related pages) http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1

[Brewbru Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Brewbru]

Thanks AtronSiege!

Okay this makes a lot of sense now, so the Coopers and Mangrove Jack's aren't magical Full Flavour All Grain brews that have been brewed, concentrated & packaged but simply LME that hase been hopped to attain a certain beer profile?

[Wessel Pieterse Member Find all posts View Profile Close Wessel Pieterse]

You get "pure" LME. This will be Light/Medium/Dark Malt Extract. These extracts are NOT hopped and they are not for a specific beer. Problem: I have never seen these in SA.

Beerlab do stock unhopped coopers extract . An most hombrew stores can order some for you. I don't think they are as popular as the hopped cans.

I have found it cheaper to use local DME as far as possible and only use the Unhopped LME to get your colour right. Local DME costs half what imported LME costs.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

Thanks AtronSiege!

Okay this makes a lot of sense now, so the Coopers and Mangrove Jack's aren't magical Full Flavour All Grain brews that have been brewed, concentrated & packaged but simply LME that hase been hopped to attain a certain beer profile?

Yes it is. Those kits were boiled for the full hour with all hop additions

[Guest Close AtronSeige]

No. They are all grain wort, they have been hopped, concentrated and packaged. They do all the steps that a normal brewer does, but they stop after the boil, concentrate and can. Wort is liquid malt extract. The kits are concentrated liquid malt extract.