In an earlier post I quoted Muntons’ answer to my question about brewing salts in their extract. Looking at this communication, I think there is other information that could be of interest to many of those following this thread.
MY EMAIL:
I will be brewing with various styles of Muntons Dry Malt Extract (Spraymalt) soon - Light, Amber, Dark, etc. I have three questions.
In working up recipe, I will need to know the quantities of the various malts in the extract in order to add the necessary specialty malts. Is this information available? If not, would it be reasonable to use the amber or other styles in a recipe calling for a generic amber, etc?
I would like to optimize the salts in the water - chlorides and sulfates in particular. Is there some place on your website that shows the salt content of the mash water? Or is this information available in another form?
I ordered some Muntons Plain Amber Spray Malt Extract from Label Peelers yesterday, but in looking through the Muntons website today, I don’t see this product. Is there a glitch somewhere?
Any help would be appreciated.
MUNTONS REPLY:
Thank you for your enquiry. Let me address your questions as they are laid out in your email;
Our spraymalts are designed primarily to supplement home brew kits (used instead of brewing sugar), or to act as a yeast growth medium when propagating and storing yeast. There is nothing wrong with using these for the main source of wort fermentables, but we do not design a grist to give the complexity of flavour you ordinarily get from a using a host of different malts. For this purpose I would direct you towards our liquid range
Homebrew Malt Extracts Archives - Muntons. Unfortunately our website does not currently display the full range. Full range is made up of;
- Vienna
- Munich
- Maris Otter
- Oat
- Sour
- Wheat
- Light
- Light hopped
- Extra light
- Amber
- Amber hopped
- Medium
- Dark
- Dark Hopped
I advise that you contact ABC Cork at
ABC Cork Co. if you want to understand the availability in your region.
[Note: ABC Cork did not have an answer.]
So, in answer to your question, I recommend that you use speciality malts such as light crystals and caras in order to get the full depth of flavour you would expect from an amber ale, instead of relying on the amber spraymalt that will give you colour but less of the fruity, crystalised sugar flavours.
Please consider our extracts to be made with water with minimal salt inclusion. I suggest that to optimise this, start with the salt levels of the water you intend to use and build up the chlorides and sulphates from there.
We do make an amber spraymalt, but this is not on our website as we don't sell it in sachets and it is therefore not part of our core range. The reason you can purchase it is because a third party buys it in bulk and packs it into smaller units.
MY FOLLOW-UP:
I am especially interested in the recommendation to use liquid malt extract (LME) to get complexity of flavor. I am switching from LME to DME for all my brews because of the concern about LME staling, but maybe that is unnecessary. Is it your feeling that staling of LME is not actually a concern if it is used within a few months from receiving it?
A second question: What is the ppg (points per pound per gallon in specific gravity contribution) of the Muntons DME and LME?
MUNTONS SECOND EMAIL:
You can usually expect LME to darken a little over time, which DME won’t. If the LME is fresh and has been stored correctly (cool conditions) then this shouldn’t be an issue, and it shouldn’t adversely affect the flavour.
I don’t typically work in US Imperial units, so come back to me if this sounds wrong, but I calculate that the PPGs are;
LME 38.3
DME 46.4
That’s to say that if you take 1lb of malt extract and dissolved it in 1 gallon of water, you get a gravity of 1.0383 for LME and 1.0464 for DME.