DME question

[Laripu]

Normally I brew with grain, but occasionally I make a simple beer out of DME. A few days ago, I was shopping at a little Korean grocery where I normally get kimchi, and say a pile of one-pound bags of dry malt extract from Korea. The only words on the bags in English were "malt powder" on the front, and a recipe for red pepper paste on the back.

They were $2.50/pound and I bought 6 of them, so $15 for 6 pounds. In your units, that's 9.43 GBP for 2.73 kg, or 3.45 GBP / kg. I don't know what you pay for DME over there, but in the US that's great price.

So I want to know, have any of you made beer with Korean DME? How many specific gravity points per pound did you get? Any advice?

[monk]

I don't have any answers for you, but I'm sure interested to find out how that stuff works for you. I remember drinking a beverage that tasted like watered down wort (unhopped) while in Korea. It's sweet and cold and drunk like iced tea. I wonder if they use that powder to make it?

I've picked up many cheap bags of flaked barley at the Korean market for my stouts. Kamsamnida to my peeps.

[sparky Paul]

They were $2.50/pound and I bought 6 of them, so $15 for 6 pounds. In your units, that's 9.43 GBP for 2.73 kg, or 3.45 GBP / kg. I don't know what you pay for DME over there, but in the US that's great price.

So I want to know, have any of you made beer with Korean DME? How many specific gravity points per pound did you get? Any advice?

Cheapest price for the homebrew branded stuff here in the UK is about 6 GBP per kilo, so that's getting on for half price. It does sound interesting, and if it smelled like spraymalt (or Horlicks/Ovaltine), I'd have a go with it!

To get a rough idea of the gravity per pound, you could mix a small amount with water and test the gravity. 1Kg of spraymalt seems to add about 18 points to a 23L brew, so adding 11g of malty stuff to 250ml water should give you a gravity of around 1018. I think...

[Laripu]

Much to my surprise, the powder turned out not to be cheap dry malt extract, but rather expensive malt powder. That is, grain malt that has been ground to a powder. So much for the good deal.

Well, I had already made a starter with Windsor yeast, so I was committted to making a batch. No DME, but I had:

• 9 pounds Durst pilsener malt
  1 pound Weyerman Carahell
  2 pounds of Korean malt powder - SURPRISE
  1 pound of Korean corn syrup from the same grocery - let's hope this doesn't surprise me
  hopping to 28 IBU with Marynka and Hallertau Tradition

So I started a mash, and I'm leaving it overnight, temperature-controlled at 147°F. I expect an OG of 1.065, FG 1.016 and 6.3% alc/vol. I suppose it will be a variety of strong ale.

[sparky Paul]

Much to my surprise, the powder turned out not to be cheap dry malt extract, but rather expensive malt powder. That is, grain malt that has been ground to a powder. So much for the good deal.

Oh well, it was worth a try...

At least it won't go to waste.

[Laripu]

Much to my surprise, the powder turned out not to be cheap dry malt extract, but rather expensive malt powder. That is, grain malt that has been ground to a powder. So much for the good deal.

Oh well, it was worth a try...

At least it won't go to waste.

No comestible ever does around here. It's now fermenting. OG turned out to be 1.068, so my mash/sparge is a bit more efficient than normal, or I used less water than I expected. I expect prodigious blow-off.