Light D M E ?

[donald stewart]

hi, i'm new to real beer , and and are after sum help!!
i have made two cream ales now , and they both are very good BUT. no body , no head, the recipe both called for Dry Extra Light Extract about 2.7 K G s in both of them. what i read ,the D M E in what gives it the creamy mouth feel ? and the good head. when i order the ingredients from the shop they suppled L M E when i phoned to see wry , i was told that DME was to dear. SO AN YOU HELP ME !! do you know were i can buy DME bulk, or help with my body? ( not the body my home brew is helping with)
cheers donald

[MrC]

Hi Donald

DME is NZ is very expensive. LME (liquid malt extract) is cheaper and basically the same stuff, just not as dehydrated. LME is approx 20% water where as DME has none so you need to adjust your volumes accordingly. As far as I'm aware DME doesn't give a creamy mouthfeel. You would need to steep some carapils malt to increase the body & mouthfeel.

You could make a decent cream ale using two cans of light LME (muntons or black rock). For increased body, mouthfeel & head retention you could steep some carapils malt. Check out HowToBrew for more details on this, It's all there.

Cheers

[donald stewart]

hi, thanks for the help. the home brew shop did not have any corn so i went to the suppermarket and got Polenta
(De-germed WholeCorn Groundes) that may be wear i went wrong
thanks for the help
cheers donald

[denimglen]

Got the recipe for those mate or are they kit and kilo?

Cream ale's usually have some adjunct - corn, rice etc, they're not in your favour for body and head.

As long as you're getting fresh extract it doesn't really matter whether it's dry or liquid, at the end of the day they're basically the same thing, just one comes with some water.

DME over here is ridiculously over-priced, ie around $20 per kilo.

Just to clarify cream ales aren't exactly 'creamy'. They're usually pretty thin and watery and flavourless, think light lager with a touch more fruitiness.

For a cream ale at a guess I'd go

1.045 - 1.050
85% malt extract
15% dextrose

15 IBU of any hop

US05 yeast.

For something a little more interesting in palate but along the same lines maybe look and blonde ales or kolsch.

[donald stewart]

hi, thanks , as you can see ,i am new to this, but having a lot of fun. the next brew i am going to try is
1.50 kg. Alexanders Wheat Liquid info
0.68 kg. Dry Extra Light Extract info
0.68 kg. Honey info
0.23 kg. Oats Flaked info
0.23 kg. Candi Sugar Clear info
21 g. Mt. Hood (Pellets, 4.5 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
14 g. Mt. Hood (Pellets, 4.5 %AA) boiled 2 min. info
1.5 ounces Crushed Corriander (not included in calculations)
1 ounces Dried Ground Orange Peel (not included in calculations)
Yeast : White Labs WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale info
for a hoegarden clone .what wheat extract do you thinks?
cheers donald

[denimglen]

There's only one I know of - the Brewcraft Unhopped wheat dry extract, which I believe is Munton's that's been repackaged.

The other option is to use a couple of cans of wheat beer kit extract and omit your 60 minute hops.

I'm not too sure as I've never done an extract wheat beer so maybe someone else with a little more experience in that area can chime in.

[Ally Mcg]

I've done an extract wheat beer recently. Well, it was a PG but i used Muntons Wheat Extract which the can claims is a 50/50 mix of wheat and pils malts. As i was doing a partial i added 15g of NZ Hallertau at 60.

I did a bit of research into Wheat kits and the NZ options appear to be Muntons, Macs or Black Rock. Avoid the Black Rock - its not got any wheat in it. Can't comment on the Macs as I never saw it. Muntons was so so - a lot darker than i expected but it appears to have done the job - wheat beer tastes spicy and banana-y and true to type, tho a bit thinner than I'd expect

[donald stewart]

thanks for that,i also have a all grain recipe ,but to a new guy thats not shore wear to get all the grains??? with it the grains i am finding hard to find are white wheat malt,wheat flaked,and rice hull
AM I TRYING BREWS THAT ARE OVER MY HEAD FOR A START???????

[Ally Mcg]

Shouldn't be too hard to find some wheat malt. Dunedin Malthouse and Liberty Brewing both stock it.

Flaked wheat and rice hulls? No idea - someone else might be able to help you out there.

Re, your question. No idea. I've only done 9 brews to date and I'm trying something new every other weekend. If you're feeling confident you know what you're doing then no, nothing should be over yr head. How to brew is a good place to learn the basics

[Reviled]

Whered you get the Mt Hood hops??

[donald stewart]

hi.that recipe is the one i plan to do next,so still looking for all i need

[donald stewart]

HI ,the carbonation is all over the place ,last weekend we had a good go at a crate ,they were a bit flat but still good, mid of the week had one the carb was great and a bit of head, last night happy as ,went to a bbq crate under arm ,1st two were dead flat .but i still drunk them .MAN DID I GET SUM S H 1 T