Hey all- thought I'd get a blog about malt extracts posted here, since I get at least two or three people asking me each day, 'which do you prefer?' and 'do you carry bulk?'
Which malt extract do I prefer, dry or liquid?
I don't really have a preference...
Wait, maybe I do have a preference... dry malt is great. It keeps better, and longer, if sealed well. It can give you a lighter color as well- it's less prone to scorching, and the malt itself is produced at a lighter color by the malting facility (take Briess' Pilsen Light dry malt, which is, I believe the lightest malt extract on the market.) And a pound of dry goes further than a pound of liquid. By this I mean, there's more sugar in a pound of dry malt, than in a pound of liquid malt. There's no water weight.
So, 1 lb of dry malt extract is equal to about 1.25-1.3 lbs of liquid malt. I usually say roughly 5lbs of dry is equal to about 6.3lbs of liquid malt. There are online calculators to help you make closer approximations.
Personally I use liquid just as much (if not more) than I use dry, and get great beers from both. If you're planning on keeping malt around for use 'down the road' get yourself some dry malt.
Do I carry bulk malt in the store?
Sometimes I carry bulk, but not in summer. Yes, buying bulk divided up can be cheaper, or costlier, depending on how you look at it...
A lot of homebrew shops carry bulk malt in their store. It sometimes leads to savings for the purchaser. But, there can be some problems with bulk malt.
1. Oxygen - As soon as they open their barrel or pail of malt, oxygen is introduced. This can cause the malt to taste stale in your finished product. Often shops will try to blanket their malt with CO2, but this is only really solving half the problem- the empty space is being filled, but the spigot is often still allowing air in. Also, your container that the malt is getting poured in to often has a bit of head space for oxygen and isn't purged before filling.
2. Bacteria and Mold - Although you'll be boiling your malt, effectively killing anything that was living in it- mold loves, loves, loves malt. If you're a frequent buyer of bulk malt, and have ordered some and then let it sit around some, I'm sure there's been a point where you've seen mold develop on your malt. Either as a white flake, or green fuzziness. Typically it can be removed, and the malt can be boiled, with no ill effect on the beer. But it goes to show what sort of shelf life malt has when not packaged properly.
3. Shelf Life - I just touched on this a little bit. Check and make sure the bulk malt you're getting is somewhere close to its shelflife date. Malt packaged in barrels and buckets has a shorter shelf-life than malt canned at the malting facility. Often times when I receive bulk malt I have 3 months to sell it, based on the 'best if used by' date. If I take a look at the boxes the cans come in, the shelf life is often a year. It's a big difference, and it can make a big difference in the quality of your beer.
So yeah, in the heat and humidity of a New Orleans summer, I carry bulk malt, only when I think I can sell it fast. And even then, I only order the 33lb jerry packs, not the 60lb buckets. Cans are typically a safer bet if you don't know when you'll be brewing next, and you want a guarantee that it was packaged well, in a sanitary container. Beer isn't cheap to make, saving a couple bucks is always great, just make sure you use that bulk malt as soon as possible
Happy Homebrewing!
Aaron
www.brewstock.com
