Liquid Malt Extract (LME) is an amazing ingredient for both novice and expert homebrewers alike. Let’s have a quick look into this malt magic.
What is Liquid Malt Extract?
Simply its malt in liquid form. It is a thick, molasses-like syrup, with a strong sweet malt aroma. The colour is usually a golden brown, but can be almost black (depending on the grains used). It can also come pre-hopped, but this is not common for the homebrew industry.
How is Liquid Malt Extract made?
The beginning process is not unlike making an all-grain brew. Grains are added to boiling water to make a mash. Less water is used than a traditional brew, to assist in the dehydration steps. The grain solids are removed, and the wort made is filtered to remove as many particles and sediment as possible. The wort undergoess an evaporation process. This will remove about 80% of the water, leaving the thick malt concentrate.
All the sugars, vitamins, proteins and enzymes are retained in the concentrate. This means it has everything needed for yeasts to do their thing, and get those fermentable sugars transformed into beautiful beer.
Uses and benefits.
For brewing beginners, it’s a great way to get into brewing. The wort making process is basically done, just add water. You can concentrate on getting your flavours and fermentation correct and design a bespoke home-brew beer.
We also have some great beer kits on offer on our website, a perfect way to get into home-brewing
https://www.geterbrewed.com/geb-experimental-beer-kit-series/
https://www.geterbrewed.ie/geb-experimental-beer-kit-series/
https://www.geterbrewed.ie/extract-brewing-kits/
https://www.geterbrewed.com/extract-brewing-kits/
For the more seasoned brewers, it’s a good ingredient to have on hand. It will assist in getting to a target gravity if you fell short on your all-grain brew. It can be added to any all-grain or extract brew to boost alcohol, body & flavour.
Other benefits include:
- Space-saving: No bags of grains or extra equipment are needed
- Time-saving: the whole mash step is skipped
- Money-saving: less equipment and energy needed to produce your wort
- No need to worry about mash temperatures and volumes
- Efficient and consistent
- 100% natural
Liquid Malt Extract is also used in cooking and baking to add sweetness and flavour.
Get your Liquid Malt Extract
We have our own in house liquid malt extract, Classic Light. Beautiful golden straw colour wort is created using Crisp Liquid Malt Extract, a balanced well rounded and full-flavoured malt profile with excellent head retention for the best home-brewed beers.
https://www.geterbrewed.com/geb-premium-light-liquid-malt-1.5kg/
https://www.geterbrewed.ie/geb-premium-light-liquid-malt-1.5kg/
Also, have a look at our YouTube video on brewing with extracts.