Brewing with LME

[South-bank]

I’m a newbie and have only brewed Wilko kits. I’ve been given a 15kg tub of what I believe is LME. Do I use this in the same way I would a Wilko kit? My google searches have drawn blanks. Thanks in advance.

 

[Clint]

Yes...but looking at your picture it says its unhopped whereas your wilko kits are. This stuff will have no bitterness or hop flavour and aroma so you will have to get some hops and use some brew software to work out how much to use. These hops will need boiling in the wort to add bitterness or at the very least adding as a hop tea or dry hop for aroma and flavour. Is it a commercial drum of malt?

 

[South-bank]

Thanks for the information. I believe it to be surplus from a brewpub. Is there any particular software you’d recommend?

 

[Clint]

Brewersfriend,which you can find on here or I sometimes use Brewfather which you can download for free off playstore.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

How old is that stuff if you don't mind me asking? The label looks quite old....

 

[South-bank]

How old is that stuff if you don't mind me asking? The label looks quite old....

Don’t know but I agree it looks old. Before I use it I’ll check it’s not gone off.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

As I understand it, the Firkin pubs used to use malt extract, and it’s been a long time since they were around.... I would be a bit surprised if modern brewpubs would make beers with extract. If it’s really old it’s going to make dubious quality beer I would expect. Hopefully it’s still ok, in which case that is an awesome amount of extract to be given!

 

[Sandimas]

If you let us know what type of beer you would like to brew, one of us can knock up a recipe for you: I used to brew using extract before I went AG, you'll need a large stockpot to do a boil but no need for full volume, 12L or so will do and you can top it up in the FV with cold water. You'll need to do a 60min boil for bitterness, assuming that it just LME - I'm not sure what the "best bitter" label refers to. But no harm in doing a brew with say 3kg of it, which will easily make 21L of beer.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Since that looks like EDME, it might be worth dropping them a line to find out how old batch 550 is. LME tends to give the infamous homebrew "twang" as it gets old - and that looks like it could be *really* old. So I wouldn't put too much hope on it, just do a small test batch just to see how it comes out.

https://www.edme.com/contact/

 

[South-bank]

If you let us know what type of beer you would like to brew, one of us can knock up a recipe for you: I used to brew using extract before I went AG, you'll need a large stockpot to do a boil but no need for full volume, 12L or so will do and you can top it up in the FV with cold water. You'll need to do a 60min boil for bitterness, assuming that it just LME - I'm not sure what the "best bitter" label refers to. But no harm in doing a brew with say 3kg of it, which will easily make 21L of beer.

Thanks for the response. I’d like to make a 5%+ IPA with it if that’s possible.

 

[South-bank]

Thanks for the replies everyone

 

[South-bank]

Since that looks like EDME, it might be worth dropping them a line to find out how old batch 550 is. LME tends to give the infamous homebrew "twang" as it gets old - and that looks like it could be *really* old. So I wouldn't put too much hope on it, just do a small test batch just to see how it comes out.

https://www.edme.com/contact/

Thanks. I’ve dropped them a message.