Colour comparison between LME and DME

[Sly Fox]

Hi chaps, just wondered if anyone can suggest which is paler? I've made a few pale ales in my time all with LME, and find that the colour varies between brands a surprising amount - Muntons in particular seems very dark, while Brupaks is fairly pale. I've been using spraymalt as part of the sugars in some of my recipes lately, but never on it's own.

I just wondered, which would be paler, a beer made with a paler LME, or one with "Extra Light" spraymalt? I fancy doing some bottled pale ale at some point to mature for the summer.

 

[c_burgess]

As you've stated, there is a big difference between the different brands but I've banged the following into my brewing software. The important thing to remember is that you use less dme to achieve the same gravity due to the water content of the lme.

I've searched around and the ratio is roughly 4/5. So 1 kg of liquid extract is equal to 800g of dry extract in terms of gravity.

1kg of light liquid is 6.9 ebc
800g of light dry extract is 5.9 ebc
800g of extra light dry is 3.2 ebc

So going off these I'd say dry extract is lighter but it doesn't state the brand of extract, the age of the extract or the storage conditions. I'd bet any money that liquid extract stored in a warm place would darken over time.

In short, don't worry about it. My extract beers have all been with dry extract because I noticed less of the 'homebrew twang' after my first extract brew but the colour difference is that small I doubt many would notice the difference.