Dextrose instead of liquid malt

[Tweedie]

Evening everyone,

I am about to do a MJ Pale Ale kit and as I have a good stock of dextrose was thinking of using it instead of my normal MJ Malt Extract.

The question I have is whether the dextrose needs dissolving in boiling water before adding to the FV or can it go in directly with the MJ malt and boiling water in the FV?

Thanks
Andy

 

[peebee]

Dextrose is glucose. The yeast will love it! But it won't necessarily make good beer. Dextrose is not a replacement for malt extract but may provide qualities that malt extract will not. Dextrose can be advantageously added to some beers, it adds no flavour and thins the beer but that can be desirable in the right place. If you don't understand how such qualities would be "desirable" chances are pretty high that they won't be.

 

[Tweedie]

Many thanks for your guidance and reply. Can I summarise that dextrose is better suited to brewing lagers delivering a “cleaner” taste, whilst an ale would benefit from a malt extract in deepening the flavour?

 

[peebee]

... Can I summarise that dextrose is better suited to brewing lagers delivering a “cleaner” taste ...

Hum, now let me think ... Last time I used dextrose was ... last week! It was a component in my "Invert Sugar" emulations. Ragus (the last remaining invert sugar manufacturer for breweries in the UK) use dextrose in their emulations too (to "seed" it into a solid block; I'm using it trying to get the 'right' fermentation properties). And that beer I'm brewing is a Truman 1909 "X" ale (mild ale) copy; about as far away from "Lager" as you can imagine.

No, dextrose in "Lager" will destroy that beer too if not used carefully. Lager depends on malt for flavour too, and some are very malty. "Lagering" (temperature, not ingredients) creates the "cleaner" flavour. They used (still do) vast amounts of dextrose (aka "Corn Sugar") in American "pseudo-lagers" and gained themselves a world-wide reputation for the standard of their "beer" (er, wasn't a 'good' one) which they are still trying to shake off now (it wasn't just American brewers deceiving their customers either).