Substitution...

[Mavroz]

I would be interested to know if LME can be used to substitute anything / any stage of an AG brew.

Shorten the AG process to something like a partial mash.

Partials are relatively easy, use LME and give very, very good results for me up to now. No need for all the extra equipment etc etc.

If so what would 3.5kg of LME be used instead of... Which process(es) can be substituted?

 

[Leon103]

I think you answered your question. You do a partial mash. Lme can replace all the grain and you can do a extract brew. Neither will taste as good though

 

[Hoppyland]

I'm not quite sure if I understand your question properly - but basically doing an all-grain brew means mashing your base malt(s) to convert the starches to sugars. Caramelised malts can either go in with the mash, or be added later as steeped grains, as their malting process has already converted starch to sugars, and also killed enzymes.
For me, partial mash is a total misnomer - there's no mashing involved at all, just using extract and steeping other grains to add (mainly) flavour. Using any sort of malt extract like this, liquid or dried, is basically a short-cut to mashing your base malt - the mashing process has been done for you. The advantages are clear - you don't need any of the mashing/sparging equipment or process, so you can pretty much cut straight to the boil. The disadvantages are that you lose control of many aspects. You can't choose your base malts, what temperature to mash them, and also you may feel that malt extract just doesn't taste the same anyway (I certainly do!).
So, what could you save by doing AG with the addition of extract? Nothing, really. You'd still have do do the full mash process even if you cut down on the amount of base malt by substituting part of it with extract.

 

[ACBEV]

I've used LME in some high gravity brews i.e. I turn my extra stout into imperial by adding LME to my pre-boiled wort.

I find it quite tricky to mash shedloads of grain with my equipment and the higher the grain input, the lower the gravity return.

So, in effect I'm doing a normal mash to about 7.5kg of grain, with LME making up the difference.

 

[Poochops]

What I'd consider my best brew to date is an RIS which I brewed biab, like ACBEV above I replaced some of the base malt (most of it actually) with LME because I only had a 12litre pot at the time. I think I mashed 2kg base malt plus the speciality malts and made up the bulk of the OG with lme. It's a gorgeous brew which I'll do again, in fact I'd happily use LME in lieu of a portion of base malt in any future high gravity beer because I just could not see me ever being arsed mucking about with a reiterated mash or doing a small batch brew.

 

[Mavroz]

Sounds interesting. Seems like one can be used to good effect then. May have a look at an AG brew recipe next and use LME with with the speciality grains from the recipe. Looking forward to trying this from the steeping stage to the boil, adding the hops at the suggested stages.
Will see what it turns out like and report back. As previously said, had very good results with partial mash / mini mash brews which I now feel are much an improvement on full kits.

 

[Sandimas]

This is exactly what I do, but I use DME rather than LME. I do half and half and size recipes to use a whole 1kg bag of DME, usually works out around 17L. That means the mash is around 1.5kg of grain and can be done on the hob in a stock pot rather than needing a lot of equipment. Works for me, produces great beer - I've actually gone back to this rather than fully AG as bags of LME are under £6 at Malt Miller, and it reduced my brew time as I need to heat up and cool down less water.