munich LME replacement

[hallclosetbrewingco]

i would use light dme and then use a grain bag to steep a pound or two of munich and any other grains.

recipe calls for munich LME but cant find any for whatever reason. ive been told that theres no good substitute for it and not to use pale or light LME. any suggestions on where to find it or what would be a suitable replacement?

[siwelwerd]

i would use light dme and then use a grain bag to steep a pound or two of munich and any other grains.

Then you wouldn't get much flavor from the Munich at all. Munich, unlike crystal malts, needs to be mashed for the starches to convert.

[hallclosetbrewingco]

you can still get flavor and your sugars out of the grains weather you steep in a bag or mash in a tun. it all about temprature. the idea is to steep/mash at a higher temp (155ish) to get the dextrins out of the grains for the mouth feel, head retention, flavor, sweetness ect. most of the fermentables are coming from the dme/lme so you wouldnt be too concerned with high fermentable sugar extraction. granted the flavor wont be as big as if it was all grain, but you get enough to know its munich.

i would use light dme and then use a grain bag to steep a pound or two of munich and any other grains.

Then you wouldn't get much flavor from the Munich at all. Munich, unlike crystal malts, needs to be mashed for the starches to convert.

[linuxelf]

I have to disagree. It's the enzymes that break down the starches into sugars. If you do a steep, your enzymes are too diluted with water, and they cannot convert the starches to sugars. You'll get color, and you may get flavor, but you won't get sugars from steeping.

[hallclosetbrewingco]

so i see you didnt read my post. nobody is trying to get the sugars out of the munich.( eventhough you do get some from steeping and a lot more if you use the right amount of h2o . 1 to 1.25 qts per pound) again, the idea is to capture the personality of the munich. to give the beer drinker the feeling that they are drinking a beer that was made of munich. creative diseption is what i like to call it. like i said before the extract is the main source of fermentables. so you dont have to be too concerned with extraction rate. the wort will ferment without a doubt.

I have to disagree. It's the enzymes that break down the starches into sugars. If you do a steep, your enzymes are too diluted with water, and they cannot convert the starches to sugars. You'll get color, and you may get flavor, but you won't get sugars from steeping.

[t-rocket]

Williams Brewing sells a 50% pils/50% Munich LME. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/GERMAN_G ... 362C99.cfm If you are using one of Jamils recipes, they assume 100% Munich LME. So if the recipe calls for 1# of Munich LME, you would use 2# of the Williams Gold LME extract to get the amount of Munich. Don't forget to reduce the other LME in the recipe by one pound also.

That Williams 50% pils/50% Munich LME is awesome product. Love the LME-in-a-bag packaging also.

[thatguy314]

so i see you didnt read my post. nobody is trying to get the sugars out of the munich.( eventhough you do get some from steeping and a lot more if you use the right amount of h2o . 1 to 1.25 qts per pound) again, the idea is to capture the personality of the munich. to give the beer drinker the feeling that they are drinking a beer that was made of munich. creative diseption is what i like to call it. like i said before the extract is the main source of fermentables. so you dont have to be too concerned with extraction rate. the wort will ferment without a doubt.

I have to disagree. It's the enzymes that break down the starches into sugars. If you do a steep, your enzymes are too diluted with water, and they cannot convert the starches to sugars. You'll get color, and you may get flavor, but you won't get sugars from steeping.

You can get munich flavor from steeping, but I've found it's not as full or intense as mashed munich.

Another trick I've heard, is that since I find a lot of lighter extract brews lack a graininess, you can steep a few pounds of 2 row for flavor. It's not quite the same thing as mashing, but it'll give you a little grainy flavor if you're looking for it.

[linuxelf]

so i see you didnt read my post. nobody is trying to get the sugars out of the munich.( eventhough you do get some from steeping and a lot more if you use the right amount of h2o . 1 to 1.25 qts per pound) again, the idea is to capture the personality of the munich. to give the beer drinker the feeling that they are drinking a beer that was made of munich. creative diseption is what i like to call it. like i said before the extract is the main source of fermentables. so you dont have to be too concerned with extraction rate. the wort will ferment without a doubt.

I have to disagree. It's the enzymes that break down the starches into sugars. If you do a steep, your enzymes are too diluted with water, and they cannot convert the starches to sugars. You'll get color, and you may get flavor, but you won't get sugars from steeping.

I agree that someone didn't read the post, but I think that was you. In your post you said:

you can still get flavor and your sugars out of the grains weather you steep in a bag or mash in a tun. it all about temprature.

This is what I was disagreeing with. You can get flavor, you can get color, but you won't get sugar from a steep. It is not all about temperature. if you're steeping at 1 - 1.25 qts / lbs, that's not steeping. That's mashing. Saying you can get sugars from steeping as long as you steep between 1 and 1.25qt/lb is like saying you can ferment a fine lager at room temperature, as long as your room temperature is 45F.