As we’ve already determined, using extract is not necessarily worse than all-grain brewing. But there are multiple kinds of malt extract! When you’re putting together an extract-based recipe, which should you choose – LME or DME?
Dry malt extract (DME) is easier to weigh out and it stays fresher for much longer than liquid malt extract (LME). However, LME is much cheaper, and is also easier to actually add to the boil and use. In the end, both make great beer when used fresh, so the benefit of one over the other is cost and convenience.
If you’re using a beer kit, it most likely came with LME – so you should simply use that, knowing that it will make just as good of a beer.
For the other times, when you are putting together your own recipe and ordering the ingredients yourself, this article should help you decide which form of malt extract you’ll prefer.
What are the Qualities of Liquid Extract (LME)?
Liquid malt extract (LME) is very concentrated wort. It comes in bottles or cans, in the form of a dense, syrupy liquid. This results in a few qualities LME has that makes its use different from DME.
Liquid malt extract (LME) has a couple of benefits over its dry counterpart (DME). Being liquid, it is easier to use, mixing into boiling water more readily. Additionally, since it takes fewer steps to produce, it is much cheaper for a homebrewer to purchase.
LME can be dumped straight into the boil and will mix in quickly and thoroughly when stirred. Compare this to DME, which clumps up immediately when in contact with moisture – including steam or humidity! This makes it harder to stir in, because you need to break up all of the clumps.
Some brewers actually refuse to use DME because of the way it clumps and does not mix in.
However, because of the moisture content in LME, it does not stay fresh for very long at all. If you prefer to use LME, it’s best to make sure you buy it fresh and use it immediately.
While LME doesn’t necessarily go bad right away, it does darken and start to produce a more pronounced caramel taste – which might actually sound good for certain styles!
However, this is also what causes the “extract twang” that turns many people off of extract-based beers.
Extract twang is not necessarily a result of using extract in your beer recipe, but rather it’s a result of using extract that’s no longer fresh.
However, if you use fresh LME for your beer, it can turn out just as good as DME – or even all-grain!
What are the Qualities of Dry Extract (DME)?
Dry malt extract (DME) is a dry, powdery substance that, when mixed with water, creates wort. It’s actually LME that undergoes an extra step to dehydrate it, resulting in a powder that has nearly no moisture in it at all.
Dry malt extract (DME) has a couple of benefits over its liquid counterpart (LME). Since it has no liquid in it, it stays fresh almost indefinitely – unless it comes into contact with moisture. Additionally, because it is powder, it is very easy to weigh out smaller amounts with precision.
DME is more expensive than LME due to the extra dehydration step, but this can be somewhat offset by the fact that a homebrewer can buy it in bulk and store it for a very long time. Since it’s easy to weigh out smaller increments, you can just take what you need for a recipe, seal up the bag, and put it back into storage – and use the same package for many, many brews.
Because it stays fresh, it will continue to produce the same color and flavor from beginning to end – not darkening after spending time in storage like LME. It also does not appear to produce the “extract twang” that turns many people off from extract brewing.
Cost aside, the struggle with DME clumping is the biggest issue. It can be frustrating trying to get the powder to mix in, and some brewers feel that it never quite mixes well no matter what they do.
This can be overcome somewhat by being patient and adding DME to the water bit-by-bit, stirring in smaller amounts until completely dissolved before adding more. Adding it when the water is at a lower temperature and then boiling only once it’s all mixed in seems to help, too.
Many brewers prefer DME simply because of the convenience of being able to actually store it in large amounts. Some experienced homebrewers feel that DME is the only option for brewers who do make many extract beers (you just have to get past the clumping issue) because you can simply buy it once and use it for a long time.
Is There a Difference in Flavor Between LME and DME?
The biggest question, of course, is which one produces better beer. Cost and convenience is sometimes pretty minor in pursuit of the best beer you can make!
I, personally, have not noticed a difference between the beers I have brewed with LME compared to the ones where I used DME. However, as I have not compared them side-by-side, this is not a fair statement. I plan to do an experiment to change that in the near future, so stay tuned for that!
However, the people over at Brülosophy have performed the experiment – go ahead and check it out if you’d like to read the entire write-up.
Basically, they determined that there is a flavor difference between LME and DME according to a number of people who performed a blind taste comparison. However, it was a minor difference, and mostly only noticeable because the participants were told to look for it.
More importantly, however, exactly half preferred one version of the beer and exactly the other half preferred the other version. While this was a relatively small sample size, that does tell us that, flavor-wise, it’s really just a personal preference thing.
LME and DME are both pretty much equal in terms of brewing a good beer. If you’re really concerned about which one you think you would prefer – well, do the experiment yourself to find out! That’s what I plan to do.
When Is It Better to Use LME, and When Is It Better to Use DME?
In the end, the best way to approach the argument of LME vs DME is to use whichever one is best for the given situation or what works within your recipe.
If you have tried both of them extensively, and find that you prefer one over the other for either flavor or convenience, then use that one whenever you can!
However, you can’t really go wrong.
If you can buy LME in the exact amount for a beer that you’re planning on making in the coming days, then you can definitely save money and frustration by doing just that.
You can also simply stock up on DME periodically and use it for your extract brews whenever you’d like, as long as you keep it away from moisture.
In the past, I’ve primarily used LME just because I have a tendency to buy ingredients specifically for a recipe I’m planning. I don’t tend to buy in bulk and keep ingredients in storage for very long, with the occasional exception of dry yeast.
However, in researching this topic, I have stumbled on a new concept which makes a lot of sense: use both!
You can save on costs and frustration by purchasing LME to use for the bulk of your fermentables in a recipe, and then just topping it off with a bit DME that you keep in storage – just enough to hit the O.G. that you are targeting.
For example, let’s say you want to make a 1 gallon batch and you’re targeting an O.G. of around 1.056 to produce a roughly 5.6% beer. This would require 1.5lb of pale malt LME – but when you look online, you only see 1lb or 3lb bottles for sale! Instead of buying two 1lb bottles, and having 0.5lb or LME left over (which will quickly become less fresh), you can simply buy 1lb of LME and then top off the recipe with the equivalent amount of pale malt DME to produce the same beer without any issues.
I think this is exactly what I’ll be doing in the future when brewing with extract.
Conclusion
You can’t really go wrong with either LME or DME. Both forms of extract make great beers, and while there might be a slight difference in the result, which one tastes better really just comes down to personal preference.
The real difference is in cost and convenience, and both forms of extract have their pros and cons. DME is great for buying in bulk and using for many brews over time, whereas LME is cheaper and easier to use.
In the end, the best suggestion I have for you is to try out both and see which once gels with your method of brewing – or just use both as described in the last section.
