Brewing Master

Question:

] ] What is the conversion for grain mashing to extract? ] In other words how many pounds of extract to 5 gal will equal ] how many pounds of mashed grain to 5 gal? ] This depends somewhat on the extract efficiency expected by the recipe for the mash which of course vary with system and ingredients. I think most mash system/recipe descriptions seem to expect about 25-32 pts/lb/gal efficiency.  I’m sure some get much higher, others worse. For discussion and the ever dangerous "rule of thumb" (Look out!!!) let’s define the ‘typical’ mash efficiency to be  me = ~28 pts/lb/gal Now, as I have been thoroughly schooled in recent HBD’s and r.c.b, the ‘typical’ _dry_ malt extract (DME) will give you about de = ~42 pts/lb/gal.  Liquid malt extract (LME) will give you less, about 35 pts/lb/gal. So, to convert a recipe that calls for ‘G’ lbs of grain in an all-grain recipe to ‘D’ lbs of DME use    D = N * (me/de) = N * (28/42) = ~.67 * N so use about 2/3 as many lbs of DME as the recipe calls for mash grains.   Example, a mash recipe may call for 10 lbs of malt and expects to get an initial gravity of (10 x 28)/5=56 = 1.056 s.g. for a 5 gal batch.  A DME equivalent would use 6.7 lbs and should get (6.7 x 42)/5 = 56.3 – 1.056 s.g.  In this case, if you buy 7 lbs, save the extra 1/3 to use for priming… For liquid extract use about 4/5 as many lbs (28/35 = .8).  Liquid malt extract tends, I believe, to vary more in actual sugar content than DME. Both vary in how much fermentable sugar is in them which will determine how low your final gravity will be. Now, keep in mind that if the recipe uses specialty grains like crystal, chocolate, roast barley, etc., you will probably want to keep these in your extract recipe (by steeping them in water that you slowly heat up to just before boiling for 20-30 minutes before straining out and adding the resulting liquid to your wort).  So  don’t add the lbs in the recipe of these grains to the total that you are going to substitute the DME for. These grains don’t contribute a ton to the s.g. and you should be able to extract most of that contribution anyway using the above steep procedure. Do not boil the grains. Also, assuming you do follow this last advice, you will probably be better off sticking to pale, light or extra light DME when doing these substitutions.  You will get all your colors from the specialty grains, just like the original recipe. And finally, keep in mind that ‘rules of thumb’ don’t always fit everybody’s thumbs.  Still, this procedure should get you started. Good luck! — Mel Martinez The Johns Hopkins University Dept. of Physics

Response:

: What is the conversion for grain mashing to extract? Multiply the amount of grain by 0.75 to get the amount of extract needed. Source: Victory Beer Recipes, p. 192 (Brewer’s Publications) ISBN 0-937381-41-1 YMMV, of course. — Kirk R Fleming

Response:

Hi! I know that this thread has been discussed before, but being new to homebrewing (only on my second batch, first one still conditioning and carbonating in the bottles) I havn’t been reading this newsgroup for that long.   What is the conversion for grain mashing to extract? In other words how many pounds of extract to 5 gal will equal how many pounds of mashed grain to 5 gal? I have hundreds of receips from CMII and many to most of them are for all grain to partial grain batches, but I’m not ready to make the commitment to all grain brewing yet.   Thanks,

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