Light Malts, Dark Malts and Honey

[Ozcah]

Hiya,

I'm just a beginner. I am putting down my 5th brew on the weekend. I found a recipe that suggested the following:

Coopers Pale Ale
500g Light Malt Extract
250g Dextrose
250g Maltodextrin
(These three come in the Cooper Brew Enhancer 2 pack)
300g Honey

Fill to 19 litres.

What I'm not sure of is what the Malt adds to the flavour and how different types of malt add different flavours to a brew.

Can anyone give me a bit of advice on the subject of Malts.

Thanks.

Ozcah

[Lufah]

The LME is the only thing there that will have flavor.

Code: Select all

Dextrose, commonly called glucose, d-glucose, or blood sugar, occurs naturally in food, and is moderately sweet. It is a monosaccharide (basic unit of carbohydrates, C6H1206) and has a high glycemic index (digested carbohydrates ability to raise blood glucose levels, also called Gl) ranking at 100.

Code: Select all

Maltodextrin is a sweat, easily digested carbohydrate made from cornstarch. The starch is cooked, and then acid and/or enzymes (a process similar to that used by the body to digest carbohydrates) are used to break the starch into smaller chains (3-20 chains in maltodextrin). These chains are composed of several dextrose molecules held together by very weak hydrogen bonds.

To clarify, carbohydrates are molecules of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen produced by plants through photosynthesis. The term saccharide is a synonym for carbohydrate; a monosaccharide (mono=1) is the fundamental unit of carbohydrates.  Disaccharides (Di=2) are molecules containing 2 monosaccharide units. Di and monosaccharides are also known as sugars, simple sugars, or simple carbohydrates. Next are oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Oligosaccharides are made of 3-9 monosaccharide links. Polysaccharides consist of 10 to thousands of monosaccharide links. A complex carbohydrate refers to many monosaccharide units linked together. In addition, you will often hear the terms “long”, and “short” carbohydrate chains. Short carbohydrate chains are those under 10 sugar molecules. And long chains are those over 10 sugar molecules. Which fits in conjunction with the above terms, Oligosaccharides and Polysaccharides.

Dextrose is labeled a simple carbohydrate and Maltodextrin complex. And now this should make perfect sense. But don’t be fooled by the word, “complex.” The bonds that compose maltodextrin are very weak, and readily broken apart in your stomach; moreover, the chain is extremely minimal in composition. The weak bonds, and fragile composition of maltodextrin cause it to be digested a fraction slower than dextrose.  Why this is so and what exactly hydrogen bonds are will be assessed subsequently. 

The dextrose with ferment out completely and the maltodextrose won't ferment at all. The honey will also ferment out all the way.

Basically the kit you are talking about is cheaping out by using a lot of sugar. Try to get the kits with all extract you'll be a lot happier with them.

Here is a good place to learn How to Brew

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html


Travis

[Guest]

Lufah,

Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I think I'll hav a look at that site as well. I've heard about it before but never got around to it.

Catchya
Ozcah