Malt Extract Question

[djaychris]

I'm looking into making an expresso stout using a recipe I found. The recipe calls for 8lbs Alexanders dark malt extract syrup. Is there anything particularly important about Alexanders, or would any dark malt extract do? There are certain homebrew sites I like to order from, but many of them do not have name brand extracts like "Alexanders" that some recipes call for. Does Alexanders have a unique taste to it that other dark malt extracts do not? I also checked out the nb website, and they have alexanders "munich malt extract" which looks dark, but its not called "alexanders dark malt extract". Is there such a thing?

-Thanks
-Dan

[dparsons]

It may make a difference. Every company is going to make their extract a little different. With a dark extract, there is more room for differences. The issue is that you don't know what they did.

This is one of the reason that extract brewers tend to favor the use of light malt extract & specialty grains. The light extracts are more similar to each other and the use of specialty grains gives you more control over the flavor. You know what goes into the recipe and you can change it, using less of one grain and more of another. If there is a flavor that you want slightly less of in Alexander's, you have no way to reduce it except to use something else.

I'd also guess that the Munich malt extract would make use of Munich malt. It won't be dark.

[danno]

I'd use NB's dark LME. I have a suspicion that it's Alexander's anyways.

unless there's some documentation with the recipe saying something to the effect of "I tried X brand, but preferred Y", it's likely the recipe came from Alexander's in the first place... sorta like how recipes on the back of Heinz ketchup bottles tell you to use Heinz Worchestershire sauce...