Mixing light and dark extracts.

[Asahikun]

I finally found someone who sells unhopped malt extract. I wanted to brew a New Zealand Draught with a tin of amber unhopped extract. They only had the light extract though so I went with that.
I'm sure it will turn out great....I'm just curious if anyone else has tried mixing light and dark malts like this:

Hopped extract: Pilsiner, crystal and porter malts.
Unhopped extract: lager malt.

[wortchillergoal]

I have and will again mix malts. I find it to be a good way of playing with both color and taste. This may not be a style type of brewing but I have made some good beers.

[sallad]

i've mixed malts as well. in fact, one of my favorite batches was brewed with a 4lb can of pale and a 3.5lb can of amber. a few specialty grains, and a heavy hand with the bittering hops, and you've got yourself a wonderful ESB!

[GunNut76]

My last beer (ie the one I'm enjoying now) was a dark beer from the planning stages, but I didn't want it too dark so I mixed 50/50 dark and amber DME with some SG and light hops added a dash of 1084...4 weeks later out pops my first Irish Ale...tastes better at 2 months tho.:D So yes mixing malt extracts is a great way of making great beer.

[Asahikun]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I can't wait till I can start drinking it :D

[b3s]

i've mixed malt extracts before, and everything turned out great...however, i've found that just sticking to light extracts and using specialty grains to affect color and maltiness leads to (imo) better results.

i wish extract companies would mention what malts and percentages went into their extract.

[Asahikun]

Thanks for the suggestion b3s. I'll have to wait till I move back to England to venture into the world of specialty grains, glass carboys etc. For now all I have is extract but to plaigarise a phrase that seems more appropriate here than where it's actually used "I'm lovin' it"

:D

[Asahikun]

It's now been in the bottles for 12 days. It's good but not great like the 2 tins of hopped New Zealand Draught were.
Where that one had a really subtle and delicious dark malty taste, this one is far sweeter. It's good but I'm wondering if the colder winter temps meant that it didn't ferment as well leading to the sweeter taste. I can't imagine the meer addition of lager malts would lead to increased sweetness. I'm sure it will get smoother with time.

Any thoughts?

[GunNut76]

One of the malts could have had more unfermentables and that will increase the sweetness of the beer. Is "malty" the same as "sweet"?

[toneyc]

Some of the following may be obvious to you, but I didn't see it in your post so I'll say it anyway:

If you used a lager yeast, it should have fermented and conditioned at low temps (<50*F/10*C) for 4-6 weeks before bottling.

If you used an ale yeast and it got below 65*F/18*C, it should probably have been moved somewhere warmer and given more than 2 weeks in the fermenter.

My second or third batch got thrown out because it got too cold over the holidays and didn't finish fermenting before I bottled it. If I had only known, I could have saved it. I didn't use a hydrometer then, either.

:)
Toney.

[Asahikun]

Thanks for the replies.
Toney, it was an ale yeast. It did get a bit cool and I often put a heater in the room where it was fermenting. Even then the bubbles had almost entirely stopped.
I really must start using a hydrometer!

You mention that you threw out a batch because it hadn't finished fermenting when you bottled it. How did it taste? Was it undrinkable?

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by toneyc
..
If you used an ale yeast and it got below 65*F/18*C, it should probably have been moved somewhere warmer and given more than 2 weeks in the fermenter.
..
Toney.

A little followup on this - there are quite a few ale yeast that have an optimal temp around 65F (Wyeast 1968 comes to mind). Almost all ale yeast go completely dormant at around 50F.

[toneyc]

Originally posted by Asahikun You mention that you threw out a batch because it hadn't finished fermenting when you bottled it. How did it taste? Was it undrinkable?

Well, keep in mind that this was three years ago..

Yes, it was undrinkable, it was very sweet. I am thinking now that it was half fermented wort. At the time, I let it sit in 22 oz bottles for a few weeks. I had one friend that said he would drink it, but it was my second batch and I didn't know what was wrong with it and I felt safer by pouring it out than letting someone drink it. Three years on, I realize that if I had just let it sit in secondary for another week or two, it would have been fine. Ah, well, live, brew, and learn.

:)
Toney. - who is having a hard time spelling his own name.

[Asahikun]

Finally, it has turned into an excellent beer! It's a little sweet, a little bitter, malty and a damn good Chrtistmas beer.
Cheers!!!