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I want to substitute male extract liquid for grain in some pilsner recipies that I have but have no idea for a starting point.
Some full mash recipies call for 4 or 6 libs of pale malt- what should I use instead ?
David

The recipe should quote a target OG. Look at this and work out how much extract is required.

Liquid malt extract is approximately 36 PPG. This means that one pound of LLME in one US gallon of water will have an OG of 1036. Grab one of the many, many links to Palmer for fuller readings on this. It is quite easy.

When all graining, due to varying efficiencies the brewer may need to up or lower the amount of grain to get the required start gravity.

Cheers,
Greg

To put you in the ballpark, you'd be looking at somewhere around 4-5kg of base malt for a 23L batch. So if you're doing a partial, you might have a pilsener or lager kit, plus 2.5kg base malt, plus specialty malts.

I know I have figures at home to convert dry extract to liquid extract but I'm not sure if there is a simple grain to extract conversion figure. As Greg said different efficiencies will affect the conversion. I will have a look anyway, would make a starting figure anyway. OG would be the best way to go, especially if you use beersmith or similar, just tinker with the amount until the OG is right.

While we're on OG, will adding dex to increase OG affect much more than alcohol level. To my thinking it wouldn't affect the malt/hops balance. And does dextrose affect hop utilization in the same way as malt extract. (Though I try to stay away from dex anyway)

earle wrote:While we're on OG, will adding dex to increase OG affect much more than alcohol level[?] To my thinking it wouldn't affect the malt/hops balance.

It will not affect the malt/hops balance, but it will affect the flavour, as the additional alcohol affects how you perceive a lot of flavours. Also, it may affect yeast health, causing changes in the resulting flavour component profile.

And does dextrose affect hop utilization in the same way as malt extract[?]

Yes. It affects hop utilisation as utilisation is related to the concentration of dissolved sugars in the wort. Intuitively, if you dissolve more stuff in the liquid (sugars) then it's harder to dissolve other stuff in the liquid (hop compounds).

Thanks

Ray Daniels wrote a handy article about extract conversion here

Ken Schwartz also wrote an excellent reference article on
Converting All-Grain Recipes to Extract / Partial Mash

Cheers,
TL