Beer is brewed from malted barley. More precisely, beer is made by fermenting the sugars extracted from malted barley (mostly maltose). Malt is a general term used as an abbreviation for several things associated with maltose and malted barley. Brewer's malt is not Malted Milk Balls, Malted Milk Shakes, nor is it malt extract. In those cases, malt refers to the use of maltose - the sugar. The malts that brewers talk about are the specific types of malted barley that are processed to yield a wide range of fermentable maltose sugars. These include Lager Malts, Pale Malts, Vienna Malts, Munich Malts, Toasted, Roasted and Chocolate Malts. But what is malted barley?

Malting is the process in which barley is soaked and drained to initiate the germination of the plant from the seed. When the seed germinates, it activates enzymes which start converting its starch reserves and proteins into sugars and amino acids that the growing plant can use. The purpose of malting a grain is to release these enzymes for use by the brewer. Once the seeds start to sprout, the grain is dried in a kiln to stop the enzymes until the brewer is ready to use the grain.

The brewer crushes the malted barley and soaks it in hot water to reactivate and accelerate the enzyme activity, converting the barley's starch reserves into sugars in a short period of time. The resulting sugar is boiled with hops and fermented by the yeast to make beer.

Dark Malt Extract is produced by mashing finely ground, malted barley and roasted with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C. Then the resulting liquid is filtered and reduced through evaporation under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey with a dark colour (1400 – 1900 EBC)*.

Malt Extract is produced by mashing finely ground malted barley with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C, then filtering and evaporating the resulting liquid under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey with a medium amber colour (70 – 120 EBC)*.

Light Malt Extract is produced by mashing finely ground malted and unmalted barley with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C, then filtering and evaporating the resulting liquid under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey with a light amber colour (40 – 65 EBC)*.

Wheat Malt Extract is produced by mashing finely ground malted barley and wheat with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C, then filtering and evaporating the resulting liquid under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey with a medium light amber colour (40 – 80 EBC)*.

Amber Malt Extract is produced by mashing finely ground malted barley and crystal malt with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C, then filtering and evaporating the resulting liquid under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey with an amber colour (300 – 380 EBC)*.

Light Dry Malt is produced by mashing finely ground malted and unmalted barley with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C, then filtering and evaporating the resulting liquid under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey with a light amber colour. The malt extract is then spray dried to produce a fine, free flowing powder product (60 – 140 EBC)*

Grain to Extract Conversion

Grain to LME: lbs grain x .75 = lbs LME
Grain to DME: lbs grain x .6 = lbs DME

LME to Grain: lbs LME / .75 = lbs Grain
DME to Grain: lbs DME / .6 = lbs Grain

LME to DME: lbs LME x .8 = lbs DME
DME to LME: lbs DME x 1.25 = lbs LME