Okay, extremely weird question. Is it possible to make LME with all grains, by basically doing a normal all grain brew for 5 gallons. At the end of the brew instead of cooling it down, can i just boil off the water to maybe 1 gallon or something like that and cool it down and can it in a/several mason jars so that i can reuse it for later or give it as a gift to a friend so they can do a simple extract brew. I know that this just sounds downright stupid, unpractical, odd, and ect. I just wanted to know that if is possible, if anyone has done it, and has any tips or advice.
If you took 10lb of a basic recipe, mashed and got 75% efficiency you’d come out with roughly 6lb of sugar in your wort (grain is 80% starch, assume 100% conversion, 75% efficiency). If you boiled this down to one gallon you could give it to him in a plastic gallon jug or a glass jug. If you pour it in while its still pretty hot (160F) it’d sterilize the container. He could theoretically make a batch of beer out of it, it’d be pretty heavily caramelized though. Have him make a Scotch ale, that’d be appropriate for the stuff.
When they make LME they use a vacuum distillation process to boil off the water at a low temp so less caramelization occurs.
Go for it! Or just buy him a can of LME.
Thank you that was extremely simple, clean, and easily understandable. I think you are right though I would be much better off just buy a can of LME. I apperciate the explanation, advice, and the alternative.
I suppose it could be done, but just remember that commercial extracts are generally made under a vacuum, so that the boiling point is at a lower temperature resulting in less scorching of the wort.
edit: the other responses came in before I posted mine…sorry for the repetition!
You might be ok for a little while if you kept the bottled (canned) wort in the fridge after sealing it hot, but that’s NOT the same as canning and you run the risk of spoilage (and botulism) if you think that it would be shelf stable at room temp. What about freezing?
