Ask Mr. Wizard

Adding Malt Extract to a Mash

TroubleShooting

Alec James Klassen - Santa Rosa, California asks,
Q

If I wanted to make a big barleywine and didn’t have enough mash space for the needed grain, would mixing malt extract into my strike water allow mash enzymes to break down some of the more complex sugars, or are they chemically “locked”? Also, I have never heard of the Hop Quality Group. Can you tell us more about them and what they do?

A
I love this idea for a number of reasons. The first reason is that many malt extracts seem to be less fermentable than the preference of my palate. If you open a
Response by Ashton Lewis.