What do you pay for DME/LME?

[bpgreen]

I think one of the reasons I've never gone to all grain is that I'm spoiled. I do partial mashes, but have only done a couple of all grain batches.

I get LME from my LHBS in bulk. I f I buy at least 33 (? maybe 36, but I usually get more) lbs at a time, it's $2/lb. I think it's $2.25 or $2.50 if I buy smaller amounts (I don't know because I don't buy smaller amounts).

I was doing some searches earlier tonight for my brother and was shocked by the prices I saw. When I had to go with DME in the past, I used DMEMart, but they're not around now. The prices I was seeing were around $5-$6 for one lb, and buying bulk didn't seem to help all that much. NB almost seemed to have a good deal, but that quantity doesn't get the flat rate shipping.

What do you pay for LME or DME? And do you buy online? Now that DMEMart is gone, is there a cheap source for DME?

[mashani]

I tend to order from MoreBeer in $59 chunks, which gets me free shipping.

So for 3# bags of DME it works out to 4.33/#. I only buy 3 kinds of DME, Wheat, Munich, and Vienna.

For LME I buy it in 9# bags, it works out to 2.88/# for their Extra Light extract (which is really good stuff, I get 80% attenuation with it), and their Pilsner extract works out to $3.00/#, and I also tend to get around 80% attenuation with it. Those are the only 2 LME's I buy from them, so the rest, I can't say much about, but I would guess they tend to be older and less fresh. Almost all of their kits use one of the two above, so they have the most turn around. I've never gotten old extract of either kind from them. The freshness/attenuation I get is why people who drink my Steep or PM + extract beers don't think they taste like extract beers, so except for special sale things, I've never considered LME from other places. Northern Brewers light stuff turns around fast and also is fresh because they use it in all their kits, it just depends on if you consider them evil now. But the problem is if you buy their cheaper "bulk" quantities, the flat rate shipping goes out the window, so it really doesn't work out as cheap as it would seem and even when they have "free shipping" sales, it doesn't count for that.

Anyways, I freeze whatever bags of extract I'm not using right away.

All of the LHBS I can drive to only carry old stale canned stuff, which I will not use.

Except this "sorta local LHBS"... if you can use a hella lot of extract, you can get good deals here:

https://labelpeelers.com/malt-extract/

Their little cans of extract tend to be more fresh then most LHBS, as they are located just down the road from LD Carlson and I think get stuff as they require it vs. stock it for the most part. But they really aren't cheaper then MoreBeer, so I don't bother.

But they also sell ginormous bulk quantities of the stuff, because they can drop ship it or pick it up themselves right from LD Carlson's dock. If you can figure out what to do with 50# or 180# or 360# or 640# bags/barrels of the stuff, they can give you it cheap. Except for shipping, #50 shipping is OK, but anything bigger is a hella lot. Without shipping (IE If I drove there in a truck, and I had my own personal forklift to carry it around with) a big barrel of extract is less then you pay, but with shipping it's not. But a 50# bag of DME with shipping would work out for me as about $3/# or $2.85 if I picked it up which is a good deal for DME (that works out to about $2.28/# if it was LME from an OG standpoint) . But I'd have to figure out how to repackage it so it doesn't turn into a rock, and I'm more about saving time then money, so I haven't tried this, I think it would be messy sticky business.

[RickBeer]

Adventures in Homebrewing is $3 per pound for LME, or $2.50 per pound if you supply your own container. Since they are local to me, I bring my own container. Pretty ridiculous pricing, they should charge says 50 cents for the container, and $2.50 a pound for everyone. Paying a $0.50 per pound premium to get a plastic container that costs them very little is crazy, but that's what they charge.

[John Sand]

I stopped buying extract when I went all grain. I started again when I saw extract+grain kits, including hops on sale for $20. I buy three and get free or cheap shipping. I am on the email lists of the major HB suppliers. The "Beer, Simply Beer" kits are LME, hops and yeast and are always $20. Now for big or fast batches I do partial mashes, breaking up the kits for their ingredients. I try to buy kits that have hops I want. When there is a $20 sale, I also look for the highest regular price, as it has more ingredients.
Brew on.

[mashani]

Now for big or fast batches I do partial mashes, breaking up the kits for their ingredients. I try to buy kits that have hops I want. When there is a $20 sale, I also look for the highest regular price, as it has more ingredients.

Yes, I do this especially when there is a $14.92 or $17.76 each if you buy 3 kits type of sale on holidays. I just buy they kits with the most stuff or at least the most stuff that I would actually use and then make whatever I want out of the included ingredients, and then typically buy some extra base malt that I think would turn the specialty grains into a good PM base that I can use for multiple beers, etc., and I just freeze whatever extract I'm not using right away.