Wow. Thanks guys for this discussion.
I occasionally supplement my all-grain (BIAB) mashes with up to a pound (rarely 2 lbs) of Briess DME, for my high gravity beers. While they've all been fairly good, I think the more DME I've used, the less impressed I've been. I should check my notes on that.
so, FredTheCat, are you saying that Munton's DME is... "more chemically neutral"? (I'm trying to avoid asking if it's a better product, but I guess I am)
I've never used Munton's DME, but it's probably comparable in price for me.
Incidentally, I do nothing with water quality except use my fridge filter, or tap water with Campden tab. (I'm just not yet ready to introduce that level of effort into my brew processes.)
This is good info. Thanks to all of you who've discussed this here.
ive never used muntons DME, i think many people here have access to different DME like williams(?) in the states, so you might check what you can get. but the idea is basically the water used by the extract producer has amounts of minerals in it, and briess is in an area that has an unusually high amount of sodium in it, so that ends up in the DME.
i used this particular brand of DME in many brews in partial amounts for a while, and enjoyed some, one was truthfully really good. but it started to really hit me when i was using DME for all the fermentables other than specialty grains. so thats my data point/observation.
to re-iterate: the problem (at least for me) is the one brand results in a product that is sort of insipid and flat tasting to an extreme degree. LME and presumably other brands of DME do not cause that problem. LME has its own set of problems, but I use it for boosting gravity in very big brews in 10-20% amounts.
all that aside everyone has a different tongue and preferences, so it might just be me!
re: not treating your water - im increasingly moving back to barely treating my water, realizing that i was overtreating for a while now. if you have great water in your city pipes (or well) it can make as good a beer as any.