non-member submission - RE: SC - Barley malt syrup?

[Michael F. Gunter]

<<<<<Right.  All grain mashing will not result in a
commercial style malt extract, but it does produce a
sweet extract which is not dissimilar to the malt
syrup mentioned in this thread.  It's still not as
concentrated as the commercial stuff, to be certain,
but it is a "syrup", in essence.  If I am reading the
question correctly, I would have to say that, while
commercial malt syrups may not have been available
during the Middle Ages, a product such as the one
being discussed was certainly used in the brewhouse,
if only coincidentally...>>>>>>

I think I am not understanding the thread, then.  Mashed wort has a
specific gravity from 1.015 to
1.15 (these are wide ranges and not at all inclusive of all of them, but
certainly reasonable range for
our discussion).  Water is the standard of gravity 1.000.  The heaviest
at 1.15 is still not what one
would generally call a syrup.  A sweetened liquid, for certain, but not
really a syrup,
and nothing the consistancy of a Karo or even an american light pancake
syrup.  Can anyone out there
describe the thickness/specific gravity of what we are discussing?  I
think my mind is seeing something
a bit different.  The malt extract (beer making stuff) I am thinking of
has a gravity that can't easily be measured
with standard floaty thing because it is the consistancy of molasses.  I
am losing track of the original thread,
so I could easily be way off base in all of this.

What I have pieced together about the discussion of malt extract as a
baking and malted milk ingredient
is referencing either the vacuum spray dried extract or the really thick
commercial extract.  I am imagining
that the thinner wort of a beer making pricess would proffer little malt
character to the bread in the volume
used to make the dough.

If what was referenced as used by the British Navy was simply sweetened
wort, then it would have soured
within days of production rather than preserved for weeks to months.
But this statement may not be relavent at all here.

niccolo difrancesco