Do any of you All Grain Brewers ever Brew Extract???

you want to use unchlorinated water to get rid of any twang tastes and as for price buy a big bag and go pick it up it will save you a bunch of money, found a 50 pound bag for $150 free shipping somewhere this summer, bought 2 and now have 1/3 of 1 bag left and I brew 10 gallon batches so it worked better than I had planned, now the difference is really time vs price, 50 pounds of 2row is just $45 to $55 but 3 to 4 hours to me is worth it

I brewed extract until 1 year ago (have about 12 all grain batches under my belt now!) and loved my extract results. I am going to buy some LME from my LHBS, which the owner is reducing for sale before it goes out of date. I see more extract batches in my future!


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JustLooking said:

You have to decide. Do you want to brew beer or are you alright with someone else doing half the work for you an still calling it your own?

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I was going to respond, but I have a feeling you were just trolling. If not, I feel bad for you. I'm surprised you've tolerated the site since it has an entire section of the forums devoted to fake brewing.

"Do any of you All Grain Brewers ever Brew Extract???"

Yep

One of the best batches I've ever done was an extract batch I did in September - an Amarillo pale ale based on the Basic Brewing Radio 15-minute recipe. I splurged and went with a 20 minute boil. But I steeped the crystal and carapils as I was heating the water, so that added no extra time.

6 lb light LME
1 lb Crystal 60
1/4 lb Carapils
1 oz Amarillo @ 20 minutes
1 oz Amarillo @ 10 minutes

Damn, that was good. Might have to do it again Real Soon Now. Very short brew day, too. I highly recommend you give extract-with-steeping grains a try. It's fast, easy, and makes really good beer. The only real downside is that extract is more expensive than grain.

OTOH, the best batch I've done was an AG BIAB Citra pale ale I brewed last month. With no mash-out, no-sparge and using a pond pump to recirculate ice water through my IWC my brew days run well under 4 hours from the time I start gathering my gear until I'm done cleaning up, and that's without rushing around.

I started as many do with extract kits with steeping grains. I can't say my taste-buds are educated enough to know what an extract twang is but I was reasonably happy with my extract brews, more so than my first couple of forays into AG. I think as one's system gets refined and appropriate attention gets devoted to correct volumes, quality of crush, accurate temperature monitoring and control, yeast management, fermentation temperatures and oxygenation etc the final product improves regardless of the source of fermentable maltose and its companions.

Having said all that, I also feel like there is no rush to the process and I have a busy home life. It is like cooking a Sunday roast. Total time from start to clean up is quite a lot but the process is enjoyable, the end result is often better than a quicker meal, I'm at home doing it so I get to hang out with the kids, get to have fun and show them what is going on. The caveat is that I need to keep my kitchen very neat and tidy as I go to ensure SWMBO doesn't get upset. I have refined my BIAB technique to eliminate spills and drips as much as possible so that aspect is largely under control. Lots of time in brewing is waiting for things to heat up or cool down. This requires little supervision on my part as I can monitor temperatures without watching constantly. I can do other things in the interim

I will definitely do extract again just not in the foreseeable future as I am loving the AG system with BIAB. I would mirror the sentiment of other posters in the thread in that I too feel that brewing with extract does not provide me with the same satisfaction and sense of accomplishment as brewing from the raw ingredients does. Someone else has done some of the work. The same could be said of baking from kits in a box or from the basics, flour, sugar etc. Both equally valid but not really the same thing. Great cakes could be had from both methods no doubt. I'm sure I would not be able to tell the difference if correct methods were utilized.

My last extract was Northern Brewer's Nut Brown. I did a full volume boil, pitched harvested NeoBritannia Wyeast built up with a 2 step starter and the result was a very satisfying brown. A simple brew with good results. For sure a shorter brew day and an enjoyable one. Just not as much fun as I have now with AG.

I will do 15 minute-boil pale ales and blondes with extract on occasion. The 15 minute extract process can turn out some great beer without investing a lot of time on brewday.

I did one extract (the aforementioned 15-min pale ale) and wasn't a fan of the process or the product. However, I have been tempted to try again.

I hear you with the 1am finish time. Sometimes what I will do is either mash one night, boil the next or mash/boil one night and let chill overnight and pitch/cleanup the next day.

As for the folks who can't understand trying to shorten brew days: why do people play 9 holes of golf? When length of time is the difference between doing it and not doing it, people would rather have an abbreviated brew day than no brew day at all.

I do an extract here and there, even have done them at that same time, finished the sparge, started the boil and started steeping in the HLT. 15 gallons (10 AG + 5 extract).

What I want to know is where everyone is geting such great prices on buying bulk grain?
It's $75 at both my local places for bulk grain. I've seen posts where people are saying they are getting a sack of bulk grain for less than 40.
75ish just doesn't seem like that great of a deal to me, am I looking at this wrong?

I've asked this question time and time again and have never got an answer.

JustLooking said:

You have to decide. Do you want to brew beer or are you alright with someone else doing half the work for you an still calling it your own?

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As long as you grow your own hops and grain and don't rely on "someone else".

mdbrewer1 said:

I was going to respond, but I have a feeling you were just trolling. If not, I feel bad for you. I'm surprised you've tolerated the site since it has an entire section of the forums devoted to fake brewing.

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Talk about being overly defensive.

No, not trolling. Never even said the beer was bad. Stating fact and asking a legitimate question.

You be the troller by using "fake brewing" when it was never stated or implied.

Partial brewing? Maybe that, but certainly not fake.

mdbrewer1 said:

I guess just remarkably condescending then.

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And only condescending to someone who is terribly insecure about their process. Lighten up.

RDWHAHB

dnslater said:

As long as you grow your own hops and grain and don't rely on "someone else".

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Oh and that makes so much sense with all the breweries out there growing their own hops and grain and have malting on premise. So, you don't know the difference between brewing and farming?




Yes, I know, there are a few, but they are in the vast minority.

rekoob said:

What I want to know is where everyone is geting such great prices on buying bulk grain?
It's $75 at both my local places for bulk grain. I've seen posts where people are saying they are getting a sack of bulk grain for less than 40.
75ish just doesn't seem like that great of a deal to me, am I looking at this wrong?

I've asked this question time and time again and have never got an answer.

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Here's an example

No idea how much shipping is though. My LHBS has 50# of 2-row for about $40. Sounds like your LHBS isn't giving a bulk discount...

JustLooking said:

Talk about being overly defensive.

No, not trolling. Never even said the beer was bad. Stating fact and asking a legitimate question.

You be the troller by using "fake brewing" when it was never stated or implied.

Partial brewing? Maybe that, but certainly not fake.

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I concur with JustLooking. This is needlessly defensive. There is no argument put forward by the OP that one brewing style is superior to another. It is a simple question to AG brewers; do you ever do extract brewing? I'm guessing the OP wants to gain insight into people's rationale for switching methodology and if they ever switch back. Why allow the discussion to degenerate into such dismissive statements consistent with "you must be trolling because I disagree with your premise".

This is an interesting thread IMHO. I'd just as soon not have to distill out the rancor. Apologies for the digression on my part.

I do both. I have a few recipes I had made prior to doing All Grain, such as my oatmeal stout. It's one of my best beers and I am not ready to even attempt to make an All Grain version of it because it's so perfect the way it is as a partial.

That said, I don't have any recipes that are solely extract. I like the process of using grains, whether I'm doing a full mash or just steeping them before I add extract.

The way I see it, you do what you have time for. October is a very busy month for me. It's hard to find 5-6 hours to do an All Grain. As such, I only got 2 in. I got 2 more brews in that I had to fit in a tight window, so I did partials.

JustLooking said:

Oh and that makes so much sense with all the breweries out there growing their own hops and grain and have malting on premise. So, you don't know the difference between brewing and farming?




Yes, I know, there are a few, but they are in the vast minority.

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Since I have a farm and collect my own hops, is it still faking it if I buy some malted barley to convert my unmalted grains in my beer?

EthanH said:

As for the folks who can't understand trying to shorten brew days: why do people play 9 holes of golf? When length of time is the difference between doing it and not doing it, people would rather have an abbreviated brew day than no brew day at all.

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Poor comparison. More like playing 18 holes, but driving your cart to the green and starting from there to save time.

But you do have a valid point about a shorter brewday sometimes being good thing.

I think it's about time that everyone had a home brew....
Thanks for all the comments---

Most beer drinkers will never know if its an extract or not. Do both when you can, have fun with your brews and your family. Avoid beer snobbery and enjoy a cold pint.

JustLooking said:

Oh and that makes so much sense with all the breweries out there growing their own hops and grain and have malting on premise. So, you don't know the difference between brewing and farming?




Yes, I know, there are a few, but they are in the vast minority.

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Was just having fun with the comment. I grow my own hops but mostly brew extract, so I'm a farmer and not a brewer I guess.

Absolutely..If i want to brew a quick beer extract with some steeping grains..Beer comes out great..I have saw some youtube videos of people saying you cant brew good beer with extract and that is pure BS I started with extract and always made good beer..Do i think AG is better quality? yes i do but extract makes fine beer granted you use fresh ingredients..The one guy on youtube "take some advice" needs advice haha

Of my 80+ brews, Ive only done extract once. It was for my fruit lambics I have aging right now. The only reason I decided to go extract was because of time contraints that weekend, but wanted to brew.

jbob7171 said:

Here's an example

No idea how much shipping is though. My LHBS has 50# of 2-row for about $40. Sounds like your LHBS isn't giving a bulk discount...

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I have to agree they aren't selling at bulk prices. Very frustrating.

The shipping in you're example (as every one I've seen online) is $26. Which puts me back in the range of not bulk prices.

I want to buy bulk stuff but it's just not working out for me and as far as I know the closest group buy is to far away to make it worth it.

Just wish there was some way to get bulk prices around here.

Another reason I do an extract here and there, no real cost savings so if time is the issue for me I do extract instead of trying a shorter mash schedule or a small batch type thing.

JustLooking said:

Talk about being overly defensive.

No, not trolling. Never even said the beer was bad. Stating fact and asking a legitimate question.

You be the troller by using "fake brewing" when it was never stated or implied.

Partial brewing? Maybe that, but certainly not fake.

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I guess just remarkably condescending then.