All Grain VS Extract

Hey all,

So I have been doing this homebrew thing for a while now and for the most part its amazing. I have made about 12 brews. However, my beers for whatever reason are not what I want them to be, at all. No matter how much I change the recipe around, my beers have this tendency to have a generic standing taste to them. It used to get me really mad, but my friends always said they taste great and different. So maybe this is just me beating my self up, as an artist would when critiquing his own work. But maybe my friends are just being nice.

ANYWAY, I think that still using extract is really hindering my beers, and this is the reason why my beers are not where I want them to be. Will going all grain help this dilemma in my brewing?

Hmm thats a question I'm not into all grain mainly cause of space in my town home. Maybe change up extracts. maybe the extracts are from the same region ie, america, germany, austria etc.

Already been done....Every week....

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=64229
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=666866

In addition to Revvy's link suggestion, do a search for 'extract twang' to get some info on that generic taste you're probably noticing. It will also show you ways to help resolve it.

The short answer is yes, the beers will change- maybe dramatically. The long answers are in the threads that Revvy pointed to.

Another thing to try is partial mash brewing. You get the both of both worlds that way- less extract taste, bit no (or at least very little!) extra equipment. You can still do a partial boil with partial mash brewing. Maybe try one of your extract recipes as a PM and see what you think before you commit to going AG. We'd all be glad to help you convert one of them, and then you could easily compare the results.

YooperBrew said:

The short answer is yes, the beers will change- maybe dramatically. The long answers are in the threads that Revvy pointed to.

Another thing to try is partial mash brewing. You get the both of both worlds that way- less extract taste, bit no (or at least very little!) extra equipment. You can still do a partial boil with partial mash brewing. Maybe try one of your extract recipes as a PM and see what you think before you commit to going AG. We'd all be glad to help you convert one of them, and then you could easily compare the results.

Click to expand...

So partial mash, forgive my noobness here, but what does this intail? Isnt steeping grains a form of PM? I would love to try it. Let me think of a recipe I would convert of mine.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Partial_mash
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=57505


http://www.google.com/custom?domain...000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;FORID:1;&hl=en

http://***********/feature/1536.html

EamusCatuli said:

So partial mash, forgive my noobness here, but what does this intail? Isnt steeping grains a form of PM? I would love to try it. Let me think of a recipe I would convert of mine.

Click to expand...

No, steeping grains are, well, steeping them. A PM does have similar techniques, but you are actually replacing some of the extract with grains, so you could use less extract.

Steeping grains is like making tea- color, flavor, not much else.

Mashing grains is like making chicken stock- color, flavor, nutritional content.

That's my own analogy- Revvy's links will give much better info and how to's. But, yes, find a recipe you've done that is good and we'll convert it for you and you can give it a try and see the difference.