Questions about making my own extract...

I'm looking at making my own condensed extract, similar to what you would get in the cans from Mr. Beer or John Bull.

There are two reasons that I'm looking into this. First, when creating a heavy gravity beer this would give me more fermentables in the fermenter compared to if the water hadn't been boiled out, correct?

Second off, it would allow me to get ready many batches of beer in one weekend while all of my stuff is out and about.

Has anyone out there ever done this? In my mind, I just see boiling my sweet wort until much of the liquid has condensed. Is there anything wrong with doing this or is there anything I need to watch when doing it. If it's ok, should I hop it? I was thinking of pouring it into big quart size mason jars that I would freeze for use later, anything wrong with this either?

Thanks in advance,

Josh

Its not really that simple from my understanding of how LME is created.

As long as you want dark beers, since that much boiling down is going to darken and carmelize sugars by the time you boil it TWICE (once to condense, once to make the actual beer).

Honestly the way to make big beers is more grain in the MLT and better extraction techniques. Your method is going to use as much grain no matter what, and possible with less than stellar results.

malkore said:

Its not really that simple from my understanding of how LME is created.

As long as you want dark beers, since that much boiling down is going to darken and carmelize sugars by the time you boil it TWICE (once to condense, once to make the actual beer).

Honestly the way to make big beers is more grain in the MLT and better extraction techniques. Your method is going to use as much grain no matter what, and possible with less than stellar results.

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I agree. Also, you'd use tons of energy doing this and your beer won't be near as fresh tasting as if you use grains or even quality extract from the store. If getting your stuff out and about is such a chore why even brew at home? Isn't brewing the fun part?

If getting your stuff out and about is such a chore why even brew at home? Isn't brewing the fun part?"

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Don't get me wrong, I love brewing. I'm working on my first all grain batches as we speak. I don't consider it a chore at all.

Unfortunately, I sometimes work 60 hour weeks and this causes issues with me being able to get out all of my stuff out, sanitize it in the 95+ degree East TN heat and spend four through six hours making a batch.

ONE of the reasons I was wondering if this would work, was on the weekends that I'd like to brew, but don't have time, I'd be able to pull my extract out of the fridge and have a batch made to keep my fermenters full. But now that I know that it would probably compromise many of the core attributes of the beer, I don't plan on doing it.

I would love nothing more than too crack a cold home brew and sit in a lawn chair all day watching the grass grow while my grain mashes. I, unfortunately, don't have that pleasure.

Some people mash over-night & brew in the morning. A well-insulated mash tun will keep the temperature up in the safe zone, plus you'll be boiling the wort anyway. Controlling the level of unfermentables can be a problem, though. Having enough space in your tun to do a mash-out to denature the enzymes is important.

This guy from Bulgaria did some research because he can't get any there...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=60735

Also I swear at my LHBS that the latest issue of Zymurgy or BYO had the cover caption, make your own malt...might wanna check it out.

I was under the impression that LME is boiled in a vacuum environment so that the color of the LME is not affected by the boil. If this is true that would be awful difficult to reproduce in the home.

You will want to read the BYO article on extract

As far as time saving goes, what about this: mash and sparge one night, then store the unboiled wort overnight as cleanly as possible, then boil the next day.

that's a pretty effective way to do it too.

If time is such a factor then perhaps you should stick to extract beers with a partial boil. It would cut down the time needed to brew,a nd when you do have time then have an AG brew day. I have been contemplating doing exactly that since I do not have much time to brew with my 3 month old daughter.