Does anyone ever go back to Extract?

I started brewing with extract/steeping grains, and moved to all grain shortly. I've been there ever since, and had good results. Some beers are better than others, but almost all of the extract beers i made were great.

now, that being said, i dont actually know if they were great. i THOUGHT they were great, but a large portion of that could have been psychological influence on my tastebuds because 'i made that.' A good number of my AG brews have been great too, to be fair.

It got me thinking though: has anyone ever gone back to extract brewing after trying AG?

i'm not thinking of trying it, because when a brew doesnt turn out as well as i'd like, i'd rather go crazy figuring out why, and tweaking the recipe into oblivion, all to make it taste the way i think it should. But, maybe thats not what others do?

I don't think I'll ever go back to extract (even with specialty grains) brewing. I really enjoy knowing exactly what goes into my brew, formulating my own recipes. With extract, you almost never know exactly what's gone into it's making.

While I've had a couple of recipes I've not liked (and won't brew again) I have yet to have even a mediocre batch. The vast majority are great (or better) confirmed by others. More than a few of those people are known to be brutally honest with such things.

When the local club gives away free extract at events, yes. Good for lawnmower beer. Simple and easy brew. But I won't buy it anymore.

I'd just use the extract to make starters for my all grain batches. :rockin:

I still do both. I can't stand to see my fermentor empty and I don't always have time to do mash.

Yessss!! I went back to extract just to simplify my brew and cut back on time. Specialty still get good quality brew.

I greatly prefer AG, but I have had times that I didn't have room for a MLT or extra time to mash, etc. This largely being before BIAB became prevalent... even so, I would still now refrain from doing BIAB or batch or whatever because of consistency... Anything I do on the home scale I want to be able to translate to commercial scale and vice-versa with Zero effort. Consistency is #1. ANYWAY... so at times I have either had neither the space or the time... when that happens I will gladly do extract brews. One example of "not enough time" happened about a year ago; I needed to brew for my niece's wedding reception. I brewed 3 batches, extract brews, in about 4 hours start to finish... about the time it takes me to do an AG. Two Helles and a Marzen (sort of, I used ale yeast) The beers were good and well received at the party.

While they are rarely spectacular, my extract beers are solidly "good"... and once in a while there are some that really stand out. Respectable beer can be made either way. I don't dis extract

Brewing for just over two years, had brewed one or two extracts before moving to grain. I always liked the egalitarian argument that it really doesn't matter how you produce your wort, and that extract brewers can make excellent beers, so I recently put it to the test and did an extract w/steeping grains robust porter. Let this suffice: I won't do it again, and I don't have many of those robust porters taking up space in my beer fridge. They're sitting in my closet, saved, I suppose, for a rainy day or to welcome unwelcome guests.

Yep - I do both. With a little one around the house I don't always have time for a full AG brew day. It's great to whip out an extract batch to get some solid beer in the fermentors. Going AG has helped my process to the point where I make very good extract beers - really at that point it's almost entirely fermentation control and pitching temps if you assume good sanitation. Any extract I do I do with steeping grains. AG allows me to dial in exactly what I want and be more creative, but I don't always have time or necessarily want that all the time.

bleme said:

I still do both. I can't stand to see my fermentor empty and I don't always have time to do mash.

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this. i have a seriously tasty saison and an award-winning robust porter that were both partial mash, and i still do all hefe's extract. don't get so beer-snobbish you write off extract completely

Pilgarlic said:

I recently put it to the test and did an extract w/steeping grains robust porter. Let this suffice: I won't do it again, and I don't have many of those robust porters taking up space in my beer fridge. They're sitting in my closet, saved, I suppose, for a rainy day or to welcome unwelcome guests.

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I've been drinking this one (extract version cuz it was $21.99 that week) for about a week and it is a seriously good brew.

If you do say so yourself. Chuckling... seriously... I'm happy for you. I won't do it again, but won't say for a minute that others shouldn't.

Pilgarlic said:

If you do say so yourself. Chuckling... seriously... I'm happy for you. I won't do it again, but won't say for a minute that others shouldn't.

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have you ever gone over your methods with someone who knows what they're doing? many national awards have been won by people who use partial mash, or even extract. Chuckling... seriously... it works for some, doesn't work for others

Relax, Lumpher. It works for some, doesn't work for others. Don't let that bother you.

Pilgarlic said:

Relax, Lumpher. It works for some, doesn't work for others. Don't let that bother you.

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no worries, my friend. i can't drink anything made with lme; have to use dme. that lme twang makes me gag. dme, though, at least to me, tastes different

never! ha!

I did one extract, one partial mash, and everything else since has been all-grain. Yet, I have two 4 pound cans of light LME that I need to use sometime. Just not sure what for at this point. I really like the ability to control mash temp (my standard APA mashes at 154), so trying to find something to make that I'd be happy with is a challenge. I need to find something that would mash middle-of-the road, similar to the fermentability profile of most extract.

I made some pretty decent extract recipes over the years, but since I went to all grain this year I doubt I'd go back. If you are doing partial mash or specialty grains you are still going to have the steeping time, so that won't save you much. Since I also did partial boils with my extract in 2 separate pots maybe that would heat and boil faster, but now that I have a 10 gallon kettle I probably wouldn't do that either.

I'm doing BIAB and it seems easy enough that way and you get good results. Why would I go back?

edroberts said:

I did one extract, one partial mash, and everything else since has been all-grain. Yet, I have two 4 pound cans of light LME that I need to use sometime. Just not sure what for at this point. I really like the ability to control mash temp (my standard APA mashes at 154), so trying to find something to make that I'd be happy with is a challenge. I need to find something that would mash middle-of-the road, similar to the fermentability profile of most extract.

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If I had that much LME on hand I'd probably use it for a yeast starter.

I went from extract plus steeping to all grain, then backed up to partial mash. Something was wrong with my process.
I'm a very happy partial mash brewer now. All I did was worry when I went all grain.

FWIW, I only use DME instead of LME now. It is a much better product, in my experience. I base all of my 5 gallon recipes off 3 lbs extra light DME, then add malted grain to get my OG target.

Actually there's been quite a few folks on here, who have brewed with extract on occasion. Like some have said, when life gets in the way, and you can't spend 6+ hours brewing, and you still want to make beer, then you do what you have to do.

Plus some recipes just don't translate that well from extract to all grain. I have a very basic amber ale that is extract with grains, that all attempts to do it as AG have not come close. So when I want that beer, I go back to the extract.

As I've said numerous time, I'm not an AG brewer, or an Extract brewer, I'm a home brewer. my goal is to make the best damn beer possible, regardless of whether it's with extract or ag, or whatever.

My last extract batch was a Belgian Tripel that was incredible. I'm not sure if I want to try an AG version or just re-create the extract I loved so much. Likely I'll do the extract version again. All I want is the beer, the process isn't always the important thing.

Franc103 said:

I went from extract plus steeping to all grain, then backed up to partial mash. Something was wrong with my process.
I'm a very happy partial mash brewer now. All I did was worry when I went all grain.

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I ALMOST did this exact same thing a few years ago. Instead, i stumbled on this site while trying to do research to fix my AG woes, and many many hours later, i'm happy with my AG brews!

I sold all my stuff and then years later got back into it and minimashed like 10 batches - you can make awesome beer mini mashing with fresh dry extract

Nothing wrong with it.

I recently did a few no boil cans to see if I could make them better with yeast and dry hoping - turns out you can.

Hell yeah I extract and AG brew all the time. Just this past weekend, I cranked through an extract Pale (10 gallon) batch in 3 hours including clean up. Granted, my folks watch our kids on Fridays and he had the boil kettle at 160 by the time I got home from work, but 3 hours in and out = WIN.

Yawn.....

I will do PM in winter when is -40 since its a lot less trouble and more comfy to brew indoors! Spring/summer/fall is AG mostly.

I have not tried extract brewing yet - started with "just add water" kits (concentrated wort) till I got everything ready to do AG. Will see if it may be an option for the winter
Extract seem to cost too much plus what made me interested in brewing is the magic of turning grains into a beer

Revvy said:

As I've said numerous time, I'm not an AG brewer, or an Extract brewer, I'm a home brewer. my goal is to make the best damn beer possible, regardless of whether it's with extract or ag, or whatever.

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Revvy speaks the truth.

NochEineMassBitte said:

Revvy speaks the truth.

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Indeed.

I guess that answers my questions! thanks all!

I have made some damn fine partial mash extract beers. But when I started AG brewing, I discovered something, I enjoy AG brewing! I think it is the whole process I like, it seems so connected to our past. I know that sounds cheesy as hell, but there it is.

I do about once/year, just to get a batch out quicker that what I can make the same batch using ag in. Other than that, no.