Need some extract advice

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Rys06Tbss

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I am going to be switching to all grain soon. I want to make another extract kit though first. Is there any reason I should just buy another Brewers best kit? Or should I just make my own recipe and run with it.
 
Northern Brewer makes some really nice extract kits, superior to BB. MoreBeer sells some great kits including clone kits, and they shop free if you spend something like $60.
 
I like the BB kits but like I said I kinda want to try something a bit more "custom" if you will... Im going to brew on Sunday so Northern isnt really an option at this point in time... I guess I should have thought about this sooner.
 
There is a recipe section to HomeBrewTalk. Look at the dark brownish red ribbon at the top of the page. Right in the middle it says recipes. Click on it and choose one of the extract recipes. They have been brewed by members, thoroughly discussed and vetted.
 
You can still go to Northern Brewer, find an attractive looking kit, and download the recipe which it supplies. Then you can get the ingredients at your LHBS. Or, like has been mentioned, just find a good extract recipe on the forum.
 
I moved up to doing partial mash biab in partial boils & it works fine in the same equipment I've been doing extract beers with. You could get your feet wet with mashing grains that way with little expense. In fact partial mash beers are about 10-12 bucks cheaper per 5 gallon batch.
 
So I ended up making an extract AIPA with munich type 1, some melanoidin malt, light dme and 4 oz of Falconers Flight. It was right about 50 dollars. I really want to switch to all grain soon. Would love to be able to make 10 gallon batches for that price

aipa.jpg
 
$50? Was grain half of the total fermentables,or was the extract the majority of them? My partial mashes with 5lb of grains & 3-3.3lb of extract costs $25 for a 5 gsllon batch. An IPA might go up to about $30,since I use 6oz of hops in a 6 gallon batch.
 
Try switching to using 5lbs of grains & 3-3.3 pounds of plain DME/LME. Light DME for more color,extra light for golden. Breisse gold LME worked pretty good too. It'll get you into 1.04X-1.050 OG range. Using more grain & less extract should bring costs down pretty good.
 
So I ended up making an extract AIPA with munich type 1, some melanoidin malt, light dme and 4 oz of Falconers Flight. It was right about 50 dollars. I really want to switch to all grain soon. Would love to be able to make 10 gallon batches for that price

So tell me, what is stopping you? The huge price of a paint strainer bag? You could be like me and do a 2 1/2 gallon batch BIAB just to see if it was possible. After a couple of those that turned out well I went to a 5 gallon batch BIAB and I'd have to say that the worst problem I have run into is getting too high of efficiency and having all my beer be of higher OG than I anticipated.:rockin:
 
Which is always a good problem to have. Better efficiency,higher OG,better beer! I've done that with my AE brews as well. I wish Fed-Ex would get my stuff here I ordered Friday. Dang snow every friggin day slowin things down. Gotta get to the LHBS for their 5G paint strainer bag & some more dextrose.
 
I moved up to doing partial mash biab in partial boils & it works fine in the same equipment I've been doing extract beers with. You could get your feet wet with mashing grains that way with little expense. In fact partial mash beers are about 10-12 bucks cheaper per 5 gallon batch.

How do you determine what your OG will be? Do you crush the grains? Looking to do a partial mash but want to make sure I do it right.
 
Yes,you want the grains crushed whether AG or PM or even just steeping. A finer crush is better for biab though. You can use beersmith,or there are calculators & formulas out there. I started with a midwest PM pale ale kit that gave the ingredients,how much of what,etc. So I change the grains & use either DME or LME of my choice,but the same amounts. This gives an OG range about the same as the kit,which was 1.042-1.046. Some as high as 1.050. Fg is like 1.010-1.012.
This is with the 5lbs of grains & 3-3.3lbs of extract. 5G batch. And use a paint strainer bag to fit your BK so you can stir the mash. This gives higher efficiency,& thusly higher OG.
 
So tell me, what is stopping you? The huge price of a paint strainer bag? You could be like me and do a 2 1/2 gallon batch BIAB just to see if it was possible. After a couple of those that turned out well I went to a 5 gallon batch BIAB and I'd have to say that the worst problem I have run into is getting too high of efficiency and having all my beer be of higher OG than I anticipated.:rockin:

I dont know why, but I just dont want to do a BIAB... I guess I could just try it. Im in the process of putting together a Keggle Mash Tun right now. I just need to piece the parts together.
 
I dont know why, but I just dont want to do a BIAB... I guess I could just try it. Im in the process of putting together a Keggle Mash Tun right now. I just need to piece the parts together.

You shouldn't do BIAB then because once you see how easy and quick it is you may never finish the keggle mash tun.:D
 
Im just getting tired of running out of beer.... 5 gallon batches dont last me long enough...Ive started giving out my beer to friends. I gave a sixer of my other beer to a buddy that welded that keg stand for me for the troubles and he was more then willing to help me with a sculpture now. So Im going to have to loose at least a six pack to him. Usually people that help me brew tend to skip out right before clean up occurs... Little do they know that there cut for helping goes to the Ryans stress relief from the work week fund. Luckily I only lost about .25 gallon during my boil which I though was weird but oh well more beer for me i guess. I usually brew every other weekend. Right now I have a IPA that I just bottled last weekend. I also made this batch last weekend. I have a cider that I started on the 27th and mead that was started 1-6-13. I have 18 bottles of apfelwein left. Those might get me to next weekend. Im thinking 10 gallon batches might be where its at for me. I think a 10 gallon BIAB will not work very well. Maybe Ill try a 5 gallon batch next weekend. But that would require me to have another open carboy. Which I currently dont have. ****.
 
I'm kind of in the same predicament. got my grains & DME's from midwest,but they don'y have the particular Cooper's can I need for PM ale I was gunna do tomorrow. No sweat,I'll just buzz on over to JW Dover (my lhbs) & get the can,some dextrose,& the biab 5G bag. No Cooper's anymore. They had a falling out with the distributor. Dang. Hmmm...what's this I see? 1000 & 2000ML erlenmyer flasks! I got the 1000ML for $13.95. Hey,theres the 5G paint strainer bag,32" X 18",$6.37. 2 outta 4 ain't too bad. Just hacked that my black lager likely won't be ready for my b-day now.
Gee,thanks lhbs...
 
My LHBS is really cool... Id almost rather give them my money at this point in time, Yeah there prices a little more. But the dude spent almost an hour showing me how to use Beer Tools and setting up a recipe or two. Really cool guys there.
 
Yeah,these guys are pretty cool too. But I'll tell you,it seems that compared to 2 years ago,stuff I need in that shop must be really popular,cause they're always out. Or we got a big influx of new home brewers around these parts. Not a bad predicament to have if the shop keeps up with demand. Unfortunately...no. They had a lot of their "Black Box Brewing" boxes,stacked & ready. Guess they'll be bottling later,their Black Forest Lager. Love to try that. Also obvious was the fact that they weren't using plain boxes anymore. All printed really nice. Good for them. It's tough nowadays to be successful in an overloaded market.
 
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