khanti
Well-Known Member
So I recently made the switch from extract to all-grain brewing. My first All-Grain brew was a Belgian Dark Strong Ale and I had the most insane fermentation I've yet witnessed. I wound up getting 89.1% apparent attenuation, a record for me, and smashed the 1.020 barrier I'd been struggling with (1.100 down to 1.010). But I was also using a new yeast (WLP500) and a fairly low mash temp, so I figured it was just a fluke.
So a week later, I converted my favorite IIPA recipe to all grain. I pretty much just swapped out the Extra Light DME for American 2-row. Wound up with an identical starting gravity to what the extract version of this beer was and again I got crazy attenuation. The extract version was 70.4%, the all-grain was 80.5%. I used a higher mash temp on this one than I did the Belgian (154 vs 149), but when comparing the identical recipe IIPAs, extract vs AG, everything was as close to the same as I can get.
So is AG just that more fermentable or are there other variables I'm just not accounting for? I really like the way the AG IIPA turned out, but it a completely different beer than the Extract version. Drier, thinner, less head retention, more hop-forward. Delicious, but a different beer.
Is this typical? Should I be adjusting my recipes to include more non-fermentables? Cara-pils or something?
TIA
-khanti
So a week later, I converted my favorite IIPA recipe to all grain. I pretty much just swapped out the Extra Light DME for American 2-row. Wound up with an identical starting gravity to what the extract version of this beer was and again I got crazy attenuation. The extract version was 70.4%, the all-grain was 80.5%. I used a higher mash temp on this one than I did the Belgian (154 vs 149), but when comparing the identical recipe IIPAs, extract vs AG, everything was as close to the same as I can get.
So is AG just that more fermentable or are there other variables I'm just not accounting for? I really like the way the AG IIPA turned out, but it a completely different beer than the Extract version. Drier, thinner, less head retention, more hop-forward. Delicious, but a different beer.
Is this typical? Should I be adjusting my recipes to include more non-fermentables? Cara-pils or something?
TIA
-khanti