Basic brew making??

[Kshock]

i have been perfecting my mead and cider skills.. have made several batches of both so far. Now looking for more advice if you have any to give. I would like to try doing beer now, but with the simplicity of the cider and mead recipes.. I find it very hard to bring my self to start mashing and boiling for hrs on ends, and maintaining correct temps throughout the process to make a beer. So my question is, there has to be a simpler route to make a beer home brew right? Using malt extract? Or something? Not using grains, or mashing?.. any info, recepies, directions, or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Gameface]

i have been perfecting my mead and cider skills.. have made several batches of both so far. Now looking for more advice if you have any to give. I would like to try doing beer now, but with the simplicity of the cider and mead recipes.. I find it very hard to bring my self to start mashing and boiling for hrs on ends, and maintaining correct temps throughout the process to make a beer. So my question is, there has to be a simpler route to make a beer home brew right? Using malt extract? Or something? Not using grains, or mashing?.. any info, recepies, directions, or thoughts would be appreciated.

Yes there are extract kits. If you have a LHBS or you can look at an online brewing site you will find dozens if not hundreds of them and they typically come with instructions.

Of course in the beginner home brewing section of this site there are hundreds upon hundreds of threads about, well, begining home brewing that should help if you have any questions.

 

[RM-MN]

i have been perfecting my mead and cider skills.. have made several batches of both so far. Now looking for more advice if you have any to give. I would like to try doing beer now, but with the simplicity of the cider and mead recipes.. I find it very hard to bring my self to start mashing and boiling for hrs on ends, and maintaining correct temps throughout the process to make a beer. So my question is, there has to be a simpler route to make a beer home brew right? Using malt extract? Or something? Not using grains, or mashing?.. any info, recepies, directions, or thoughts would be appreciated.

Who says you have to spend hours mashing and boiling to make beer. Yes there are extract kits that will simplify the process but the directions for those are questionable at best. If you choose to make an extract batch of beer, ask here for instructions instead of just following the kit directions. Their instructions will make beer, our instructions can make better beer.

I've done the extract kits and followed the directions and I now do all grain via BIAB and with practice I can make a batch all grain as fast as what the kits did following their directions but cheaper and with more choices that I can make. I mill grain while my water is heating, put the bag into the pot and stir in the grains, set the timer and walk away while the mash is going on. Then I pull the bag and do a sparge (not really necessary but my pot is a little small), heat the wort to boil and set the heat to keep it boiling slowly. Reset the timer and go do other things. When the boil is done I start the chilling of the wort and walk away for a bit longer, then come back to my cooled wort and put it in the fermenter, add yeast, put the lid on and I'm done except for cleaning the boil pot. Total time is 3.5 to 4 hours, of which I was involved with the brew for about 1 hour.

 

[myndflyte]

Extract is the way to start. No mashing, basic brewing principles, but you can make great beer. Even extract can be quick. The latest episode of basicbrewing video is a 15 min boil extract saison, so extract brewing can be even quicker. So my suggestion is to find an extract kit that sounds good to you and give it a shot.