Can you brew great beers with liquid malt extract?

[avillax]

Hi guys, I'm about to start my first batch of beer and I want to create an IPA with flavor similar to Matuska beers, they're Czech, I don't know if you've tried them but they brew mainly IPAs, they're all similar, and taste great.

Anyways, went to the brew store and surely they recommended me to start with malt extract, so I can get 10 liters for about $5 which is very cheap and good quality Czech Bohemian pilz extract!

And I also have many varieties of hops available and yeast for cheap prices.

So yeah, the question is, can I brew a good Matuska-like IPA with my basic equipment and malt extract?

Any recipe in particular? On a note, I absolutely hate simple lagers.

 

[eadavis80]

I think great beers can be made as long as you're sanitary, have a good recipe, ferment at the right temp and pitch the proper amount and style of yeast - that goes for extract, BIAB, partial mash or all-grain.

 

[rekoob]

Hells Yeah! The extract these days is very good. You can't make a real light colored or tinted beer due to the extract color and you don't have as much adjustment room as you have with all grain. Other than that you won't have any issues making great beer with extract.

Na Zdorovie!

 

[mrgrimm101]

Absolutely. As eadavis80 said above, as long as you take the proper care and precautions you can make great beer using malt extract.

Many times you can find a clone recipe of something you like, but I can't find anything for a Matuska clone. Without knowing which hops they use it'd be tough to create a clone, but you could probably come pretty close if you have had it enough and can pick out particular flavors and aromas.

You may want to look into a pale malt extract and compare that to the pilsner extract and see which one is best for your beer.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[DocDriza]

I've been doing extract brewing for over a year now. There has only been one beer that came out badly. There is so much you can still do with simple equipment and extract.

 

[Derek1985]

Sure can.

You can actually approximate some of the complexity of AG malt bills with extract from Briess. They list the component-wise makeup of their extracts and these percentages can be manipulated to approximate Briess's AG recipes on their website.

For example:

Pilsen light is 99% Briess Pils Malt and 1% Briess Carapils. 1 lb. of Briess Pilsen Light DME is therefore .99 lbs. of their Pilsner Malt.

 

[solbes]

Surely. Make sure the LME is very fresh. And add the second half of it with about 5 minutes drone flameout. This will help lighten the color. Finally, stir it in vigorously so it does not scorch on the bottom. Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

I've gotten light colored beers from extract many times. Use extra light DME for the boil, then add the Pilsner or extra light LME at flame out to keep the colors light. With the wort still boiling hot at flame out, & pasteurization happening in seconds at 160F, flame out additions work fine. I'd imagine European hops would be used in such a beer, having never tasted it.

 

[joshesmusica]

I personally don't think you can make a great beer with just extract. But I do think you can make good beers with it. You can then turn that good beer into a great beer by steeping some specialty grains to complement the extract.

But as stated, even to make a good beer with just extract requires good sanitation and very good yeast handling (which includes count, health, temps, etc.)

 

[unionrdr]

It's surprising how good extract beers can be. Some have won competitions with them. But steeping or partial mashing with extracts added at flame out work quite well for me. There's a lot more extracts available now than even when I started, so the possibilities are far greater these days.

 

[mrgrimm101]

I would definitely recommend using some specialty steeping grains with the extract. You get more flavors and color contributions that way.

 

[ncbrewer]

I feel you can make great beer with extract, and get more variety using steeping grains. But if you're doing a partial boil, there will be a limitation on IBU's. Solubility limit is about 100 IBU's, so if half of the volume is added as top-off water, you'll be limited to about 50 IBU's in the beer. I don't care for the really bitter beers, so it doesn't matter to me - 50 IBU's in a 1.050 OG beer is still fairly bitter IMO.