Echoloc8
Acolyte of Fermentalism
Hey all,
I've been an all-grain brewer for a while now, but recently whipped up an partial-volume, hopped-extract-with-flameout-addition batch for a hop aroma experiment my homebrew club is doing. I haven't tasted it yet, but the brew evening was short and it was nice to "commit beer" with so little time investment. Made me think about firing off the occasional quickie extract batch from now on.
My last extract and partial-mash batches before this were pretty sad ones, though, and I'm very interested to figure out why. I know there are lots of award-winning extract beers every year, so I wanted to figure out where I've been going wrong.
My equipment: 10, 5 and 4 gal pots, 10 gal cylindrical mash tun, fermentation fridge with temp controller (gotta have one to brew year-round in Alabama), 2-keg kegerator. I have gadgets running from refractometer to stir plate to pH test strips. I brew on an electric stove with a heat stick, and that gets my temps up in decent time.
I can generally measure or test whatever I need to to ensure good AG performance, so it really just remains to be seen what I need to fix for my extracts.
My method has generally been to use DME instead of LME for freshness whenever possible, do a steep with specialty grains where needed, do full-volume boils for hop utilization, and add at least some extract late to avoid excess caramelization.
Process failures with extract probably include: carelessness with fermentation temperature (my ferm fridge is pretty new, and my extract attempts have largely been in the summer); post-ferment oxidation issues (most of my older extract batches got bottled, mainly because they were "extra" batches while kegs were full); general neglect ("hell, it's only an extract batch, I can bottle/keg/rack later or use my gnarlier hose because the good one is under some stuff"). No excuse really, other than failure to think about it. Beer needs love too, this I know. :cross:
My extract batches generally taste overly sweet, green (unfinished), "flat" (not undercarbed, just uninteresting) or (possibly) oxidized. I know extract wort generally doesn't ferment as dry as AG wort; what can be done there other than throwing it in a mash?
What else should I be doing? I love the AG process, but there are times I'd like to be able to throw together a crisp simple pale ale or its like without a 6-hour commitment.
-Rich
I've been an all-grain brewer for a while now, but recently whipped up an partial-volume, hopped-extract-with-flameout-addition batch for a hop aroma experiment my homebrew club is doing. I haven't tasted it yet, but the brew evening was short and it was nice to "commit beer" with so little time investment. Made me think about firing off the occasional quickie extract batch from now on.
My last extract and partial-mash batches before this were pretty sad ones, though, and I'm very interested to figure out why. I know there are lots of award-winning extract beers every year, so I wanted to figure out where I've been going wrong.
My equipment: 10, 5 and 4 gal pots, 10 gal cylindrical mash tun, fermentation fridge with temp controller (gotta have one to brew year-round in Alabama), 2-keg kegerator. I have gadgets running from refractometer to stir plate to pH test strips. I brew on an electric stove with a heat stick, and that gets my temps up in decent time.
I can generally measure or test whatever I need to to ensure good AG performance, so it really just remains to be seen what I need to fix for my extracts.
My method has generally been to use DME instead of LME for freshness whenever possible, do a steep with specialty grains where needed, do full-volume boils for hop utilization, and add at least some extract late to avoid excess caramelization.
Process failures with extract probably include: carelessness with fermentation temperature (my ferm fridge is pretty new, and my extract attempts have largely been in the summer); post-ferment oxidation issues (most of my older extract batches got bottled, mainly because they were "extra" batches while kegs were full); general neglect ("hell, it's only an extract batch, I can bottle/keg/rack later or use my gnarlier hose because the good one is under some stuff"). No excuse really, other than failure to think about it. Beer needs love too, this I know. :cross:
My extract batches generally taste overly sweet, green (unfinished), "flat" (not undercarbed, just uninteresting) or (possibly) oxidized. I know extract wort generally doesn't ferment as dry as AG wort; what can be done there other than throwing it in a mash?
What else should I be doing? I love the AG process, but there are times I'd like to be able to throw together a crisp simple pale ale or its like without a 6-hour commitment.
-Rich
