Is being an extract brewer such a bad thing?

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BlackGoat said:
I use pasta extract.
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Liquid or dried?


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Just finished building my MLT. Everything was purchased at Home Depot for around $70 including my military discount. I decided to go all out and not even bother with smaller batches, thanks to you guys ;)

Next I will purchase my pot from Amazon because I have a $40 credit. I will get a 11 gallon pot for around $40, which means total cost to upgrade to AG will be around $110. Not bad at all imo. Soon I will buy BeerSmith and a probe thermometer.

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Do you guys think the filter inside will collapse when under pressure from the grains? Anybody with this setup have issues with stuck sparges?
 
I have heard of the braids collapsing and causing problems for some folks, while I've heard stories of the braid getting twisted up very close to the barb and still performing flawlessly. I think you'll have to just find out for yourself. I would recommend that you have a system in place that will allow you to stick your arm down into the hot mash to straighten the braid if need be. Basically an insulated long sleeve shirt, thin glove, and something watertight to put your arm into (a new garbage bag).

In your bottom picture of your MLT, I see a metal washer on the inside MLT. That washer needs to be stainless if it's not. Zinc is NO good inside a MLT (it's fine on the outside though).
 
stpug said:
I have heard of the braids collapsing and causing problems for some folks, while I've heard stories of the braid getting twisted up very close to the barb and still performing flawlessly. I think you'll have to just find out for yourself. I would recommend that you have a system in place that will allow you to stick your arm down into the hot mash to straighten the braid if need be. Basically an insulated long sleeve shirt, thin glove, and something watertight to put your arm into (a new garbage bag).

In your bottom picture of your MLT, I see a metal washer on the inside MLT. That washer needs to be stainless if it's not. Zinc is NO good inside a MLT (it's fine on the outside though).
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To be honest I don't remember if it's zinc or SS. Will zinc corrode easily?
 
Actually when using a copper wort chiller you are introducing zinc as well. If I start to see the washer rust I'll replace it.
 
BansheeRider said:
Do you guys think the filter inside will collapse when under pressure from the grains? Anybody with this setup have issues with stuck sparges?
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I had a braid, and it gave me a lot of problems with stuck sparges. I coiled a piece of bare copper wire through it to prevent the braid from collapsing, but that didn't help the problem any. I eventually gave up and made a manifold from CPVC pipe. No more stuck sparges.
 
I have 2 cooler mash tuns that I use with the same toilet braid. The 48-quart rectangular cooler has no problems with stuck sparges whatsoever. The 5-gallon cylindrical cooler gets stuck sparges like nobody's business unless I sparge slowly (I batch sparge, so I don't have any efficiency-related reason to do a slower sparge). I think it has to do with mash tun geometry and grain bed depth. The grain bed gets SUPER DUPER compacted in the cylindrical tun, and it's still fairly loose in the rectangular one.
 
Maybe I'll get some high temp tubing, cut holes in it, and run it through the braid. That should prevent it from collapsing under pressure and heat.
 
BansheeRider said:
Actually when using a copper wort chiller you are introducing zinc as well. If I start to see the washer rust I'll replace it.
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That's just not true. Soft and hard copper tubing are 99.9% pure copper with no additional metals mixed in. Zinc is not spontaneously created when copper touches wort.

While low levels of zinc are both beneficial to yeast and our bodies, using galvanized steel in an acidic environment is simply poor practice and potentially dangerous. But, ultimately, it's your system and your health - you can do as you wish.
 
Hmm, that sounds reasonable. I just switched from BIAB to batch-sparging in the cooler, and had a spare 5-gallon round cooler I decided to try for my low-gravity beers (since using a 48qt cooler for 5lbs grain seemed silly). The 48-quarter is kinda big and unwieldy (and hard to clean), but it definitely does a better job (at least for 10+lbs of grain).
 
Also... Beersmith is one of my favorite pieces of equipment and it's fairly affordable as far as brew-ware is concerned. I know there are other calculators out there but the customizability takes some of the math (that I don't even know yet) out of my brewday. My humble advice for when you begin making your own AG recipes: KISS.
 
prohl84 said:
Also... Beersmith is one of my favorite pieces of equipment and it's fairly affordable as far as brew-ware is concerned. I know there are other calculators out there but the customizability takes some of the math (that I don't even know yet) out of my brewday. My humble advice for when you begin making your own AG recipes: KISS.
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BS is one of those "how did I live without it all this time" items. You just can't beat its ease of versatility. Best $20 investment I've made in a long time.
 
I paid $28 for my copy of BS2. Good investment,as it allows you to play around with a recipe per a given style till it's pretty darn close to what you want.
 
BansheeRider said:
Beersmith is almost $30 now.
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I was hesitant to go for it- I think it was $27 when I bought it- so I used the free demo for two brews and that sold it. I have been mostly making my own recipes ever since. Being able to define your equipment profile fairly thoroughly has helped me hit my temperatures and volumes with a great deal of accuracy especially once I tweaked everything out.
 
RonPopeil said:
washing yeast is also profitable as liquid yeasts cost $7 a vial and the washing process is as simple as sanitizing a few snapple bottles or spaghetti sauce jars and adding pre boiled water.
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All one needs to do to crop yeast from a closed fermentor is to leave enough beer after racking to be able to swirl the solids back into suspension. Storing yeast that has been through fermentation under beer is better for the culture than storing it under water, as the pH of beer is significantly more hostile to wild microflora than that of boiled water.

With that said, the best way to maintain yeast in a home brewery environment is on agar slants. Yeast maintained this way is very healthy because it is grown aerobically on solid wort under aseptic (absolutely sterile) conditions; therefore, the yeast is not subjected to osmotic pressure or alcohol. Yeast can be maintained on slant in a standard refrigerator for up to two years before having to be be recultured.
 
I just read the thread title and now I must reply...

[sarcasm-font]Yes! Being an extract brewer is a terrible thing! You're barely a MAN (or woman, respectfully) [/sarcasm-font]
 
DWhitwell said:
And your point is...? Does that make it less significant? I don't think so. My point is brewing great beer doesn't require going to all-grain, it requires getting the basics right. That includes the right ingredients for the right styles.
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The comment about BCS having extract recipes was an attempt to claim that the extract recipes were THE recipe. I am saying they are not. So yes, it is less significant. The "award winning" recipes were the all grain ones. You simply cannot make the full range of styles with extract.
 
Years back my wife and I vacationed in NH. We camped and spent a good part of a day taking one of the more difficult trails to the top of Mt Washington. When we reached the end, one of the first things we saw was an elderly woman in a wheel chair and a lot of other obviously sedentary tourists who had taken the Auto Road. We spent time talking and enjoying the views with the enthusiastic group. For some it’s about enjoying the destination, for others the journey makes the destination that much more gratifying. Neither is a “bad thing.” But they are different things.
 
highgravitybacon said:
The comment about BCS having extract recipes was an attempt to claim that the extract recipes were THE recipe. I am saying they are not. So yes, it is less significant. The "award winning" recipes were the all grain ones. You simply cannot make the full range of styles with extract.
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I guess that is the danger of typed communication - you read what you want to read. As I said, MY point is that brewing great beer does NOT require AG brewing, and BCS is clearly great beer. And, as I look through BCS, there is nothing that suggests ANY of the recipes won awards ONLY in an AG version.

Bigger range with AG? Sure. Better with AG? Maybe, but it's not a guarantee.
 
From Brewing Classic Styles:

The recipes in this book were originally created as all-grain, full-volume boil recipes, but we have created malt extract versions to make them more accessible for new brewers.
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BansheeRider said:
I want to make the plunge into AG but I'm nervous about spending the money for new equipment and messing up large batches of beer. Extract brewing is so easy and boring, however I am pleased with the quality of beer I make. I will drink my beer any day over commercial beers.

Is extract brewing such a bad thing? The thought of missing my mash temps, not crushing grain good enough, not meeting expected OG, water chemistry, grain/water ratios, AG partial boils (I only have a 5g kettle), more equipment, adding an extra 1.5 hours to brew days, and overall just more room for error, really is racking my brain. Perhaps I should have started brewing AG and not even messed with the convenience of extract brewing.
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Yes. Hitler was an extract brewer. You will go straight to hell. Where upon you will be forced to drink warm bud light and listen to Backstreet Boys Revival songs.

j/k

The difference between extract and AG is like having 4 colors of pencils crayons and making great art with them. Then one day you come across a box of pencil crayons with 48 colors.
 
stpug said:
It's actually only $19.75 from this vendor.

http://risen-dead-brewing-llc.mysho...tware/products/beersmith-homebrewing-software
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unionrdr said:
Download. Just save it to your download folder & install it from there.
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stpug said:
^^This. It's an electronic version; no physical CD.
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Well I am not a happy camper. I paid and downloaded the file from that website and the file is for Windows PC, I have a MacBook :mad::mad: I just wasted $20! In the description it says available for mac but the file is for Windows. Any suggestions? It didn't even give me the option to choose which file format I needed. I should've known better :(
 
BansheeRider said:
Well I am not a happy camper. I paid and downloaded the file from that website and the file is for Windows PC, I have a MacBook :mad::mad: I just wasted $20! In the description it says available for mac but the file is for Windows. Any suggestions? It didn't even give me the option to choose which file format I needed. I should've known better :(
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I suspect that what you actually bought was the license, not the download. Did you get a serial number over email?

If so, try plugging it into the mac version downloaded from the official beersmith page.
http://beersmith.com/download-beersmith/
 
MalFet said:
I suspect that what you actually bought was the license, not the download. Did you get a serial number over email?

If so, try plugging it into the mac version downloaded from the official beersmith page.
http://beersmith.com/download-beersmith/
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Yes I have an activation key sent from the website. I can't find on the actual beersmith website where to enter the serial key.
 
MalFet said:
I suspect that what you actually bought was the license, not the download. Did you get a serial number over email?

If so, try plugging it into the mac version downloaded from the official beersmith page.
http://beersmith.com/download-beersmith/
Click to expand...

Never mind I got it, whew... I didn't realize I had to run a trial version then enter the activation key.
 
I dont think being an extract brewer is bad at all. The few people I know that knock it have either quit brewing after making **** beer all-grain or are continuing to make **** beer all-grain. I dont mean for that to sound like all-grain is a bad thing, because it's not. Everyone has to start somewhere, with their own budget, and their own space concerns. The important thing is the final product, if you make good beer, who cares what method you used. I know I wont be turning down a pint of something delicious because it was brewed with an "inferior/beginners/basic/whatever" method.
 
AnOldUR said:
Years back my wife and I vacationed in NH. We camped and spent a good part of a day taking one of the more difficult trails to the top of Mt Washington. When we reached the end, one of the first things we saw was an elderly woman in a wheel chair and a lot of other obviously sedentary tourists who had taken the Auto Road. We spent time talking and enjoying the views with the enthusiastic group. For some it’s about enjoying the destination, for others the journey makes the destination that much more gratifying. Neither is a “bad thing.” But they are different things.
Click to expand...

Not a great analogy, and rather patronizing.

Extract brewing is just fine - don't let anyone else fool you into thinking otherwise.
 

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