OK, full disclosure: ever since I switched to All-Grain a few years ago I've been had a snobbish mindset about it. Although I would never, EVER, talk down to a fellow brewer about their choice of process for making beer, in the back of my head I've consistently thought of extract brews as "inferior."
So when my brewing buddy finally decided to get his own equipment - which came with an extract kit - and asked me to assist in his first brew, I wasn't what you would call "excited." But I went through the process with him, made sure he had the proper temp control, good yeast management, good brewing techniques, etc. I had low expectations for the beer.
Last month he bottled it up and has been asking me to stop over to try it out since two weeks ago. Last night I had to head over to his house to do some other stuff so he poured me a glass of the batch and... holy moly it was delicious. It was a perfect APA, spot on for hop levels, carbonation, malt flavor, and head retention. Yes, the color was slightly dark because LME does that even when only boiled in the last 10 minutes of the brew, but other than that it was awesome. Not even chill haze.
This was a full-on basic extract kit created with basic materials and fermented in a big mouth bubbler in a swamp cooler. And it wasn't just a good first attempt, it wasn't just good homebrew, it was GOOD BEER.
So consider my mind changed on extract brews. I'll still stick with all-grain but that niggling and self-important voice in the back of my head that is talking ish about extract brews is a lot quieter now.
Extract brewers of the world, your beer is not inferior. It is good beer. Brew on
So when my brewing buddy finally decided to get his own equipment - which came with an extract kit - and asked me to assist in his first brew, I wasn't what you would call "excited." But I went through the process with him, made sure he had the proper temp control, good yeast management, good brewing techniques, etc. I had low expectations for the beer.
Last month he bottled it up and has been asking me to stop over to try it out since two weeks ago. Last night I had to head over to his house to do some other stuff so he poured me a glass of the batch and... holy moly it was delicious. It was a perfect APA, spot on for hop levels, carbonation, malt flavor, and head retention. Yes, the color was slightly dark because LME does that even when only boiled in the last 10 minutes of the brew, but other than that it was awesome. Not even chill haze.
This was a full-on basic extract kit created with basic materials and fermented in a big mouth bubbler in a swamp cooler. And it wasn't just a good first attempt, it wasn't just good homebrew, it was GOOD BEER.
So consider my mind changed on extract brews. I'll still stick with all-grain but that niggling and self-important voice in the back of my head that is talking ish about extract brews is a lot quieter now.
Extract brewers of the world, your beer is not inferior. It is good beer. Brew on
