Any all-grain brewers "re-discover" all-extract brewing?

[elreplica]

LOL! No, I'm good. I haven't stopped drinking. Even after 23+ years of brewing I still find brewing to be fun. Why rush "fun"?

I'm not like many brewers who can only afford to brew from paycheck to paycheck. I retired at 55 because I could afford to (financially speaking). I'll be 64 in July.

I do my best to keep a minimum of 5 kegs on-hand at all times. I just pre-plan my brewing sessions, mostly on Sundays.

Right now I have 2 kegs in the kegerator and 7 kegs in the keezer (and another 10-12 kegs that are empty) and 3 batches ready to keg (1 Wheat) and bottle (2 Hefe Weizen's).

I also have the grains weighed out for 4 upcoming batches.

You...are a brewing machine...

 

[Kealia]

Interesting comments about extract in here. I brewed about a dozen Mr Beer extract batches before going to all grain and they were all good. I even continued buying the occasional seasonal release before they sold to Coopers. (I didn't stop because of that, it was just about the same time).
My batches have been all grain for the past 8 years but once or twice a year I'll still do an extract batch. Sometimes it's a recipe I created way back when that is good and I don't want to change it so I brew it as an extract batch. Sometimes it's because I need to do a quick brew day.
I've done the 15-minute pale ale route a few times and the beer comes out great. If you adhere to the same brewing principles as always (fresh ingredients, sanitization, temp control, pitch rates, good recipe) there is no reason you can't make a stellar beer using extract.

 

[bleme]

Every year at Christmas my club holds a raffle with stuff donated by members. Last year I won a Northern Brewer Ace of Spades extract kit. I steeped the grains on the way to 170F. At 185F I turned off the flame and stirred in the extract. Then I dumped in the hops along with a couple leftovers from my freezer and whirlpooled for 20 minutes before cooling off. Fastest brew day ever and turned out mighty tasty.

 

[LostHopper]

I do some small extract batches (2-2.5 gallon) to try out different hops or different hop stand temps/times. Some no-boil (180 degrees), 5 min boil or at most 15 min boil. Only DME (no twang, no sticky mess). Much less overall time and cleanup. Surprisingly good results for some of my extreme combinations. For 2.5 gallon batches I'm not seeing the big price difference, $5-6 maybe, but I also don't buy 50lb bags of grain. Hops, yeast and water all the same.

 

[hbhudy]

I have been doing about 50/50 AG/Extract and using extract for Belgian or Brett beers so for me the focus is the yeast anyway

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

^^it took four hours to make the 15 minute pale ale?

I didn't do the 15 minute pale ale. I think I might have done a late extract (can't remember from last year), but I didn't do an abbreviated boil.

 

[applescrap]

I could go nuts with extract and no boil beers. I could whip out a 6 month pipeline in a day, and make all grain on the side.

 

[Toga]

I made some delicious beer with extract. Since going all grain, I have done 2 extract batches and likely will never do another. The benifit was a slightly shorter brewday. The end product was not as good.

 

[shoengine]

I have nothing against extract, but have no interest in going back. Designing beer is way too much fun, and water chemistry and mash schedule is a big part of that for me.

 

[mj1angier]

I just did a Red IPA for our club brew that was extract with seeping grains. Got 1st out of 9 brews, lol

 

[secondbase]

The price of extract is the biggest deterrent for me. Shaving an hour or two off my brew day isn't worth paying 2-3 times the price of ingredients. Pass.

 

[bendog15]

I love the creative control I have with all grain. I’ve got my brew day down to 4 hours so time is usually not an issue.
Where I live, coming by supplies isn’t cheap (or easy) so I’m better off buying bulk grains.
That being said, I will do extract batches with guys trying to break into the hobby and I’m always amazed at how simple and easy it is. But I’ll never tell the new guys that!