Brewing from extract kit ideas.

[Doghouse-gav]

I have been brewing from extract kits for a few months now and really enjoy it. Was wondering what I could do to make my beers different from all my friends who also brew from the same kits. What could I add, when and how. Cheers guys.

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[boo boo]

Steeping freshly cracked grain adds a level to the brew as does using some extra hops in the recipe.
What style brews do you make?

 

[Hoodweisen]

Just go allgrain biab (boil in a bag) and you can do lots of stuff diffirent and its just as easy just adds an hour at the beginning of the brew session

 

[Doghouse-gav]

I brew mainly dark ales and stout. Have brewed some lager for friends. I'd love to go all grain but looks so hard and expensive!!

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[Captain Damage]

Dry hopping will add a whole new dimension of flavor and aroma to a beer. It's easy, inexpensive and you can do it to a beer you've already got in the fermenter.

 

[LostBavarianMan]

+1 on steeping grains and +1 on dry hopping

 

[beergolf]

Just look in the recipe section of this forum. Lots of good recipes that are not difficult to brew.

I have done several and been very happy with the results.

 

[unionrdr]

The thing that seems to be getting popular on many forums about all extract is two canning (toucan on some sites). Say,a can of hoped extract with a can of plain malt. Or,as I did,a can of hopped malt,& a 3lb bag of plain DME. All instead of dextrose/brewer's sugar. Or,even with dextrose,but only 250-300g of it added to the 2 can or can-n-bag.
You can tweak the color & flavor that way,to your liking. That's the kind of recipes I'm gunna do for a while longer. It's easy to do,since there are so many hoped & unhoped cans & DME bags out there to play with. And I've seen that DME's come in extra light,light,amber,etc. It seems to me so far to be a great way to slightly tweak a can kit to more closely fit your particular rendition of a style.