Dry or Liquid Malt Extract Brews...
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Darth_Beer
Well-Known Member
I have been brewing a lot of a 2.5 blonde ale, that is nothing more than 3pounds of LME, and 1 oz of hops.
ChelisHubby
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The Northern Brewer and More beer Companys sell A lot of extract kits. They will all make very good beer if your process is good. The largest problem us beginners have is learning how to do the process. Personally I just done a 60 shilling extract from Morebeer that I can't find any flaws with except I didn't get the carbonation quite right, I think it is a headspace issue. But i can drink this beer and Enjoy it without getting Sloshed. Go to your Local home brew shop and ask for advice I bet they will steer you right.
The recipe section of this website has a lot of great extract recipes in all the styles. If you only want to use DME or LME then you would just need to convert from one to the other depending on which you want to use (remember pound for pound DME will produce a higher ABV beer due to the water present in LME).
cernst151
Well-Known Member
Plenty of options. I'd start on Northern Brewer's site. They make really good kits. www.northernbrewer.com. You could brew a ton of great beer and never touch a grain in your life. I've been doing BIAB all grain for a while but did a very good all extract Pilsner about a year ago.
Personally I prefer dealing with dry extract. I think it mixes in easier, makes less of a mess and is dramatically less likely to scorch on the bottom of your kettle than liquid.
Personally I prefer dealing with dry extract. I think it mixes in easier, makes less of a mess and is dramatically less likely to scorch on the bottom of your kettle than liquid.
I've done many of both. Some with both. See my recipes under my avatar for some examples. Boy, it's good to have an IPA again...blaaarfff! 2XIPA is good!
Anyway, I also do PB/PM BIAB with 5-6 pounds of grains & 3lbs DME or 3.3lbs LME @ flame out. Or A Cooper's can, a couple ounces or more of hops & a 3lb bag of plain DME, light or extra light typically. But I will say this, after all my brewing musings,I've found that DME & LME have their own flavor characteristics. So mixing both is the best of both worlds. Use the DME in the boil for hop additions, etc. Then add the LME @ flame out.
I definitely must agree that Morebeer's kits are very good! Their ESB E/SG kit has the best balance I've ever had in a British beer/kit/recipe. And they also have a warehouse this side of PA too! so a couple of Friday's ago,3 I think, I ordered the Hefeweizen kit from them, mid-Friday afternoon & got @ 11:10AM the next day, Saturday! Brewed it on Sunday with 3C sugar baby watermelon juice. Can't wait to try it. Too bad though that my Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops got soaked in the cooler. Woulda been great on the back! Def try Morebeer!
:rockin:
Anyway, I also do PB/PM BIAB with 5-6 pounds of grains & 3lbs DME or 3.3lbs LME @ flame out. Or A Cooper's can, a couple ounces or more of hops & a 3lb bag of plain DME, light or extra light typically. But I will say this, after all my brewing musings,I've found that DME & LME have their own flavor characteristics. So mixing both is the best of both worlds. Use the DME in the boil for hop additions, etc. Then add the LME @ flame out.
I definitely must agree that Morebeer's kits are very good! Their ESB E/SG kit has the best balance I've ever had in a British beer/kit/recipe. And they also have a warehouse this side of PA too! so a couple of Friday's ago,3 I think, I ordered the Hefeweizen kit from them, mid-Friday afternoon & got @ 11:10AM the next day, Saturday! Brewed it on Sunday with 3C sugar baby watermelon juice. Can't wait to try it. Too bad though that my Hallertauer Mittelfruh hops got soaked in the cooler. Woulda been great on the back! Def try Morebeer!
:rockin:
By just extract does this mean without using steeping grains?
If so you are quite limited, but if not there's much less limitation.
I wanted to make a rye pale after having a rye wit while out. It's what pushed me into BIAB mini mashes. Until then I had been using extract and steeping grains for about 2-2 1/2 yrs making some pretty good beers that were quite similar to what's on the shelf minus the real standouts.
If so you are quite limited, but if not there's much less limitation.
I wanted to make a rye pale after having a rye wit while out. It's what pushed me into BIAB mini mashes. Until then I had been using extract and steeping grains for about 2-2 1/2 yrs making some pretty good beers that were quite similar to what's on the shelf minus the real standouts.
dkevinb
Well-Known Member
You can make great beer with extract, though using nothing but extract and hops really limits you. Don't be afraid of steeping grains. Steeping the grain is about as difficult as making a cup of tea with a teabag.
One tip: Most of the sites that sell kits also publish the kit recipes. Not meaning to take away from their business, but I often use those recipes as a starting point for my own.
One tip: Most of the sites that sell kits also publish the kit recipes. Not meaning to take away from their business, but I often use those recipes as a starting point for my own.
I've done that too. Got a lot of interesting beers that way. Or using Cooper's cans to make them into another style. I've even used Cooper's cans as the extract in pb/pm biab beers. So you're limited only by your imagination & skill.
I guess where I become a little intimidated is knowing what grains to steep and how much to use. For example if I wanted to do an Irish Stout like a Guinness I would buy the dark DME and then get some chocolate malted barley and some roasted barley, but how much would I need per 1 gallon batch or even 5 gallon is where I don't know what I'm doing. Also figuring out what type of hops to use gets me a bit confused as well.
Why not follow an easy and proven recipe then, until you're comfortable? There are lots of easy recipes that have steeping grains in them. Or, buy a kit with proven ingredients and recipes from a place like Northern Brewer?
This is exactly what I did, bought good kits/followed recipes from the recipe section here until I got comfortable with brewing. After that I would tweak little things here and there (namely the quantity and type of steeping grains) to get a feel for what things worked for me and what didn't.
One of the best things about homebrewing is that as long as you do the basics good (sanitation, cleaning, protecting your beer from oxidation) you'll end up with beer; some better than others but always beer. Don't be afraid to experiment; it is amazing how a small change can give you a completely different beer.
You can also look at the recipe sheets for various kits, as well as look at the recipe database here.
This is how I got started. After finding what it seemed to take for a style I was interested in I'd created a draft recipe and post it here asking for recommendations and critique.
This is how I got started. After finding what it seemed to take for a style I was interested in I'd created a draft recipe and post it here asking for recommendations and critique.
I did that a lot myself. Then I bought BS2 & it got a little easier to come with beers "to style". but you still have to learn what does what & with how much. So research recipes on here or recipe sheets from kits to see what's basically needed for a certain style.
MonsterBrew
Well-Known Member
Generally for a 5 gallon extract batch you can use about 1-2 pounds of specialty grains in conjunction with the extract. For a 1 gallon, I would say 1/4-1/2 pound. Also with a 1 gallon batch, you can make an all grain batch with about 2 pounds of grains. As for the hops, it definitely helps to look up other recipes to see what kinds are used in what styles. The most important thing to know is that some are used for bittering, some for aroma, and some can be used for both. They are used at different times in the boil to change the flavor of the beer. Hope that helps!
-Jeff
BeerSmith 2
One of the best brewing software available to homebrewers. I would say that it was probably the best non-essential homebrewing purchases I have made to date.
Yeah, that's not bad. But hops are definitely the spice for real! but how well you brew it has about the most to do with it. Some really good extracts have beaten all grains before.
CBXBob
Well-Known Member
Here's how I see it. If you want a good egg, you can buy a good chicken, feed it good food, keep it in a clean and safe coop, and gather the eggs. Or you can buy the eggs from someone who has good chickens, feeds them good food, and keeps them in a clean, safe coop, and gathers the eggs for you. The end result is the same, you get a good egg, you can make a great omelet with either egg. So my answer would be, DME, LME, or all grain will make great beer. And it's great to be able to drink what you make, however you make it.
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