Extract/AG Rivalry

[chessking]

It is important to mention that the extract available to home brewers, is a well designed, and premium crafted product. The maltsters are true pros who plan and worry from start to finish, about details of the malting, the mash, the boil and reduction procedures that few home brewers even know about. They don't just slap it together. I may be able to have more control by designing my own mash, but I will never produce the quality product with as much attention to detail that the professional maltsters can. They make a great product, but from that point it is up to the brewer.

This is BBR interview of Bob Hanson from Briess Malting explaining the malting process.
http://www.basicbrewing.com/radio/mp3/bbr08-18-05.mp3

 

[ncbrewer]

My stove heating elements just came in,so if all works well,my 1st PM kit will be brewed this weekend.

What kind of elements did you get - I'm looking into setting up for a full boil.

 

[sloose]

just my 2 pennies here, but i wasnt surprised at all to see the whitehouse beer being extract. The guys making the beer are CHEFS. NOT BREWMASTERS. You couldn't walk into their kitchen and make their incredible sauces and creations on YOUR first shot, why would you expect them to walk into YOUR brew house and make an all grain beer THEIR first time? I'm stupid giddy that the whitehouse is brewing at ALL, much less promoting home brewing!

I'm a relatively recent brewer, I've got about 8 batches under my belt in about 5 months, all came out awesome. I switched to all grain after 3 batches of extract, and i'm just now working the bugs out of the AG system and getting my efficiencies up. That being said I'm going to brew their recipe as extract next week, and I'm excited to not have to spend the extra 2-3 hours with mashing and cleaning etc. A one pot wonder seems like a vacation!

then i might port the beer to extract. My two highest rated beers were a golden wheat hefe kit from my LHBS (extract) and an IPA designed by Wil Wheaton (@wilw) called VandalEyesPA, which is nothing short of outstanding.

 

[unionrdr]

What kind of elements did you get - I'm looking into setting up for a full boil.

These where just replacement elements for the stove,down to one small burner & needed a couple large ones to replace burned out ones. Bur rather than being called burners,they're always called heating elements. Amazon was way cheaper than home cheapo by about 55%.

 

[Revvy]

These where just replacement elements for the stove,down to one small burner & needed a couple large ones to replace burned out ones. Bur rather than being called burners,they're always called heating elements. Amazon was way cheaper than home cheapo by about 55%.

Are they Canning Elements? I've been thinking about getting one for stove top brewing. They're supposed to work great.

 

[unionrdr]

The description didn't mention anything about canning elements. Wish I'd thought of that. Not to mention a grain mill,midwest was supposed to have crushed the grains. But they sure don't look like it.
I'll be satisfied if these new elements do work better than the old ones though.

 

[Baileyforlife]

Well Friday night I made the White House Honey Porter and it looked, tasted and smelled amazing. OG was 1.060. Obama's wouldn't send me any white house honey so I used some local natural honey. I used Fuggle instead of the Hallertau because I had some. I've made a porter when I was bottling my beer, and I forgot about it for about month and a half. I'm going to keg this. What would you guys recommend on how long I keep it in the secondary before kegging?

 

[mlyday]

One thing I havent heard too much during the argument, and its a big reason I try to brew my batches all-grain, is the Pace of the brew day. All grain seems much more relaxed than extract. It takes a while to heat the strike water, you have a 60-90 minute mash. Im able to get other things done around the house durring those times. The brew day seems less rushed or compacted.