extract? all grain?

[william2010]

I just recently made a batch of ipa with my father in law and a recipe he has had for a long time. It has malt extract, grain, hops, and of course the rest of the standard stuff, I have been looking up different recipes and when I see one that says all grain I don't see hops or extract (hints all grain) and I see just plain extract recipes with nothing else. I don't know where to find a recipe with a little bit of everything. I'm not well experienced but I have a lot of knowledge and know what I'm doing. What's the deal with the recipes? And what are some good ideas for good ones...any kind really. What's the best way to go and cheapest to. I heard all grain. Malt is spendy. Just could use some advice. Thanks.

 

[Runyanka]

I am really confused, all the recipes in the data base have hops included in them.

 

[houndsbreath]

First off, post the recipe so we can help. Beer has to have hops or its just gross. It sounds like you may have a pre-hopped malt extract (it would specify on the package).
Recipes with extract and grain can be two types:
(1) extract with steeping grain (mostly caramel malts) which lend color, some flavor and not much fermentable sugars to you beer or
(2) extract with grains which must be mashed (two row, pilsner, Vienna, Maris Otter). These grains yield mostly fermentable sugars and flavor.
Try the "Recipes" section on this forum and search in the "beginning brewers" section for help on steeping vs. mashing grain.

 

[duboman]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/

This is the link to the recipe section of HBT, in here you will tons of recipes and they are listed as Extract, All Grain or Multiple, meaning there are both types. Extract recipes contain wither DME or LME and steeping grains, All grain involves the mashing of grains and while generally less expensive of a recipe they require more equipment and take longer to brew. Hops are a component of all beer recipes as the hops are used to balance out the sweetness of the malt.

If you are just getting started most people will begin with Extract recipes as they are generally more straight forward, take less time and are pretty hard to screw up. Once the process is learned and understood you can then move to partial mash and then All grain. Of, of course you can just jump right in to All Grain but there is a much larger learning curve.

As for what type of beer to brew, that's up to you and what you like to drink. You are just going to have to do a bit of reading and researching of what youwant to brew and how you want to do it.

Cheers!

 

[BrewinHooligan]

+1 to searching the recipes here and that all grain is a cheaper brew. I suggest spending around $10 for the Kindle version of Brewing Classic Styles. It has 80 award winning recipes for both extract and all grain plus teaches you about the specific styles.

 

[Homercidal]

First there are three types of batches: All Grain (no extract), Extract (no mashed grains) and Partial Mash (Some grain is mashed and some extract is added)

With Partial Mash and Extract batches you *COULD* be using prehopped extract, which requires no hops to be added. However, this is pretty rare and most people would rather use regular extract and add their own hops. It's not hard to do and gives better flavor.

 

[william2010]

This is the recipe I used.

Ingredients:

9 lbs pounds English malt light extract .
10 ounces crystal grain/20L British crystal malt (26L)
2 tps gypsum
2 ounces columbous hops (zues hops)
2 ounces cascade hops.
Dansta London 3 yeast

Hopping rate:

add 1 ounce columbous at 60 min.
Add 1/2 ounce columbous at 16 min.
1 ounce cascade at 12 min.
1 ounce cascade at 5 min.
1/2 columbous for dry hopping. (Second fermentation)

Process:

1 1/2 gallon cold water and crystal in cheese cloth.
Bring to 155 f.
Remove from heat. For no greater then 30 min.
Sparge out grain
Add extract and gypsum.
Bring to boil.
Follow hopping rate.
1 hour cook time.

 

[duboman]

This recipe is an extract recipe as the majority of the fermentable content is dry malt extract. The grains are for steeping to impart flavor, color and very little fermentable sugar.

The hops and rate or IBU is there to balance the sweetness of the malt. This is a typical layout of a beer recipe. If this were a partial mash the grain bill would be higher and the extract amount would be proportionally less, if this were all grain there would be no extract and the base malt would then be something like 11lbs of 2 row or another and the other grain amounts may change as well for the desired style of beer.

Hope that helps explain things. You can visit link I recommended earlier and peruse different recipes to get a feel for how they differ and how the ingredients lay out. You can also get a book called "designing Great Recipes" to get a better understanding of what goes into creating a recipe and why. In addition you can visit the BJCP.org and go through the style guidelines to see what types of beers use what types of ingredients as well as typical commercial beers of each style.

 

[chickypad]

You said you see all grain recipes with "no hops" - are they listed as the all grain option for an extract recipe you are reading? In this case they are just telling you how to replace the extract with base grain, but expect you to keep the specialty grains and hops schedule the same.