Extract versus all grain?

[CraigKing]

I find that buying ingredients for AG are cheaper than containers of Extract.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

For me the real challenge in extract is not knowing exactly what the grain bill was for the extract. In theory it should be 5 LMS base malt ( 2 row or 6 row) but those details are not published. If you go from one brand light DME to another, you have no control over how our beer's taste could shift.

 

[donovanlambright]

I'm glad I went all-grain but I wish I had gotten temperature control worked out first. Controlling the temp of your fermentation will make a much bigger difference to the quality of your beer than progressing to all-grain.

I'm going to fix that this spring by building a fermentation chamber.

 

[LLBrewer]

I'm glad I went all-grain but I wish I had gotten temperature control worked out first. Controlling the temp of your fermentation will make a much bigger difference to the quality of your beer than progressing to all-grain.

I'm going to fix that this spring by building a fermentation chamber.

I agree temp control is paramount, but nothing that an ice batch / tee shirt can't overcome.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

In "The Joy of Homebrewing" Papazian states that there is no difference in quality and that he often forgets when he's used extract or all grain.

One of my friends continued to brew extract kits from the LBS after I switched to all grain and the constant use of light LME as a base malt meant that there was a consistent quality that became really boring. I know you can get different bases of extract pretty easily in the US but here in Winnipeg the all grain switch was the only way to change up your base malts.

 

[CraigKing]

I'm going to fix that this spring by building a fermentation chamber.

Let me know how the fermentation chamber build goes - I'm interested in doing the same.