Extract vs All grain....

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Brownalemikie

Brownalemikie

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As a noobie I gotta say I've only brewed about 9 one gallon batches. All of which has been brown ale. I just love this beer and don't understand why I would change a thing. I've thought about going to all-grain but, to be honest, I ask myself......why?

Extract brewing is easier than all grain.....btw I've been buying bulk grains and LME so my average cost per 12 oz bottle is about 65 cents. Can someone offer a reason to change to all grain? Thanks!

Btw, I only brew the Caribou Slobber recipe from NB.
 
All-grain allows for more creativity and (IMO) is more enjoyable because the brewer controls the entire process. But if you only want to repeatedly brew that one beer, and you're happy with how it tastes, stick with extract - it's much faster.
 
You can brew Caribou Slobber with less cost per bottle if you go to five gallons brews, buying the ingredients and hops in bulk, and harvesting yeast for the next brews. Caribou Slobber is one of my favorites.
 
flars said:
You can brew Caribou Slobber with less cost per bottle if you go to five gallons brews, buying the ingredients and hops in bulk, and harvesting yeast for the next brews. Caribou Slobber is one of my favorites.
Click to expand...

This might sound stupid but after my first 1 gallon batch I bought 3 more one gallon carboys for a total of 4. Now I brew 2 gallons at a time every week in a 4 gallon kettle. Turns out that I can fit all 4 carboys in our laundry tub for fermenting. The laundry room is dark and stays about 68 degrees at all times. Anyways, Nuff rambling.

Btw, I already buy grains, hops and LME in bulk and store everything in the frig except hops are in freezer.
 
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Extract is limiting and more expensive, even in bulk. Some of my beers I can push as low as 20 cents per bottle (but usually closer to 30 cents per bottle). Of course, for an extract brewer, 65 cents per bottle is making out like a bandit, so you're already doing well. But the big thing is the creativity and control that you can't get with extract, but if you don't care to branch out from where you are, then it doesn't matter. See initial comment, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
 
If you buy the grains that would be in the malt extract in bulk you could cut your costs quite a bit. You can also do this with little new equipment if you go with BIAB. The only thing you might need is a grain bag, and possibly a bigger boil kettle.

6 lbs of bulk gold malt extract = ~$13.33 6 lbs of base malt in bulk ~$6.00 Bulk specialty grains maybe $8 - $9 for 6 lbs.

If you ever decide to branch out, all grain can save you a lot of money and gives you a lot more control of what is used in your beer. Besides, IMO it is a lot more fun to use all separate ingredients instead of extract where half of the process has already been done.
 
Qhrumphf said:
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Extract is limiting and more expensive, even in bulk. Some of my beers I can push as low as 20 cents per bottle (but usually closer to 30 cents per bottle). Of course, for an extract brewer, 65 cents per bottle is making out like a bandit, so you're already doing well. But the big thing is the creativity and control that you can't get with extract, but if you don't care to branch out from where you are, then it doesn't matter. See initial comment, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Click to expand...

To be honest....long story short....I fell in love with a brown ale brewed at a local brewery while living in Minnesota. After moving to Florida 9 months ago, I could not find a decent brown ale. Hence, this the only reason I started brewing my own Caribou Slobber. If I still lived in MN I never would have started home brewing.

That said, I couldn't be happier because I actually like my own brown ale better :mug:
 
Brownalemikie said:
To be honest....long story short....I fell in love with a brown ale brewed at a local brewery while living in Minnesota. After moving to Florida 9 months ago, I could not find a decent brown ale. Hence, this the only reason I started brewing my own Caribou Slobber. If I still lived in MN I never would have started home brewing.

That said, I couldn't be happier because I actually like my own brown ale better :mug:
Click to expand...

Have you had the original beer that Caribou Slobber is based on? Big Sky Moose Drool. It's very, very good, but not distro'ed here. Doubt it is in Florida either, but might have been in MN. One of the better Browns in the states in my opinion.
 
Qhrumphf said:
Have you had the original beer that Caribou Slobber is based on? Big Sky Moose Drool. It's very, very good, but not distro'ed here. Doubt it is in Florida either, but might have been in MN. One of the better Browns in the states in my opinion.
Click to expand...

No, I haven't tried Moose Drool. I would buy some if they sold it here. Right now Caribou Slobber toots my horn....love the stuff :mug:
 
Qhrumphf said:
Have you had the original beer that Caribou Slobber is based on? Big Sky Moose Drool. It's very, very good, but not distro'ed here. Doubt it is in Florida either, but might have been in MN. One of the better Browns in the states in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I think Moose Drool is great. I also brew the all grain NB Caribou Slobber and honestly...it's even better imo.

If you're happy with your process and end product, I wouldn't change a thing either. You can make some great extract brews with little equipt. and less time. I went all grain because it's a way for me to relax and enjoy doing my own thing on the weekends. I love the process, the extra control, and end product is a bonus as well.
 
This spring I did the AG version of CS, but used maple sap instead of water in the mash. And primed it with maple syrup. Called the thing "Moose Maple Slobber". Not much maple character came through originally, but now about 5 months later, I believe I can detect some. CS is one that gets better and better with some age on it.
 
Brownalemikie said:
As a noobie I gotta say I've only brewed about 9 one gallon batches. All of which has been brown ale. I just love this beer and don't understand why I would change a thing. I've thought about going to all-grain but, to be honest, I ask myself......why? Can someone offer a reason to change to all grain?
Click to expand...

Nope.

Brew.
Drink.
Enjoy.

Nope.
 
This cannot continue. :) Here's what you do: 1) Start brewing 5 gal batches of Slobber, because you love it! 2) Start using those 1 gal fermenters to experiment with other beers, starting with variations of Brown Ales, if you must. 3) Thank me one year from now. Tell me all about lupulin threshold shift and the magical world of beer that opened up to you.


You don't have to go AG to do this, but you should do this somehow, and never rule out AG for the future. Enjoy!
 
Singletrack said:
This cannot continue. :) Here's what you do: 1) Start brewing 5 gal batches of Slobber, because you love it! 2) Start using those 1 gal fermenters to experiment with other beers, starting with variations of Brown Ales, if you must. 3) Thank me one year from now. Tell me all about lupulin threshold shift and the magical world of beer that opened up to you.





You don't have to go AG to do this, but you should do this somehow, and never rule out AG for the future. Enjoy!
Click to expand...


If he brews 5 gallons, he'll brew less often. What hobby would you want to do less frequently?

He doesn't want variations. He wants 2 gallon batches of what he makes.

Because everyone loves more hops just because they brew.

People brew for different reasons.
 
kh54s10 said:
If you buy the grains that would be in the malt extract in bulk you could cut your costs quite a bit. You can also do this with little new equipment if you go with BIAB. The only thing you might need is a grain bag, and possibly a bigger boil kettle.

6 lbs of bulk gold malt extract = ~$13.33 6 lbs of base malt in bulk ~$6.00 Bulk specialty grains maybe $8 - $9 for 6 lbs.

If you ever decide to branch out, all grain can save you a lot of money and gives you a lot more control of what is used in your beer. Besides, IMO it is a lot more fun to use all separate ingredients instead of extract where half of the process has already been done.
Click to expand...


Where are you getting 6lbs of LME for $13? That's half what I pay. I usually use DME though.
 
Brownalemikie said:
As a noobie I gotta say I've only brewed about 9 one gallon batches. All of which has been brown ale. I just love this beer and don't understand why I would change a thing. I've thought about going to all-grain but, to be honest, I ask myself......why?

Extract brewing is easier than all grain.....btw I've been buying bulk grains and LME so my average cost per 12 oz bottle is about 65 cents. Can someone offer a reason to change to all grain? Thanks!

Btw, I only brew the Caribou Slobber recipe from NB.
Click to expand...

Why would someone need to choose one or the other?

That is like saying you are perfectly fine with playing the part of a missionary, even though your wife says it's OK to act like a dog sometimes.
 
Thanks guys....I guess if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Btw, I'm just getting ready to brew another batch.....I'm very hoppy :D
 
Singletrack said:
This cannot continue. :) Here's what you do: 1) Start brewing 5 gal batches of Slobber, because you love it! 2) Start using those 1 gal fermenters to experiment with other beers, starting with variations of Brown Ales, if you must. 3) Thank me one year from now. Tell me all about lupulin threshold shift and the magical world of beer that opened up to you.
Click to expand...

Agree that one's brewing path eventually leads to the Lupulin Threshold. Then it's up to the individual whether to take that first step over it. ;)

@mikie, extract is technically all-grain that's had a lot of the work already done for you, so don't feel you are missing something by not doing the preliminary extracting steps yourself. While there is more latitude in all-grain and there are advantages in price and palate, do for now what you enjoy. That's the purpose of brewing in the first place.
 
Qhrumphf said:
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Extract is limiting and more expensive, even in bulk. Some of my beers I can push as low as 20 cents per bottle (but usually closer to 30 cents per bottle). Of course, for an extract brewer, 65 cents per bottle is making out like a bandit, so you're already doing well. But the big thing is the creativity and control that you can't get with extract, but if you don't care to branch out from where you are, then it doesn't matter. See initial comment, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
Click to expand...

I have only done extract, and at the moment I am happy with it. I understand that extract is limiting, but you can still get quite creative with it. And, IMO, even though it's cheaper buying all grain ingredients, the time I save brewing extract vs all grain makes up for it. One of these days when my kids are out of the house and I have more time on my hands, I will most likely go all grain. Until then, this is easier on my wallet than going out buying craft brew from the grocery, and I have been happy with my results.
 
Today my wife and I stopped at the LHBS with the sole intention of getting a gift card for my s-i-l. Getting out of the car she surprised me by saying, "You're going to get a kit, aren't you?" Though I started with kits and have done only one since going AG, I instinctively responded to the affirmative. She loves going to the kit aisle with her 'leave it to me' attitude and pick out a kit for me. Although she knows little to nothing about brewing, she loves participating at whatever level she can in what she knows makes me happy (she is responsible for getting me started in homebrewing). What a gal! So, she picked out a blonde, an RIS and a dunkelweizen. I just bottled an AG blonde and the RIS is something I'd rather do AG, so the dunkel went home with us. Felt like I'd just gotten my first kit all over again!
 
GHBWNY said:
Today my wife and I stopped at the LHBS with the sole intention of getting a gift card for my s-i-l. Getting out of the car she surprised me by saying, "You're going to get a kit, aren't you?" Though I started with kits and have done only one since going AG, I instinctively responded to the affirmative. She loves going to the kit aisle with her 'leave it to me' attitude and pick out a kit for me. Although she knows little to nothing about brewing, she loves participating at whatever level she can in what she knows makes me happy (she is responsible for getting me started in homebrewing). What a gal! So, she picked out a blonde, an RIS and a dunkelweizen. I just bottled an AG blonde and the RIS is something I'd rather do AG, so the dunkel went home with us. Felt like I'd just gotten my first kit all over again!
Click to expand...

You are lucky to have such a special gal. My wife doesn't like beer, but likes to see me "hoppy" so is supportive of my home brewing.
 
I do both. since the OP is only doing one beer, then why worry about switching to all grain, spend that money to make a beer you thing is the same or worse?

The main reasons people switch to all grains are price and control. If you are happy with your beer, .63 a bottle, why change?

I would recommend switching to 5 gallon batches.
 
Extract never tasted right to me. For some reason everything tasted like someone stuffed cardboard in my mouth. I'm positive it wasn't due to oxygen as I did every step by the book. Pretty sure it was my LHBS extract.

All grain has been much better. Every beer has been better than the previous. Cheaper too. For 25bucks you can build yourself a mash tun and go from there. I'll never go back to extract brewing.
 
All I can say is that when I first starting brewing - little over a year ago, I started AG BIAB. This decision was based on what I had available in equipment and what I needed to order - cost between the two.. Was easy BIAB was the way to go...
 
After a few decades of homebrewing I have gone full cycle.

From way back when and a 12 gallon stone crock a few cans of Hopped Blue Ribbon malt and a chunk of yeast from the local bakery then on to fancy prehopped can kits, then to partial grain and finally to a 50 quart mash tun and all grain 6 gallon batches, only to go back to the ease and speed of the new NO BOIL all extract kits.

Back a few years ago I got a new type of fermenter, had been using buckets, from Cooper's. It worked great for all my fancy all grain brews and eliminated the need of air locks and blow off setups because of its volume and ?Burp Top? lid.

A few months ago due to the culmination of a prior series of back and knee injuries, I came to the conclusion that mucking around with my mash tun, 12 gallon boiling kettle and what has become to me a ton of wet spent grain, my all grain brewing has ended.

Seeing my usual stockpile of about 400 bottles slowly vanishing I headed back to all extract and have found it, although not as good as all grain, to be better than almost any thing on the shelves at most beer stores.

After trying a few from Cooper's as well as some kits put together by homwbrew suppliers I have settled on Munton's Gold series of Dockyard Porter. Granted it is not the hobby it used to be but it is not that much more expensive when I figure in time and effort.

I just started my fifth 6 US Gallon kit yesterday, when I have only about one empty ring on my bottle tree (54 capacity) of clean empties I brew another 6 gallons, so while I exhaust my all grain I am managing to keep my basement full.

The day before brew day I fill 6 plastic gallons with R/O water from my system and put 5 in the fridge.

Brew day. Wash out the fermenter and spigot with OXY. Rinse well, sanitize and assemble. Put the two cans from the kit in the sink filled with hot water, put 1/2 gallon of R/O in a pot and bring to a boil. Sanitize my spoon and put it in fermenter.

Take out the cans of hopped malt, spray them down with StarSan and with a sanitized opener take off the lids and dump the liquid into the fermenter. Rinse the cans with a little of the boiled R/O water and pour into the fermenter along with the rest of the hot water and stir the heck out of it.

I take this relatively easy to handle setup to a spare bathtub on the first floor, where I can control the temperature at the turn of the faucet.

After pouring in the rest of the refrigerated water (5gals) and the 1/2 gallon that was room temp, stir once more, check the temp and stir in the enclosed yeast (yes the stuff that comes with the kit), Put on the top and keep it at 69 degrees for 2 weeks. I remove the Cooper's Krausen ring after the krausen drops (around week 1)

Result is 6 gallons of crystal clear dark porter with a nicely compacted layer of yeast on the bottom.

My wife and I get it into the kitchen and onto a counter the day before it is to be bottled to make sure it is settled and give it a few twists to shake the sediment off the small ledge above the spigot in the fermenter.

Using Cooper's fermenting drops ( 1 in a 12 ounce and 2 in a bomber) I manage to produce about 6 gallons of pretty good stuff and other than moving the fermenter to the counter I never have to lift anything of any real weight. The drops save me from any lifting of a priming vessel, and I just attach my bottle wand to the spigot on the fermenter.

So for about $100 I get 3 kits (six cans) that will produce about 150 pints of a very smooth porter that in my opinion is better than what several local brew pubs serve and decidedly better than the pints I paid 10 Bucks for in an English pub.

POINTS:
Do not boil the extract, it will change the hop profile and does nothing for the brew.
Use R/O or distilled water and you will get a consistant product each time.
If you want to make any hop additions boil them in with some additional unhopped extract or dry hop for a week or so.
Keep the temperature under control. Let the beer ferment for 2 FULL WEEKS, Carbonate for 7-10 days at room temperature and allow to age for 4 or MORE WEEKS.

Brewing day is now a ONE HOUR deal with almost no strain on a 70 year old spine that has been abused one too many times. LOL

As a matter of fact it probably took longer to type and correct this than it did to put the last batch in the tub.. I think I will go down and bring one up right now.
 
like boscobeans above, I have a fondness for the pre-hopped can kits....good, cheap, and fast. Fast is important...it gives me time to go shoot sporting clays, catch a mess of fish, pick the garden, kick back in the pool, or actually do real work when required.

Like this week end, I've got in-laws coming, two five gallon batches of wine to bottle, a business trip to prepare for, and I wanna dove hunt Saturday morning....I can squeeze all that in and get bucket of beer going too. I can start a can kit in about 45 minutes start to clean up.

AG? I do that a buddy's place...when I want to. Maybe when I retire I'll rethink it.
 
I saw this thread and assumed it was going to be a bunch of folks arguing about 1 vs the other, to my delight that was not so.

I'm interested in this Moose Drool & Caribou Slobber recipes referenced on pg.1 If anyone has them to send that'd be awesome.

I'm quite new to home brewing, been doing a number of kit&kilo brews as well as Cooper's no-boil, wanting to improve the quality & range of options; I've been researching all grain brewing, it seems ideal for me. The only thing stopping me is the price of the additional equipment, my budget is limited, so I don't know where to start. My first big purchase will be most likely a kettle & burner, that way I can do extract brews to start, then piece together everything else I'll need to go full AG.
 
Last edited:
Moose Drool discussion:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=175358

Caribou Slobber is Norther Brewer's version. They list all of their recipes on their website so you can find both an all-grain and an extract version.
http://www.northernbrewer.com

The only thing stopping me is the price of the additional equipment, my budget is limited, so I don't know where to start.
Click to expand...

You can get into all grain brewing with brew in a bag for just the additional cost of a bag (typically $2-10). Let us know if you need help with that.
 
I've been brewing for a little over 5 years now. Started with extract, moved to partial mash after a few batches and then on to AG after a few more. This progression was driven by my interest in improving the quality of my beers, having more control over things like color and body, and in simply wanting to feel more involved in the beer making process.

Without a doubt, the quality of my beer improved dramatically as I moved to partial mash and then to AG, but that happened at the same time I was improving other aspects of my process, like temp control, better understanding yeast management and water quality, kegging, fining, etc. So I can't really say for certain how much of this improvement is due to my move away from extract and how much of it is due to all of these other process improvements.

I do still enjoy having greater control and feeling more involved with AG, and for me that's enough to offset the only downside for me, which is the extra ~2 hrs per brew session. And that's why I'm interested in going back and trying an extract batch (for a style that I think would work well as extract, like a brown ale) and comparing that to the quality of my current AG beers, but with the benefit of all the other process improvements I've picked up over the years. Would love to discover that I could brew at least some types of beers that are every bit as good as my AG beers in less time.
 
jwalker1140 said:
I've been brewing for a little over 5 years now. Started with extract, moved to partial mash after a few batches and then on to AG after a few more. This progression was driven by my interest in improving the quality of my beers, having more control over things like color and body, and in simply wanting to feel more involved in the beer making process.

Without a doubt, the quality of my beer improved dramatically as I moved to partial mash and then to AG, but that happened at the same time I was improving other aspects of my process, like temp control, better understanding yeast management and water quality, kegging, fining, etc. So I can't really say for certain how much of this improvement is due to my move away from extract and how much of it is due to all of these other process improvements.

I do still enjoy having greater control and feeling more involved with AG, and for me that's enough to offset the only downside for me, which is the extra ~2 hrs per brew session. And that's why I'm interested in going back and trying an extract batch (for a style that I think would work well as extract, like a brown ale) and comparing that to the quality of my current AG beers, but with the benefit of all the other process improvements I've picked up over the years. Would love to discover that I could brew at least some types of beers that are every bit as good as my AG beers in less time.
Click to expand...


I think that's exactly what you'll find.
 

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