Extract vs. Grain Brewing

[Bigeb]

I'm a new brewer and have been reading a lot about various brewing techniques. I'm hesitant to try new techiniques such a partial or full grain methods until I'm confident in my efforts.

The question I have is "is there a noticable difference in the quality of beer when comparing malt extract recipes vs. grain recipes?" If I want to learn how to brew quality great tasting beer should I move onto grain or is it better to stay with extract brewing?

 

[moosetav]

You can make good beer using extracts. All grain and partial mash methods do give you more control on your product though. There are quite a few different malt choices out there and not all available as extract. It depends on the commitment you want to give to the hobby. Partial and all grain take a little more effort (though not much) and many people, including myself, think it makes a difference. Again, this is not to say that you can't make good and even great beer with extracts. It's your call. I'm sure more people will chime in and give you a more persuading argument one way or the other.

 

[smmcdermott]

As Revvy once said, just because you go all-grain, doesn't mean you will produce great beer. If you process sucks, aka bottle too soon, screw up your boil, bla bla bla, your beer will turn out like **** no matter what.

I started with extract because with all grain, you need to do full boils and need some more equipment, for the most part. There are also a lot more variables you need to account for in all grain, like mash and strike temp, efficiency, bla bla bla, that you don't need to worry about as much with extract. In my opinion, starting extract first then going to all-grain when you learn you brew process is the best way to go, but there are plenty of people who go right to all-grain.

 

[Revvy]

Oh god...here we go again.

Bigeb this is a very contentious topic and one that has been done to death on here. If you really want to know...why don't you look at some of the hundreds of other threads asking the same thing....

Starting with the ones in the similar threads box below....

A lot of people, and I mean a lot of the folks on here, are just going to ignore this thread, because it is beating a dead horse....OR look on waiting for the flame war to begin..

But, Bigeb, there really is no answer, just opinion, all ways have the potential to make great beer, or make crappy beer, all dependant on the brewer, nothing else.

I just encourage you to read what has already been posted through the years, and then work on being the best brewer you can be, regardless of whether or not you mash your own grains.




Besides the tons of threads about it on here, this sticky pretty much covers the arguments of any -vs- thread that folks new to the forum may start, thinking this has never been asked before...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/vs-pro-con-analysis-109318/

 

[Revvy]

As Revvy once said, just because you go all-grain, doesn't mean you will produce great beer. If you process sucks, aka bottle too soon, screw up your boil, bla bla bla, your beer will turn out like **** no matter what.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

 

[Grinder12000]

I do full boil Mini Mash and it's all about technique.

Granted an All-Grain person IF he is good can make far superior beer because he has more ingredients and tweaks at his finger tips. However JUST because he is doing an all grain batch will not make it superior.

With that said - going from 100% extract to steeping grains + extract to mini mashing (just a small step) you will see a difference because you can do more.

It's like a cook. You can be a good cook or bad cook. A bad cook with a lot of ingredients will still be a bad cook. A good cook with few ingredients will still be a good cook BUT be limited on how good he can be.

I am 100% happy with mini mashing and have no desire to go all-grain. Just a personal choice.

 

[BlueSunshine]

As a fellow noob, I will give you the following advice: the search function is pretty awesome.

 

[gtpro]

If you've never brewed, go with extract for the first few, learn the process, immerse yourself in this website and www.howtobrew.com and then make the decision as to if you want to go all grain. It does require more equipment than the average extract brewer has.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

All grain rocks, extract is for fluffy cats.


I don't really mean this, I'm just bored with the question!


Oh buggar! I just realised that i didn't need to respond!

 

[slowbie]

Couldn't someone condense this to some bullet points and add it to the This vs. That sticky post? Seeing as it's such a common question, I think it would make sense. Also, llazy_llama is back so we could make him do it for consistency.

 

[Revvy]

Couldn't someone condense this to some bullet points and add it to the This vs. That sticky post? Seeing as it's such a common question, I think it would make sense. Also, llazy_llama is back so we could make him do it for consistency.

Yeah, I just looked at the thread..I thought it was in there...I agree!

Pmming Llama now.

 

[Shooter]

I'm worried Llama might have other "life" issues which would not make updating that thread a priority. I love the guy, but, just sayin'!

Anyway, we all know partial mash is the bomb! Thread CLOSED!

Seriously though, I've been doing some partials lately and they are good, but, my best beer to date has still been a dry hopped, extract plus steeping grains IPA.

 

[Grinder12000]

the search function is pretty awesome.

Not really!

 

[Pivot]

It seems to me through all the other threads and stuff like this is basically PM and AG brewing generally have a little more "potential" to be better simply because of fresher ingredients and more options/control, but like Revvy said on page 1, its all up to the brewer and the process. Just because PM and AG has a little more potential in the long run does not change that extract still have potential to be fantastic beers, especially when using steeping grains

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

It seems to me through all the other threads and stuff like this is basically PM and AG brewing generally have a little more "potential" to be better simply because of fresher ingredients and more options/control, but like Revvy said on page 1, its all up to the brewer and the process. Just because PM and AG has a little more potential in the long run does not change that extract still have potential to be fantastic beers, especially when using steeping grains

But PM/AG also have the potential to be worse as well. More stuff to screw up.

 

[Revvy]

But PM/AG also have the potential to be worse as well. More stuff to screw up.

That's what I've always maintained.

 

[motobrewer]

my best beer to date has been extract/steeping.

by far.