Help me convert a couple of extract kits to BIAB

[TorMag]

Ok, after hanging out here on HBT, you guys spoiled my extract brewing right from the get go. I have brewed 3 extract kits and thought they were all great until I read about the "TWANG" on here. During the last brew I tasted a bit of the LME and now that is all I taste when drinking my beer.... So I moved to BIAB and my first batch, a porter, is ready to keg. I can't wait. However, before I made the switch, I bought 3 extract kits from Midwest when they had a sale, buy 3 get them for $19.99 a piece. So I have two left that I need to convert to All Grain.

The first is their Fat Tire Clone.

6 lb. Light liquid malt extract,
8 oz. Special B,
8 oz. Caramel 120L,
8 oz. Bonlander Munich specialty grains,
1 oz. Northern Brewer, 1 oz. Saaz pellet hops

So I assume, all I need to do is replace the 6lb of LME with what?

The second is the Liberty Cream Ale Extract Beer Kit

6 lb. Gold liquid malt extract
8 oz. Carapils® specialty grains
2 oz. of Cascade pellet hops

Thanks in advance.

 

[pshankstar]

Look into Beersmith to run the conversion for you. There is a 21 day trial for it so you can try it before you buy it.

I'll plug in the info and see what it does and report back for you. I haven't tried doing this yet, so bear with me.

 

[pshankstar]

Fat Tire Extract to All Grain conversion. Please note I did not add the hops to the recipe b/c that doesn't make a difference, but the screenshot below is what I got using Beersmith. This also includes changing the equipment from my extract equipment to my BIAB setup using my keggle as my brew pot. I hope this helps!

 

[pshankstar]

Here is what I got with the Cream Ale Conversion. Please note with both of these I selected 2-row to be the base malt.

Others who are more experienced than me and familiar with Beersmith may be able to verify if my numbers seem on or have additional insight.

Good luck!

 

[TorMag]

Thanks. Interesting, looks like the quantity of the specialty grains has gone up..

 

[wilserbrewer]

Just so I got this right, your gonna toss the extract and replace with grain?

Maybe you can find a homeless brewer somewhere who needs the extract lol

 

[chickypad]

Software seems to do weird things sometimes converting between all grain and extract. I would just keep everything the same and replace the extract with 2 -row or the base of you choice. Technically you need to know your efficiency to know how much grain to use - the extract will supply about gravity 36 pts per lb. Many folks just assume around 75% efficiency, in which case 1 lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME, i.e. in your recipes use 8 lb of grain to replce 6 lb LME.

 

[TorMag]

Just so I got this right, your gonna toss the extract and replace with grain?

Maybe you can find a homeless brewer somewhere who needs the extract lol

Yes I am....

 

[TorMag]

Software seems to do weird things sometimes converting between all grain and extract. I would just keep everything the same and replace the extract with 2 -row or the base of you choice. Technically you need to know your efficiency to know how much grain to use - the extract will supply about gravity 36 pts per lb. Many folks just assume around 75% efficiency, in which case 1 lb grain = .75 lb LME = .6 lb DME, i.e. in your recipes use 8 lb of grain to replce 6 lb LME.

Thanks, that helps a lot

 

[TorMag]

So this turned out much simpler than I thought. I went back out to Midwest web site and found that they had all grain kits for both of these and just had to make a couple of switches.

For the Fat tire.

6 lb. Light liquid malt extract = 9 lbs. Domestic 2-Row barley

For the Liberty Cream

6 lb. Gold liquid malt extract = 7 lbs. Domestic 2-Row Barley, 2 lbs. Flaked Corn

Every thing else was the same in both kits...

 

[chickypad]

Looks like they are assuming a lower efficiency. It's not a bad idea to get in the habit of scaling any recipe to your system and efficiency so you don't under or overshoot your target gravity too much. That's the problem I see with all grain kits vs. extract.

 

[TorMag]

Looks like they are assuming a lower efficiency. It's not a bad idea to get in the habit of scaling any recipe to your system and efficiency so you don't under or overshoot your target gravity too much. That's the problem I see with all grain kits vs. extract.

Took me several minutes and head scratching to figure out what you were saying here, but going back and reading your previous post, I think I understand.

 

[chickypad]

Took me several minutes and head scratching to figure out what you were saying here, but going back and reading your previous post, I think I understand.

Sorry. My point was that a lb of extract gives you a known amount of sugar, no matter who is brewing. All grain brewers on the other hand will get different amounts of sugar from the same lb of grain. For example with that fat tire clone it looks like they are expecting 5 gals of 1.042 to 1.046 wort from that recipe. If I brew that to get 5 gals post boil and chill I would be at 1.056. So you have to pay attention to both efficiency and batch size when planning recipes so you end up with the OG you want. I never just brew someone else's recipe without tweaking it to my system and exact batch size.