I'm thinking of building my winter stockpile by making extract recipes, problems??

[Beerswimmer]

I am thinking of switching from taking all day to make 2 all grain recipes, to making 3-4 maybe 5 recipes a day by using extracts. Just a 1 hr boil, cooldown, clean and on to the next one. Specialty grains, if any, would be steeped in a separate smaller pot and added to the main boil before flameout. Mostly what I'll be making are the big, time consuming beers like Belgian quads and tripels. Looong mashes will be no more, and that'll be the biggest time saver of all. The cost will be the trade off, and I accept it.

So, what am I not considering? What will I be missing out on?

 

[Gavin C]

The fun that all-grain brewing gives you.

Long complicated step mashes, decoctions, recipe formulation, mash chemistry adjustment etc.

Brewing is no chore for me. I brew year round so winter is not a restriction. Better in the winter in fact as the tap water is cooler.

 

[Beerswimmer]

Brewing isn't a chore for me at all, but I only get about 1 day every 2 weeks to brew as much as I can. And I do take advantage!! This will double or triple my amounts on hand to stockpile for winter. And I can only brew outside from April-November. It's too cold, and I have to brew indoors. I can only do 1 batch per month then

Really, I just don't enough time to do everything I'd like!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Hey fellow michigander, I was never really happy with what I made with extract but i've had some pretty tasty extract brews at my homebrew club meetings so I know it can be done.

Personally: I would rather go electric and brew indoors in the basement or something than go extract. My all grain brew days are already 3-3.5 hours with biab full volume and a 45 minute mash thanks mostly to using electric heat sticks that cut my heat times down to about 15 minutes.

 

[Gavin C]

Sorry. Chore was the wrong word. I didn't mean to infer the wrong meaning from your post. I think that is a reasonable plan, I have no doubt you enjoy brewing as much as the next guy/gal.

Another option would be to do bigger batches. Twice the beer for the same work.

Or do some stove top all-grain brewing come winter. Lots of small batches keep the pipe-line and variety flowing.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

YoU can also pick up cider making. Work on beer up to the winter moratorium, as soon as it's too cold start mixing up batches of cider.

 

[Beerswimmer]

Sorry. Chore was the wrong word. I didn't mean to infer the wrong meaning from your post. I think that is a reasonable plan, I have no doubt you enjoy brewing as much as the next guy/gal.

Another option would be to do bigger batches. Twice the beer for the same work.

Or do some stove top all-grain brewing come winter. Lots of small batches keep the pipe-line and variety flowing.

I pln on moving to a 10 gallon or more setup after I move next summer. In the winter I do brew indoors on my stovetop. It just takes forever. Like most of the day to get through a recipe.... I prefer to build up stocks of high gravity beers during the spring-fall and try to make it last the winter. A few hefs and IPA's during th winter to enjoy immediately.

I think I can get a month's worth done in a day with extract, that should free up time this fall to do some really nice all grain recipes and take my time when I have it.

I'm just really wondering what extract recipes would lack vs. an all grain recipe???

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Two fold reaponse:
1) what makes your stovetop brewing take so long? Heat up times? You could buy/build a heat stick. I recommebd bobby, hot rod if you're willing to spend the money.

2)pure extract doesn't have the same versatility in my experience. you'd still need to take the same time to heat and cool and stuff you would just be cutting out the mash. If you mash in a cooler, or a separate pot, you could mash while another batch is brewing. Could still do 2 batches in 5-6 hours.

 

[AK7007]

I dunno that steeping grains and all that actually work out to be as good as the equivalent AG recipe, at least initially. If anything, your winter idea might be a good way to go about it if you plan on aging - once you are letting a beer sit, many undesirable characteristics mellow out. I usually treat extract brewing as a separate entity and try to formulate recipes around whatever special LMEs I can get to avoid steeping grains.

The one thing that I could suggest would be for pale ales and IPAs to get a 15 min boil. I do a whole bunch of those styles with just hop bursting and hop stand additions anyways, so the extract brew ends up being way faster than even the average extract batch. If you were to do this method, you could still brew them in the cold, especially if you are no chilling.

 

[Beerswimmer]

The heatup times on my stovetop are terrible. To get 5 gallons of water to a boil takes almost an hour, and it doesn't ever get to a "hard" boil. I'm looking at extract to eliminate the mash, mashout, and sparge. The boil is the only part that will take time. Cooling is never an issue even in summer, less than 15mins to 65F.

I would hope that an extract recipe with some specialty grains would be almost unnoticeable in flavor from an all grain. Where would the difference really be??

 

[pricelessbrewing]

If you did full volume mash in a bag you would eliminate the mash out and sparge, unless you wanted to. It could also mash while you heat to boil.

a heat stick would decrease your boil times drastically.

I'm sure there are people that could say they've been very similar brews with partial mash, or exrtract+ steeping grains but I'm not one. I just could never get extract to taste like what I wanted to. that with the fact that it's more expensive and offers less control and I left it behind quite quickly.

 

[hifidelity]

I was at the LHBS today and considered getting a couple extract kits to brew during this (the hottest) part of the summer. Sure my all-grain beers have been SO much better than anything I ever got with extract, but spending several hours in a 90+ degree garage makes an air conditioned brew day sound nice.

I'm actually looking forward to brewing this winter...