Thinking of trying an extract brew...

[Johow]

The very first time I brewed beer was in one of those brew it stores. You go in, decide on a brew and they guide you thru the process using their extract of maybe some steeped grains. Then they ferment it for you and you come back later and bottle it. And the beer wasn't too bad though I do enjoy making my own recipes.
When I started brewing it at home last year, I decided to go all grain and started using the BIAB method. It has worked just fine but I am finding that I am not enjoying brewing in this manner at least with my current setup. If I had a dedicated brew area with facilities for cleanup and all, it would be fine but I have such limited space that I have to move everything from a storage area to the brew area, then set up and brew, then I have to move everything that needs cleaning to another place to clean and then move everything back to storage. It's a pain in the ass!!! Now I know that extract is not going to cut out the cleaning but it should at least shorten the day. And I may start doing smaller batches with extract that I could do in the kitchen thus have to move things a little less.
What I don't want to do is make beer that I won't enjoy. What do you all say about the beer that is brewed this way or that way? Maybe I won't have the flexibility that all grain may allow but, I'm not looking to do much more than make a nice IPA that I can enjoy or maybe a holiday brew or two.
Thanks for letting me express....

 

[kh54s10]

The beauty with extract is that you can do the boil with about 2.5 gallons and then top up to 5 gallons. That way you can boil on the stove with a smaller pot. I do my all grain in a 10 gallon pot, I do extracts in a 5 gallon pot.

I have had very good results with extract. IMO, very little, if any, difference from my all grain brews. Though I prefer to do all grain on my brew porch.

 

[Johow]

I already have a smaller brew pot so that sounds good, being able to do a smaller brew but then top up to a full 5 gallon fermentor.

 

[signpost]

Your flexibility of recipes is definitely not as great with extract as it is with all-grain, but at the same time it isn't as limited as a lot of people think. Especially if you do steeping grains.

If you are tired of hauling stuff around and spending lots of time on brewing, then extract is a way to make really good beer without all the extra work.

Personally, I am willing to sink more time into brewing than it even takes. That's why I'm growing hops, growing barley, brewing all grain, doing sour beers that take 18 months to mature, etc.

But I started out with a good number of extract beers that turned out really well and offered more flexibility than you might expect. And if you have experience with all-grain and want to do a simpler brew that might not be possible with all-extract, you can easily do a mini-mash or something to go halfway without needing all of the equipment of a full-on all-grain brew.

Just know that moving from all-grain to extract doesn't automatically mean a drop in the quality of the final product. You can make really good extract beers.

 

[Sailingeric]

I did extract brewing for a year and a half with great results. I would recommend if you are doing less than full boils I would do late addition to avoid darkening of the beer.

 

[d3track]

I have gone back to doing some extract with steeping gratings to save time. Imo, if you control fermentations and handle yeast well, you can make great beer from extract.

 

[Staylow]

I brew in my garage where I can store my gear, but I don't have sinks out there, so I had to come up with a solution for cleaning, because hauling stuff back and forth to clean while making a mess of that area wasn't working for me.

Solution: I bought 4 22ish gallon sized plastic storage bins from Walmart. Once I get the mash going, I go inside and mix my cleaning solution (Oxi clean and TSP 90 mix) with 4 gallons of water in my old 5 gallon kettle and transfer outside. One more trip of another 4 gallons and I'm good for the day. I rinse with a garden hose. One container for cleaner, one for sanitizer, one for items that need to be rinsed, and one for rinsed items. Works really well until I can get some sinks installed.

I'm not sure if this is an option for you, but it's something to think about. They have the added benefit of being able to store all of your items for easy transport back to storage.

 

[unionrdr]

You could do as I do. I do PM/PB BIAB on our new 3,600 watt induction glass top stove with convection oven option. I use the same 5 gallon, 20 QT SS kettle I started with over 5 years ago. I did AE for the first 3 years. With the set of four nested SS kettles we bought, from 1.5G to 5G, I can do BIAB from 1 pound to some 9 pounds. Adding some extract to get to OG & color/flavor desired, beyond that of the mash. Or extract with steeping grains (E/SG)...all on the stove top, with 3.5 to 4 gallon boils in my 5 gallon kettle. They have more extracts available these days then when I started.

 

[Johow]

A nice easy brewday today. I did an extract partial boil with some steeped grains, right on my kitchen stove. I used my 5 gallon kettle and my 2 gallon kettle. N the small pot I brought 1 gallon of water to about 160 degrees and put in my bag of crushed grains. Meanwhile I started bring another couple of gallons up to temp in my 5 gallon pot. Once I got it warmed up pretty good, I added 3 lbs of light DME. After the half hour steep, I added that juice
to the big pot and worked on getting a boil. Getting a boil on my stovetop was tricky as it's not nearly as hot as my outdoor cooker. I was able to straddle 2 burners and get it going pretty well. Once I got it boiling, I was able to maintain a somewhat light boil with 1 burner for the rest of the time. If I needed to go a little harder, I'd just slide the pot back and fire up the other burner for a bit. So bittering hops in, I watched. About 15 out I threw in a whirlflock and added the other 3 pounds of DME. Flavor hops next and then some more at flameout. I let it rest about 15 minutes and then moved the pot to my sink where I sanitized the faucet and topped up the pot with tap water. Then I added and ice bath and water in the sink. I can cool 5 gallons in my 10 gallon pot in 15 minutes with the immersion chiller outside but it won't fit this pot. I guess it took about 40 minutes to get it cool enough to transfer to the fermenter where I topped up agin to 5.25 gallons. OG was supposed to be 1.049, I hit 1.048. Being in the kitchen made it a breeze to clean up as I could clean as I went along and no transferring stuff to several locations. I started my yeast yesterday and we're going to see the Dixie Chicks this evening so I'll leave the yeast starter going and pitch first thing tomorrow morning. Everything is sitting tight in the fermentation chamber for now.
This is my first extract brew as I had been using the BIAB method. Now I have a choice and can use whatever method suits me at the time.

 

[unionrdr]

That was the point I made as to what I've learned thus far. With a minimum of equipment & a little knowledge, one can utilize all the different brewing styles to fill the pipeline, giving more time & finance options.

 

[ericbw]

I do all grain because it's cheaper, but it's a lot more work, partly because of the cleanup.

This summer, because of time, I decided that I would do extract for easy summer beers. I did one all extract with grapefruit about 3 weeks ago (10 days fermenting, then in the keg), and one last night where I steeped a little crystal malt (and plan to dry hop it).

Both of these were 4 gallon batches. So the total cost for each was close to $20 (bulk hops, dry yeast, re-used yeast). If they were grain, it would have been more like $12.

But when I brew my next batch of Irish Red for the fall, I will use grain because it's a mix of Maris Otter and pale malt. You could do it with extract since there is MO extract now, I guess.

 

[catdaddy66]

Even though I've done all grain for about 4 years, I've made a few extract batches as well. Occasionally I find extract on sale and will keep it for when I want to brew but either don't have any AG supplies or just want a short brew day.

I have been quite pleased with my last 2 extract batches. I say brew it! At the worst it becomes beer and if it's bad beer then make gifts to your least favorite friends and/or family members.

 

[d_rock]

I did extract brewing for a year and a half with great results. I would recommend if you are doing less than full boils I would do late addition to avoid darkening of the beer.

I've done a good many partial grain/extract brews over the past two years, and I've just now come across the late addition tip. I use DME, and have gone off of several clone recipes that have been really close to the commercial brews, with the main difference being darker color and slightly more of a sweet, caramel taste.

The instructions I went off of had me adding half of the DME about mid-way through boil, and the other half for the last 15 min. I will try on the next batch to add it all at 15 to avoid boiling it too long.

Only one of my 10-12 batches was no good, and I think that was more due to me brewing a style I just didn't like. I've been very satisfied with my partial grain/extract brews.

 

[neverfadeaway86]

I started brewing in January and my first batch was a mr beer kit, it turned out alright. I decided I wanted to have more involvement in the recipes I brew and decided to start doing a Partial Mash for my last 7 or 8 batches. I would suggest this to you, as it still lets you have some creativity with your recipes but is less time consuming than AG