carniebrew
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A Guide to "Extract with Specialty Grain" Brewing
NOTE: This guide assumes some level of knowledge and experience in home brewing. It is meant as a guide for brewers looking for that next step up from no-boil brewing using pre-hopped kit cans, but who may not be ready to take on the holy grail of all grain brewing. You should already be familiar with cleaning, sanitising, taking gravity measurements and bottling/kegging your beer. If not, there are many articles and threads dedicated to these processes elsewhere on AHB, please make use of them!
What is Extract Brewing?
Extract brewing (sometimes called “Full/All Extract Brewing”) is the process of using un-hopped malt extract to make full volume brews, with either full or partial volume boils. It differs from "Kit & Kilo" (K&K) brewing by using only un-hopped extract (i.e. extract that has not yet been through a brewer's boil/hopping process). This means you need to perform the boil and hop additions yourself, in exactly the same way as an all grain brewer does following their 'mash'. In addition to using malt extract, you can also steep "specialty grain" (malted grain not needing to be mashed) into your brew, adding freshness and allowing for a higher level of control over the end flavour and colour of your beer.
Extract brewing is also perfectly suited to partial volume boils, where the brewer is unable to boil the entire batch volume due to either pot size or heating capacity. Because some of the extract can be held back until the very end of the boil, optimal boil gravities can be achieved to maximise hop acid extraction and lighten the colour of the end brew. This is known as the late extract addition method. Basically what this means is you can make 20 or more litres of top quality home brew even if you can only boil 5 or 10 litres on your kitchen stove. This is probably the biggest draw-card of extract brewing, you need little more than a 4 litre pot at home to make a full batch of great quality beer...with full control over the hops and abv%.
From Brew Wiki: "You can make very high quality beer using extract brewing, but it does not offer the full range of ingredient and process variations that are possible with all grain brewing."
What is malt extract?
I have included this section in the guide because I believe there's some confusion as to what extract really is. Simply, malt extract is nothing more than dehydrated wort. Paraphrased from the Coopers website:
Malt extract can be purchased in a variety of sizes, most commonly in 1.5kg containers for LME (note that despite being a liquid LME is normally sold by weight, not volume….1 litre of LME weighs approximately 1.5kg). LME can also be bought in bulk, such as Briess’ CBW LME range in 15kg containers (at some home brew shops such as Grain & Grape). DME can be purchased in bags ranging from 500 grams up to 25kg, but will usually be found in 1kg and 5kg amounts. Because DME is so easily stored after partial use, it is often used to ‘top up’ the LME malt bill in a brew…for example, a home brewer may use an entire can (1.5kg) of LME, and 800 grams of a 5kg bag of DME to achieve their desired OG. The empty LME can is discarded, and the remaining 4.2kg of DME is re-sealed and returned to the cupboard for the next brew day.
Both LME and DME are available in different styles, with each style produced using a different variety of barley and/or wheat. The most common types are “Light”, “Amber”, “Dark” and “Wheat”, however some extract producers make further varieties such as Briess’ CBW “Pilsen Light”, “Munich”, “Rye” and “Porter”. It is also worth noting that wheat extract is almost exclusively a blend of wheat and barley grains, normally in a ratio of 60/40 or 65/35 wheat to barley.
What is specialty grain?
Chapter 13 of Palmer's "How to Brew" contains a lot more detail if you're interested...but to paraphrase: Specialty grains are grains that do not need to be "mashed" like base grain....they have been through a kilning process that converts the starches to sugars directly in the grain's hull. Specialty grain contains more complex sugars, some of which are unfermentable, lending a caramel-type sweetness. Once cracked, specialty grain can simply be steeped in hot water (< 70C) to add colour, flavour and freshness to extract brews. Examples include crystal/caramel, toasted and roasted malts.
How to brew beer using malt extract
The process of making beer using malt extract is very similar to that used by all grain brewers once they have completed their mash. In fact when performing a full-volume boil with extract, the process is basically identical once the boil timer is started. Once the wort has been brought to a rolling boil the hop additions begin, then post-boil the wort is cooled (either using the rapid chill or no chill method), yeast is pitched and fermentation begins.
Partial volume boil extract brewing differs slightly, in that only the amount of extract necessary to bring the boil gravity up to around 1040 is added at the start of the boil, with the rest of the extract held back until the end of the boil. Both full and partial volume boil processes are discussed in the following guide.
Probably the best way to start out with full extract brewing is to find a recipe for the style of beer you'd like to make. The recipe database here on AHB (currently still not fully operational) has many 'extract with specialty grain' recipes, as do many other sites such as homebrewtalk.com and hopville.com (although you will need to convert the ingredients from imperial to metric on those last two).
I highly recommend using a software package for designing your extract brews. You can enter the recipe you've found, tweak it to your own personal preferences if need be, and print out a 'brewday worksheet' to refer to during your brewing. You can also tell the software what your boil volume will be, and it will show you if any changes to hop quantities are needed to achieve the recipe's target IBU's. My own personal experience, backed up by fellow partial volume boil brewers, is that when boiling 10 litres or more, the original recipe's hop schedule should not need adjustment. Lower volumes than 10 litres will likely need more hops at each addition to stay close to the intended outcome. But you can decide this for yourself after your first few brews.
There are a number of software packages available for extract brewers, such as Brewmate, and Ianh’s free “Kit & Extract Beer Designer”, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that has become my tool of choice since I started extract brewing. These packages allow you to enter the amount and type of extract, specialty grain, adjuncts, hops and yeast you will be using in your brew, and shows you what the resulting abv%, IBU level and EBC colour should be achieved. Ian’s spreadsheet even has an extremely useful graph to show how your recipe compares to the style you’re trying to achieve.
Once your beer has been designed, and you have your ingredients ready to go, here’s how to put it all together:
1. If using specialty grains, steep them in at least 3 times their weight in water heated to around 70 degrees celcius (e.g. 3 litres for 1kg of spec grain). This could be done by placing the grain in a hop/grain sock (or directly in a 2nd pot; see "Other Suggestions" below)….heat the water to 70 degrees, turn off the heat and place the grain into the pot, dunking and swirling to ensure it is fully wetted. With specialty grain the water temperature is not as critical as with an all grain “mash”. Starting at 70C then letting it drop naturally during the steep is fine.
2. After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag and let it drain into the pot (squeezing if you like, or rinsing with < 70C water). Put the bag aside and turn on the heat. Fill the pot with water to your desired boil volume (straight from a boiling kettle will speed things up) and bring the whole lot to the boil (this can be done with the lid on to speed up the process, but be very careful not to let it boil over). While the water is reaching the boil, get your extract and hops measured out and ready.
3. As soon as you achieve a boil, turn off the heat. Add enough LME/DME to bring your boil gravity up to 1040 (if doing a full volume boil, you may elect to add all your extract now. If doing a smaller volume boil, your software should tell you how much extract is needed). Without accounting for any steeped grain, a 1040 gravity is achieved by adding around 100gm DME/130gm LME for every litre of water in your pot. 300 grams of steeped grain reduces the amount of DME/LME needed in a 10l boil to 900gm DME/1.1kg LME.
4. Mix the malt well, ensuring it is completely blended into the water. Any malt that settles to the bottom of the pot may be scorched during the boil, darkening your beer and contributing burnt sugar/caramelised flavours. Turn the heat back on and return to the boil.
5. Once back to the boil, start your hop timer (normally 60 minutes), and perform your bittering hop addition, stirring well. Continue your hop additions during the boil as desired.
6. If you haven't added all of your extract to the boil as yet, with 5 minutes left on the boil timer turn off the heat and quickly add the remainder of your malt extract and any adjuncts you may be using. Mix well again, and return once again to the boil. Boil for a few more minutes then the boil is complete.
7. If using no-chill you can now cube your wort (and if you did a partial volume boil top up to your desired batch volume). If chilling, cool your wort to the desired temperature using your preferred method (ice bath, immersion chiller etc).
8. Transfer the wort to the fermenter (if you're brewing in a pot without a tap, you may choose to strain the boil through a sanitised strainer to remove the hop matter). Top up to the desired batch volume as necessary, and remember to stir the wort well to ensure the top up water is blended fully with the boiled wort. Once your wort is at the desired temperature, take an OG reading, pitch your yeast and ferment.
That’s it! Once your beer is fermented, bottle or keg as per normal, and enjoy! The process above will provide an excellent grounding if you decide to move to all-grain brewing somewhere down the track, or you may be making beer so good using this method you might very well stick with it, as many extract brewers around the world already do. If you’re doing partial volume boils, you can even combine some of this method with all grain, by performing “partial mashes”, where you mash enough grain (perhaps half) to achieve the 1040 boil gravity, then use extract to complete the grain bill at the end of the boil.
Other suggestions
As always, there is more than one way to skin a cat. My guide above is primarily driven by what I learned from following Palmer’s “How to Brew”, adjusted to allow for late extract addition (which Palmer doesn’t
mention), as well as my practical experience. I have tried to keep it pretty simple and easy to follow. While discussing this guide with other AHB members, I’ve received some great suggestions for speeding up the process, and some alternative approaches for some of the steps above. I’m sure we’ll see many more ideas in the ensuing discussion below, that you may choose to integrate into your process once you’re comfortable with how everything works. Here’s some examples;
NOTE: This guide assumes some level of knowledge and experience in home brewing. It is meant as a guide for brewers looking for that next step up from no-boil brewing using pre-hopped kit cans, but who may not be ready to take on the holy grail of all grain brewing. You should already be familiar with cleaning, sanitising, taking gravity measurements and bottling/kegging your beer. If not, there are many articles and threads dedicated to these processes elsewhere on AHB, please make use of them!
What is Extract Brewing?
Extract brewing (sometimes called “Full/All Extract Brewing”) is the process of using un-hopped malt extract to make full volume brews, with either full or partial volume boils. It differs from "Kit & Kilo" (K&K) brewing by using only un-hopped extract (i.e. extract that has not yet been through a brewer's boil/hopping process). This means you need to perform the boil and hop additions yourself, in exactly the same way as an all grain brewer does following their 'mash'. In addition to using malt extract, you can also steep "specialty grain" (malted grain not needing to be mashed) into your brew, adding freshness and allowing for a higher level of control over the end flavour and colour of your beer.
Extract brewing is also perfectly suited to partial volume boils, where the brewer is unable to boil the entire batch volume due to either pot size or heating capacity. Because some of the extract can be held back until the very end of the boil, optimal boil gravities can be achieved to maximise hop acid extraction and lighten the colour of the end brew. This is known as the late extract addition method. Basically what this means is you can make 20 or more litres of top quality home brew even if you can only boil 5 or 10 litres on your kitchen stove. This is probably the biggest draw-card of extract brewing, you need little more than a 4 litre pot at home to make a full batch of great quality beer...with full control over the hops and abv%.
From Brew Wiki: "You can make very high quality beer using extract brewing, but it does not offer the full range of ingredient and process variations that are possible with all grain brewing."
What is malt extract?
I have included this section in the guide because I believe there's some confusion as to what extract really is. Simply, malt extract is nothing more than dehydrated wort. Paraphrased from the Coopers website:
- Malt extract is produced by mashing finely ground malted barley (as well as un-malted barley, and also wheat depending on the style of extract) with water at a temperature not exceeding 75C, then filtering and evaporating the resulting liquid under partial vacuum until it is the consistency of thick honey. This is known as Liquid Malt Extract (LME). To produce Dried Malt Extract (DME) the LME is spray dried to produce a fine, free flowing powder product.
Malt extract can be purchased in a variety of sizes, most commonly in 1.5kg containers for LME (note that despite being a liquid LME is normally sold by weight, not volume….1 litre of LME weighs approximately 1.5kg). LME can also be bought in bulk, such as Briess’ CBW LME range in 15kg containers (at some home brew shops such as Grain & Grape). DME can be purchased in bags ranging from 500 grams up to 25kg, but will usually be found in 1kg and 5kg amounts. Because DME is so easily stored after partial use, it is often used to ‘top up’ the LME malt bill in a brew…for example, a home brewer may use an entire can (1.5kg) of LME, and 800 grams of a 5kg bag of DME to achieve their desired OG. The empty LME can is discarded, and the remaining 4.2kg of DME is re-sealed and returned to the cupboard for the next brew day.
Both LME and DME are available in different styles, with each style produced using a different variety of barley and/or wheat. The most common types are “Light”, “Amber”, “Dark” and “Wheat”, however some extract producers make further varieties such as Briess’ CBW “Pilsen Light”, “Munich”, “Rye” and “Porter”. It is also worth noting that wheat extract is almost exclusively a blend of wheat and barley grains, normally in a ratio of 60/40 or 65/35 wheat to barley.
What is specialty grain?
Chapter 13 of Palmer's "How to Brew" contains a lot more detail if you're interested...but to paraphrase: Specialty grains are grains that do not need to be "mashed" like base grain....they have been through a kilning process that converts the starches to sugars directly in the grain's hull. Specialty grain contains more complex sugars, some of which are unfermentable, lending a caramel-type sweetness. Once cracked, specialty grain can simply be steeped in hot water (< 70C) to add colour, flavour and freshness to extract brews. Examples include crystal/caramel, toasted and roasted malts.
How to brew beer using malt extract
The process of making beer using malt extract is very similar to that used by all grain brewers once they have completed their mash. In fact when performing a full-volume boil with extract, the process is basically identical once the boil timer is started. Once the wort has been brought to a rolling boil the hop additions begin, then post-boil the wort is cooled (either using the rapid chill or no chill method), yeast is pitched and fermentation begins.
Partial volume boil extract brewing differs slightly, in that only the amount of extract necessary to bring the boil gravity up to around 1040 is added at the start of the boil, with the rest of the extract held back until the end of the boil. Both full and partial volume boil processes are discussed in the following guide.
Probably the best way to start out with full extract brewing is to find a recipe for the style of beer you'd like to make. The recipe database here on AHB (currently still not fully operational) has many 'extract with specialty grain' recipes, as do many other sites such as homebrewtalk.com and hopville.com (although you will need to convert the ingredients from imperial to metric on those last two).
I highly recommend using a software package for designing your extract brews. You can enter the recipe you've found, tweak it to your own personal preferences if need be, and print out a 'brewday worksheet' to refer to during your brewing. You can also tell the software what your boil volume will be, and it will show you if any changes to hop quantities are needed to achieve the recipe's target IBU's. My own personal experience, backed up by fellow partial volume boil brewers, is that when boiling 10 litres or more, the original recipe's hop schedule should not need adjustment. Lower volumes than 10 litres will likely need more hops at each addition to stay close to the intended outcome. But you can decide this for yourself after your first few brews.
There are a number of software packages available for extract brewers, such as Brewmate, and Ianh’s free “Kit & Extract Beer Designer”, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that has become my tool of choice since I started extract brewing. These packages allow you to enter the amount and type of extract, specialty grain, adjuncts, hops and yeast you will be using in your brew, and shows you what the resulting abv%, IBU level and EBC colour should be achieved. Ian’s spreadsheet even has an extremely useful graph to show how your recipe compares to the style you’re trying to achieve.
Once your beer has been designed, and you have your ingredients ready to go, here’s how to put it all together:
1. If using specialty grains, steep them in at least 3 times their weight in water heated to around 70 degrees celcius (e.g. 3 litres for 1kg of spec grain). This could be done by placing the grain in a hop/grain sock (or directly in a 2nd pot; see "Other Suggestions" below)….heat the water to 70 degrees, turn off the heat and place the grain into the pot, dunking and swirling to ensure it is fully wetted. With specialty grain the water temperature is not as critical as with an all grain “mash”. Starting at 70C then letting it drop naturally during the steep is fine.
2. After 30 minutes, remove the grain bag and let it drain into the pot (squeezing if you like, or rinsing with < 70C water). Put the bag aside and turn on the heat. Fill the pot with water to your desired boil volume (straight from a boiling kettle will speed things up) and bring the whole lot to the boil (this can be done with the lid on to speed up the process, but be very careful not to let it boil over). While the water is reaching the boil, get your extract and hops measured out and ready.
3. As soon as you achieve a boil, turn off the heat. Add enough LME/DME to bring your boil gravity up to 1040 (if doing a full volume boil, you may elect to add all your extract now. If doing a smaller volume boil, your software should tell you how much extract is needed). Without accounting for any steeped grain, a 1040 gravity is achieved by adding around 100gm DME/130gm LME for every litre of water in your pot. 300 grams of steeped grain reduces the amount of DME/LME needed in a 10l boil to 900gm DME/1.1kg LME.
4. Mix the malt well, ensuring it is completely blended into the water. Any malt that settles to the bottom of the pot may be scorched during the boil, darkening your beer and contributing burnt sugar/caramelised flavours. Turn the heat back on and return to the boil.
5. Once back to the boil, start your hop timer (normally 60 minutes), and perform your bittering hop addition, stirring well. Continue your hop additions during the boil as desired.
6. If you haven't added all of your extract to the boil as yet, with 5 minutes left on the boil timer turn off the heat and quickly add the remainder of your malt extract and any adjuncts you may be using. Mix well again, and return once again to the boil. Boil for a few more minutes then the boil is complete.
7. If using no-chill you can now cube your wort (and if you did a partial volume boil top up to your desired batch volume). If chilling, cool your wort to the desired temperature using your preferred method (ice bath, immersion chiller etc).
8. Transfer the wort to the fermenter (if you're brewing in a pot without a tap, you may choose to strain the boil through a sanitised strainer to remove the hop matter). Top up to the desired batch volume as necessary, and remember to stir the wort well to ensure the top up water is blended fully with the boiled wort. Once your wort is at the desired temperature, take an OG reading, pitch your yeast and ferment.
That’s it! Once your beer is fermented, bottle or keg as per normal, and enjoy! The process above will provide an excellent grounding if you decide to move to all-grain brewing somewhere down the track, or you may be making beer so good using this method you might very well stick with it, as many extract brewers around the world already do. If you’re doing partial volume boils, you can even combine some of this method with all grain, by performing “partial mashes”, where you mash enough grain (perhaps half) to achieve the 1040 boil gravity, then use extract to complete the grain bill at the end of the boil.
Other suggestions
As always, there is more than one way to skin a cat. My guide above is primarily driven by what I learned from following Palmer’s “How to Brew”, adjusted to allow for late extract addition (which Palmer doesn’t
mention), as well as my practical experience. I have tried to keep it pretty simple and easy to follow. While discussing this guide with other AHB members, I’ve received some great suggestions for speeding up the process, and some alternative approaches for some of the steps above. I’m sure we’ll see many more ideas in the ensuing discussion below, that you may choose to integrate into your process once you’re comfortable with how everything works. Here’s some examples;
- Instead of using your main brew pot to heat your steeping water to 70 degrees then steeping for 30 minutes, use a second pot filled with enough hot water (e.g. 2 litres) straight from the tap to steep your grains. While your steep is happening, brew your kettle a number of times, pouring the boiled water into your main pot while on high heat to keep it boiling. When your steep is finished, pour the contents of the 2nd pot into your main pot and skip straight to step 3.
- Instead of using a hop/grain sock for steeping grains, put the grain directly into a second pot with 70C water (as above). If you want to keep the pot at 70C, place it in the oven at that temperature for 30 minutes. Otherwise just leave it on the stovetop and let the temperature drop. Stir occasionally. When the 30 minutes is over strain the water into your brew kettle, return the grain to the steeping pot and add another litre or so of hot (< 70C) water. Stir, then strain once again into the brew kettle.
- Instead of adding any remaining fermentables towards the end of the boil (in step 6), skip to step 7, and while your boiled wort is chilling, add the fermentables along with a litre or so of hot boiled water directly into the fermenter and dissolve. Once your wort is chilled, pour on top of the wort already in the fermenter. The main reason for adding the fermentables to the end of the boil is to ensure no bacteria is introduced to the wort…if you’re ok with this small risk, you can save time by not boiling them at all.
- If you are doing a partial volume boil (and not using “no chill”), you can speed up the chilling of your wort by using ice in place of some of your top up water. The day before you brew, freeze some boiled water in a sanitised container (e.g. 2 litre ice cream container). Then when you are chilling your pot post-boil, add the ice directly into the pot to bring the temp down much more rapidly (or after you’ve poured your wort into the fermenter if your pot is too full). You then have the added benefit of using even more boiled water in your final wort, rather than straight from the tap.
