All grain quality from extract beer?

[bmarshall]

Thanks guys.
Ill have a few attempts at unhopped extract then.
Even though i waste some brews and $ i still enjoy the process.
Im keen to go AG but want a little more experience under my belt.

 

[indica86]

If you sign up with the Coopers website, they regularly have free shipping, recipe packs and a discount for members. Works ut cheaper than the Blackrock cans with $30 + shipping.
Goes some steeping grains and you'll see.
I have only just started AG and the only equipment I bought was a 19L pot from BigW. I wanted to see if it is worthwhile.
My first AG was a very simple Centennial Pale and by far exceeds ANYTHING I have drunk from can mixes or extracts.

Jump in.

 

[zeggie]

Yeah, I was going to use the 19l or 2 x 19l bigw pot method, but a cheap 40l urn came up on ebay.

I find the whole process so much easier and you have so much control over everything! I agree jump in

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

My 2 pot method FTW!!!!!!!@

 

[zeggie]

My 2 pot method FTW!!!!!!!@

Haha I read and re-read your thread probably a dozen times....then an urn popped up on ebay and put a spanner in the works

Great thread, shows how insanely cheap it is to get stuck into AG. Never go back to kits afterwards

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Haha I read and re-read your thread probably a dozen times....then an urn popped up on ebay and put a spanner in the works

Great thread, shows how insanely cheap it is to get stuck into AG. Never go back to kits afterwards

Thanks mate for that. Sometimes you put it out there, for the sake of sharing knowledge but you wonder if it actually helps.

Honesty, I'm still using it across 2 states and won awards. It's a great cheap way to produce wort. I reckon my best beer has never made it to a comp.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Oh and zeggie, were the vids of any help?

 

[zeggie]

I was reading the thread before the vids were posted I think, as I don't remember them. Just watched them in that thread now and great stuff. Every newbie should watch.

All my mates quit at the kit and kilo stage (nearly myself included), I'm really glad I spent the bucks and got a 2nd hand fridge for temperature control went into AG. Now all my mates
want back in haha

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I was reading the thread before the vids were posted I think, as I don't remember them. Just watched them in that thread now and great stuff. Every newbie should watch.

All my mates quit at the kit and kilo stage (nearly myself included), I'm really glad I spent the bucks and got a 2nd hand fridge for temperature control went into AG. Now all my mates
want back in haha

Then get them to watch the thread vids.

 

[verysupple]

Getting back to the question, "All grain quality from extract beer?". Of course you can make "all grain quality" beer from extracts, how do you think the extract was made?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Getting back to the question, "All grain quality from extract beer?". Of course you can make "all grain quality" beer from extracts, how do you think the extract was made?

and dehydrated veges came from fresh veges once.

as I've said - some very good beers can be made with extract, but it isn't the same.

 

[Bizier]

What Raja said, it is the handling that makes the difference. Applies to any just-add-water product.

 

[carniebrew]

and dehydrated veges came from fresh veges once.
as I've said - some very good beers can be made with extract, but it isn't the same.

LRG would you tell Jamil that if you met him? It's too broad a statement surely. It really depends what you're trying to brew. Pale lager you might struggle, but I'd bet London to a brick nobody could pick my extract dunkelweizen in a tasting.

 

[fletcher]

in my opinion when you need to include things and add things to make a kit better, or to hide a twang, you're admitting to yourself that the product is inferior. i was completely surprised how easy BIAB is. it really isn't hard. i made 2 kits, hated them, started on BIAB and never looked back.

by the time you start doing things like boiling wort, adding hops, steeping grains, you're basically 95% AG-ing anyway so why not get the few extra tools and mash? i don't think you need kit 'experience' to make 'better' beers before starting on AG; well at least i didn't. jump in the deep end and do your learning while doing brew in a bag.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I went from kits to BIAB and while I was happy with the some of the results from my kits, I was truly blown away with how good my AG beer is.

I never went extract/steeping grains, because it didn't seem that much more effort, to go AG.

 

[Adr_0]

LRG would you tell Jamil that if you met him? It's too broad a statement surely. It really depends what you're trying to brew. Pale lager you might struggle, but I'd bet London to a brick nobody could pick my extract dunkelweizen in a tasting.

Yeah - I was thinking a couple of pages back, base malts are probably the one genuine and definite difference in quality. E.g. Maris Otter, Weyermann Pils/Vienna/Munich. We don't quite have the availability and turnover of quality extract that the Seppos do.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

LRG would you tell Jamil that if you met him? It's too broad a statement surely. It really depends what you're trying to brew. Pale lager you might struggle, but I'd bet London to a brick nobody could pick my extract dunkelweizen in a tasting.

Yes, I would tell Jamil that.

I've had some very good dark ales with extract. Anything dark or very hoppy will hide a great deal of twang.

But I agree with the point that if you steeping, boiling hops and the like, you're doing most of it and the time saving of extract isn't there anymore. I've proved that you can do great AG beer with minimal equipment outlay.

If it is just add water fermenting because you're time poor, different thing. You gotta do what you gotta do. But again, you're not doing it to get "AG quality" beer.

I've been on both sides of the imaginary divide. I reckon 15 years spanning that to give some weight to the opinion. And I know which of my beet I prefer.

 

[Bribie G]

Your extract is really the same thing as Nescafe Blend 43, and Nestle KNOW that it's fodder, hence the millions of dollars they spend on totally ridiculous advertising to prop up its falling sales "We will build our love on common ground..." FFS it's just crap instant COFFEE ...

Companies are always tweaking tweaking tweaking and trying to bring out new embellishments on instant coffee such as self foaming capuccino sachets and now they even have an instant coffee called Azera that has an enhanced flavour because ... wait for it .......they have actually put some coffee into it. :unsure:

Extract beers with heaps of spec grains and hops are really the Azera of the home brew world, striving and striving. However at the end of the day isn't it better to make your own "extract" or, if you don't have time, buy a FWK and trick it up yourself. At $14 a tin for extract, I'd guess FWKs are pretty much in the same price league.

 

[verysupple]

and dehydrated veges came from fresh veges once.

as I've said - some very good beers can be made with extract, but it isn't the same.

I don't see how extract brewing is that different. It's not like all AG brewing techniques are the same. People always say you have more control over the final product with AG, but the level of control a brewer has varies hugely depending on their setup. i.e. a 3V HERMS system isn't the same as mashing in an Esky which isn't the same as BIAB.

Sure, you can't do a 5 step mash schedule or a continuous ramp with extract brewing but you can't with an Esky either.

There's no doubting that you certainly have a wider variety of grains to choose from for AG but the issue is the quality of the beer, not the variety or 'uniqueness' (read: "I tried to brew witbier but I messed up and now I'm calling it a 'Belgian specialty ale' ") of the beers you can brew.

 

[bum]

Sure, you can't do a 5 step mash schedule or a continuous ramp with extract brewing but you can't with an Esky either.

Absolutely untrue on the stepping there. Your entire position is incorrect. Even the simplest of AG setups has vastly more control over the fermentability of wort than any extract method.