Best For Extract Brewer

[normell]

OK I'm a kit only brewer, and made some bloody good, and bad, brews using a tin, and dextrose, dry malt, liquid malt, both light and dark, and beer improver packs.
The best so far was a Cascade spicy ghost draught with a superior beer improver pack, shit it tasted good.
Worst was a My Brew pilsner, with a czech pilsner beer converter pack, had to put a lot of lemonade per pot to make that one drinkable.
So for a extract only brewer, whats the best setup, liquid or dry malt or dextrose, that you have come across.
I only want to stay with simple brews, no mashing yet. Thanks guys
Normell.

 

[GMK]

For Kits & Bits - i found the following good:

- buy Coopers Light Liquid Malt Extraxt in bulk - 90.00 for 28kg.
- buy some steeping grains - Xtal, Choc, Dark and roast Barley. Use the grains to adjust for colour and flavour.
- Practise steeping them in warm water for an hour - then seive and boil the steeped liquid for 20mins.
- add some hops to this liquid - boil hops for 20mins - and add some around 3mins.

Once mastered all this - start adding 500gms of base malt to do do small partial mashers.

Hope this helps

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Dry malt extract will stay good for a lot longer than liquid extract will. I sell a 20Kg bag of Bintani light dry extract for $115--this works out much cheaper than using kits!

Dextrose adds no flavor of body etc to a beer. However I would cut dry extract with some sugar, sucrose or dextrose, to avoid finishing with too high FGs all the time.

What GMK said is pretty good advice

Jovial Monk

 

[morry]

Yep, sounds like good advice so far. Im only an extract brewer too. Since Ive been on this site, my beers have gone from drinkable to better than a lot of commercially made beers.

Specialty grains will make a big difference to your beers.

Have you looked into liquid yeasts? These are great for making styles of beer that safale and saflager just cant do.

As for malt extract, I bought some bulk liquid malt, but will be going back to dry because it was a pain in the neck. Too messy for me.

And remember, relax. Dont worry. Have a homebrew.

 

[deebee]

I don't do AG. Usually I use DME bought in bulk with steepings of specialty grains and small additions of dextrose or occasionally sucrose. Less often I will do part-mash brews.

For kits and bits brewing I basically followed Palmer's book and the tips on this forum. A good example would be to buy an English bitter kit, a kilo of DME and 250-500g of crystal malt. Steep the crystal malt at about 60-75C for 30 -60 minutes then strain and gently rinse (I use a muslin bag). Boil the steepings with the DME and maybe some English hops like goldings or fuggles for 10 minutes and then dissolve the kit into the boil and take it off the heat. Stir to dissolve and then chill in a few successive sinks of water and ice. Add to your fermenter and then top up. Aerate, pitch yeast etc.

I reckon extract has a flavour which can be distracting. I actually didn't notice it until I started drinking other brewers' AG beers. My best extract brews have generally been darker beers where that extract flavour doesn't stand out so much. A small mash also reduces this problem.

The other problem I have found with extract brewing has been some slight residual sweetness. My best remedies for this have been thorough aeration, a full-sized yeast starter and a few days extra in the primary fermenter.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Deebee, you might also find that rousing the beer on day 4 will help it to attenuate fully and so not have that sweetness.

JM

 

[normell]

Deebee, you might also find that rousing the beer on day 4 will help it to attenuate fully and so not have that sweetness.

JM

Sorry JM
What do you mean by "rousing", is it like racking.????

 

[phantom]

Just give your fermenter a shake to lift the yeast off the bottom and backinto suspension for another go at any residual sugars.

 

[Weizguy]

Some like to shake; I prefer to swirl.
I have helped yeast consume some mighty heavy brews, with the help of a daily rousing during a longer fermentation.
Seth