Kit And Extract Without The Kit?

[Noxious]

Hey guys,
Just wondering if it is worthwhile to brew without using a 'flavour' can?
I am wishin to brew an American Pale Ale and want to use amarillo and cascade hops without having the flavour of the can affect the taste of the hops im putting in.
Would it be ok to use to cans of say 1.5kg Liquid Malt Extract instead of the extra 1.7kg can?
Might be a easy question but hey, who else can i ask at this time!
Thanks

 

[Adamt]

All that is in the kits over plain extract is hop oils.

Advantage with plain extract is you can boil all of your malt, delivering better flavour. You can't, or shouldn't boil kits as this will destroy any additions in the can. Make sure you adequately hop your all-extract brew to get enough bitterness.

Cheers.

 

[braufrau]

Yep absolutely. There's a huge difference in taste doing a boil with real hops compared to a kit.
You can control the bitterness, flavour and aroma to your own taste.
A handy book if you're going down this route might be Brewing Classic Beer Styles

and just the other day I stumbled on a site with lots of extract recipes here 'tis

Use good yeast .. US-05 for instance if going this route.

 

[discoloop]

I do it fairly regularly. No stress about it - you just have to achieve your bitterness from hops rather than what's built into the kit.

I find using software like beersmith really helps - just to ensure you reach your target bitterness for your given boil volume (remember hop utilisation decreases as boil gravity increases). Steep some crystal and you'll have a seriously fine beer on your hands!

 

[matti]

AHB sponsor Grain and grape retailer has got a lot to give in how to and lots of good recipes.

Just an opinion on cascade and amarillo.

Aim for bitter and flavour around 40 min and 20 min

then last addition at flame out for aroma

60 minute boil of these hops gives a somewhat unsmooth finnish to the APA's.

matti

 

[Thunderlips]

A handy book if you're going down this route might be Brewing Classic Beer Styles

This book is for extracts and not just all-grain?

 

[Thunderlips]

This book is for extracts and not just all-grain?

Never mind, I read the reviews, it has both

 

[braufrau]

Never mind, I read the reviews, it has both

Yeah, it gives AG alternatives to the main extract recipes.

Other extract recipe books are Clone Brews and Beer Captured but I figure
Jamil's recipes have more "cred" because they are the recipes he won medals with.

I find using software like beersmith really helps

Yeah Beersmith takes a lot of pain out of calulating bitterness.

 

[capretta]

to save time i like to make all extract quaffers every now and then. i normally AG but i cant find the time sometimes, so i have been experimenting with straight extract beers boiled up with hop pellets. i have used the coopers light malt and also the morgans. morgans is slightly lighter in colour, and i think it ferments out a little dryer, but i am still experimenting. using just extract you will find that it leaves a little sweetness behind, so make sure your yeasy is raring to go. i cultured up the yeast below beforehand to give it the best chance to eat all the sugars.. B)

2x morgans extra light LME
6g green bullet 60mins
26g hersbrucker 10 mins
125g candied sugar
on ingelmunster belgian yeast
to 22 litres
og1052
fg1008

 

[Fatgodzilla]

to save time i like to make all extract quaffers every now and then. i normally AG but i cant find the time sometimes, so i have been experimenting with straight extract beers boiled up with hop pellets. i have used the coopers light malt and also the morgans. morgans is slightly lighter in colour, and i think it ferments out a little dryer, but i am still experimenting.

I've also gone away from kit beers to extract and mini mashing grain. I do find that using just dry malt extract (rather than liquid malt extract) has a flavour I can't describe but don't like. Fixed it by steeping crystal malts to greatly improve the result. Mini mashing malt grain (500g to 1kg) has also added extra flavour to the brews. Getting close to full AG but not yet. Try it.

 

[braufrau]

I've also gone away from kit beers to extract and mini mashing grain. I do find that using just dry malt extract (rather than liquid malt extract) has a flavour I can't describe but don't like. Fixed it by steeping crystal malts to greatly improve the result. Mini mashing malt grain (500g to 1kg) has also added extra flavour to the brews. Getting close to full AG but not yet. Try it.

Partial Mashing helps fix the attenuation problem with extract that capretta mentions and you can use different
malts that have to be mashed to give malt complexity that you can't get with straight extract.
My partials are upto 3.5kg now so I think I'll call my method Hi-Grain brewing
My next brew, a BPA, will only have 700g of extract in it.

 

[capretta]

its a slippery slope to ag!! :lol:

 

[ironxmortlock]

Could anyone point me towards a free guide on how to do this kind of brewing?

Thanks,

M

 

[bconnery]

Could anyone point me towards a free guide on how to do this kind of brewing?

Thanks,

M

Iron, Here is the guide I posted on this subject a while back.
It has a bit of a step by step and reasons why I did things etc. I used this method for quite a while and got to a point where I was very happy with the results...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...opic=15469.html

 

[braufrau]

Iron, Here is the guide I posted on this subject a while back.
It has a bit of a step by step and reasons why I did things etc. I used this method for quite a while and got to a point where I was very happy with the results...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...opic=15469.html

That's a nice article bconnery. Shouldn't it be in the wiki?

You did an article on partials too I think??

 

[bconnery]

That's a nice article bconnery. Shouldn't it be in the wiki?

You did an article on partials too I think??

I received a PM about this one from one of the moderators saying that they planned to, but I don't think it ever happened...

I did a kit one, which was very similar, this one but I don't think I ever updated this one to partials. Mind you, my partial, or more mini-mash technique is very similar, just with a slightly different 'steep' phase...

 

[ironxmortlock]

Iron, Here is the guide I posted on this subject a while back.
It has a bit of a step by step and reasons why I did things etc. I used this method for quite a while and got to a point where I was very happy with the results...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...opic=15469.html

Thanks for that! :beer:

I've bought the tins for my next brew but I'll give this a go on the one after that.

M