Extract Vs. All-grain experiment

[Mylo]

I would try this experiment again with a recipe that is not so affected by the extract. Extract wheat beers BLOW. It's just a function of the extract process.

Try an amber, or pale ale. I had a beer at my club meeting last month that was outstanding - clearly the best of the night. It turned out that it was the MoreBeer amber extract recipe, that a buddy of mine did. Given fresh ingredients and a clean process - extract beers should be just as good as their all grain counterparts.

Often I think that it's just the lack of many different varieties of base malt that is holding the extract folks back.


Mylo

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I would try this experiment again with a recipe that is not so affected by the extract. Extract wheat beers BLOW. It's just a function of the extract process.

Try an amber, or pale ale. I had a beer at my club meeting last month that was outstanding - clearly the best of the night. It turned out that it was the MoreBeer amber extract recipe, that a buddy of mine did. Given fresh ingredients and a clean process - extract beers should be just as good as their all grain counterparts.

Often I think that it's just the lack of many different varieties of base malt that is holding the extract folks back.


Mylo

One of the members of the club I do the website for has won first place in three comps for his ESB. And it's an extract recipe. We asked him what the IBUs were, and he didn't even know what that meant. He just got a second in the club's Belgian comp with his extract saison. The right brewer can make awesome extract beers

[beerdrinker]

I'm siding with you needing to do more than one test to make a conclusive decision between Extract and All Grain.

I think the biggest difference for me is the ability to have more control with AllGrain brewing.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I think the biggest difference for me is the ability to have more control with AllGrain brewing.

I've heard that before, and I've said it. But having just fucked up an all grain brewday, I'm no longer exactly sure what I'm controlling. So let's take a poll: What are we controlling by going all grain?

[beerdrinker]

I think the biggest difference for me is the ability to have more control with AllGrain brewing.

I've heard that before, and I've said it. But having just fucked up an all grain brewday, I'm no longer exactly sure what I'm controlling. So let's take a poll: What are we controlling by going all grain?

On the beginner side, just what goes in the mash. On the expert side, the temp of the mash, the grain ratio, and many other factors to the brew that I don't know yet...

[Mortician607]

I think the biggest difference for me is the ability to have more control with AllGrain brewing.

I've heard that before, and I've said it. But having just fucked up an all grain brewday, I'm no longer exactly sure what I'm controlling. So let's take a poll: What are we controlling by going all grain?

What did you fuck up with it?

All grain brewing gives you a lot of control if you ask me. You're not going to be able to fine tune your recipe going extract in the ways that you can with AG. You can control everything from the smallest detail with the grain bill to your mash temps to control flavor, body, residual sweetness, and mouthfeel.


With extract you can't really control how fermentable the wort is, but by adjusting your mash temps you can with all grain. Granted if you do partial mashes you can gain a little more control over all of this, but it's not really as precise as with all grain.

The other thing is color. I was never really able to brew a really light colored beer with extract, but with all grain you can. Even when I used DME my beers were still too dark.

[viperpiper]

I heard that an extract beer took BOS last year.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

I think the biggest difference for me is the ability to have more control with AllGrain brewing.

I've heard that before, and I've said it. But having just fucked up an all grain brewday, I'm no longer exactly sure what I'm controlling. So let's take a poll: What are we controlling by going all grain?

What did you fuck up with it?

All grain brewing gives you a lot of control if you ask me. You're not going to be able to fine tune your recipe going extract in the ways that you can with AG. You can control everything from the smallest detail with the grain bill to your mash temps to control flavor, body, residual sweetness, and mouthfeel.


With extract you can't really control how fermentable the wort is, but by adjusting your mash temps you can with all grain. Granted if you do partial mashes you can gain a little more control over all of this, but it's not really as precise as with all grain.

The other thing is color. I was never really able to brew a really light colored beer with extract, but with all grain you can. Even when I used DME my beers were still too dark.

Just a brew day from Hell, yesterday. Normally I calculate my recipes to 6 gallons. On brew day I noticed I had ordered my grains based on 5 gallons. BeerSmith, in addition to its renewed inability to display the ingredients, messed up the water calculation (or to be fair, I screwed it up). I figured for a 5 gallon batch, a 6 gallon initial volume would be good. Then my burner boiled down to 4 gallons. Last week, I couldn't get 7 gallons to 6, this time I got 6 gallons to 4. And then to top it off, I missed my gravity numbers by .015.