Pages: 1
The difference between All Grain, and Extract
I made a grand cru from Extract a few months ago, it was good a few people said it was even great. It had very subtle esters, and a great exotic taste. one of my friends that was in the Army, and used to be stationed overseas said that it was very close to beers that he had had in Belgium. I was very pleased with the results, and one of my co workers who I had given some to said I should enter it in the Sam Adams upcomming contest. I decided to make it, but it was going to be my first all grain batch, I was determined to make it and adjusted the recipe for a 10 gallon batch.
Every batch I make I bottle a few right after fermentation, so I have some a few days later to get an idea of what the beer will taste like. The only difference between these two batches was the batch size, and one was extract, one was all grain. The difference was staggering. I just finished one of the bottles, and it is just plain unbelievable. Robust taste with no alcohol zing aftertaste like the extract batch. Even more subtle smells and estery complexity with the same exact yeast. the color difference is night and day literally. This beer is almost white when held up to the light, The extract was a dark gold. LIke I said the extract was a very very good, but if the extract was good, this beer is other worldly I don't know if the style that I made, made it easier to see the difference between extract and all grain, iv'e tried all grain batches from other brewers on this site, and even though the taste was better, it wasn't somthing like the difference that i'm seeing in these two batches. if your and extract brewer, and wondering if the effort to go All grain is worth it, i'm here to say, that yes it is. Just brew one of your favorite batches with extract, then go All grain with it, and tell me what the difference is.
I started with extract. I know most people probably started with extract. I know some people who have been brewing for 8 years, still using extract. I know extract is what makes the hobby easy enough for a novice to learn and enjoy. I know extract. After my first AG batch, I have to say extract sucks. It's good for starters, and once I get a better routine I plan on using wort for starters in the future. Yeah, extract sucks.
For the last 7 years, I was an extract brewer. Over the course of the last winter and spring seasons, I decided to make a shit load of beer, and bottle or cask condition it for the purpose of not brewing in spring. I know, planning on not brewing for a whole season sounds nuts, but I had a good plan.
I ended up saving up nearly a thousand dollars and building a HERMS with sanke kegs, march 809 pump, and a computer system to monitor the mash temp. I dove head long into all-grain brewing just over 3 weeks ago, and tapped the first pint yesterday (I force carbonated.....I couldn't wait). FANTASTIC!!! I thought it was a lot of hype to go all grain, but the flavor and aroma of the malts was something I've never experienced. I made good beer before, but its REALLY good now.
I loved piecing all of the parts together too, even though it is all I can think about now. I have brewed three batches all grain now, and the brewery needs a few tweaks, but I'm having a lot of fun with it. Best part is....I only ran out of beer for two weeks. At least I had a chance to buy a case worth of Octoberfest styles to dabble in. Boulevard got top honors from styles that I tasted
I hear ya, I just did my second all grain batch this weekend, a cream ale, also for the Sam Adams contest. I doughed it at 8:30am, and finished around 4:00pm. I'll probably go back to extract to make a few beers in the winter, but I have 8 cases worth ready to bottle now, and I don't know when I'll have another day to myself. I have a 2 year old son, and another son comming in november. All grain is fantastic, but the 8 hour brew days take alot of scheduling. I'll probably make one more all grain beer before christmas, and then do a few extract just to keep me in beer for the winter.
All grain is definately the way to go, but I need to tweek my system to get down to about 6 hours, that's doable. One of my fermenters had a leak, and my burner was burning to rich, so I think that was the problem for this batch. Other than that I nailed all my temps, and had exactly 10 gallons of beer.(I still don't know how i'm doing that). I'm going to make my favorite ale next, the African Amber clone from Seattle. I can't wait to see how that comes out.
Pages: 1