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Extract Brewing
Is Extract Brewing looked down upon compared to All-grain in the Homebrewing community?
There are probably a couple people out there that look down on it. But I doubt that you will find any of those people around here. :-) There is nothing wrong with extract brewing. Great brews can be made with extract, better than my first all-grain. You can just achieve more complexity and creativity with all-grain.
I agree with Brewbie, in that there may be a few people who look down on extract, but I think the vast majority of homebrewers don't really think that much of it. There are some advantages to extract brewing anyway, the biggest one being time. When Ray Daniels studied competition winning brews in his book Designing Great Beers, he found that good percentage of the winning beers used extract for at least some of the gravity. The same can be said for many microbrews. So, there really shouldn't be any kind of superiority complex by either all grain or extract brewers, as both can produce great beers.
I'm an all-grain advocate, but definitely don't look down on extract brewing. but, AG offers you a lot more control and tweaking ability than does extract. and, there are some beers (BJCP categories 1 and 2 comes foremost to mind) that you really can't do well via extract.
I think it is mainly a matter of preference. All grain brewing requires a deeper understanding of the brewing processes, and especially more equipment. Because it requires an extra investment in equipment (even if you build it yourself), I think people assume an all grain brewer is more committed to brewing, or more involved. But really, you could have extra equipment and never brew a quality beer, so that is a pretty silly assumption. So, I think whichever style you use, it is more important to have fun, and if that leads to a desire to learn more, and become more committed to brewing, then great!
I mostly do all grain brewing, but I always keep malt extract, both liquid and dried, in my closet for when I want to use it. Sometimes I add it for its flavor, and sometimes I use it to compensate for low efficiency, low gravity.
It is almost always best to do extract brewing when you are first starting out.
The basic concepts are the same, no matter how you brew, so if you have a flawed process, it really doesn't matter how you brew, you probably are going to make good beers. As all grain brewing adds more steps to the process, which allows for more errors to enter into the process, I also agree that it is better for a beginner to start with extract brewing. The simplified process will help get a good process established so that if the brewer wants to transition to all grain, it should be a bit easier and the results will tend to be a bit better. I spend about 4 years brewing before I started all grain, and all that time certainly helped me. Of course, I know a lot of brewers who made the jump a lot quicker and had quick success with all grain as well.
I think you will always have brewers who feel extract brewing isn't really brewing, but just boiling. To me that's somebody trying to tell me that just because I don't extract the sugars from the grain myself I'm not brewing. If you stayed on that logic, then I guess unless we picked our own hops and grew our on grain, we aren't brewing. I guess I just see extract as more of a shortcut, like adding a pound of base malt and mashing for a shorter time, ha.
Having brewed both extract and all grain, I think it's the brewer and the recipe as much as it is the process. If the brewer has a good handle on the process and has a good recipe, well that brewer will make a good beer. The reason a lot of extract beers might not live up to an all grain beer is probably a lack of brewer experience and possibly a lack of a really good recipe. (or if the brewer is using a box kit, possibly not the freshest of ingredients).
Having done both extract and all grain, I can say one is not better than the other. You can make great extract beer (all of my competition entries/winners have been extract), just as you can make great all grain beer. All grain gives you a few extra choices in ingredients, since there are a few that must be mashed, but it's also going to give the brewer more opportunities to screw up their beer (mash at wrong temperature, bad efficiency, etc.).
If you are an extract brewer, I've found these tips to be helpful:
Always use the freshest ingredients you can get.
Use the lightest malt extract you can, use steeping grains for color/flavor.
If using liquid malt extract, cut the flame when adding and use it as a late addition to the boil (this will cut down on scorching and also help to add less color from the malt).
DT
K, just finished the last of my extract / kit supplies, now to do my own recipe!! thinking of going amber, any sugestions as far as hopps go? flavor and aroma.
are you brewing a European Amber, an Alt or a Steam, or an American Amber?
European Amber, recipes and hop choices? Remember i will be using extract only.
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