Extract instead of all grain

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
halfpint

halfpint

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2015
Messages
47
Reaction score
21
Location
Norfolk
As I normally make all grain and can make exactly the same wort and change it's character with different hops, I want to experiment making an extract brew instead.

I have read that LME doesn't need to be boiled as it might lose some of the malty taste.

1. Can I boil the hops sepatately in just the water I would have added to the LME. (the same as I would do in wort, eg. 60 min addition, 20 min addition), then filter and add it to the LME afterwards.

2. Is it better to boil the LME/water mix with the hop additions as I would an all grain batch.
 
I usually add some of the malt extract to the start of the boil, as I read somewhere that it helps bring out the oil from the hops. You could add all of it, I sometimes do, but I've read it can result in a darker beer boiling it for an hour.

Be careful with LME - it'll sink to the bottom of the pan and burn unless you ensure it's fully dissolved by stirring (yes, I've done this). Tend to use DME these days.

What's the reason for trying Extract? I do half-and-half, an AG recipe that I bump up with extract, I usually size my recipes to use full 1kg bags of DME as it absorbs moisture from the air if you only use part of a bag. The allows me to do a smaller-volume boil than if I did full AG and speeds up the heating up and cooling down processes.
 
darrellm said:
What's the reason for trying Extract?
Click to expand...

I have a small all grain system which only makes 11 litres of wort at a time.
I would like to make a 40 pint brew, one all grain and one extract both brewing at the same time instead of doing it twice with the all grain, then blending together in one fermenter.
I have enough equipment to run 2 boils at the same time, but not 2 mashes.

Andy said: When I moved from kits to extract brews I just boiled the hops in water and then added it to the malt extract and water in the FV.

Thanks Andy, that's the way I thought I would do it
 
Last edited:
Hi for the last two years I have used Muntons bulk pale ale HLME in 25kg jerrycans (great for no chill cubes when empty!!!) making dry hopped AIPA and cream blondes. I also use LME with hop tea made in my 15l pressure cooker (15 mins boil with 2l water) I then use dark crystal malt and black crystal steeped grains in the same pressure cooker (80*C 20 mins) to make brown ales.

I mainly do this, as I only have very limited time and space to brew in the summer. I have to arrange time from my chef partner for access to her catering kitchen. A full on boil over would lead to a complete ban,,, :doh: I have a 2-3hr brew day usually to do about 50l.

I get my HMLE's from Davina @ You can Brew It near Norfolk as she get it direct fresh from Muntons.

I heat the LME's and dextrose to 75*C for 15mins with 2l of brewing liquor. Muntons advised this as the LME's have already been boiled and hot breaked during manufacturing and reducing process. I then top off with preheated and cooled tap water (in my cubes) a precaution after I found bacteria in my tap water,,,, bottom filling to reduce hot side aeration. I aerate when below 27*c with a shaky shaky FV dance :cool:
 
Druncan said:
Hi for the last two years I have used Muntons bulk pale ale HLME in 25kg jerrycans (great for no chill cubes when empty!!!) making dry hopped AIPA and cream blondes. I also use LME with hop tea made in my 15l pressure cooker (15 mins boil with 2l water) I then use dark crystal malt and black crystal steeped grains in the same pressure cooker (80*C 20 mins) to make brown ales.
Click to expand...
Ooh, that sounds nice and simple. Got any recipes to share? :)
 
Sure m8, here's one to start with!
Sold loads of this and ain't killed anyone,,, yet,,,:rolleyes:
But, I sanitise like it is my new religion.

Sandancer Cream Blonde, Bun Dubh Crafty Enviropunk Brewing
2kg HLME, 800g Dex,
1/2 pack = 5g CML American WC Yeast. Pre-start with 100ml pre-boiled and cooled water (22*C) for max 30mins. Match temps on yeast and liquor.
Make up to 23l Should give 1.040. Do not aerate until < 27*C,,,, and do the shaky, shaky for 1min.
Ferment 18-20*C to 1.016 and dry hop with 50g Falconers flight T90's, 20g Amerillo in a 150mm nylon bag. Then go 20-25*C to finishing gravity.

I Keg @ 1.006 CO2 prime to 25 PSI and cold crash 2-6 for four days topping gas daily.
This should give 4.5%
Oh aye -When you keg/bottle wring the fook out of the hop bag to get max Flavour!!!
Ready in 10 days, but leave a month and it's perfect.
Cheers!
 
If this is PURELY about the size of your system, before you go ahead with this do yourself a huge favour. Take a good long look at the cost of LME (or even DME for that matter). Now take a good long look at the price of a new, larger, boiler and a BIAB bag. Here's a quick example just for the sake of it (I use a boiler that I built myself using a stock pot from brew builder): https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Stainless-Steel-56-Ltr-Electric-Boiler-1.html and a good quality (there are cheaper ones, I myself use a much cheaper one.) BIAB bag: https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/The-Brew-Bag-47-57L.html. Think about how long it will take for that boiler+bag to repay itself compared to buying extract, you'll find it's a few brews I should think.

If however there are other considerations, like the amount of time an all grain brew takes, that's a different matter entirely. My point is solely one of you shouldn't go for extract brewing purely because of the size of your equipment. Extract brewing is considerably more expensive than all grain, thanks to the cost of extract, but saves you a lot of time and effort over all grain. Oh and yeah, if you can't fit larger equipment, that's a good reason too I suppose. lol

Just make sure you think things through before you spend money I think is the tl;dr here.
 
Aye, agreed! I am gutted that I do not have time to use my Brewbuilder 70l BIAB. It is only used to pre-boil my liquor. I am counting down the days to getting back to do more BIAB brews.

Until then its HLME @ £75 /25kg that gives me about 500 pints @ 18p/pint (inc dex and power) HLME is good to learn the and safely hone your brewery processes. But it is nice to move on.
 
Aah that makes sense. I’d need to change the hop bill to compensate for using plain. Or used hopped DME, which is easily available.
 
I went ahead and made an IPA with just DME and a 30 minute boil with hops.
It came out at 1.060 with an IBU of 50, so I pitched an S-05 yeast and it's in the brew fridge at 20C for the next 3 weeks before dry hopping it with more cascade.

The big difference in my brewday was how little time it took compared to an all grain brew and how much cleaner my equipment was.
 
halfpint said:
I went ahead and made an IPA with just DME and a 30 minute boil with hops.
It came out at 1.060 with an IBU of 50, so I pitched an S-05 yeast and it's in the brew fridge at 20C for the next 3 weeks before dry hopping it with more cascade.

The big difference in my brewday was how little time it took compared to an all grain brew and how much cleaner my equipment was.
Click to expand...
With more experience comes more routine. My 4 gallon AG brewdays last 6 hours from clean kitchen top to clean kitchen top.
 

Similar threads

peterpiper
Brewfather giving incorrect water volume, through ignoring LME volume.
Replies
6
Views
340
The drunken cyclist
The drunken cyclist
Berry454
Anyone got any good IPA recipes from Amber Malt Extract?
Replies
1
Views
228
Berry454
Berry454
old dog new tricks
Out of my depth please help!
2
Replies
37
Views
1K
The-Engineer-That-Brews
The-Engineer-That-Brews
dad_of_jon
Flameout hops ibu's
Replies
8
Views
584
dad_of_jon
dad_of_jon
J
Ideas on how to use up this kit
Replies
2
Views
655
Jimboscott
J

Latest posts

Back
Top