Extract or straight to AG?

[Adgeo]

Hello all,
I’m about to start my 4th home brew kit which is Young’s IPA. I am pleased with the results of my limited brewing experience so far, so I am planning to venture into extract or AG brewing.

My questions are;

Should I jump straight into AG and not bother with attempting extract?

I had planned to buy a boiler rather than using the kitchen hob, so if I’m going to go to that expense to start extract brewing, would I be better off buying the other equipment required for AG and go straight into that?

Any advice on which boiler / mash tun / other equipment to buy and from where?

Thanks,
Adgeo.

 

[Brew Dad]

Hi Adgeo,
There really isn't a right or wrong answer, but I'm sure plenty of folks will chip in with advice from their experiences.

I am pretty new to homebrewing myself, started about 5 months ago with a Northern Brewer kit for extract. After 4 or 5 20L batches, I bought a Robobrew and moved to all grain. I can say that all of the equipment from the NB kit still gets used - fermenter, bottling bucket, siphoin, etc. The 20l boil pot is now used to heat sparge water. The only exceptions - the bottle capper, as I use swingtops, and the glass carboy, as I don't lager, sour, or age beer (yet). So I certainly don't feel that it was a wasted investment.

The extract beers were pretty good, too. I feel the AG beers I have been making are better, but it is difficult to say if it is because of AG, or if I am just getting a bit better at homebrewing.

One thing, though - AG takes me A LOT more time than extract - probably double the amount, maybe more. More preparation time, more time to make the wort, and much more time cleaning.

 

[Horners]

Hello all,
I’m about to start my 4th home brew kit which is Young’s IPA. I am pleased with the results of my limited brewing experience so far, so I am planning to venture into extract or AG brewing.

My questions are;

Should I jump straight into AG and not bother with attempting extract?

I had planned to buy a boiler rather than using the kitchen hob, so if I’m going to go to that expense to start extract brewing, would I be better off buying the other equipment required for AG and go straight into that?

Any advice on which boiler / mash tun / other equipment to buy and from where?

Thanks,
Adgeo.

As someone who has just finished a fairly steep learning curve in a first 12 months of brewing, I found the transition from kits through extract prior to AG to be a sensible way of doing it, my logic being to pick up one skill at a time. So once I moved to extract I learned to deal with 40 pints of boiling liquid, filtering out hops, immersion cooler, how online recipes are built up, dealing with condensation, dealing with electrics tripping out, dealing with SWMBO and a whole bunch of other stuff one stage at a time, each brew throwing out multiple learning points.

 

[phildo79]

As previously said, there is no right or wrong answer. I'm an extract brewer, have been for a few years now. I didn't really have the option of going AG as I do not have the space for all the equipment. But really good beers can be made with extract and all you need, essentially, is a large stock pot. That's it. You already have the other stuff. I would say give extract a go and see how your beers stand up before shelling out on AG equipment.

Another good reason is the time it takes. I do 20 minute boils which, from start to finish, takes me 2 hours. But I am looking into getting a portable induction hob which I reckon will cut that time in half. That's just 1 hour to create 20 litres of really good beer. And only one pot to clean.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[simon12]

I went straight from kit (only made 1) to all grain and just got a plastic bucket and fitted 2 £5 kettle elements and a cool box with a bazooka for a mash tun. The only regret is I don't know how extract compares. It all depends on time and how much you want to spend to advise further, a big consideration is all grain you need to dedicate most of a day to it.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

I went straight from kit (only made 1) to all grain and just got a plastic bucket and fitted 2 £5 kettle elements and a cool box with a bazooka for a mash tun. The only regret is I don't know how extract compares. It all depends on time and how much you want to spend to advise further, a big consideration is all grain you need to dedicate most of a day to it.

Like this one?

I've used it for 4 allgrain batches. They've all come out great.

 

[Sandimas]

I'm glad I went through the Extract stage, in fact I started with it but didn't know it at the time - LHBS had his own kits that he reckoned were better than a canned kit (and they were) which were basically 2 cans of Coopers LME and two bags of hops, one going in at the start of the boil and the other 10mins from the end.

I haven't changed the kit (15L stockpot), now use this to do BIAB all-grain supplemented by DME to make 15-17L brews. Bit more expensive than true AG but works for me.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

I'd start with a couple of extract batches. Use some cascade in the boil and enjoy. It takes a lot less time and they come out really good. After you've done some awesome batches and feel youre up for something new. Making recipes etc. Then allgrain!
As for brewing machine I love the Brewster beacon. Haven't bought it myself yet but it's coming in the near future!
Also! Get yourself a chiller.

 

[Sadfield]

Didn't do kits, let alone extract brewing. If your ambition is to AG, go straight there. Direct your funds exactly where you want to be. As it is, you've learnt how to sanitise and handle yeast, so your most of the way there.

Look into BIAB with a boiler, as a start. It'll provide you with equipment that will always have a use, and you still have the ability to do an extract brew.

 

[dad_of_jon]

You may find extract gives you exactly what you want... if not move over to all grain.
for me it's time and space which are my constraints not the extra cost of extract.

ps water and temp control is very important, get that sorted that will make a big difference.

 

[terrym]

Plenty of stuff on this forum about how to do the many shades of AG .
Not much about extract brewing, but this might help.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/a-simple-guide-to-extract-brewing.75501/
In the end whether you move to extract brewing and perhaps stay there, or go to AG with or without the intermediate step of extract brewing is a matter of personal choice governed by many things including time, space, budget and aspirations. And the advice you get from others will be varied according to their own circumstances or, as Bigcol says, 10 homebrewers, 11 opinions

 

[skulltat280]

I did 1 kit years ago and now I've just begun my AG journey (BIAB)

I used an extraction hose or whatever they're called, when boiling. I was amazed it actually smells like driving by a real brewery lol. From my 5 minutes of experience I'd say go straight for AG if that's what you want to finally be brewing

It might take hours to look after the brew day but most of that time is actually doing nothing /very little

 

[keat64]

Others have already given some great answers, but here's my take on it.
Your brew day with a kit or extract takes maybe than an hour, all grain will take about 5 hours.
Maybe longer if you time from getting out the kit to putting it away again and sitting down, it's almost like a shift at work (only more fun)

The results however are worth the effort in my opinion.
It's the difference between a Warburtons cut loaf and home made bread.
Nothing wrong with Warburtons, but no where near as good or satisfying as baking your own.

All grain is more technical than kit or extract brewing,.
When starting out it might seem like a science, but when you get your head around the terms, temperatures and timings, it's not too difficult.
Its also a bit messier.

For my Mash tun I made one from a cheap cooler box. I split the two halves and took out the bit of polystyrene foam.
I drilled 4 holes in the bottom of the outer skin, re-assembled it, then filled the cavity with vermiculite, plugging the holes with rubber grommets.
It holds it's temperature really well.

I use a 30l catering boiler for my mash water, sparge water and wort boil.

Before jumping in and buying a boiler, spend a bit of tinkering time building your own Mash Tun.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

You may find extract gives you exactly what you want... if not move over to all grain.
for me it's time and space which are my constraints not the extra cost of extract.

ps water and temp control is very important, get that sorted that will make a big difference.

I've made some really good extract beer. Like really good. So, it doesn't really matter. Allgrain is cheaper haha

 

[Mavroz]

Extract for me. One large mashing pot, excellent results. Not sure how AG with all the extra kit could improve my extract results...

 

[Drunkula]

I went from kits to all grain, then ran out of grain, have tons of extract so did an extract beer and it was a doddle and everyone really liked the beers I did from it. As Rabbie Burns said in his poem To an Extract Bru:

Even though the grain's a pain I know I'll ne'er go back again...

Except when it's convenient.

So yeah, all grain is a pain but it's kinda got a romance to it once you've been there. Extract is good because you get to fanny about with hops n stuff to a level slightly more than just adding dry hops or teas to a kit. Let's look at the all grain extra processes -

• Knowing the water temperature and amount you need to hit your mash temperature and heating the water to that level - you don't need to be precise because you can put a litre extra in if you need it hotter or have the kettle or cold water ready. Say 30 minutes for that and the doughing in.
• Then if you're like me and don't have a mash tun you might have to stir and top up to keep the temperature steady, checking every 15 minutes. 60m.
• Draining and sparging - if you're doing it by hand and doing a fakey fly sparge then it can be a ball-ache but if you're also doing something else at the same time, cooking, listening to podcasts, telling your kids lies about how you once found a baby dinosaur in the woods by the school** - it's not so bad. But if you do a batch sparge and one of those second mashy sparge things then it's pimpsy and you can get the first runnings on cooking while the second bit happens. I always did that and got 79% efficiency and just strained the grains through a diy brew bag. 60 - 90 minutes fly sparge, 10 minutes batch sparge.

After that you're basically back to where you'd be with the extract. That adds up to about an extra 1.5 - 2.5 hours I suppose - if you clean as you go. Not on your first go, though - oh mamma give it 10 hours.

The extra equipment thing for me is a pure myth, I could have more but I'm a wily one. I've got a brew bag that is home made and a 14 litre 'pot'. I mash in the pot, I boil in the pot and have recently found I can make a full 23 litre concentrated wort with that pot and get an efficiency that is not so shabby.

So for me the extract is great when you want a quicky bish-bash-bosh, but when you really wanna get all Barry White, turn the lights down low and settle into a night of funky flow then I know I'm going to be whisking those dough balls into froth in the mash tunnel of love.

 

[Grealish]

My wife bought me an extract/partial mash set up for Christmas a couple of years ago because she didn't think I'd enjoy doing a kit. I messed around with a few extract brews (Greg Hughes book is great for giving extract versions of nearly all his recipes) which worked really well. I did a Patersbier, a US IPA, an English IPA and an Old Tom Clone. I'm now onto about 30 - 40 AG brews and I wouldn't go back, but I think the extract experience was a nice gentle way in. Plus, if you're pressed for time and can afford the cost of DME, it's an option that might be easier to manage.

 

[HarryFlatters]

I started straight at BIAB. Watched a few videos on YouTube (the fast homebrew Aussie fella), seemed easy enough. Had a go at it, and it was indeed not exactly rocket science. It isn't even rocket salad to be honest.

 

[Covrich]

Perosnally I would say if AG is your final aim, I would invest that way, you can do extract in the interim with the same equipment until you're ready to move on up.

Extracts can make some great beers but I just don't think you can quite get it the same as mashing a fresh batch of milled grain. But if you choose to stick to extract you will certainly get great results.

 

[Brew Dad]

oh mamma give it 10 hours.

Yep.