This simple guide to extract brewing may be of use to those who have acquired some basic skills whilst brewing kits, and are considering moving on and trying new things. Many people will move directly to all grain (AG) brewing, but for some, for whatever reason, this may not be an option, whether only temporarily or permanently.
Extract brewing sits in between brewing beer from liquid malt kits and AG brewing. It offers the opportunity to brew beers of your choice, as a progression from boosting kits, with the flexibility of brewing smaller volumes like AG if that suits your circumstances, rather than being forced to brew 20plus litres of beer as required by most kits. And you don’t need any more equipment to brew extract beers other than a stock pot and which can be smaller than the final volume of wort, although a fine mesh kitchen type strainer may be useful for filtering out hops after the boil (see later). The main disadvantage of extract brewing is that it is not much less expensive to make extract beers compared to kit beer (unlike AG), although to some this may not be important. However for some extract brewing might be an attractive way to brew their beer rather than staying with kits or moving forward to AG.
Most AG recipes can be converted to extract, however if the recipes require any grain adjuncts that require mashing such as unmalted oats or torrified wheat, there is a need to convert the grain starch to fermentable sugars and this will require a ‘mini mash’ using a diastase containing grain like pale malt to carry out the conversion, since diastase containing malt extract is extremely difficult to obtain.
In extract brewing both spray malt (DME) and liquid malt (LME) can be used. Some cheap LME has been known to cause the ‘twang’ in the finished product, so using DME or premium LME may deliver a better product but at higher cost.
To convert recipes a simple approximate conversion is 1kg Pale Malt = 750g LME = 650g DME
An extract brew usually contains the following basic steps to produce wort suitable for brewing:-
1. An optional grain steep if crystal malt, chocolate malt or any other grain malt is to be used to enhance the flavour of the wort. Usually 30 minutes at about 65 -70*C will be sufficient but the liquor from the steep plus the sparging liquor of the spent grain will require boiling to sterilise.
2. An optional ‘mini-mash’ which is needed if unmalted grains in small quantities are to be used. This will require mashing the unmalted grain with diastase containing grain like pale malt for an hour or so at about 65*C. Sometimes a mini-mash can be used even if there is no unmalted grain present if the brewer feels it will enhance the brew, but notably grain bills are much smaller than for AG brews
3. A hop boil with the liquors from 1 and 2 above with some water plus some of the malt extract. It serves to sterilise any liquor from grain mashing and steeping, and also to extract bitterness from the hops for the long boil time, with short boil hops being mainly added for flavour, just as for an AG brew. Enclosing the hops in a bag may be useful since the hops will be retained in it when the wort is transferred to the FV, however the disadvantage of this is that it restricts hop movement and may inhibit the hops giving up their ‘goodness’. Note that only some of the malt extract needs to be used for the hop boil, and also, and importantly, only a proportion of the overall final wort volume needs be boiled. The rest of the malt extract and water to top up to the required brew volume can be added directly to the FV just like a kit. So as an example only a third to half of the malt extract and the liquid volume will be needed for the boil.
4. When the boil is complete the wort will need to be cooled. Depending on the stock pot used this can be done by immersing the pot in a sink or a bowl of cold water, occasionally stirring the sink contents and changing the water when it gets warm, and/or stirring the wort with a sanitised spoon. Aim to cool the wort to below about 30*C .
5. Add the remaining malt extract and some hot water to the FV as for a kit, thoroughly mixing and aerating. Then add the cooled wort, filtering out the hops and any solid ‘break’ from the boil, and adjust the final wort to the required volume by adding water to additionally achieve the required yeast pitching temperature. Aerate as normal. Pitch the yeast and off you go!
Useful references:-
Recommend an Extract Recipe plz - The HomeBrew Forum (This includes a recipe)
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/guide-to-brewing-2-extract-brewing-c-58_60.html (This includes a recipe)
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/what-to-brew-next.67160/#post-631825 (This has a mild beer recipe)
‘Brew Your Own British Real Ale’ by Graham Wheeler. (This contains many recipe conversions from their AG equivalent. In print and widely available, local libraries may have a copy to borrow.)
Extract brewing sits in between brewing beer from liquid malt kits and AG brewing. It offers the opportunity to brew beers of your choice, as a progression from boosting kits, with the flexibility of brewing smaller volumes like AG if that suits your circumstances, rather than being forced to brew 20plus litres of beer as required by most kits. And you don’t need any more equipment to brew extract beers other than a stock pot and which can be smaller than the final volume of wort, although a fine mesh kitchen type strainer may be useful for filtering out hops after the boil (see later). The main disadvantage of extract brewing is that it is not much less expensive to make extract beers compared to kit beer (unlike AG), although to some this may not be important. However for some extract brewing might be an attractive way to brew their beer rather than staying with kits or moving forward to AG.
Most AG recipes can be converted to extract, however if the recipes require any grain adjuncts that require mashing such as unmalted oats or torrified wheat, there is a need to convert the grain starch to fermentable sugars and this will require a ‘mini mash’ using a diastase containing grain like pale malt to carry out the conversion, since diastase containing malt extract is extremely difficult to obtain.
In extract brewing both spray malt (DME) and liquid malt (LME) can be used. Some cheap LME has been known to cause the ‘twang’ in the finished product, so using DME or premium LME may deliver a better product but at higher cost.
To convert recipes a simple approximate conversion is 1kg Pale Malt = 750g LME = 650g DME
An extract brew usually contains the following basic steps to produce wort suitable for brewing:-
1. An optional grain steep if crystal malt, chocolate malt or any other grain malt is to be used to enhance the flavour of the wort. Usually 30 minutes at about 65 -70*C will be sufficient but the liquor from the steep plus the sparging liquor of the spent grain will require boiling to sterilise.
2. An optional ‘mini-mash’ which is needed if unmalted grains in small quantities are to be used. This will require mashing the unmalted grain with diastase containing grain like pale malt for an hour or so at about 65*C. Sometimes a mini-mash can be used even if there is no unmalted grain present if the brewer feels it will enhance the brew, but notably grain bills are much smaller than for AG brews
3. A hop boil with the liquors from 1 and 2 above with some water plus some of the malt extract. It serves to sterilise any liquor from grain mashing and steeping, and also to extract bitterness from the hops for the long boil time, with short boil hops being mainly added for flavour, just as for an AG brew. Enclosing the hops in a bag may be useful since the hops will be retained in it when the wort is transferred to the FV, however the disadvantage of this is that it restricts hop movement and may inhibit the hops giving up their ‘goodness’. Note that only some of the malt extract needs to be used for the hop boil, and also, and importantly, only a proportion of the overall final wort volume needs be boiled. The rest of the malt extract and water to top up to the required brew volume can be added directly to the FV just like a kit. So as an example only a third to half of the malt extract and the liquid volume will be needed for the boil.
4. When the boil is complete the wort will need to be cooled. Depending on the stock pot used this can be done by immersing the pot in a sink or a bowl of cold water, occasionally stirring the sink contents and changing the water when it gets warm, and/or stirring the wort with a sanitised spoon. Aim to cool the wort to below about 30*C .
5. Add the remaining malt extract and some hot water to the FV as for a kit, thoroughly mixing and aerating. Then add the cooled wort, filtering out the hops and any solid ‘break’ from the boil, and adjust the final wort to the required volume by adding water to additionally achieve the required yeast pitching temperature. Aerate as normal. Pitch the yeast and off you go!
Useful references:-
Recommend an Extract Recipe plz - The HomeBrew Forum (This includes a recipe)
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/guide-to-brewing-2-extract-brewing-c-58_60.html (This includes a recipe)
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/what-to-brew-next.67160/#post-631825 (This has a mild beer recipe)
‘Brew Your Own British Real Ale’ by Graham Wheeler. (This contains many recipe conversions from their AG equivalent. In print and widely available, local libraries may have a copy to borrow.)
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