Extract Brewing too expensive to be viable?

[shearclass]

Am I mistaken, or is extract brewing really expensive?

People often say on this site that Extract, or Partial Mash, is a good step up to All Grain (or Full Mash).

I have been doing kits for the past 10 months; however I have recently discovered that my Granda owns a battered old Burco boiler... :twisted:

I ‘borrowed’ it at the weekend, and cleaned it out. It wasn’t too bad inside, though god knows what he has used it for (he is a keen gardener and it lived in his green house).

Anyway, this got me thinking, apart from a hop filter/strainer, and a cooler/chiller (which I think I can probably do without??) then I have all I need to do an Extract Brew.

However, looking at the price tins of malt extract, it would be cheaper to do kits! Am I missing something here? It seems two tins of malt extract is only just cheaper than a Premium beer kit, then hops, grains, and yeast are needed on top of that, plus the energy to boil the thing for an hour or so.

I am aware that a partial mash the beer would potentially be nicer that a kit beer, but I am shocked at the cost of it!

I don’t have time to do AG, before anyone tells me to do it! One day...
Also, if you are going to just moan about penny pinchers (skint people like me), without saying anything contructive, please don't bother replying!

 

[Moley]

However, looking at the price tins of malt extract, it would be cheaper to do kits! Am I missing something here?

No, extract may fall somewhere between premium kits and full mash with what you can achieve as a finished product, and giving you more scope to tailor a brew to your own taste, but extract is the most expensive method of home brewing.

 

[RobWalker]

extract will cost you about the same as a good quality kit, brew for brew.

all grain costs much more becuase of the equipment required, but that's about the only reason why...

 

[The Ginger Ninja]

I just had a look on the Malt Millers site and I reckon you could do a 23 L brew for just less then £20 including p&p (£13.20 for 3kg of extract, £3ish for hops etc) so about 50p a pint.

So about the same cost as a posh kit but with a bit more satisfaction,

 

[Moley]

all grain costs much more becuase of the equipment required, but that's about the only reason why...

It doesn't have to cost a fortune to set up for AG, I reckon I did it for no more than £50, and once you've offset or ignored equipment costs it's the cheapest method of homebrewing.

However, it is considerably more time consuming, and shearclass has stated quite clearly that he doesn't have the time to spare at the moment, so those comparisons aren't relevant to this topic.

 

[snail59]

Ask yourself this. Would you sooner have supermarket basic range bacon, premium cured bacon or buy the pork from a farmer and cure you own bacon to your own taste (I bet your a Vegan aren't you :lol: ). Ive just placed an order with Rob for enough stuff to do a 23ltr Guinness Extra clone at the weekend for less than £20 (including delivery). If you have the Burco then try Boil in the Bag :thumb: Moley is 100% right when he says you can set up an AG brewery for not a lot of money. Flea-Bay, Freecycle, car boot sales are all good sources of cheap equipment (I have just got a 32ltr Thermos Coolbox for £12 including delivery from E bay). You may have more time than you think if you split your brew day. Mash & Sparge one day then Boil the next that's what I have done a couple of times when I have been pressed for time.

 

[shearclass]

Ask yourself this. Would you sooner have supermarket basic range bacon, premium cured bacon or buy the pork from a farmer and cure you own bacon to your own taste

The first option. :| Bacon tastes like bacon. I would look for the pack with the least rind. re the 3rd option, i wouldn't have a clue how to do this, nor do I shop in farms. Admittedly shopping in farms would be more interesting, but it's easier just to call in the supermarket on my lunch break.

unless money was no object of course, then i may pay for my local farm food provider to deliver me the pork (with instructions on how to cure it), get grief off my mam, for curing bacon in the house when i already take up the garage with home brew, and buy some supermarket luxury bacon to tie me over until the farm bacon was cured. Or i suppose i could just go to the cafe whenever i wanted bacon :hmm:

But why all the bacon chat, this is a brewing forum after all.

i defo don't have time to do AG, i barely have enough tiem to do my kits and recently any spare time has been used on exploring making wine! I am a busy bee.

I do not doubt that it will happen one day, perhaso when my son gets a bit older, and when i either live with (or potentially i suppose, split up with) my girlfriend (not the mother of my son), but until then, my time is split between them, and playing 5a side (badly).

Is boil in the bag the BIAB i keep hearing about?

 

[abeyptfc]

yeah brew in a bag is BIAB. I bought this recipe pack here - http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/beerkits/brewextract/summer-ale-recipe-pack-new.html from brew uk, I already had a boiler and don't bother with a wort chiller. you put the grains in a grain bag or muslin bag, leave it to steep, heat up to boiling and add dry malt extract/spraymalt ( or they tins of malt extract- not for me at £10 a tin though!) add hops at stated times and that you really.Im drinking my summer ale just now, it doesnt have the homebrew twang as the coopers kits do, it tastes and looks like a proper pint of ale, ~I dont know how it is supposed to taste or what characteristics the different hops bring to it but it is really nice! I've since brewed a 2nd extract brew with fresh heather but yet to taste it.
search on youtube or type in craigtube extract brewing and you should find some videos for extract brewing.

 

[snail59]

Is boil in the bag the BIAB i keep hearing about?

Yes it is.

If your brewing Kits just for cheap Alcohol and your time really is so short. Save your time, stop brewing kits and just buy white lightning Cider :lol: :lol:

If you think Bacon just tastes like Bacon regardless of it source then maybe AG isn't for you Because Beer sure don't taste just like Beer :thumb:

All the Bacon talk was well let me see :hmm: Apparently over your head :whistle:

 

[shearclass]

All the Bacon talk was well let me see :hmm: Apparently over your head :whistle:

No mate, I think my reply was over your head!

I was only joking, but apparently it wasn't funny.

Bacon is bacon, but that's probably because i've only ever eaten supermarket bacon. Perhaps i should never try this famed farmer's bacon, as if i do i may never be able to go back to cheap bacon.

Beer tastes different. Carling tastes different to John Smiths. Guiness tastes different to Amstel. I could go on... IPA tastes different to stout, clearly different. Punk IPA is the most heavenly thing i have tasted.

I've never drank white lightening, but it's what chavs drink and I can only assume it is disgusting!

I started to brew just for cheap beer, but after 1 kit and reading this forum i was hooked, and i want to do it o make good beer, preferabley cheaper than good beer in the supermarket.

i may do a few extract brews to experiment, whilst still doing a few kits. However, i know that as soon as i do 1 extract i will not want to go back to doing kits.

Anyone know an punk IPA extract clone recipe...

 

[shearclass]

I don't know about you, but I really want a bacon sandwich this morning.

Thaanks for the replies so far. Does anyone know if it's cheaper to use spray malt or liquid malt extract, and which is the best quality? I suppose I can check prices myself, btu which produces the best beer?

Thanks for the response and the link abeyptfc, I'll check that out later.

 

[graysalchemy]

When I started out i did extract brews using Liquid malt extract which i bought in bulk. I see that the malt miller does a 25kg jerry can for £63.60 which is a very good price. Unfortunately it is out of stock at the moment. Using my LHBS it was costing me about 50p a pint which was still cheaper than a tin of John Sh*te from asda.

 

[shearclass]

How long does the malt extract keep in these jerry cans?

Using the Malt Miller's prices, i could do extract brewing for cheaper than i realised. Looking at teh recipe from the how to section on making extract stout, that would cost about 19 plus delivery for extract, grains, hops, and yeast. If i bought that bulk load of extract, the price comes down considerabley.

Interesting...... this is much more viable than the LHBS prices.

 

[graysalchemy]

I had mine for about 4 months. I believe you can freeze it but you would obviously need to split it into workable volumes first. Give Rob at the malt miller a ring he may be able to shed some light on the matter.

 

[RobWalker]

LHBS you need to be careful about for sure. Mine's pretty forgiving, I think my last brew cost about £16 without honey etc from the shop, and that's light spray malt, amber malt, hops and yeast. I just made a 3 gallon part mash that cost £10 too :p

Either way you're probably looking close to £15 - £20 for each 5 gallon extract batch if you don't have any ingredients saved up, it'll become cheaper as you buy excesses, as most stores don't allow specific amounts as such. I've got speciality malts, hops etc that are just sitting there waiting for the next brew now, and won't have to buy much more than the base malt...

 

[Muddy Funker]

AG needn't be expensive, nor dare I say it,,,,,,that, time consuming.

No doubt there's more to it than kit brewing, but take biab for example, there's no sparge stage so time is saved there.

While mashing you have an hour and a half to devote to something else, the boil you really need to be there for but I'm using hour long boils anyway so a little saving in time.

It's better too but not vital to have a chiller, use the bath full off cold water and dump the wort into a FV and leave in bath for a few hours.

Splitting the brew day, mash on one day, boil the next as already mentioned.

What I'm trying to get at is it doesn't really need to be a solid 6-8 hour slog as some might think.

Whatever you do as long as you enjoy the process and what you're making then good for you :

 

[Springer]

Bacon is bacon, but that's probably because i've only ever eaten supermarket bacon. Perhaps i should never try this famed farmer's bacon, as if i do i may never be able to go back to cheap bacon.

I was enjoying all that talk about bacon :lol:
I think that is a very good idea Shear, I can do both, have to cos there's a recession on :) ,but there certainly is a difference, never mind the taste, with proper stuff you don't have to boil it in the pan first to get rid of all the water you have bought and then don't have to fish out all that white crap, what is that. :?
:lol:
S

 

[snail59]

All the Bacon talk was well let me see :hmm: Apparently over your head :whistle:

No mate, I think my reply was over your head!

I was only joking, but apparently it wasn't funny....

I'm sorry I thought this was a brewing forum not a stand up comedy club :rofl:

If I had realised you wanted some light hearted banter rather than some serious advise I would have just said if all you want is A Fizzy Brown Liquid that contains Alcohol for very little money and requiring little to no effort HERE IS THE ANSWER.

69P A CAN AND NOT A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME WASTED :thumb:

 

[Moley]

What, 69p EACH? :shock:

Will anyone actually admit to ever trying that stuff?

I think I might prefer to cut out the middle man and pour it straight down the bog.

 

[eggman]

I think I might prefer to cut out the middle man and pour it straight down the bog.

:rofl: