So I know you are all sitting around with bated breath wondering... I wonder if those idiots actually got good attenuation from their extract beers? I wonder if the crazy ideas they promoted actually worked. And how in the world did those guys convince the best online retailer of home brew products to get on board? Well, we were wondering the same thing (not really) so last night after bottling our festbier. John and I sanitized a thief, and took samples. Below are the results. I think you will be impressed. If you haven't read the previous articles on Extract Excellence, you really should, especially the last 2. The extract apocalypse and What to do on brew day.
Follow the links to the Northern Brewersite, for awesome recipe kits and equipment, and a great community of home brewers like you.
We took this sample with our wine thief, you can get one
at Northern Brewer.com
The first beer we tested was Mark Anthony's Dead Ringer from Northern Brewer. Their flagship beer kit. Dead Ringer is a clone of Bell's Two Hearted Ale. It has been one of their most popular kits. When made correctly it is nearly indistinguishable from the original. Mark Anthony created an extra gallon of wort, due to a miscalculation on my part. So the bitterness isn't quite perfect, but the hydrometer sample tasted excellent. We decided to add some additional dry hops (centennial and chinook) to give it more of what we were looking for from an american ipa. Had I not screwed up my calculations, it would be spot on. The details. Mark's beer went from 1.052 total OG (with sugar additions) to 1.011 that is an attenuation of 79%... as of last night. It will probably drop another point or two. Taking it to about 80% attenuation. 80%... from an extract batch of beer. It is not overly sweet, or cloying. It tastes like a really good IPA tastes before conditioning. So batch 1 analyzed. We determined that we had excellent attenuation. The flavor was lacking due to a water calculation error on my part. But the dry hops will fix that. Now on to Batch 2.
Like our polycarbonate hydrometer, they
are nearly unbreakable. You can get one by following this link.
Jake's batch was the Grapefruit Pulpin clone from Northern Brewer. And the hydrometer sample tasted extraordinary. The original gravity was 1.060 but with sugar additions the calculated gravity is 1.062. The beer dropped to 1.012 that is nearly 81% attenuation from an extract batch of beer. The flavor is still a little harsh from the vodka / grapefruit tincture that we added. But that will mellow in the conditioning and aging process. This is an excellent kit. No hints of cloying sweetness. Dry crisp and refreshing. Wild grapefruit flavor balanced by a great hop bitterness.
If you have never considered this kit check it out and check out the reviews on it. A truly fantastic tasting beer. it is based on Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin. As far as I can tell this beer is going to be nearly identical to the original. It is cold crashing right now, and we will bottle it up this weekend. Looking forward to this one, as Grapefruit Sculpin is collectively one of our favorite beers.
Batch 3 Was brewed by John. It was Northern Brewer's Karma Citra kit. They describe it as bridging the gap between American Pale ale and a West Coast IPA. And the hydrometer sample tasted fantastic. John brought the brew day gravity in at 1.049. With sugar additions the total calculated gravity was 1.052. Exactly where it should be. His beer dropped to 1.012. Again 77% attenuation. No hint of sickly or cloying sweetness. Just a delicious beer. This beer is currently cold crashing and will bottle up this weekend.
So, our goal was to show you how to make excellent home brew with malt extract. Our goal was to teach you techniques that create beers you would be proud to share with muggle friends and beer lovers. As you can clearly see, our techniques for extract work. I know they are a little different than what you are used to, but they work. Truth be told these techniques are not new. They are in fact, very old school. This is how we did things in the Regan and Bush 1 administrations.Well,yeah, but would you change anything? Well to be honest yes. When I make an extract IPA in the future, I will buy and add additional hops for flavor, and aroma. But I do that for all of my beers. The first time I make it I am almost never satisfied. I taste it and I modify it to my personal preference. And when it comes to hoppy IPAs , I admit it I am a hop head. I don't really care what the IBUs are, but I want and need the presence, bitterness, flavor, and aroma of the hops. Having said that, I truly feel that these kits are damned near spot on, for what they are trying to be. So...
If you are in a hurry and you need to produce beer quickly, or you just want to do an extract again for nostalgia sake. I strongly suggest that you consider these kits from Northern Brewer.And use our tricks for making excellent beer with malt extract.
Friday night was the extract apocalypse. The entire team was back together for an evening of brewing, revelry, and merriment. On this evening we would be headed back to our brewing roots, we would be brewing 3 batches of extract home brew. Three glorious, wonderful IPAs. 15 Gallons of hoppy goodness. And we would show you, our readers, that you can make great beer at home with extract.
3 Hoppy Extract kits ready for Action
Most of us got our start in home brewing with extract kits. Most of us began this near obsession with a box of cryptic ingredients from a home brew store. And most of us eventually made the switch to all grain, preferring the flavors and cost savings of this method. But most of us also have wondered "now that I know what I am doing... how awesome could I make an extract kit" After all, we all know someone who makes award winning beers with extract. But how awesome can we make it?
We have set out to answer that question in our recent series on extract excellence. We were armed with 3 IPA kits from NorthernBrewer. We had the Karma Citra, the Grapefruit Pulpin, and the Dead Ringer kits. Northern Brewer kits are great, and we're so proud to have them as a partner here at Counterbrew. Now most of you know who Northern Brewer is, but just in case you don't. Northern Brewer is the largest home brew store in North America, and has one of the best websites you will experience. They also produce brewingTV. (Which has provided so many of us wonderful wasted hours on YouTube.) We set out to use the techniques we have learned in the Extract Excellence series. Full volume boil, late addition of extract, pre-dissolving your extract, rousing the yeast for full attenuation, and using yeast nutrient.
Fonzie in the rain, where's Ritchie Cunningham?
This brewing evening was a blast. It was a stormy rainy night, and it was hot and humid in the garage. But we didn't care. For three of us it was back to our roots, Jake, John and I have done many extract batches. For Mark Anthony it was a whole new experience, he started with partial mash and brew in a bag. So this was his first time ever making an extract batch of home brew.
Campden Tablets
The night before we brewed John treated all of the water we would need with campden tablets to purify the water and to remove chlorine and chloramine. It is a pretty straight forward process. we were using 19.5 gallons of water total, so it was as simple as crushing up two campden tablets and splitting it up between the water. Normally we would make a yeast starter as well, but John realized we were out of DME... so we decided to just re-hydrate and use a little extra.
On brew day the storms were rolling in. We decided to have each guy handle a batch of beer, with me floating between the batches. John was using the beast 231 K BTU banjo burner. Jake was on his old turkey fryer, and MA was on the Cajun injector. All three systems did a great job. But it is no surprise that John was finished first.
The first thing that we did was bring our treated water (brewing liquor) to temperature. When you do an extract (kit or your own) the first thing you tend to do is steep grains. Grains steep anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes. We put them in as the water is heating and pull them as the water approaches 170 F. We do not want to extract tannin from the grains and we have not treated this water for pH. So letting the water get above 170 F would be a risky move. As they are steeping we occasionally poke at them with a spoon and stir them around.
After the grains steeped for 20 to 30 minutes and when the water reached 170 F, we pulled the grains and squeezed the grain bags into the wort. It was now time to use one of our most important tricks to making great extract home brew, pre dissolving the wort. We pre dissolve the wort in a separate pot so that we have no risk of scorching our extract in the kettles. The next video is dark, but John gets his point across well. We also use some of the hot water to get all of the extract out of the containers it came in. Great tips that keep your extract from scorching or even getting too dark. But one thing you have to accept is that extract will be darker than all grain brew. It is just the nature of the beast.
late extract addition
After mixing up the extract off of the heat, we add one gallon of it to the boil kettle. We save one gallon for a late boil addition. That helps the extract keep from getting too dark. So we add in one gallon and head to a boil. You need some sugars and some proteins in a wort in order to get hop utilization. So in an extract you want full volume boil, and you want some sugars so that the hop oils have something to stick to. We do not reduce the hops when we make extract, even though we are doing full volume boil and getting good hop utilization.
Hop soup
We have found over the years that the hops are always a little too low on an extract kit. Once you are to a boil, an extract batch is a lot like all grain. Follow your hop schedule, make your fining and nutrient additions, and chill. But for us there is one key difference, we add the final gallon of dissolved wort with 10 minutes to go. Yes you lose your boil for a couple of minutes. But don't worry it will come back, just pause your timer and start again when it boils again. Alternatively you can add some as the batch is boiling, a little here and a little there. But you are risking making a darker beer than you had intended to make.
Jake's odd method for checking
the OG of a beer.
Sometimes we bag the hops, sometimes we just throw them in. There is really no right way to do hop additions. Both ways work fine. John chose to just add his in. Jake and MA bagged their hops. Johns batch looked like hop soup, It will all settle out in fermentation. John really had no choice, since he was brewing on the keggle, and we don't have a bag big enough to reach down to the 5 gallon level in the keggle.
At the end of the boil each batch was chilled with our jaded hydra. Ground water temps are above ale temps right now, so we could only chill to about 74 F. But John's basement is at 66 F. So we just set the batches in the basement to finish coming down to fermentation temperatures. The batches were pitched the next morning after a brief aeration.
John nailed his initial gravity of 1.050 coming in at 1.048. Jake was shooting for 1.064 and got 1.060. Mark Anthony was shooting for 1.055 and got 1.050, but also produced an entire extra gallon of wort. So he clearly actually got some sugars from the steeping. The Cajun injector heats much more slowly than the other kettles. So the steep was much longer. What we think happened is that he actually extracted and mash converted sugars from the steeping. Because with an extra gallon of wort his numbers should have been much lower.
Jake and John will stay on top of rousing the batches and making the nutrient additions to make sure these batches have every chance to attenuate as much as possible. And we will of course report back to you all about how these beers turn out. I'm looking forward to trying these. They were darker than their all gran versions. But not crazy dark. I think they are going to be excellent.
who wins awards with extract home brew. Every club has a guy who knows the tricks to make an extract taste as good as an all grain brew. These home brewers have learned the little secrets that help an extract be all that it can become. And often they are pretty secretive about it. You see many extract brewers are tired of feeling like the red headed step child. They are tired of explaining why they do things the way they do things. Why the process is just a little different. But trust me these guys learn some tricks that help them make amazing extract beer. Tricks you can apply to your all grain or partial mash brewing. So today on Counterbrew we pull back the curtain and let you in on the secrets to making great extract home brew at home. And we give it to you step by step...
The Day Before Brew day:
Clean your brew gear. Yes the night before. You should be focused on brewing on brew day, not on cleaning. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to clean your gear. Remember this is extract excellence...not extract acceptable or extract average Prepare your water. Either get 6.5 Gallons of spring water (no chlorine or chloramine) or treat 6.5 Gallons of your municipal water with ½ of a Campden tablet. If your local water sucks then just go buy spring water. How do you know if your local water sucks? simple... does it taste good? or do you constantly go buy bottled water?.
Make a quick yeast starter a day (or two) before. Yes, even for an extract. We don't use a stir plate. We just manually agitate every now and then when we walk by. ( By the way, you can use a 1 gallon jug to make big starters if you need to, it's easy and works.Just don't put them on the stove ) Yeast performance has nothing to do with how you made the wort. We will make a 2 liter starter of 1.035 wort, and pitch our dry yeast into it. Extract is less ferment-able than all grain, so you really have to give your yeast every possible chance to succeed and attenuate all the way. Our favorite yeast starter calculator is Brew United. Now, we like dry yeast and most dry yeast is around 6 Billion Cells per gram at packaging. So in theory you're good... right? wrong. Dry yeast is awesome and remains viable for years. It declines in viability far more slowly than liquid yeast. But it is also dry. Meaning the walls of the yeast cells are not ready for action. They have to re-hydrate. And 6.6 Billion viable cells per 11 ounces is only 72.6 Billion cells. A 5 gallon batch of 1.055 wort takes about 193 Billion cells. Now the yeast will multiply and the colony will grow. But you still want a healthy pitch. So buy two packs, or just make a starter a day or two before. It will work, and it will take off like a liquid starter.
Yeast selection is a factor with extract. You always want to use a yeast that offers good attenuation.We like Fermentis US 05 and Fermentis K97 for clean ales, S04 for English styles. For Belgian styles, Abbaye (BE256) and T58, and White Labs 545 (choose this for extract versions of Belgian Tripel, Golden Strong, and Blonde) We also really like White Labs 500 & 530 for Abbey Style Ales. We like Danstar Belle Saison for saison. We have been using Imperial yeast a lot recently and have had great success. In general look for yeast that has high attenuation. And get your yeast information from the yeast company. Fermentis is especially helpful with questions. Many of the software programs are just wrong on attenuation. So double check. In general we are fans of dry yeast, and feel that the yeast from Fermentis is superior to most of the other yeasts we use, but they have also been a fantastic sponsor and they happen to manufacture the two most widely used yeasts in the world US05 and 34/70.
On Brew day:
You must be able to boil full volume to achieve extract excellence. THERE IS NO WAY AROUND THIS. If you do not have a turkey fryer or a bad ass kitchen stove that can actually boil 6.5 gallons of water. (very rare) Go get one, borrow one, or steal one. Jake has a gas powered turkey fryer, and I have a Cajun Injector. They both work great for extract. I have posted many videos of the Cajun injector boiling 6.5 gallons. But there is another one, at the bottom of the post. If you are primarily going to make extract beer, then this is the best investment you can make mine was under $100 on Ebay. You can brew inside year round. You can also make great partial mash and all grain BIAB in the Cajun injector.
Transfer your treated water to the kettle. And begin heating the water. While the water is heating get your additions prepared and organized. We like dixie cups for this (the little clear plastic cups) But we have found that coffee filters also work very well.
Your steeping grains - All extract kits come with steeping grains to give flavor and color to the beer. Place these cracked grains in a muslin bag and add it to the water as it is heating. Remove the grains and give them a squeeze when the temperature of the water reaches 170 F.
Continue to let the water heat, when the water reaches 190 F. Turn off the heat, and add ⅓ of the malt extract. This is enough extract to allow for hop utilization. Stir well, do not allow any of the extract to burn on the bottom of the pot or on the elements. If you use an electric kettle you should consider removing a gallon and a half of the wort into another container, and dissolving the extract in this container. This is what we do. We with hold 2 gallons of the initial water in a separate pot on the kitchen stove. We dissolve all of the malt extract in this water. We then add 1 gallon of the dissolved extract/water when we are done steeping the grains. The remainder we add with 10 minutes to go in the boil. That is a large enough boil not to effect hop utilization.
Add the hops and the fining/yeast nutrient per the schedule. We always use a bag for our hops. We use a paint strainer bag that is large enough to allow the hops to move around in the boil.
With 10 minutes to go in the boil we add the remainder of the dissolved extract. If you are not pre-dissolving your extract, you will need to turn off your heat and add the remainder of your extract off of the heat. Stir well to make sure none of it is stuck to the bottom of the kettle. Then put the kettle back on the heat and bring it back to a boil. It is so important to stir a lot when you add the extract and boil hard now to get the extract fully integrated and into solution with the rest of the wort. But it i also so important not to burn or caramelize the extract. If you are concerned about that, just do what we do and dissolve your extract separately. Just remove some wort into another pot and dissolve the extract in that pot. Then add it back. Remember extract excellence, not extract average. You will lose the boil for a couple of minutes, but relax, just re start the timer when it starts boiling. If you have a 10 m hop addition, wait for it to come back to a boil.
At 10 minutes, after we add the rest of the extract we add the Irish Moss, and the yeast nutrient. (the first yeast nutrient, there will be more added during fermentation). We also add our immersion chiller at 10 minutes. We have a Jaded Hydra. The Jaded Hydra will chill a 5 gallon batch in under 10 minutes, even when it is hot outside. We can get all the way to ground temps. Which are usually in ale range. If you can not get all the way to the appropriate temperature range for your yeast. Put your wort into your sanitized fermenter, and put it covered with aluminum foil some place cool until it is at temperature. If you have a fermentation chamber go ahead and put it in there.
When the wort is at the right temperature, you will need to aerate it. We have an aquarium pump that we can sanitize and aerate with, but you can also just shake the heck out of it for 10 minutes. Make sure the lid is secure if it is a bucket and cover the hole. If it is a carboy, just sanitize some plastic wrap and cover the hole with your hand and the plastic wrap. If it is a carboy you can set it on your knee and rock it back and forth. Alternatively you can sanitize a wine whip, or a paint mixer (that you only use for beer) and aerate that way.
When the wort is aerated pitch your yeast and add your sanitized airlock.
During Fermentation
Ok here is where extract really gets different than all grain. Extract batches of beer are not as fermentable by their very nature as all grain batches of beer. So it is critical that you do everything you can to ferment all of the sugar that will ferment. (On a side note extract works great for Brettanomyces sour beers, bret can eat all that stuff). Fermentation temperature is still critical. If you do not have a fermentation chamber… you will need to make a swamp cooler, or find the coolest place in your home to ferment. Remember if a yeast has a fermentation range of 58 to 72 F. It does not mean the beer will be great if you make it at 72 F. It means the yeast will still grow and perform reasonably well. At least for the first couple of days, you need to hold that temperature down to ideal temperatures. Then you can let it rise. Keep it at ideal temperatures with a swamp cooler. This is especially important for the first 96 hours. (this advice is for ales not lagers, don't even try a lager with out a fermentation chamber). We are lucky to have 2 fermentation chambers.
First off, if you have followed our advice carefully, you will see fermentation activity in 12 - 24 hours. But remember extract worts tend to be less fermentable. Your yeast needs help to get every bit of fermentable sugars attenuated. To do that we gently rouse the fermenter every day, until high krausen is over. We don’t worry about splashing during the Krausen phase. After high Krausen we do not splash at all. We just gently get the yeast up and in suspension.
Second we make nutrient additions, like you would with a wine, or with a mead. We like fermaid K. Just mix with sterile water and add this at high Krausen. Or even better make it part of the sugar addition explained below. Just add it to the sugar water once it has cooled.
Third we add ½ a cup of corn sugar dissolved in 1.5 cups of boiled water (boiled and cooled) at high Krausen. This gives the yeast the added umpf it needs to finish strong and attenuate completely. We have taken extract batches of beer from 1.081 to 1.013 using this method. And that my friends is 83% attenuation. And that keeps an extract from finishing too sweet.
We generally do not rack our wort to secondary. We let it go until it is done and cleaned up. A big beer will take 2-3 weeks. A small beer may be ready to bottle or keg in 10 - 14 days. We let the beer finish, and we take samples occasionally. A wine thief and a hydrometer are necessary tools. When you sample the beer if it is too sweet, and the gravity is still too high, you can gently rouse the beer, and add more simple sugar if you need to. This is your best method for making the yeast attenuate out all the way. But to be honest, we have never had to do more than the ½ cup of corn sugar and the yeast nutrient.
After packaging
My goodness do you have a big healthy colony of yeast now. If I was you, I would make another beer on bottling day, a bigger beer (ie if your first beer was 1.056 go up to 1.075). And I would pitch the slurry of this beer into the new beer. You can do that about 3 times before you run into mutation of the yeast. Alternatively you can just get some mason jars and wash your yeast.
So there it is sport fans. How we make extract with excellence. A little different than all grain. But a great method to follow if you need to make a bunch of beer fast, or if you just need a fast brew day. We will of course be brewing some extracts really soon. And we'll put video content in the post to make it all make sense. Give it a try, it will change your opinion on extract brewing.
So in our last post we talked about trying to make competition level home brew with Extract. We debunked some myths, and accepted some realities of home brewing with extract. Today we will be going through all of the steps of making a Belgian Dark Strong Ale (Quad or Abbey ale or Monk Mud) with malt extract. From set up and cleaning to pitching the yeast. Our hope is that this brew day of extract excellence will show you where your extract brew days may be falling short. Our goal is to produce an extract beer that is worthy of competition.
Before we start, you'll need the following. Experienced home brewers will already have most of the gear they need.
Two 5 gallon or larger pots. We'll be using the Cajun injector electric turkey fryer for our main kettle, and a 5 gallon pot for our other kettle.
A large muslin grain bag
Two smaller muslin hop bag
A 6.5 Gallon Fermenter - Do not think you can ferment this high OG beer in a 5 gallon carboy or bucket.
If you do not have, and can not get a 6.5 Gallon Bucket, then you will need to assemble a blow off tube.
1/2" tube will fit over the center post on 3 piece air locks
A colander large enough to cover one of the kettles.
Camden tablets
The Recipe - Mankind's Monk Mud -
Belgian Dark Strong Ale inspired by Mankind's Monk Mud
5.5 Gallons
OG 1.078
FG 1.014
IBUs 23
SRM 17
ABV 8.4%
6.6 lbs of Pilsen Liquid Malt Extract
2.0 lbs of Pilsner Malt - have your home brew store crush all grains for you 2x.
1.5 lbs of table sugar
1.0 lbs of CaraMunch
0.5 lbs of Biscuit
0.4 lbs of Aromatic
0.3 lbs of Special B
0.2 lbs of Chocolate Malt
1.25 oz of Styrian Golding at 60 minutes - 5.25 AA% - 6.56 AAUs
0/25 oz of Styrian Golding at 15 minutes - 5.25 AA% - 1.31 AAUs
0.25 oz of Hallertauer at 15 minutes - 4.2% AA% - 1.0625 AAUs
0.25 oz of Styrian Golding at 1 minute - 5.25 AA% - 1.31 AAUs
0.25 oz of Hallertauer at 1 minute - 4.2% AA% - 1.0625 AAUs
Yeast - Safale Abbaye, 15 grams (about a pack and a half)
Yeast Nutrient - Wyeast 1.5 tsp
The day before you brew collect 7 gallons of water and treat it with 1/2 of a Camden tablet. This will de-chlorinate the water. Stir it in and let it sit, uncovered overnight. You may have heard that you can use tap water for extract brewing, but this is not really the case when seeking excellence. You can not use chlorinated water. If your water is treated with Chloramine (and most are) the boil will not drive it off. If you skip this step you'll need to go buy 6.5 gallons of filtered or distilled water. Both should be chlorine free.
On brew day before you begin brewing clean and organize everything you will be using. Separate your hops and place them in separate containers (red solo cups work great) Label the containers with a dry erase marker. Place your grains in the large muslin bag. Collect 4 gallons of water in your main boil kettle. Collect 3 Gallons of water in the other pot. In the main boil kettle you should add 1.5 tsp of Five star 5.2 stabilizer, stir and begin raising to 161 F. Pot two you should begin slowly raising to 190 F. When pot 1 reaches 161 F, Turn off the heat and place the grains into the pot. Let it sit for 60 minutes. Poke at it and stir it around every 15 minutes. When pot two reaches 190 F Turn off the heat and add the malt extract, stir it around to keep it from caramelizing on the bottom of the pot. The only fermentables you haven't added yet are the sugar and the raisins. You will add those in the last 10 minutes of the boil.
After 60 minutes remove the grains (and the bag) from the main kettle. Place on a colander or rack above the kettle and let the grains drain. Add the extract and water combination to the main boil kettle and bring to a boil. Add Hops as directed by recipe. Add yeast nutrient with 10 minutes to go.
When the wort (or mout to be technically correct) is done boiling. Chill rapidly. You must have a wort chiller of some kind for this. We are looking to get the beer out of the temperature range where DMS can be created, and down to yeast pitch temperatures as quickly as possible. We will be using our Jaded Hydra Chiller for this.
After chilling the beer. Transfer to your fermentation vessel. Aerate well, and pitch your yeast. We prefer large plastic or glass fermenters. The key is that it is large enough to handle the fermentation. This beer will blow off in a 5.5 PET container. So if that is how you ferment, please a fix a blow off tube.
This beer can and should be fermented around 68 F. We will be putting it in the basement and letting it ride. We will accept whatever temperatures the basement produces. We want some of the phenolic and estery flavors from the belgian yeast, so the temperature swings from the basement will help produce.
This is one of my all time favorite beers. I know if you try it you'll enjoy it to. I actually prefer this to my all grain version of the same beer. I think the residual sweetness from the malt extract combined, with the stress that the yeast is under trying to ferment a wort that has a portion of unfermentable sugars, combine to make a nearly perfect monk mud.
Almost all homebrewers started this way; A couple of cans of malt extract, some specialty grains we didn't really understand, a package of dry yeast, a kettle, a plastic fermenter and a dream that we could make great beer at home. And for most of us the results were encouraging enough that we stayed in the hobby. We learned, we grew, and eventually we started making truly excellent beer. And along the way we read, or heard someone say..."you can make award winning beer with extract" Come on, you're no different. You know you've heard the claim. "this guy in my club, knows a guy who uses extract and he won the NHCs, and the World Beer Cup, and he opened a microbrewery that only uses extract, and he cured cancer and gout with his extract IPA..." But when you start researching, it is damned near impossible to find an extract recipe that has actually won a major award.
The book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels is a great resource. A great way to learn to start thinking about designing recipes. In the book Daniels goes through many of the great styles that home brewers have success with. In each style Daniels mentions at least a couple of extract recipes that qualified for the second round. His research is exhaustive, so we can all trust with some certainty, that people can, and do qualify and win awards with extract beers.
We built on, and took the research even further. Reviewing every winning recipe from 2010 to 1014, and what we found was that 10 Extract recipes won NHC gold medals. Further, all of the award winning recipes were in categories that have SRMs over 11. Only 2 of the recipes were recipes that you would consider extract with specialty grains, the other 8 were recipes that must be considered partial mash. (It is important to note that many, many partial mash recipes also qualified for the second round furthering my contention that Partial Mash is the way to brew beer at home for consistent excellence). The majority of extract beers that won NHC awards were very yeast centric (Belgian/Sour), or fruit flavored. Only one lager (a dark American) won an NHC gold medal.
So it can be done. You can actually make an extract batch of beer that can win a major contest with extract. A truly excellent beer. A beer you can be proud of, and proudly serve to any one. But to do this, first you have to debunk some myths, and accept some realities.
Debunking Myths: There are so many myths about extract that they cannot all be explained in depth in this post. So rather than writing a paragraph on each, and for the purpose of this blog, they are simply listed and stated as fact. Whether or not they are fact is a matter of debate.
"Extract is twangy or metalic tasting." - No it just isn't. It hasn't been for a very long time. There was a time, way back when I started brewing when this was kinda true. The extracts were packaged in metal cans that were not lined. not fresh, and when the technology of creating extract also created some of that taste. Certain sugars were created in the creation of the extract, that didn't ferment well and left a twangy taste. But that hasn't been the case for a long time.
"Extract is more fermentable" - That isn't actually true. in fact, it may be less because of dexterines in the extract. Every extract is different, and you should check the sheet associated with that extract. Higher PPG does not automatically equal a more ferment-able wort
Extract tastes like caramel - wrong, extract tastes like wort
Extract leaves beer sweet - wrong, well kinda wrong. Some of the sugars created in the process of making extract are unfermentable, or harder for the yeast to ferment.
Extract beers can be identified as different than all grain - kinda true, unless you do everything correctly and use some grain in your recipe. An extract batch will taste different than an all grain batch. But a partial mash batch will save you money and time and is nearly indistinguishable from all grain.
Realities of extract brewing; Like the myths, there are just too many realities to go into full detail in one blog. The most important thing to know is that if you follow great practice, you can make great beer with extract.
More expensive ingredients, more affordable equipment.
Way faster
Darker in Color - use recipes that feature this as an advantage.
Different techniques for excellence: Techniques like
Late Extract extraction - Adding the extract in the last 10 minutes
Flame of / Kettle off for additions - or dissolve the extract separately and add back in to wort.
THE USE OF DRY MALT EXTRACT (DME) WHENEVER POSSIBLE
Absolutely critical that you follow good practices,
Full volume boil
Quick chill
Water adjustment for flavor
Aeration
Proper yeast pitch
Controlled fermentation temperature
You must learn to do at least a simple mash - we'll explain more in a separate post.
For those of you who do not currently mash grains, you will have to learn how.
If you can make oatmeal with out supervision, you can handle this.
Best with beers that feature
Fruit flavors
Belgian Influenced
Yeast flavors
Spice Flavors
Sour beers
Darker beers - Stout, Scottish Ale, Brown Ale
So how does a home brewer apply what we have learned here to make a great extract at home? Well,
if you are a new brewer, you have to accept certain things. First off, you must boil full volume and you must chill quickly. If you do not have the ability to boil 6.5 gallons of wort, you can do one of two things. You can reduce your batch size (our preferred) or you can split your boil into two kettles. This is called the Texas two step. It is really straight forward, you simply split your wort into two 3.25 gallon batches. Second, you must learn to do at least a simple 30- 45 minute mash in a bag. There is just no way around it. Only two recipes out of over 10,000 entered were purely extract. You have to use some specialty grains, and you have to get some all grain flavor. Third, even though this is extract you still have to respect the beer and the ingredients. You have to use chlorine free water, you have to aerate, you have to make water adjustments for flavor, you have to pitch the correct amount of yeast, and you have to ferment at the right temperatures. Fourth and finally you have to accept that extract is going to be darker in color than all grain. That is fine, you can make a darker beer. But remember there are methods you can use to reduce the darkening of the wort, even with extract.
In this series we will be making three batches of extract beer. We will make a time tested Belgian Dark Strong Ale that I have been making for years, we will be making a Grapefruit IPA/APA, and we will be making a Flanders Red. (Which will be split into separate fermenters to compare sour blends) We will reduce the Flanders to 3.5 Gallons. We'll be making these batches in the electric turkey fryer. We'll be chilling with the Jaded Hydra. We'll be aerating by pouring the wort back and forth between buckets. And we'll be controlling fermentation temperature with a fermentation chamber. These are all techniques that any home brewer must use to create excellence with extract.
The goal of this is to show you that even if you are limited on your equipment. Even if you just prefer making extract beer, you can take the steps necessary to make a great beer at home. This should be fun. And if you're already an all grain brewer, it should show you that you can make more beer at home by mixing in some extract batches.
What you'll need for Extract Excellence
A way to boil 6.5 gallons of wort.
A turkey fryer with a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot will work fine
Two 5 gallon pots
A large Laundry Tub - large enough to hold your fermenter for controlling temperatures
Some large muslin bags - for the steep/mini mash
A scale capable of measuring ounces and grams
Your regular brewing gear
That is it. That is all you need to make excellent extract beer at home. You don't need a massive 3 vessel system. You don't need the ability to perform complicated step mashes. You don't need to have a big fermentation chamber. (although they are nice). All of this gear costs less than $300.00. So yes, you can make great beer at home with extract and, you can get set up for less than $300.00.
Here are my choices for the extract batches of the brew cycle. These are the first three beers in the cycle. And they build on themselves, and provide the foundation for the beers we are brewing later in the cycle.
Beer #1 American Pale Ale -
Most beer lovers love a good basic american pale ale. And truthfully, they are really hard to make at a competition level. But they are really, really easy to make when your goal is a good drinkable acceptable beer. The hops hide any mistakes a new brewer might make. I always think a heavy handed beer is a good place to start, they are very forgiving. So here is my recipe for an extract with specialty grain, pale ale. This beer is however, fairly low OG. So it should go from stove to glass in a fairly short period of time 4-5 weeks total. I selected fermentis S04 yeast, also a quick finisher with high floculation.
NOTE: if you can not do a full volume boil, increase your hops. You will not get full hop utilization with partial boil brewing. Best way to do this is log on to brewtoad, create an account, and make a variant of "everyday pale ale". go into the batch and boil section and let it know you aren't doing a full volume boil. adjust your hops accordingly, we are shooting for 35-40 IBUs. As an example I just calculated that if I could only boil 3.5 gallons of wort, I would need to bump the Warrior up to .6 to keep the IBUs at 35-40.
In the brew cycle. We are focused on learning the techniques of brewing great beer at home. (and as Counterbrew I suggest in your kitchen). We are putting special emphasis on the fundamental aspects of brewing. Techniques like, sanitation, well established techniques, cooling wort quickly, when to add hops, how to re hydrate and pitch yeast, how to re use yeast, late extract additions, easy fruit additions, easy bottling, and dry hopping.
We are not focusing on the following.
Commercial clarity (although we will use biofine, and gelatin finings late in the cycle)
The brews in the cycle are the beers that I find the easiest to have success with early in your brewing career, none of them require commercial clarity to be awesome to drink.
Decoction Mashing (I will do another series on small batch lagers, yeast starters ((which I almost never use)) decoction mashing, noble beers)
My Brew partner is a great guy, a fantastic father, and well... he treats my sister like a man should treat his wife... with respect and honor. Many of you have read my thread about the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer. He procured one after we researched various brewing equipment, and we decided this was the way to go. And it has worked so well that I used contest winnings to get another one. We are not paid spokes people for Cajun Injector. We get no products or equipment from them. (although I will admit we are shamelessly willing to accept said products and equipment ) So this endorsement is purely based on our experience with the product. If you are an extract brewer, a partial masher, or a BIAB brewer, you should consider this set up.
Now that we have 2 of them, any recipe, and any process is available to us. Even All grain, 90 minute boil with a large volume of starting wort. So if we ever feel the need to brew up 5-10 gallons of all grain and spend 6 hours doing it... we can.
Things you should know about the Cajun Injector.
It's affordable - about $100.00
It can handle any 5 gallon extract batch
It can handle any BIAB or Partial Mash batch with up to about 12 lbs of grain.
We don't exceed 10-11 lbs of grain, but we are continual mash stir guys (every 5-10 minutes). So we are concerned about splashing grains out of the bag.
Removing the lid is no big deal during the mash, because the unit will maintain the heat.
It can and does boil 6.5 gallons of water.
It doesn't heat super fast so it is a good idea to do a near boiling water addition.
Some of you may have read on homebrewtalk that this is not the case... to that I say, remember our hobby is filled with good guys who love brewing, and who love the fact that they have learned to brew a certain way. Some of these good people believe that the way they have learned to brew is THE way to brew. Since I started in this hobby there have been many guys who just don't want to see any change. Unless that change is more expensive and more complicated.
So, if you are interested in upping your game, but still being able to brew inside the house... the Cajun Injector Electric Turkey Fryer may be the best rig for you.
Follow the links to the Northern Brewer site, for awesome recipe kits and equipment, and a great community of home brewers like you.
Batch 3 Was brewed by John. It was Northern Brewer's Karma Citra kit. They describe it as bridging the gap between American Pale ale and a West Coast IPA. And the hydrometer sample tasted fantastic. John brought the brew day gravity in at 1.049. With sugar additions the total calculated gravity was 1.052. Exactly where it should be. His beer dropped to 1.012. Again 77% attenuation. No hint of sickly or cloying sweetness. Just a delicious beer. This beer is currently cold crashing and will bottle up this weekend. 
