In a previous post (Return to Extracts), I pondered the value of doing a little extract brewing when I don’t have the time available for my 6 hour all-grain sessions.

I was pondering some of my recipes and decided that I would convert on of my recent American Brown ale recipes to an extract version.  When last I brewed it as all grain, I really enjoyed it an thought I had hit a real nice balance between malt flavors, chocolate notes and residual sweetness.  Although it is an American Brown ale, I kept the hopping to a milder schedule to not overwhelm the flavor with citrus and piney flavors typical in some American hopping schedules.

I offer the converted recipe below:

American Brown #1 Extract

If you’re a regular reader you know that I recently added a second brew assistant to my brewhouse.  With two sons now at home it becomes more difficult to find time to brew.   I have been thinking of ways to get in brewing sessions that are short and quick to slake my thirst for brewing whenever I have time.

I have been pondering the occasional dabble in extract brewing again.  I don’t plan to abandon my all-grain brewing setup as I love the process and the control.  But extract brewing would be a quick way to bang out some easier beers, experiment with ingredients and just stay active in the hobby when a 6-7 hour brew session with all-grain won’t cut it.

So this post is a call to all our extract brewing readers. What styles of beers really lend themselves to extract brewing?  I was thinking of putting together a simple Amber recipe to get myself started in the 2010 brewing season. I figure maybe a good dry Irish Stout and maybe a couple good English Brown ales, milds or other session style brews.

What is on your extract agenda these days?

BREW ON!

Ok.  So here’s another reason I should just go all grain…

I don’t know how great Munich malt extract is.  It seems the brands that produce Munich malt extract mix it with a base malt.  None of the descriptions I read stated that they were 100% Munich malt.

They cut it with some percentage of base malt, which is good…I guess…if you just want to brew with one type of malt extract and it happens to be Munich.

I want to brew with both Pilsner and Munich malts…and if I go back to extract, I am at the mercy of the maltster.

Here’s a good example for beginners.  When a more experienced brewer says that you have less control of your malt profile using extracts, this situation is what they mean. 

I think I can make a better Maibock with an all grain bill than extract.  More to ponder.

I have some DME (that’s dry malt extract) in the freezer and I made a malted milkshake using it.  Here is my recipe for a Malt Extract Milkshake:

Serves 1

2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream

1 cup of milk

2 squirts of chocolate syrup

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of DME

Blend well.  Serve in a tall glass.

Now that I’m all grain, I gotta find other uses for DME.  Just kidding.   My boy liked it.  Thought I’d share.

Mike and I were working on a project on Sunday and we were discussing some Brew Dudes tips.  One of those tips was about the use of Light Dry Malt Extract.

We feel a best practice for extract brewers is to use the lightest malt extract available.  For color and flavor, steeping grains should be used.

For an extract brewer to transition recipes to an all grain procedure, it’s probably best to have your “base extract malt” to be light to better match the base malts like American 2 row or Pilsner.  A darker malt extract would harder to replicate since it is based on a secret recipe.

We feel steeping grains give the brewer more control over flavor and color too.

Now, I am not sure where we stand on the dry vs. liquid debate.   I like dry because it is easier to measure and I have had good results in making light colored worts.  

What do you think?

Related Posts:

Home Brewing Ingredients 

How much malt is really in a 1.040 beer? We need to understand how to use the PPG values associated with your malt, regardless of its source as grain, DME or LME. PPG stands for Points per Pound per Gallon. PPG relates the amount of gravity points contributed by one pound in one gallon of water. PPG bridges the gap between a “dry” ingredient (DME or grain) and the anticipated specific gravity of that ingredient once its in solution. Remembering that specific gravity as a number refers to the density of a liquid.

The best way to illustrate and conceptualize this in your mind is to think about a one-pound bag of DME. DME has a PPG of 44, or 44PPG. If you dissolved a one-pound bag of DME in on gallon of water it the resulting gravity would be 1.044 SG (specific gravity). Subsequently, an easier way to use this number is to ignore the gallon part of the equation. Before you add the water to your 1 pound of DME, that dry bag has 44 points in it (or 44 points per pound). Using easy math you can see that if you put that 44-point bag (one pound) in 2 gallons the 44 points would be diluted to a gravity reading of 1.022SG. Likewise, you can put that same 44 points into half a gallon and the resulting gravity would be 1.088SG (44/0.5 is 88). But the total points are always the same regardless of gravity readings. (22*2=44, 44*1=44 and 88*0.5=44)

How do we translate PPG numbers into 5-gallon batches? It may be easier if we think of recipe formulation in reverse. Let’s say you want to make a 5-gallon batch of 1.044 OG. A specific gravity of 1.044 can be taken to mean 44 points per gallon. So in a 5 gallon batch there is actually 5*44=220 total points. So to make that beer you need to get 220 total points of malt in there. If you were to make it entirely using DME, which is 44PPG, then you would need 5 pounds. 220 total points divided by 44 points per pound (ignore the gallon part of PPG because you already accounted for the gallons by calculating total points). 5 pounds makes sense because if 1 pound of DME in one gallon makes a 1.044 gravity wort, then it would take 5 pounds in 5 gallons to make the same strength beer.

Here is a tougher example:
You want to make a 6 gallon batch of 1.064 beer using LME. LME has a 37PPG rating.

The principle is the same for LME; just think of it as if it were a dry ingredient. You can do this because its PPG is lower because the water in the LME has already been accounted for, hence lowering the malts PPG from 44 to 37.

So for 6 gallons of 1.064 that would be 6*64 or 384 points needed. LME provides 37 points per pound, so 384/37 is 10.3 pounds of LME.

Being able to calculate anticipated gravity from the ingredients we use is critical to being able to formulate your own recipes, or more importantly to make changes in recipes you have. If you have a 1.040 beer and you think it would be better as 1.050 you’ll be able to calculate how much more DME to add to get there.

(BTW, for 5 gallons you would need 1.1 pound of DME to boost the gravity to 1.050)