What got you into All Grain?

Are you suggesting that, all things being equal, you can make better beer with extract? I don't think anybody's ever actually said that here. You're treading on dangerous ground, my friend!

A bigger issue that you unwittingly raised, though, is that most AG brewers don't malt their own barley. Most don't culture their own yeast (though many do). Where do you draw the line on taking credit?

 

But if the mash rests, water to grist ratio, etc. that went into a particular extract happen to be ideal for a given recipe, then it's far easier to consistently nail it by using that extract than it would be using AG. Wouldn't you agree? It's not unlike the argument against using dry yeast because of its lack of variety. If US-05 is perfect for an APA (and, indeed, it is, IMO), and you want to brew an APA, then lack of variety is not a disadvantage.

 

Wow, that's a broad generalization. The only reason I won is through state of the art extract? It couldn't be that I was spot on for the BJCP standard? Or that the other brewers missed their mash temps? Or used too many ingredients and muddied up the waters?

 

I'll even take this a step farther. I'd like to develop a recipe with you, and we can pick a homebrew comp to enter our beers in, yours being the ag version and mine being extract with specialty grains, and see who does better.

 

While I appreciate your sentiment and I'm certainly not taking sides in this exchange you are having with Kenzie, I must say that I doubt such an exercise would really prove anything. Having the 2 beers brewed by 2 different brewers adds many more variables than just extract vs. all grain, doesn't it?

 

As an extract brewer there are only three reasons I would consider switching to all grain. Cost, the ability to use grains that need to be mashed and being able to change the body of my beers by adjusting mash temp. I would not feel any better about myself or look down on others if I switched to all grain.

 

Hopefully he has his process dialed in then.

 

more control over the beer your brewing

 

The fermentability of Specialty Grains (steepable grains) isn't controllable by the brewer. It's not sort of doing a mini mash, because there's no enzymatic conversion from starches to sugars happening. The conversion has already been done before you buy the grains. This is why the exact steeping temperature is so unimportant.

But even with a true mini-mash (including a base malt), the control is very limited, because of the small amount of base malt involved. i.e. it's still the fermentability of the extract that will be most significant.

 

Not sure I follow you here. How do you brew an extract batch without fuel? And how do you keep your bottled beer cold without electricity? Depending on your local CO2 and sugar prices, it's often cheaper to force carb than prime.

 

FWIW, I mined some data from the 2013 NHC Gold Medal winning beer recipes, including all grain/extract info. Of the 23 styles, 22 winners were all grain recipes. The sole extract recipe was the Sour Ale winner (a Berliner Weiss).

 

Something that cannot be ignored (and certainly hasn't been here) is the long-term costs of each. The upfront costs of building your own mash tun and having an extra pot as a hot liquor tun will break-even sooner or later, no matter what.

Running a 15 gallon batch with extract sounds horrifying in terms of costs.