Do any major breweries use extract?

Hop Extract? I think it is fairly common. I recall hearing Pliny The Younger uses hop extract.

 

http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?25394-Using-DME-in-production-brewery
They mention one brewery in this link that uses Pacific Coast Brewing, which is actually a brewpub, so they probably do it to save on equipment cost.

 

http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue1.4/outterson.html
Here someone goes into the quality issues of using extract, basically it boils down to loss of control. Also cost, it would seem it saves some time, but cost more $$

 

Anheuser-Busch lists "malt extract" as an additional fermentable to barley malt and, usually, adjuncts for several of their beer, including Beck's Dark (still considered "All Malt"), Rolling Rock Amber and Michelob Amber Bock (too annoying to have to click through all the others) on their Tap Into Your Beer website. From the looks of the beers they list, it's probably used more for coloring the dark/amber beers (i.e., Sinamar "All-Natural Liquid Malt Color", or similar product) than simply to supplement the barley malt.

And many of the products from both AB and MC wouldn't be considered "all grain" because they use corn syrup as an adjunct. MC uses it extensively - "Corn Syrup (Dextrose and Maltose)" - in all their flagship products, as can be seen on their website's "Great Beers" ingredients lists. Don't see "Malt Extract" under any of the MC products.

They both also use hop extract in many beers (although you later note that not what you meant by "extract").

Bar Harbor's "Cadillac Mountain Stout" was the best-known malt extract "craft beer" in the northeast but ownership and location has bounced around so the recipe might have changed - and might not be considered "major". Also, not "Major" - there are "brewpub" extract brewing systems around, like this one - Turnkey Brewery Systems, infamous for it's "No Brewmaster!" slogan.

 

Production breweries will sometimes use dry malt extract to help bump up the OG on big beers, as they max out the mash tun with grain and still need a bump in the fermentable sugars. It is only a small part of the beer in these cases.

 

I believe Central Waters does something similar to this for some of their bigger, barrel-aged beers.

 

Some use extracts to increase ABV and when their equipment is limiting. Sometimes breweries use so much malt that they can't physically put any more in, so they use small amounts of extracts.

 

This is correct - we use a malt extract purely for color, not as a source of fermentables. We refer to it as "Black Malt Extract". This is made for us currently by Briess malting from their roasted malts (in the past we have made it ourself), and it has almost no fermentable content. We developed a process which they replicate for us that provides a dark extract without a lot of bitter or metallic flavor that can sometimes accompany darkly colored malt extracts. It's used in the brands @jesskidden lists above as well as Busch Copper Lager. It does have a slight nutty/roasted flavor, but its purpose is color only and the addition rate is small enough that it doesn't have a large effect on final flavor.

The advantage is two-fold: better efficiency and extract yield in the brewhouse by keeping these malts out of the tun, and precise control over color with none of the natural variation that can occur when relying completely on brewhouse mashing/lautering for final color.

As far as the original question, I don't know of any large breweries using malt extract as a source of fermentables; it is vastly more costly than malt because of the inputs required to make it.

 

as hard as it may be, you'll need to believe it. 99%+ of breweries are all-grain, only. given how narrow the margins are on making beer breweries can't afford to use extract.

 

Who is we? Just curious.

 

Oh, sorry. Anheuser Busch.

 

I went to a small brewery in the midwest , in a VERY small town. The brewer / owner came over and talked to us and we discussed some brewing (Myself and the other two guys home brew). He told us that he uses mostly extract and then adds some ''specialty'' grains when needed. None of the beers blew me away but none of them were bad either. The place was packed and nobody knew any difference.

 

As an amateur basement brewer, I can't see why any legitimate brewing outfit would use any sort of malt extract. I suppose to cut corners and save money/time but I view that as laziness.

The only reason I haven't done all-grain is the lack of equipment that is necessary to do it. The all-grain method allows for greater control of the finished products and I honestly can't think of a reason why anyone who is serious about brewing wouldn't want to do that.

 

On the Firestone Walker Brewery Tour, during the Velvet Merkin Release Last September, I noticed Drums on the brewery floor. I asked one of the brewers that was hanging out with the group what those were and he said Liquid Malt Extract. He said they use it for the big brews to cut malt costs and strain on the mash tun. Cut off was Double Jack(which they use sugar to boost gravity) so Parabola, Sucaba, etc get a small percentage of LME to make it more manageable. Also they use Hop Extract for the majority of their bittering charges according the same brewer. I was pretty surprised by this and the brewer was really helpful answering all my questions.

 

Two pics from the tour...

My helldorado sample resting on the LME Drum


Shot of the back wall as we left the area...

 

Many breweries use extract, especially dry malt extract, for their yeast starters.

 

As long as the beer tastes good, I could really give a %&*# what they use..................