• Welcome to National Homebrew Club Ireland. Please login or sign up.
March 29, 2024, 06:09:08 AM

News:

Want to Join up ? Simply follow the instructions here
Not a forum user? Now you can join the discussion on Discord


Best quality extracts in irl?

Started by ColmR, November 29, 2014, 10:29:05 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ColmR

Not sure there's a thread on this but want to see what people are using. Been brewing all grain for over 2 years but don't have the time like before. Anyway I brewed an extract beer recently. Turned out savage. Used muntons maris otter lme by itself with no specialty grains and I definitely  rerecommend it. My beer was a US pale ale also bittered with hop extract so only did a 10 min boil. I will brew more extracts but want to know I'm using best ingredients out there.

So what does everyone else use?
Is there is an extract that we can get that's made with pilsner malt for light beers and lagers, or one with some munich malt for instance? Also what about the amber and dark cans? My instinct tells me not to trust them but if people have had success I think it would be good info.

I started a thread a while ago about briess extracts but they're not available in ireland. Anyway would be good to know that we have variety and can get the stuff easily.

Chris

I find it difficult to get extract for light beers. But the cheap generic extract is great for Amber ales, strong ales and stout.
Primary: Back to Black Again (Michael Jackson stout)
Secondary:
Conditioning:  Breac Donn Imperial Amber Ale
Drinking: Cascade Reaction Amber Ale, Fear Gorm Irish stout, lonesome pilgrim pale ale
Planned: imperial stout, finlandia kit hack

shweeney

when I was reading up prior to starting extract brewing recently, pretty much everything I read suggested using DME was the most reliable method - there are good LMEs available but its a bit hit and miss.  However you're probably even more restricted in choice using DME than using LME.

jawalemon

I've was using LME for over year with no issues. Mostly I used the €6/1.5 kg cans. The one brew I did with just DME turned out rubbish but I put that down to me. Last week I did my first BIAB so it will be interesting to see the difference.

ColmR

So what brand is the €6 can?
Any sign of a Pilsner, Munich extract??

There seems to be a myth with brewers around extract beers being inferior, but brewed properly and with best possible ingredients I don't accept this. I know most extract brewers are beginners and quite often buy what's cheapest. But if everyone knew what the best quality extracts were, people will end up with better beers and may not mind paying an extra few euro per batch of beer.

molc

I've been extract until now and made some quite tasty brews. I settled on always using Muntons Extra Light and Light DME, as it was predictable and not too costly, working out around €5.60/Kg. Working out the costings, it's probably twice the price of mashing my own base malts, just as the base malt is quite expensive, but you save more than enough time for it to be worthwhile.
For colour, I always use specialty grains - the DME is just the base.

The last two batches, I switched to full boil and I noticed a marked improvement in the final result. As you say, technique is all important.

Very interested to see what, if any improvement all grain will give me...
Fermenting: IPA, Lambic, Mead
Conditioning: Lambic, Cider, RIS, Ole Ale, Saison
On Tap: IPA, Helles, Best Bitter

shweeney