What's the differrence between Extract and Kit Brewing?

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Bought one of the St. Peter's kits as an introduction into the whole beer brewing world. It's fermenting away nicely so looking at what to do to raise the bar for the next batch. So I was reading about extract brewing but so far I can't really see the difference. Far as I know the gloop in the cans that come with the St Peter's kits is LME... so how is it different?



More brewing confusion...

[LordEoin]

Plain LME is just liquid malt extract, while the goop in a kit can is bittered and already includes speciaility grains & hops.
For extract brewing, you need to boil your wort and hops.
the longer you boil hops changes their properties from aroma>flavor>bittering

To raise the bar for the next kit, play with steeping grains and hops.
Then once you've that under your belt build a boiler and try some extract brews.
Then build a mash tun, and you can ditch the LME too and go straight from grain.

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Ah right I see. So you're kind of coming in after the mash and the sparge with extract brewing, but still need to boil and add the hops?

What do you mean by steeping grain and hops exactly? I presume you put them in a muslin bag or similar and let them sit in the wort (gloop + hot water) for a while... but do you heat the wort while you're doing this in a big pot or is the heat from the hot water enough? Dya know what I mean like?

Sounds interesting - introducing new flavours to the kit...

Thanks for all the help so far by the way!

[molc]

Then once you've that under your belt build a boiler and try some extract brews.
Then build a mash tun, and you can ditch the LME too and go straight from grain.

This is basically a chronicle of my last year of brewing. It's a nice logical way of doing it and you make some excellent beer along the way, while increasing the range of styles you can create.

In extract, you steep grains that don't need to be mashed to extract flavour and colour. Basically, 30 minutes in ~66C water. Then you add that to more water, which you have been heating in another pot in the meantime and bring to the boil. Once the boil is rolling, you add hops at different times, usually over a 60 minute period. The resulting wort is the same as the goop you usually get in an extract kit, but you've made it fresh.

There's a load of details I'm skipping there, but you can find plenty more by googling, asking here or going to a brewday. Like LordEoin said, look into some kit hacks for the next step, as once you have that clear in your head, extract is a very small step. Once you have extract nailed, then mashing is another step before that to learn, but you can do it all in your own time.

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Class - thanks lads

In terms of brewing vessels.... I have one 25L fermenting bucket, a big pot ~21L, two 5L fermenting buckets and a rake of demijohns.

Would the 21L pot be big enough for kit hacking or do you need to steep the grains in the full 5 gallons? I take it from what you just said molc that you'd need the 5 gallons boiling for doing an extract brew

[LordEoin]

I generally use a 5 liter spot for kit hacks, no need for anything bigger.
Steep your grains in about 3 liters of water, remove the grains bring to a boil to sterilize and clump up some protein.
While it's boiling I generally make use of it and do a 15 minute and 5 minute hop boil.
Use this hot grainy hoppy liquid to rinse out your kit cans instead of kettle water

[molc]

What Lord soon said for kit hacking. You don't even need a full boil for extract, though when I started doing it I think my quality increased quite a bit. When steeping, I always use about 3 litres, though it's based off grain weight so the volume changes.

Again, don't complicate it until you want to go the extract route. Kit hacking is great fun and fast as well.

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Great stuff, thanks lads. Looks like I'm all set up for a bit of hacking so and can slowly build up the equipment. Nice one!

[johnrm]

What part of the world are you in Kevin? There could be someone down the road from you brewing too...

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

Howerya John, I'm in Roundwood in Wicklow (hence the name) but I'm from Cork!

Someone from the forum who lives pretty close by in Wicklow has been in touch alright - it might be the same fella. Hoping to meet up later in the week, exchange a few bottles (whenever mine will be ready)

[DEMPSEY]

T'was probably the big fella

[Kevin O'Roundwood]

I'll bring my tape measure and report back!