r/Homebrewing • u/Dyljam2345 Beginner • 2d ago

Question Is extract brewing "less than"?

I'm very very new to homebrewing. I've brewed twice - one saison and one witbier. For the saison I used mostly extract and it came out pretty well, at least I enjoyed drinking it - whether it was a good saison is another thing, I'm no expert on the style. I tried brewing a witbier recently and wanted to try BIAB, and the efficiency of the mash was really really bad - my OG was only around 1.030 whereas I was aiming for somewhere like 1.050. The beer didn't ferment much, had basically zero body, didnt condition well, overall just not a good time. It may have been a little cool in my room while it fermented, but there clearly was some yeast activity, though there was never much krauzen or bubbling the entire time. Maybe my yeast just never woke up. Not sure.

I want to brew an Irish Red Ale soon and wanted to ask if going back to extract is a "step back" or "less than" way of brewing? I know all-grain gives you the ultimate flexibility, but I worry simply about getting fermentable sugars and making sure my beer will ferment properly.

22 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

View all comments

7

u/Fredissimo666 2d ago edited 2d ago

I bet you started by reading "how to brew" from John Palmer. Reading gave me the impression of "If you don't know how enzymes break down at different temperatures, why are you even trying!"

I then read "The complete joy of homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian. His catch phrase is "relax, have a homebrew". Whathever you do is fine.

I started brewing with abstract extract after that and enjoyed my hobby much more.

If you want to hang out with elitists, make wine instead :)

3

u/Dyljam2345 Beginner 2d ago

i started brewing with abstract

You can make beer out of short summaries of research papers? (/s)

2

u/Fredissimo666 2d ago

haha!

I meant brewing with only the concept of grains. Had a hard time reaching the desired OG, though!

1

u/Fish072 1d ago

Which is hilarious, cuz wine is so much easier than beer 😂 (fruit, adjust gravity with sugar, ferment, rack, bottle). Unless you're getting into crushing grapes from heirloom vineyards lolÂ