fermentarium » extract

All-grain brewing vs extract brewing: Is it really cheaper?

DJ Spiess — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:18:45 +0000

There are cost differences between the two methods, but what is the real difference. I’ve examined the “must have” equipment required and what the difference is in cost. All-grain takes more time to brew, so you will need to determine if the price difference is worth the cost difference to you. For price references, I’ve used Northern Brewer. There are other places to purchase equipment and ingredients, but I wanted to give you a feel for the differences. The purpose is not to declare one homebrew store better than any other. You might be able to vary the prices a bit with some bargain shopping.

You have more flexibility with all-grain, but is it cheaper?

To make a fair comparison between the brewing styles, I’ve picked a simple recipe from the book Beer Captured by Tess and Mark Szamatulski. I’m picking a recipe from the book because it gives a complete recipe for both all-grain and extract, and it is a very simple recipe.

You will need more beer equipment

I am assuming you already have a 10 gallon pot. I was using a 10 gallon pot long before I made the switch to all-grain. If you do not have a pot capable of a full-wort boil, you will need to add a pot to your list of costs to switch. A 10 gallon pot will cost anywhere between $100-$200 USD.

I use a cooler to batch sparge my all-grain beers

You will also need a mash tun. The simplest possible mash tun you can construct is a batch sparge mash tun from a cooler. You can buy a all-grain continuous sparging system made from two rubber maid coolers for $249.99 USD. A batch sparging system is much cheaper.

To construct a batch sparging mash tun you will need a 5-day cooler, a cooler conversion kit, and some sort of filter. You can buy the Bazooka screen or construct your own from a bathroom stainless steel braided hose. I’ve done both, but I prefer buying the bazooka screen. The price difference is about $5 USD.

5-day cooler 70-quart	$37.88 (WalMart)
Cooler Conversion Kit	$29.99
Bazooka Screen	$20.50

You can buy a smaller cooler (48-quart) for $28.88, but I would highly recommend getting the largest cooler you can. This allows you to increase capacity or to make some very high gravity brews.

If you do not have a wort chiller, this is also highly recommended. With extract brews you can brew half of the brew and chill it with cold sanitized water. When you do all-grain brews, you are brewing the full wort. It can take a long time to chill 5 gallons of boiling wort. I would add a wort chiller in the “almost necessary” column. The cheapest wort chiller will run $57.99 USD.

The last item in the “highly recommended” list is a propane burner. These cost around $50 USD to $60 USD. They will make your life much better, because you will be able to boil your wort within a reasonable amount of time. If your burner on your stove is electric, you need a propane burner.

This is all the “above and beyond” equipment. The fermenter and other equipment you used for extract brewing is the same for all-grain brewing. This means if you want to switch to all-grain brewing, you will need to spend at least $88.37 USD. If you need the wort chiller or brew pot, you should add those too. Your total out is anywhere between $88.37 USD to $296.36 USD.

Recipe differences

The recipe I selected for comparison is the Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale recipe. Here’s the extract recipe:

5 oz British 55ºL Crystal Malt
3 oz British Chocolate Malt
6 lbs Extra Light Dry Malt Extract
1 ½ oz East Kent Goldings
½ oz Fuggles
Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale

Here is the all-grain recipe

9.25 lbs British 2-row Pale Malt
5 oz British 55ºL Crystal Malt
3 oz British Chocolate Malt
Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale
25% less hops

The yeast is the same in both recipes, so I will exclude it from the comparison. The all-grain method does use fewer hops, but I have never purchased hops in a smaller increment than 1 ounce. In either recipe we will be buying 2 oz of East Kent Goldings and 1 oz of Fuggles, so I will eliminate the hop comparison as well. Fewer hops will make a difference if your recipes grow larger than 5 gallon batches.

That leaves the grain bill. Since the specialty grains are also the same in both recipes, I am going to compare the prices of malt extract to grain.

The malt extract is $13.50 USD for 6 lbs. The price for grain crushed is $16.18 USD. For this example, the price for all-grain is $2.58 USD higher. Maybe I picked a poor example?

All-grain kits are $0.51 cheaper

The extract English Pale Ale kit from Northern Brewer costs $27.50. The price for the all-grain English Pale Ale kit is $26.99. At these price differences, you would need to make many all-grain kits to recoup the cost of your extra equipment.

So why do so many people believe all-grain is cheaper? If you purchase your grain in bulk, the prices drop dramatically. A 50 lb bag of 2-row will cost about $56.99. You most likely can get this even cheaper from your local homebrew store. The cost of your grain for this recipe is now $10.54 USD – a savings of $2.96 USD. Recipes which use more grain will be even cheaper. If you only make Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale, you will need to make a minimum of 30 batches to recoup your costs. If you brew triples, the number of brews will most likely decrease (not by much though).

Why switch to all-grain at all then?

The point of all this is to help you make an informed decision. The real reason you want to switch to all-grain is for the control over your brews and ultimately to make better beer. According to a Univ. of Saskatchewan study (listed in Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels), here are a few reasons why brewing from grain can be better:

You can produce lighter colored beers from grain

93% of the extracts tested fermented slower than all-grain equivalents

Some extracts will not ferment to the desired final gravity due to higher amounts of dextrins in the extract

Some extracts tested contained high amounts of non-malt syrups (even some labeled 100% malt extract)

With all-grain brewing, you know exactly what is in your beer. If you want to make better beer, all-grain is the way to go. If you are happy with your extract beer and you’re not really looking for that extra edge, save yourself the money and stick with extract. I’ve made great beers for years with extract.

I ultimately switched to all-grain for the control. I want to make the best beer possible, and I want to know exactly what is in my beer. All-grain allows me to fine tune recipes, experiment a bit, and give to me experience to become a better brewer. A better way to look at all of this is, after equipment purchase, it is only a little bit more to go all-grain. You ultimately have to make the choice for yourself. Hopefully this will make your decision more informed.

[EDIT]

There was some feedback in the comments expressing concern about the prices and necessary equipment. Here is Bill Velek’s well thought out criticism

http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/ferm-1.html

and my response

Please see the fair use guidelines for republication. If you would like to submit articles to fermentarium.com, please review our Guest Post Guidelines.

Don't forget to "like" fermentarium on facebook

How to brew beer

DJ Spiess — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:04:52 +0000

This method assumes you have never brewed beer before. You will need to get some equipment. You can find this equipment online, or at your favorite homebrew store. They usually will sell this equipment in one kit. Depending on what is in the kit, it should cost somewhere between $40 USD and $70 USD.

Here's what typicaly comes in a beer kit

Minimum Equipment needed

Pot large enough to hold 5 gallons
Large metal spoon
Grain Bag (if using specialty grains)
Funnel with a Strainer
Bucket
Fermenter with airlock
Sanitizer
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Lots of ice (does NOT go in the beer)
Tub large enough to hold the pot and icewater
Extract Beer Kit
3-4 gallons of spring water
Siphon
Bottling Bucket
Bottle caps
Bottle Capper
Beer Bottles

Setup

The most important step for homebrewing is the first one. You must start by cleaning and sanitizing everything! We are creating a food product and adding micro-organisms (yeast). If we are not careful about cleaning, other unwanted micro-organisms might move in too. The resulting beer would not be toxic, it would just taste that way. There are no known pathogens that can live in alcohol, but we don’t want to ruin the beer. Make sure everything is very clean.

If you are using a plastic fermenter, make sure you use a very soft sponge. Do not use the abrasive side of the sponge, because this will scratch the fermenter and give bacteria a good place to hide. Once everything is clean, you will need to sanitize your equipment.

Sanitizing is not sterilizing. Sterilizing the equipment would likely require an autoclave, and it really isn’t necessary. We are not trying to kill every micro-organism. That is a very difficult task. We are just trying to create an environment where our good yeast can easily out-compete any other micro-organism. Too many other bad micro-organisms can create off-flavors.

Star San is one type of "no rinse" sanitizer

The best sanitizer to use is a one-step sanitizer like Star San. Star San is a blend of phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid. It is a weak acid that with 2 minutes of contact will kill most micro-organisms. It is odorless and tasteless. It does not matter if you use the foam sanitizer or the non-foam sanitizer (Sani Clean), both are very effective. Make sure the solution touches every part of your equipment that will touch the wort after the boil. Wort is the unfermented sweet liquid which is created from the mashing and boiling process. It becomes beer once it is feremented. Make sure the funnel, strainer, fermenter, airlock, hydrometer, and thermometer are all sanitized. Keep the items in the solution until you are ready to use them. Do not rinse anything! The foam is ok, and will not affect the flavor of your beer.

Remove your yeast from the refrigerator at this time, and store it somewhere at room temperature (75F, 25C). Most likely your kit came with some form of liquid yeast, usually in a vial or an unfortunately named “smack pack”. If you have a “smack pack”, do not smack the pack. Smacking the pack can result in an explosion of yeast and nutrient covering everything in the room. If you have a “smack pack”, now would be a good time to get it started. Lay the package down on a firm surface. Feel around inside the package. There will be another smaller package inside the larger package. When you find it, gently apply pressure to the inner package with your knuckles until you hear a pop.

Specialty Grains

Usually you soak specialty grains in a grain bag like this

If your beer kit came with specialty grains, you will need to add them to a grain (steeping) bag. With the specialty grains we are going to make “grain tea”. This “grain tea” will help to give the beer more complex flavors and a better mouth feel. This also converts any starches in the grains to sugars for the yeast. Heat a gallon of water per instructions. This is usually between 150F (65C) and 180F (82C). Your beer kit should include instructions for the specialty grains.

Soak the grains in the water, keeping the temperature as close as possible to the temperature given in the instructions. Occasionally stir the “tea” to saturate the grains as much as possible. After thirty minutes, remove the grain bag from the “wort”.

Soaking the specialty grains, usually at about 150 F (65 C)

Extracts and Adjuncts

Remove the wort from the heat. Add any liquid or dry malt extracts to the wort. You should also add honey, candi sugar, or any other sugars at this time. Stir in all ingredients well. Make sure none of the syrup from the malt is unmixed on the bottom of the pot. Heat the solution just to a boil.

Hops

At this point, start your clock. You will boil the wort for another hour. Hops are added to the wort at different scheduled times. Hops that are identified as bittering hops are usually added at the very beginning. These hops make the beer bitter to balance the sweetness from the malt. The next schedule of hops is called the flavoring or finishing hops. These are added very near the end of the boil. The last schedule of hops added is called the aroma hops. These add to the aroma of the beer and are usually added immediately after the boil is finished.

Your kit instructions should tell you when to add the hops. Usually the bittering hops are added at the beginning, the finishing hops are added 50 minutes into the one hour boil, and the aroma hops are added right after the boil is finished and the flame is turned off.

When you add your hops, be prepared for a boil over. It might take a few minutes before your pot returns to a gentle boil. Stir the wort and reduce the heat until the boil calms down.

Cool off beer

After 60 minutes of boiling the beer, you will need to cool the beer. Carefully place your sanitized thermometer into the wort. Make sure the thermometer is able to read temperatures higher than 212F (100C), otherwise your thermometer will break. The temperature of the wort should be around 212F (100C). You need to cool off the wort as quickly as possible.

Prepare an ice bath in your tub. You can use your bathtub if you need to. You need something large enough to hold the ice, your pot, and some water. Do not add the ice directly to the wort. This could contaminate you beer, and produce some very nasty flavors. Gently stir the wort in your pot. This helps cool the wort faster, because the heat exchanged through the pot is constant.

Once the wort is below 80F (26.6C), you are ready to strain the wort into your fermenter. Remove your thermometer. Make sure that your fermenter, funnel, and strainer are all sanitized. Carefully strain your wort into the fermenter. It is ok if some particles get into the beer. Fill your fermenter to five gallons with the spring water. You should not use tap water unless the tap water was previously boiled and then cooled. Tap water can be a source of contamination.

Remove a small amount of the wort using something sanitized like a sanitized glass or “wine thief”, and pour it into your hydrometer jar. This is so you can tell how much alcohol your beer can potentially contain. Use the hydrometer to determine how much sugar is in your wort. Record this in a brew journal.

Yeast

At this point you are almost done. Open your yeast package and pour it into your beer. This is called pitching the yeast. Seal the fermenter, and add the airlock to the lid. You can use water in the airlock, but vodka would be better. Any micro-organisms that want in your beer will be deterred by the high alcohol in vodka. Place your fermenter in a dark cool place. Basements are perfect. You want the ambient temperature to be around 65F-75F (18C-24C). The cooler the better. At this point you can relax, clean up, and have a beer!

Fermentation

Some time between 8 hours and 48 hours, your airlock will start to bubble. The total time for fermentation depends on many factors; yeast used, ambient temperature, amount of sugar in the beer. A fermentation that starts late is not a bad sign. Sometimes it just takes longer. If you do not see activity within 72 hours, you will want to peek into your fermenter. If there is krausen (the foam which appears on top of fermenting beer), you’re ok. It just means that your fermentation or airlock has a leak. You can correct that next time. If there is no sign of fermentation, there might be another problem. You can pitch another batch of yeast. You should also consult your nearest homebrew expert or homebrew store for more advice.

After some time, the bubbles will slow down or stop. You are now ready to rack and bottle your beer.

Bottling

Rack your beer into a sanitized bottling bucket. Racking the beer is simply siphoning the top part of the beer into a new container. Make sure you leave the sediment (lees) behind.

Your beer kit should come with “bottling sugar”. This sugar is used to carbonate your beer. Gently mix in the sugar with a sterilized spoon. The remaining yeast will eat this sugar and produce CO2, the carbonation for your beer. Fill each bottle with your beer from the bottling bucket. Leave about 1 1/2 inches of airspace. Seal the bottles with a capper and store the bottles in a cool place, 65F-75F (18C-24C). After 2 weeks, your beer should be ready to enjoy. Chill a bottle, and then open it. Enjoy!