going extract

[parkerwitton]

I take your point DaaB and at the moment I am brewing with modern kits....but you have to accept that the modern kits do not tell you a lot i.e. type of hops or grains etc that are used in their products, but by doing your own extract brew you have that choice.

[ColinKeb]

i went striaght from kits to ag , its easier than you think . come over to the dark side taipan its calling you ..........

as for the thermostat i bypassed mine, its a waste of space

[PieOPah]

I went from kit to extract to ag.

I enjoyed extract brewing as it meant that I was in control of what I was brewing, but I was disappointed in the fact that it was more expensive than kit brewing. I had originally started home brewing purely for the cost benefit.

I can't remember how many brews I made with extract, but I can say that it wasn't all that many! I moved on to AG fairly quickly as this was obviously the cheaper way to go. I am now glad that I made the move when I did.

[tubby_shaw]

I did the natural, at the time progression, kits, extract and then grain and I learnt a lot along the way.
Unfortunately when I started brewing in the early 80's the only info available to me was through books or advice from the LHBS.
With the information available today via the internet and especially all the great help and advice available here I think that I would miss out the extract step

[charlie]

Having already contributed to this debate, what I should already have said is that, having two AG brews under my belt and still being at the base of the learning curve, the first thing that I noticed with my brews is that although my brews to date may not necessarily be to my taste and need the hop profile changing, there is a step change in the quality of the beer that you make that is immediately noticeable.

I agree that my extract brews, with the exception of one or two, were not much better than a kit.

I can see three ways of looking at it;

£15 on 15kg of extract will give you 4-5 brews to play about with hops/grains, your new boiler and learn this part of the craft.

You are going to go AG eventually so why not just take the plunge now.

AG is cheap. You like to play the horses, and depending on how they are running for you at the moment, you may need to look after the coppers.

[AT]

No i have given up betting on horses after a fairly successful Cheltenham. I've already decided to take Daabs advice and go ag, after all he's never put me wrong so far. plus if it didn't work out i still have all the gear to back up a step and learn from extract and step forward again. With all the information and help available on this forum i'm confident about making the step forward. Thanks for all the advice and help guys hopefully someday i'll be able to help some people in the position i'm in now cheers