Extract taste

[beermebeavis]

As a BJCP judge, and additionally from my liver’s experience of dranking so many effing beers, and in addition to my beer-literature readings, I would have to say that eXXXtrack beers’ main negative issue is “oxidation.”

That is to say, a ‘cardboard, stale’ flavor and aroma. I am able to pick out eXXXtrack beers by smell, before I even am within 100 yards of the room hohohohohoho! that was a fib. But seriously they Are pretty apparent. I wish I could go back in time and taste a few of my eXXXtracks. I thought they were so damnable gooowd back then.

The thing is, as at leas one previous writer commented - you gots ta git da FRESHest eXXXtrack available. I believe the common, negative denominator in eXXXtrack brewing is OXXXidation (cardboard, wet paper, stale, whatever). Or perhaps a metallic, tinney flavor.

Goto All-grain ASAP and you’ll never regret it.

[rebuiltcellars]

@tom sawyer

One other possibile contributor is salt content. DME/LME is mashed with relatively hard water that has plenty of salts. Then you add your tap water and bump this up more. This extra salt can affect pH, and possibly cause more crosslinking during the boil.

This may be the key. I brewed extract for three years before I went AG. When I did, I was expecting to get blown away by the improvement, and wasn’t. The AG is more fun to brew, and costs less, but I didn’t find it was typically that much better. But my home water was very soft…

[grainbelt]

@rebuiltcellars

[quote=“tom sawyer”]One other possibile contributor is salt content. DME/LME is mashed with relatively hard water that has plenty of salts. Then you add your tap water and bump this up more. This extra salt can affect pH, and possibly cause more crosslinking during the boil.

This may be the key. I brewed extract for three years before I went AG. When I did, I was expecting to get blown away by the improvement, and wasn’t. The AG is more fun to brew, and costs less, but I didn’t find it was typically that much better. But my home water was very soft…[/quote]

That and all the other issues with pitching rates, fermentation temp, knowledge etc…I can not tell between extract and AG side by side blindly now.
I have had cocky people/judges tell me they can pick extract out and have proved that point before that they can not if it is well made.