want to try all grain without getting all technical like

spam · 11-21-2011, 03:02 AM

I have been reading,and reading,and reading,,but there is to much techno mumbo jumbo in everything I read about all grain brewing. Is there some "rule of thumb" or very basic ways to understand all grain?

From what I understand you just have to heat some water to 145f and soak the grain in it for an hour,then rinse the grain with more hot water,keeping the grains from ending up in your brew,,,then you have wort that you can brew with,,,,Am I close??

**AZ_IPA** · 11-21-2011, 03:04 AM

Pretty close, but you want your temp higher than 145. Find a bobby_m post and read the all grain primer in his sig. It makes ag easy to understand.

Edit, here it is: http://www.suebob.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53:al l-grain-primer&catid=40:brewing-articles&Itemid=66

kh54s10 · 11-21-2011, 03:20 AM

I did my first all grain recently.

I used Don Osborn's video, Easy All Grain Brewing - Batch Sparge Method - YouTube to learn batch sparging and again as a last minute reference

I used this site: Brewheads.com - Batch Sparge Calculator for my amounts and temperatures.

It is much easier than you might think from all the "did I ruin my beer threads. Just be careful and pay attention to what you are doing. Go for it.

dttk0009 · 11-21-2011, 04:47 AM

The technical 'mumbo jumbo' is what makes brewing easy. Understanding how mashing works helps avoid mishaps and mistakes, like thinking that what you're doing is simply 'soaking' your malt.

Really though, it helps with choosing your ingredients, knowing their roles, effects and outcomes, which grains to use for which styles, etc.

If you are interested in raising the bar in terms of quality for your beer, just read a couple of threads in the AG section of this forum. There's lots of old and stickied threads that deal with introductory methods of grain brewing.

My first mash was a partial mash, and I used a guide from this forum. Granted, I only used like, 500g of wheat malt for head retention or whatever, but a mash is a mash.

A good place to start could be here:
How to Brew - By John Palmer

Granted, some of the technical information in that guide is slightly outdated (as it was written a while ago), but it's a great place that lays out the basic knowledge and theory behind homebrewing. If you're not comfortable with all grain, stick with extract brewing for the meantime, in my opinion. I know I did.

**boswell** · 11-21-2011, 07:00 AM

Just pick a different hobby and buy the beer you like. No one'll be mad at you.

**Butter** · 11-21-2011, 07:38 AM

Yeah spam, that's basically all that there is to it. Just get a recipe of a style you like, or think you might, and do an all grain batch. You're only really adding two more steps, mashing and lautering. After that its just like an extract brew. If you miss a specific mash temp or hop addition I'm pretty sure life will go on. Just try it.

**Bmorebrew** · 11-21-2011, 12:00 PM

You don't really have to get all technical to be able to make good beer the AG way - some like to keep it simple, some like to continually chase scientific details (do a search on how many of us are engineers, chemists, etc), but to each his own. This is a hobby, put in only as much effort as you care to, lest it cease to be fun for you.

You don't need to do tons of research, you can pretty much use certain rules of thumb to start and see where it leads. For example, start by making beers this way:

1. Use recipes that have a grist somewhere between 8 and 12 pounds of grain.
2. Use the same amount of water to mash and the same amount to sparge every time - after a few batches you'll figure this out. For example, 3.5 gallons to mash, 5 gallons to sparge.
3. Use the same mash temp range of 152 - 154 give or take a couple of degrees. This really means getting your strike water to between 164 and 168 or so. Play with it.
4. Mash for an hour. You won't need to to starch conversion tests.

If you do this a bunch of times, you'll start to dial in your process, and maybe over time you'll start to tweak here and there. This may or may not prompt you to slowly get into the more technical aspect of brewing, but if it doesn't, no worries. You don't need to worry about the enzymatic activity of alpha amylase to make quality beer.

Remember, you do this because it's fun.

**JonM** · 11-21-2011, 12:03 PM

And there's nothing wrong with doing small, 1/2 batches while you dial in the process. You can experiment with $10 of ingredients instead of $20.

spam · 11-21-2011, 12:48 PM

thanks guys,I will start by reading the links provided. it's just in some of the reading I have done every step has 10 formulas and 3 pages of charts before you get to the next step witch has more charts and formulas,,just hard to follow ya know....?

bighorn_brew · 11-21-2011, 12:59 PM

I would re-iterate, just pick a known recipe that produces results, follow basic procedure, if you miss your target times, no worries. I am pretty laid back in my approach to making beer, I have a job that demands technical and personal involvement. I brew to have fun....and like the variability that my approach affords me. I don't stress about taking a gravity read pre/post boil nor post fermentation... Sometimes I make starters sometimes I don't. I do stress about hitting target temps but that is about it. Sanitation in fermenter buckets/carboys is big. Many of my micro/craft brewer drinking friends admire my results, but best of all....I think my beer taste excellent.... I only had to toss one batch, a week or so ago I let a dunkelyweizen fermentation temp get outta control,,,,I realized it and instead of trying to deal with it, I just dumped it....I thought I was going to be really stressed out about wasting time/ingredients but actually was kinda liberating...Don't be afraid, go all grain...