all grain why coolers?

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KEITH27

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hey guys im new to the site and glad i found it theres so much info on here i sit and read and read haha im up to like 3 in the am reading... i have been brewing a year now and want to try the all grain my first question is i see people using these plastic coolers and such with taps and i seen one guy had a pcv manifold? what are these used for?? the second quesion is what am i gaining by doing all grain instead of the malt powder/liquids? thanx for all your help guys as you have tought me tons :mug:
 
There are some really good photo walkthroughs that explain the different methods I've been reading, and think I'm going to follow as well:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/all-grain-brew-day-45921/

or

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-tutorial-nut-brown-ale-77705/

I pulled and read those from here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-pictorial-video-tutorials-78963/

There's just a TON of walkthroughs carefully showing every step of the way, I love this place. BTW I'm about to try my first AG too, so I'm not the guy w/ much in the way of answers, but those links may help.

~Phil
 
The coolers are used because they hold in heat so well. You can have 150ish degree mash temps held for an hour or more without losing a single degree...which leads into the second question: They're used for the mash. Basically, you figure out how much grain you want to mash, and heat up 1.25-1.35 quarts per pound to your strike temp (generally around 167ish), mix the grain with this water in the cooler, and let it sit for an hour. Then the mash runnings get drained, and you fill the cooler up with sparge water (generally around 175-180 degrees strike temp). In a basic sense, this is used to rinse the grain. After about 10 minutes, this is drained and mixed with your first mash runnings.

It's a bit more involved than this, but this is the basic primer. A good link for the cooler conversion is here.
 
There are some really good photo walkthroughs that explain the different methods I've been reading, and think I'm going to follow as well:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/all-grain-brew-day-45921/

or

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-tutorial-nut-brown-ale-77705/

I pulled and read those from here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-pictorial-video-tutorials-78963/

There's just a TON of walkthroughs carefully showing every step of the way, I love this place. BTW I'm about to try my first AG too, so I'm not the guy w/ much in the way of answers, but those links may help.

~Phil


thanx for the info man ill take what i can get nothin worse than having brew go bad because you dont do something rite
 
If you'd like some concise, light reading, try http://www.howtobrew.com

There's a book by the same name written by the same person that gets much, much more in depth. Start with that link and a lot of the questions you seem to have will be answered.
 
The coolers are used because they hold in heat so well. You can have 150ish degree mash temps held for an hour or more without losing a single degree...which leads into the second question: They're used for the mash. Basically, you figure out how much grain you want to mash, and heat up 1.25-1.35 quarts per pound to your strike temp (generally around 167ish), mix the grain with this water in the cooler, and let it sit for an hour. Then the mash runnings get drained, and you fill the cooler up with sparge water (generally around 175-180 degrees strike temp). In a basic sense, this is used to rinse the grain. After about 10 minutes, this is drained and mixed with your first mash runnings.

It's a bit more involved than this, but this is the basic primer. A good link for the cooler conversion is here.

so the manifold has holes or slits in it so the grain dont come through the spicket like a filter sort of?
 
Hey Keith-

Welcome to the forum.. I am fairly new myself but I can tell you the guys and gals on this forum are great! They will take care of you..

To answer your question: Why all grain over extract? Well there are a lot of reasons for this, but first and foremost, IMOHO, all grain beer just flat tastes better.. I have been an extract brewer for ten years and just made the leap to all grain a few months ago and I can tell you, straight up, when I tasted that first batch of all grain ale, I immediately could taste the difference (I have since graduated to my seventh batch and it gets better all the time).. Not that you cant make excellent beers with extract, becaue you can and many awards have been won by extract brewers, all grain just tastes fresher and bolder. Also, using all grain gives you complete control over the beer you brew.. It is truly, 100% from scratch... The main reason I switched to all grain, honestly, was because I wanted to make beer "just like the REAL brewers out there".. And all grain gives you that satisfaction. Some people enjoy the ACT of making beer, they enjoy grinding grain, and testing temperatures, etc... All grain lets out the mad scientist in guys like that..

As for the cooler, these are mash tuns.. In all grain brewing, you need to "mash" your grains in water at a consistent temperature for a certain amount of time in order to get the sugars you need for yeast to work on... A picnic cooler just so happens to be made out of food grade plastic and is designed to keep foods at a certain temp.. But instead of keeping food cold, we are keeping liquid hot! These make affordable and easy mash tuns for the average homebrwer.. There are many styles and designs of mash tuns, but the converted cooler is cheap, easy, and proabably the most used system. The PVC dealy-bobbers are basically drains or "manifolds" that allow you to drain the liquid off the grain, without sucking up a whole bunch of grain and clogging your spout.... you will notice that the pvc probabyl has slits cut in it? thats what the slits are for.. Many guys use a stainless steel braid instead of the pvc manifold.. They both acocomplish the same thing.. This is built into the picnic cooler to avoid the need for what is called the "lauter tun" which is just a fancy word for "grain-water'draining-system", or a seperate vessel that allows you to drain your water off thr grain.. (Incidentally, this "grain" water is the same as your canned malt extract.. only we made it ourself!)

I could go on and on, but that's basically it in a nutshell.... Hope this helps

Happy brewing
Chris
 
Hey Keith-

Welcome to the forum.. I am fairly new myself but I can tell you the guys and gals on this forum are great! They will take care of you..

To answer your question: Why all grain over extract? Well there are a lot of reasons for this, but first and foremost, IMOHO, all grain beer just flat tastes better.. I have been an extract brewer for ten years and just made the leap to all grain a few months ago and I can tell you, straight up, when I tasted that first batch of all grain ale, I immediately could taste the difference (I have since graduated to my seventh batch and it gets better all the time).. Not that you cant make excellent beers with extract, becaue you can and many awards have been won by extract brewers, all grain just tastes fresher and bolder. Also, using all grain gives you complete control over the beer you brew.. It is truly, 100% from scratch... The main reason I switched to all grain, honestly, was because I wanted to make beer "just like the REAL brewers out there".. And all grain gives you that satisfaction. Some people enjoy the ACT of making beer, they enjoy grinding grain, and testing temperatures, etc... All grain lets out the mad scientist in guys like that..

As for the cooler, these are mash tuns.. In all grain brewing, you need to "mash" your grains in water at a consistent temperature for a certain amount of time in order to get the sugars you need for yeast to work on... A picnic cooler just so happens to be made out of food grade plastic and is designed to keep foods at a certain temp.. But instead of keeping food cold, we are keeping liquid hot! These make affordable and easy mash tuns for the average homebrwer.. There are many styles and designs of mash tuns, but the converted cooler is cheap, easy, and proabably the most used system. The PVC dealy-bobbers are basically drains or "manifolds" that allow you to drain the liquid off the grain, without sucking up a whole bunch of grain and clogging your spout.... you will notice that the pvc probabyl has slits cut in it? thats what the slits are for.. Many guys use a stainless steel braid instead of the pvc manifold.. They both acocomplish the same thing.. This is built into the picnic cooler to avoid the need for what is called the "lauter tun" which is just a fancy word for "grain-water'draining-system", or a seperate vessel that allows you to drain your water off thr grain.. (Incidentally, this "grain" water is the same as your canned malt extract.. only we made it ourself!)

I could go on and on, but that's basically it in a nutshell.... Hope this helps

Happy brewing
Chris


its all coming togather now i think i understand let me ask you this were can i find a recipe that tells me what to do as far as how long to cook the grains and when to add and when to pour i guess im lookin for a fool proof way to do it so i dont mess it up it looks like im going to lowes in the am to get what i need to make one of these bad boys lol thanx for your help guys
 
BTW, in the time it took me to write that previous post, like six people had already answered your question.. THIS PLACES RULES!!!! Howz that for service?

yea like i said before im so glad i ran into this place i have a forum for my r.c car racing and paintball but no one is as half as freindly they would be flaming me rite now tellin me i should google it and such well what the hell is the point of a forum i thought it was to share lol
 
As Fingers said in an earlier post, check out howtobrew.com.. I also highly recommend checking out some of the all grain brewing videos on youtube.... especially look at the batch sparge videos or single infusion videos.. thats how I made my first brew.. from a youtube video.
 
As Fingers said in an earlier post, check out howtobrew.com.. I also highly recommend checking out some of the all grain brewing videos on youtube.... especially look at the batch sparge videos or single infusion videos.. thats how I made my first brew.. from a youtube video.

you tube is almost as cool as this place :mug:
 
let me ask you this were can i find a recipe that tells me what to do as far as how long to cook the grains and when to add and when to pour i guess im lookin for a fool proof way to do it so i dont mess it up

HowToBrew - Your First All Grain

Read this 2 or 3 times. When you think you completly understand it, read it once more, then head over to the recipe database at HBT Recipes, and choose one. Many people go with Bee Cave Haus Pale Ale, it's a straight-forward recipe, and is a damn fine beer.
 
Your exact mash temps will vary with the recipe, but a general universal to shoot for about 154*F. With 11 pounds of grain in 3.5 gallons of water, this would be 167*F as your strike temp.

Perhaps the most important thing you need to figure out is how much wort can you boil at one time? Generally speaking, if you want a five gallon batch (at bottling), your combined mash/sparge volume needs to be about 7.5 gallons. The grain absorbs about a gallon, and about a gallon plus will boil off.

For me, I need to split my batch into two equal parts. So I'm boiling about 3.25 gallons in two separate pots at the same time, as opposed to 6.5 gallons in one pot. If you have an outdoor propane burner, this is a moot point -- but if you boil inside on the stove, it's def. something to consider.
 
HowToBrew - Your First All Grain

Read this 2 or 3 times. When you think you completly understand it, read it once more, then head over to the recipe database at HBT Recipes, and choose one. Many people go with Bee Cave Haus Pale Ale, it's a straight-forward recipe, and is a damn fine beer.
Better yet, go buy the book or order it on Amazon. It is money well spent. It is my bible along with Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels and both Papazian books. Pretty soon I'll have to buy a new How To Brew book as mine is getting worn out. It even has the parts list and tutorials on how to do your cooler conversion as well as several other projects. By the way, if you are going to start doing all grain, make sure you have access to a wort chiller. You will need that and I haven't seen anyone mention that yet.
 
Why AG?..
A few month ago I brewed my first AG, and everything went wrong, I mean EVERYTHING.
First I didn't do enough homework, second I didn't have any equipment.
All I really did was mix very hot water with grain and let it sit for a while and then drained it, I used a soda can as a sparge arm and I did not have a chiller so it took me over way too long to cool down to pitching temperature.
Oh.. did I mention that I used any 2lb of 2-row...

All said and done the beer came out Amazing!!!

I guess what I am trying to say is that you shouldn't be afraid to try, in the worst case scenario you will learn much more about beer than you ever thought there is to know.
 
ok so im gonna build a mash & lauter tun can i use a 5 gallon cooler or does it have to be 10? i usually brew 10 gallons of brew at a time.. but again this will be my first a.g. so ill probably start with 5. but im sure ill be doin 10 at some point will this work for 10??
 
a 5g cooler works best for 5g brews since you can only get 13-14# of grain in one with strike water.

if your going to do 10g batches its best to go with a 10g or bigger cooler.
 
If you ever plan to do 10 gallon batches, get the 10 gallon cooler, as you can still do 5 gallon batches in it.

If you're going to batch sparge, you might want to look into a standard, rectangular cooler. Generally easier to work with, and will cost much less for the same volume. I'm about to convert a Rubbermaid 1848 12 gallon cooler -- got it for $15 at Wal*Mart.

Just remove the spigot (which is admittedly a PITA), and install Northern Brewer part #8305 (XL bulkhead). You might need to shim out the inside with an SS washer. Grab #7547 (mash/boil screen), and attach it to the interior side of the bulkhead. Then get a ball valve (w/ barb) of your choice, and screw it onto the outside. A 3-5' length of thermo-tubing should be put on the valve so that you can drain off into your kettle or kettles (or whatever vessel you choose to drain into).
 
I heartily recommend starting with Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale recipe - his directions are pretty succinct - right down to how much mash water to add at what temp - nice to not have to do a bunch of calculations your first time. Te math is easy, but it can leave you second guessing yourself. I'm still in the early phase of going all grain and still have a lot to learn, but Ed's recipe was really nice to follow. Also pretty inexpensive. Looking forward to my first taste in a couple of weeks!
 
well guys i built me a mash tun over the weekend turned out pretty nice. runs water through it like a champ havent used it yet.. also went to the brew shop and ground up about 9 ponds of grain to make my first all grain brew.. ill probably brew it on weds il take pics and keep you guys posted thanx for the help/advice...
 
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