How to make the turn....

I have been brewing for only a few months and have absolutely fell in love with the process. I have used the kits and the malt extract containers to make some fine tasting beer. I am wondering how somebody makes the turn to become a purist. I am a greenhorn at this hobby but I want to know how people go from kits to buying their own ingredients and trying their own recipes.

Proast |_|>

I know for me I read ALOT before I went into all grain. Got a couple books.

Joy of Homebrewing
How to Brew
Designing Great Beers

Watched a few you tube all grain videos... Chatted alot with my local Homebrew store owner (ended up buying most of my all grain equipment from him)

I know alot of people recommend joining a local homebrew club so you can watch the process.

Find a style that you like, and then start reading and asking questions.

The HBT Wiki has a pretty good write-up on lots of the styles.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Beer_styles

Reading up on the process is key, as others have mentioned. I found it handy to map out my process step-by-step for the first couple to ensure I didn't miss anything. I also found Bobby_M's All Grain Primer extremely helpful.

+1 to unionrdr's input too.

You might also look intothe BIAB system which is really taking off.This sitehttp://www.biabrewer.info/index.php?sid=dfbadb4feb0aaecb13d71f0a1301887f ,will give you all the info into the system.I found it quite simple, after many years of brewing kits.

I made three batches of extract and moved to all grain. the extract tasted fine, but the quality of all grain and the types of beer that are possible with out much more work was a my motivation. it does cost a little more to get into all grain, but the cost per batch is less. any way you cut it, the beer is better than Miller! I like the brewing and the drinking of the quality beer, but with thousands of recipes i have no idea how anyone could start to design there own...

I said screw it and just by passed all other methods and went with all grain. The only real expenditure for me was to make in immersion chiller and then upgrade to a larger kettle.

I don't consider all grain to be to difficult. If you have a turkey fryer and a cooler you can do all grain with just a few modifications.

Use some of the calculators like on hoppville.com to formulate some recipes to see what they might be like before you brew. Definitely check out the BIAB method as it is a real cheap no frills way to basically do AG brewing.

Cheers!

If you're loving the process you def want to go all-grain pretty quick. I did it after 3 batches and enjoyed it a lot. Mashing is satisfying to me, I like seeing it go from grain to beer (not bashing extract, extract is fine too).

What I did was use/slightly modify some recipes I found on HBT and ordered my grain from brewmasters warehouse. That way you can begin tweaking and playing with stuff. Bulk hops are a pretty good idea to save some $ too, and then you can start saying to yourself "what can I do with a ton of nugget, willamette, and palisade....hmmmm..."

Chia said:

I made three batches of extract and moved to all grain.

Click to expand...

I did too.

Read a lot. This site is loaded with info. There are great books out there (How to Brew, Joy of Homebrewing, Designing Great Beers, Yeast, New Brewing Lager Beer...). Keep reading, keep brewing, and be patient.

I too have tweaked the recipes I have found on here. Whether it be hops, or the addition of orange and coriander. For all grain This is an easy great brew https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/. I just brewed my third batch of beer and today was the 2nd time I have brewed this. I added coriander and 1oz sweet orange peel to the first one. This second one I added 2oz of fresh orange peel and coriander as well as added a little citra hops. I plan to dry hop this one as well.

Take the flavors you like and do what you will. That's the fun.

I have had, and do have many hobbies, but this is the one I love and will love the most. This feeds my need for the glorious beverage known as beer! As well as the pleasure of the process of making beer. The best thing is I can make a large quantity of great beer for a fraction of the cost of commercial beer. $3.75 vs. $8.00-&10.00 a sixer is a "good thing" as Martha Stewart might say. LOL

Changing to AG was the best move ever for me. For a little bit more time per session, I get way more enjoyment out of it and a better finished product. I'm kind of a perfectionist so it was imperative that I have full control over everything or I wouldn't stick with it very long. I also understand the process and theory behind brewing much better now but I did a ton of reading and still do as I haven't begun to learn everything and don't ever plan to quite frankly.

Start with some of the highly rated recipes by more experienced members right here on HBF, that's what they're there for. Afterward, you can branch out and start trying your own concoctions but that's another level altogether, sort of the final frontier and one I have not arrived at yet for the most part.