Question about all grain

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sportscrazed2

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I watched a youtube video on all grain brewing and from my understanding you are basically submerging your grains in warm water then draining the liquid off and boiling it and adding hops just like an extract brew. is this really all there is too it? the only thing extra i would really need is a cooler with some tubing that allows me to get the wort off of the grains?
 
yep, that's about it.

If you have been doing full boil extract batches - going all grain is as simple as making/ buying a MLT (mash/lauter tun)
 
It's true that the theory is simple, but there are a few things that become very important.

Building your mash tun (where you are soaking the grain) can be simple but stick to a plan for your first one.

The main thing is that you need to be spot on for your mash temp, a miscalculation of five degrees can really screw with your beer.

Find yourself a nice calculator and do a simple single infusion mash with a fly sparge in a cooler and you should be good.

HomeBrewTalk.com makes research crazy easy. Spend a couple hours reading everything you can, and you won't go wrong.
 
Yeah basically. You need to hit the right temperatures as well as the right grist to water ratio. There are also different ways to sparge: batch or fly. But yeah it's really not all that complicated, just read up a bit and you'll be good to go. You don't even have to use a cooler, I started with the Zapap (Papazian) lauter tun and I liked it so much I'm still using it after almost 40 batches of all grain. check it out:

http://www.mainebrews.com/news/2009/04/zapap-lauter-system/

I cover mine with my kettle lid and some old blankets too keep the mash temp consistent. The most I ever lose in temp is 1 degree f.
 
It's a bit more complicated than your description, but not much.
You don't just submerge the grains in warm water. You need to calculate the volume and temperature of the water correctly to achieve your mash temperature after adding the grains. You then need to stir the mash to get rid of any dough balls, and then wait (typically for about 60 minutes). Then you need to sparge (i.e. rinse the sugars out of the grain) rather than just draining the liquid.
The biggest difference is that with extract brews, you can do a small boil, and top off with water. With All Grain, you will need to do a full boil, which requires either a largish kettle (at least 7.5g for a 5g brew), and enough oomph in you heat source to bring about 6.5g to a rolling boil. This is often not possible if you boil on the kitchen stove, but is trivial if you have a turkey fryer and can brew outside.

-a.
 
Allright think I will give it a go over the summer. someone told me that one of those coolers cost $175 is that about right? seems high
 
You can buy a cooler and do the plumbing yourself for much less than that, but if you want no hassle pre-made they're expensive.
 
depends how much cheaper are we looking at? i'm sure i could manage to build one myself if the price was significantly cheaper
 
depends how much cheaper are we looking at? i'm sure i could manage to build one myself if the price was significantly cheaper

Sometimes those coolers are on sale for $25, if you can find one at Home Depot.

A manifold can be as complex and a hand-sawed copper piece with multiple connections, or as simple as a toilet braid from the plumbing aisle.

A ball valve is pretty cheap, as are the fittings. Tubing is ultra cheap. You could probably make one for $50 if you could find a cooler at this time of year.

To be ultra cheap, take a look at Charlie Papazians zapapap or whatever it's called. It's a bucket-in-a-bucket set up with holes drilled for lautering. Two buckets- that's it.

I bought my first MLT ready made here: http://morebeer.com/view_product/17501//Cooler_10_Gal_-_Mash_Tun about 5 years ago or so when it was $115 or so. But you can see how simple it is, and you don't need a false bottom like that. Or, you could make the cooler MLT yourself, but buy a false bottom if that's your preference.
 
so the only real hard part is hitting the right water temperature and the right water to grain ratio?

Well, there are some other things that are probably more challenging. Chilling is a big consideration. It's almost impossible to chill 5 gallons in a water bath, so you may need an immersion chiller.

but just like with extract brewing, most of the "hard" stuff is fermentation temperature control, and other brewing techniques.

All grain brewing isn't hard at all- heck, even I can do it. As long as you pay attention to details, and have good equipment (like a very accurate thermometer, a good burner for boiling wort, a big enough kettle to boil 6.5 gallons or more), it's pretty matter-of-fact.
 
so do you need to boil 6.5 gallons to get down to a 5 gallon batch because of evaporation?

Generally, yes. In my "new" system, I start with 7 gallons to end up with 5.25 gallons into the fermenter. Your boil off will vary, but usually 1 gallon per hour is a good guestimate. You'll also have some losses to hops/trub/deadspace but each system is different. A good rule of thumb is to start with 6.25-6.5 gallons of wort.
 
so the only real hard part is hitting the right water temperature and the right water to grain ratio?

Hey, I didn't mean to put you off this.
The right water to grain ratio is anything between 1 and 2 qt per lb. If you pick 1.25 - 1.5 qt per lb you will be fine.
For calculating the temperature of the strike water, google strike water temperature calculator. You will get 992,000 results in 0.24 seconds.
My previous post didn't mean to suggest that this is difficult, just that your original post ignored these considerations.

-a.
 
so the only real hard part is hitting the right water temperature and the right water to grain ratio?

The amount of water is an easy calculation, ~1.2 gallons of water per pound of grain. Heat the water to 10-15 degrees higher than your target temp, so heat to 160-165, add the grain to the water and stir really well. Then take the temp and adjust with either boiling water or cold water until you're where you want to be (you can go up to 3 gallons per pound if you have to). There are a few things to remember and get straight but it's not hard and it's REALLY f'ing satisfying once you do it.
 
The amount of water is an easy calculation, ~1.2 gallons of water per pound of grain. Heat the water to 10-15 degrees higher than your target temp, so heat to 160-165, add the grain to the water and stir really well. Then take the temp and adjust with either boiling water or cold water until you're where you want to be (you can go up to 3 gallons per pound if you have to). There are a few things to remember and get straight but it's not hard and it's REALLY f'ing satisfying once you do it.

I think that was meant to read 1.2 qts per pound of grain. ;)
 
I just switched to all grain after doing a few extract brews. Everything you need to know is in here somewhere. I did some research and decided to jump in. Everything is working out just fine. I built my own mash tun for around $20. Definetly need a larger pot though. Seems to be fairly easy. Brews are tasting good with good reveiws even from non beer drinkers.
 
If you've ever been in the kitchen for more than 10 minutes, you can brew AG. The biggest mechanical/technical hurdles I feel, are:
a) Boiling the wort: if you have a turkey fryer, disregard.
b) Chilling the wort: if you have an immersion chiller, disregard.

If your tap water is crappy, you can also run into some problems on that front. I don't have an immersion chiller, so I just calculate for lower efficiency and sparge less, so that when I finish boiling, I can add a gallon or so of ice (clean tap water ice, not the disgusting gas station ice) to bring me to my final volume.

Or you can just no-chill.
 
If you've ever been in the kitchen for more than 10 minutes, you can brew AG. The biggest mechanical/technical hurdles I feel, are:
a) Boiling the wort: if you have a turkey fryer, disregard.
b) Chilling the wort: if you have an immersion chiller, disregard.

If your tap water is crappy, you can also run into some problems on that front. I don't have an immersion chiller, so I just calculate for lower efficiency and sparge less, so that when I finish boiling, I can add a gallon or so of ice (clean tap water ice, not the disgusting gas station ice) to bring me to my final volume.

Or you can just no-chill.

Making ice in your freezer and adding to wort is not recommended. You can, however, freeze a gallon of bottled spring water from the store, sanitize the whole thing, then cut off the plastic with a sanitized razor blade, and add to hot wort. I used to do that before I bought a chiller and it works really well. It uses less water than a chiller also.
 
Making ice in your freezer and adding to wort is not recommended. You can, however, freeze a gallon of bottled spring water from the store, sanitize the whole thing, then cut off the plastic with a sanitized razor blade, and add to hot wort. I used to do that before I bought a chiller and it works really well. It uses less water than a chiller also.

I put my water in airtight ziploc containers wich have been sanitized beforehand, I'm not recommending using the dirty, smelly ice cube trays here :D
 
The answer to your question is YES, it's that easy.

As this thread expands, a lot of the minutia in making better beer will come up. But if you can get the mash to a temp between 150 and 160, and leave it there for an hour, you've done it.
 
I would also invest the $20 in a brewing software like Beersmith. It takes the guesswork out of calculating your strike temperature and schedules your brew day so you don't miss anything in your brew process. I started all grain brewing back in the spring using the batch sparge method and a 52 quart Coleman Extreme with a homemade CPVC manifold and I'm consistently hitting 75-80% efficiency.

I'm right down the road from you in St. John btw. :mug:
 
+1 on the BIAB and variants. I started doing my all grains via Deathbrewer's Stovetop AG method. Works great and I didn't need a bunch of new gear to try it out. One day I might get a proper mash tun, but I can do it on my stove with a $5 investment in a grainbag. I had all the rest of the stuff from my extract brews.
 
check out dennybrew.com. The best one page AG discription you'll find. With pics.

If you think you'll keep doing it, spring for a 10gal beverage cooler, like the one they dump on Mike Ditka. A whole lot of folks use them, but a rectangular is also standard fare.
Get a 32qt min turkey fryer for the big^ss pot and the propane burner. But wait til after Thanksgiving for good deal purposes. I paid $40 on craigslist last year.

Don't be discouraged.
 
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