I'm trying to conceptualize

I'm a new brewer who has done one all extract and one mini mash brew. After reading the "How difficult is AG" thread, I think this is something that wouldn't be too difficult to wrap my brain around. Basically, you heat up some water (strike water?), add it to grains and stir for a while (mash), rinse with hotter water to stop the conversion process (sparge), but make sure you drain it (wort) at the same rate that you're rinsing at... right? And then something about recirculating your first runnings, but I don't really understand why, how, or how much.

Basically, I know that I want to go AG at some point, when I have more space than my little apartment. I want to be able to picture the process in my head before I try and tackle it though. How far off is this layman's description of the AG process? And what am I leaving out... because I know there's some even basic stuff that I'm missing. AG'ers, please help me understand. Thanks!

You've got the basics pretty well spot on. The mash doesn't get stirred for very long, just enough to make sure everything is wet and it then sits for an hour or so unattended.

The recirculating part is simply taking the first few cloudy liters of the wort that drain out after the mash, and add it back to the mash tun. You do this until the wort loses the cloudiness. The grain bed acts as a filter.

Aside from that you've got the details right. AG is pretty straightforward, nothing to be afraid of.

Who has the link for the website where that one guy is brewing all grain and taking pics along the way . . . .then kegging in his basement? I have been looking all around for it, because reading it gave me a lot of confidence in converting to AG. I will post it when I find it.

sonvolt said:

Who has the link for the website where that one guy is brewing all grain and taking pics along the way . . . .then kegging in his basement? I have been looking all around for it, because reading it gave me a lot of confidence in converting to AG. I will post it when I find it.

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I think you mean this one, though it is partial mash, not full all grain??? Paul's Brewing Page/ Illustrated Brewing Primer:

http://cruisenews.net/brewing/partial_mash/index.php

some good stuff on here as well... How To Brew an online book by John Palmer:

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

for that matter, sonvolt... you should link him to the video you did!!! It's a good place to get a view of the basics!!!

later,
mikey

Don't forget the part where you need to mill your malt, unless the LHBS will do it for you.

It's here: http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/

Lil' Sparky said:

It's here: http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/

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Yep . . . that's the one . . . it helped me out!

texasgeorge said:

Basically, you heat up some water (strike water?), add it to grains and stir for a while

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Its easier to add the grains to the water then the other way around.

Check out this website also....

http://www.hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

texasgeorge said:

Basically, I know that I want to go AG at some point, when I have more space than my little apartment. I want to be able to picture the process in my head before I try and tackle it though. How far off is this layman's description of the AG process? And what am I leaving out... because I know there's some even basic stuff that I'm missing. AG'ers, please help me understand. Thanks!

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Take a look at this thread if you haven't already.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8805
I think a mini mash system could be made for a fairly reasonable cost that would allow you to do partial mashes. You could learn the process with a system that is affordable, wouldn't lengthen your brewing session too much, and the equipment wouldn't take up much space. I honestly think that it wouldn't be much harder than steeping grains.