When to move on?

I'm going to be starting my second batch soon. My first batch turned out excellant (not to brag or anything) . I think I was surprised as the rest of my family. However it was an IPA from Brewers Best Kit. I think I'll purchase another kit, but when is it time to move on from the kits? How do you decide it's time?

Also, looking at Brewers best kits, what would be the closest to an ESB?

Thanks,
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When you start asking yourself whether you are ready or not...

Seriously - If you feel you understand the basic process, spent some time reading books and/or this forum and want to move forward. Are you interested in doing extract beers with/without grains or partial mash or going all grain? The latter is a much bigger step in terms of equipement, knowledge and time, the former is just an extension of what you are already doing with kits.

I say there are three ways to "move on". Pick the one that suits you. In order of easiest to hardest:

Steeping grains- Just start soaking a pound of crushed grain in your water. Pull it out when the temp hits 160. This will give your beer the flavor of the grains. The cost will be a buck and a half for a pound of grains and a quarter for each grain bag.

Recipe Formulation- Learn to make the different styles of beer by inventing recipes. Of course, you will still be using DME/LME, but you can play with the hops and the yeast and the steeping... that's enough variables to keep you entertained for a few batches. To do this, I suggest you pick up a brewing program, like BeerSmith for example. Most have a free trial. Also, maybe pick up a book on clone brewing (make sure it's aimed toward the extract brewer though)

Partial Mash- do a search for "Mini MLT". Somebody created an awesome 2 gallon Mash Lauter Tun from a tiny cooler, total cost was under $20, IIRC. You can learn all about how to mash and, really, the basic procedure can be explained in a couple of paragraphs. The concept is complex, but the procedure is simple. In fact, I will tell you the procedure right now. Add 2-3 pounds of crushed grain to a cooler. Add 2 quarts of hot water per pound. Hold the temp at 154 degrees for an hour, drain the water. Repeat with 160 degree water. Drain it. Add your DME/LME to that. It's really pretty much that simple.



Of course you can also partake in the other side-hobbies. Yeast propagation, grow your own hops, malt your own grain, etc.

There is nothing to say that you have to move on from kits either....

If you have the desire to create your own recipes or have ideas about brews that the kits do not satisfy, then that is the perfect time to start scratching together your own recipes. OTOH, lots of folks just order up whatever they want their next brew to be and brew it.

There are many paths to great beer...just have to pick which one satisfies you the most.

I'd say try a couple kits with steeped grains first, unless you have a good LHBS. Ordering small amount of specialty grains over the Internet is a pain. Your best bet with Brewer's Best would probably be to get their English Pale Ale kit and add 1/2 oz. of Target or a similar hop to the boil. That would boost the IBU enough.

Move on when ever you feel comfortable and you feel there is something to be gained.
I did 2 Brewers Best kits before I adapted a kit to a partial mash. Since then my beers have been all-grain. The Brewers Best kits were a great way to learn while making good beer. But I wanted to make my own variations and experiment with more advanced techniques.
I can say that making an AG beer is easy, but perfecting the process is very difficult. My batch last night is one example.
After mashing in my floating thermo read low by about 5 degrees. So i boiled a quart of water and added it. At that point I realized that the temp in the tun just had not stabilized earlier and instead of being low the temp was actually a little high. After adding my boiling water I ended up above 156F instead of the 150F target.
Then I was supposed to get 6gal of preboil wort but ended up with over 7gal. Even with that my efficiency was below 70%.
I was supposed to have 5 gal of very fermentable wart at 1.060. Instead I ended up with about 5.75 gal of full bodied wort at 1.050.
I think it will turn out fine but not what I was trying to create.

Craig

pretty much as stated above, I'd say do some kits with specialty grains, so you get an understanding of how they work in the brew. if you brew with JUST extract right now, move up to a kit with grains. Taste the grains so you get an idea how they work in the brew.

If you really like one of the kits, but thinks it needs something else, add it and see what the taste difference is or make a new recipe with slight variations. don't shoot too wild until you have a good feel for it, just do tiny changes to see how it affects the brew.

most important, have fun with this wonderful hobby!

Cheers!