Jump to all grain?

Well I am in the midst of producing my first beer. Its a stout and so far it tastes and looks delicious. As long as I don't screw my bottling up it should turn out to be a fine beer.

But all the reading about all grain and how it produces such a great beer has got me thinking. Im a pretty smart guy and I think I could make the jump. So I am going to buy another extract kit with specialty grains brew that up and see how I do the second time around. Then I am thinking about going to an all grain set up.

I know I need more equipment, all I have now is a 20 qt brew bot, and the kit I bought from a local brew store. So my question lies herein, what equipment do I need for an all grain batch of 5 gallons and is 5 gallons a large enough amount to make all grain brewing worth the while. I know I need a mash tun, a large brew pot and a burner but I am not sure what to get and if I need more.

I would like to try an all grain pale ale and an all grain hefe. to start out with.

Is it very time consuming? It took me hours to brew my first extract beer, but I was extremley careful and stood by the boil and the steeping grains the whole time.

Comments? suggestions?

I'd say build your 5 gal MLT and do some partial mash recipes first. This helps immensly as you get practice hitting temps, get an idea of "how" things work. Check out this link, read the links under "Want to go All-Grain". https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=43689

Schlante,
Phillip

Hi newbrewr. I didn't think the jump to all-grain produced an AMAZINGLY better beer. If you search around some will tell you all-grain is the way to go.

My free (and worth about the same?) advice:
Go to all-grain if:
*You don't mind stretching your brew day to 6 hours (to start. Maybe 4.5 hours later)
*You don't might buying more equipment (You'll need a bigger boilpot- I would recommend at least a 30qt, as you may be boiling 7 gal down to 5.5). You'll need something to "Mash" your grains. ('cooking' grains in water at a specific temperature for a specific time). Most people use an Ice Chest of some sort, as it holds temps well. A very small amount of people carefully monitor their grains in the pot on the stove.
*You want greater variety of beers to make (or more choices of sub-genres of beers) Or if you want to directly clone a beer you can't find in a kit
*You want to brew beer cheaper- instead of $1 a beer, $0.50 or $0.35 a beer depending.

I wouldn't recommend all-grain if:
*You don't want to spend another 2-3 hours to make beer
*You don't want more factors to go wrong (not mashing at right temperature, not heating your water at the right time, etc.) For example, for my first allgrain batch, I didn't calculate how much heated water I needed and also didn't know how long it took to get my water up to temperature. These are beginner mistakes and I've corrected them- but brewing with extract tends to be faster, quicker and more satisfying if you want less factors involved.

There are excellent guides about producing all-grain beer that explain the process.
I brew all-grain mainly because I want a lower cost per beer. (My goal is getting more and more possible- beer that is cheaper than soda)

I moved to all-grain and I've brewed three beers so far.
Upside: I enjoy making things and figuring out ways to make things more economical. I read and searched and shopped and searched to find the best cheapest cooler (the Igloo Ice Cube 54qt?).

Search for threads discussing "new equipment: fermentation temp control vs allgrain" or things close to that. People have good comments either way.

Where i live in California, houses can get up to 90 deg in the summer, so fermentation temperature control is a big issue for me. (Right now I use a small Dorm Fridge- not plugged in- and use frozen water bottles switched out twice a day to keep the temp constant) Since temperature of fermentation is a big deal regarding the quality of the beer, this probably would have been a better investment for me.

Many people mention how brewing a partial mash recipe helps them understand the process much more- maybe try this and consider how it works for you?

Since I have a busy schedule in the evenings, I find it hard to squeeze in a 6 hour brewing session on the weekends. Perhaps if you have more time Allgrain may be less of an issue.

For anyone going into allgrain, I recommend:
*actually compare prices regarding kit pricing. I saw an article that discussed extract kits vs. allgrain kits and in some cases. the extract was almost the same price.. from the same company..

You would need at least a 7 1/2 gal pot, you could pick up a standard turkey fryer kit with the 30 quart aluminium pot for the boil, and use your other pot for heating sparge water.
You would also need a wort chiller to chill the 5.5 gallons quickly, immersion or counterflow would work but an Ice bath takes to long. You want it crashed cooled as quickly as possible. Temperature control is important for extract to AG in mashing, boiling and fermentation. Then just keep everything as clean as possible. Unwanted bugs can really mess up your beer.
When you build your mash tun, save the parts so you can return it to cooler use once you get the bug and want to go bigger and better. (Don't say you were not warned).
Hope you love your beer and homebrewing.

Cool,

Thanks for all of the help.

I am going to buy an extract kit this week, and then a PM kit. I think Morebeer.com sells a lauter tun for this though I am sure it is not big enough to use for an all grain beer. I will find or make something though. Is making a mash tun difficult?

newbrewr4fun said:

Cool,

Thanks for all of the help.

I am going to buy an extract kit this week, and then a PM kit. I think Morebeer.com sells a lauter tun for this though I am sure it is not big enough to use for an all grain beer. I will find or make something though. Is making a mash tun difficult?

Click to expand...

nope: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23008

Also a 30qt pot is absolute minimum. Go with a 40 or so.

I've brewed 3 all-grain batches, and am drinking the first one. Being able to craft such a complete beer is addicting!

Like learningmore said, the biggest change for me was your time brewing will be around 4-6 hours, from setting up to cleaning up. Worth every minute.

know I'm just another newbie, so my opinion doesn't carry too much heft, but what the hell, I reckon you should just go for it.

I've done 8 or nine extract brews, all of which turned out within the decent/good spectrum. Sure, I have a lot to learn yet, but I reckon I know my way around extract enough to realise that this is not what I want to be doing in the future. If I continue any longer with extract, then I will still be learning, but there is room in my noggin now to take on more. No point in cluttering up my head with some of the extract knowledge that will be less relevent when doing all grain.

Forward and upward!!

My first AG took 6 hours, the second one took 4 1/2.

I'd start with an extract kit or two so that you can learn the basics, and then move into a PM or AG setup. I'm using a 30 qt pot, and it is the bare minimum. There's around 1.5" of space when I start the boil, which doesn't leave a lot of room for a vigorous boil.

Make sure you've done your research before you start. I had read just about all that I thought I could, and I still made mistakes on the first batch.

i've been extract brewing and now have three PM's under my belt. Should be able to start drinking my first PM in another week or so. I'd say definately do a few PM's, just so you understand just what it means to make all those grape-nut tasting grains into something sweet and fermentable. I've caught the bug bad, but i'm held back by the fact that i live in an apartment, and my crappy electric stove can barely bring my 20qt pot to a boil in half an hour. One day soon i'll be brewing 15 gallon batches every week ::

I have been brewing 36 years and know that all-grain is superrior to extract because of my experiences. I would suggest that if you really like extremely good beer to not hesitate and buy your equipment and get to brewing. It takes some time but the results are absolutely worth it.

WBC said:

I have been brewing 36 years and know that all-grain is superrior to extract

Click to expand...

Wow, 35 years, "No symbol for bowing".

I haven't done any all-grain brewing but I've done serious research into it and have actually watched the process. Since you have all the stuff you need to make an extract beer, all you really need is a larger brewpot (at least 10 gallons, since to boil an entire 5 gallon recipe you need 7 gallons of water plus some headspace to prevent boil-over) and a mash tun. For the brewpot, a lot of people just get turkey fryers, since it gives you the large pot you couldn't otherwise buy at most stores as well as it's own burner. A mash tun can be a cooler, either a 20 gallon box cooler or one of those large round beverage coolers like McDonald's rents out. The cooler needs to be modified. Some people get really fancy with it, putting copper manifolds and valves and such in it. Some people are really simply, just putting a mesh liner on the inside and running a tube out of the drain hole into the brew pot. Your old brew pot is perfect to heat your sparge water in.

Oh, and don't ever let anyone make you feel bad for brewing extract beer. You can make excellent, prize-winning brews with either extract or all-grain methods. A lot of guys will swear up and down that all-grain always has the superior flavor but with a good brew, nobody can tell the difference.

That said, what the all-grain method does offer is greater customization ability. You can create your own unique malt profile and have a lot more choices than just Light, Amber, and Dark. Additionally, all the different methods there are to mashing give you more flexibility. You can make a more interesting recipe with all-grain beers that will allow you to make a better version of a given recipe, but that doesn't mean extract brews are bad or can't taste better than an all-grain brew.

A poor made all grain could be worse than a well made extract. If both are made well then I think the all grain will have the edge due to being fresh grains.

IMHO
LME = canned soup
All grain = Fresh made soup using all fresh ingredients.

Just do it, already!

That's my advice to anyone pondering making the jump to AG. I was hesitant at first myself, but it's much easier then you think it is. It's much more enjoyable as a process, and I think that my beer tastes better since I went to AG.

You'll want a pot that will hold at least 6.5 or 7 gallons so you can do full boils. If you can't bring that much wort to a boil on your stove you'll want to pick up a turkey fryer, and obviously you'll need a cooler to mash in. When I'm on my game I can get a 5.5 gallon batch done in under 4 hours (including sanitation, cracking grain and clean-up), but I typically take my time and will be about 5 hours from start to finish.

Just do it, ya sissy.