Should I begin all grain yet?

Hi everyone,
I have just bottled my first brew ever. It was an extract brew. Do you think its to early to begin an all grain brew yet?

I don't mind using extract, but I feel very limited by what I can do with it. I've seen some delicious looking recipes here that I'd love to try, but they are all grain recipes.

If you think I'm ready, or just have some future tips/advice for me on all grain, I'd love to hear it. I'd very much like to get into all grain brewing. I'd love to produce some of those recipes that I have seen here, and produce them well.

Make the switch, I did one month after starting. Just read, and read some more until you can't read any more. You will be glad you did. All grain is really pretty easy, specially if you could find someone in your area to walk you through it.

My advice is to gear up for all grain by getting a 10 gallon pot and a wort chiller. With that gear, do an extract full boil batch. After you're comfortable with handling full volume wort, then convert a cooler to a mash tun.

The all grain primer in my sig should help you out.

Definitely make the switch but as Ryanh1801 said; read read read. And while you're reading and building up your equipment make some more extract batches. That way when you make the switch to AG brewing you can concentrate on mashing/lautering because the boil/post-boil stuff will be second nature.

And pretty much any recipe can be converted to extract with steeping grains so if you see something you like, ask for help converting it!

Bobby_M said:

My advice is to gear up for all grain by getting a 10 gallon pot and a wort chiller. With that gear, do an extract full boil batch. After you're comfortable with handling full volume wort, then convert a cooler to a mash tun.

The all grain primer in my sig should help you out.

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^^^^^^Great idea for making the jump.^^^^^^

DO IT! There's nothing stopping you if you can afford a pot and a mash tun and all that stuff.

Gear up slowly and use this time to do full boil, steep specialty grain brews
read more books and get your first recipe together

Bobby_M said:

My advice is to gear up for all grain by getting a 10 gallon pot and a wort chiller. With that gear, do an extract full boil batch. After you're comfortable with handling full volume wort, then convert a cooler to a mash tun.

The all grain primer in my sig should help you out.

Click to expand...

I agree. Do the full boil extracts, read How to Brew, and you will be ready.

Beerrific said:

I agree. Do the full boil extracts, read How to Brew, and you will be ready.

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I don't think doing a full boil extract did much for me at all. I did one and it seemed pointless, but I had DME sitting around so I used it. If you get enough of the concepts and pay attention to full boil hops utilization rates and just run your numbers through a program, you should be fine.

I voted "Yes, but you should do some learning before you begin."

There are many good all grain brewing videos on youtube. Three, in particular, are worth watching and have helped me out. The "All Grain Home Brewing" series by chrisknight000 (8 of these, total), "All Grain Homebrewing From Grain to Glass" from joepolvino (2 videos total), and HBT's Bobby M's all grain videos entitled "All Grain Brewing" (2 videos total). Personally, I learn better by watching the process than I do by reading about it. I read the All Grain section in "How to Brew" and I felt lost, as he gets very detailed in the science behind the process. Seeing it done in these videos was a big help for me.

I endorse the above ^

I am making the switch to AG from extract knowing that the process time will be extended.

Nothing wrong with low lying fruit until you get a chainsaw

Cheers
BeerCanuck

i would make the switch if you can get the stuff atm i am working on it getting what i can from where i can brought a house last year so that kills the free money.

but as soon as i collect all the stuff i am going to switch it's a hobby so it is suppose to take up your time the more the better

i am going for the fly guy's directions for the drink cooler & the pressure cooker steamer to heat it.

carnevoodoo said:

I don't think doing a full boil extract did much for me at all. I did one and it seemed pointless, but I had DME sitting around so I used it. If you get enough of the concepts and pay attention to full boil hops utilization rates and just run your numbers through a program, you should be fine.

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Since I feel like dealing with full volume wort is a significant task load, it's the last thing you want to worry about when you're trying to hit mash temps and sparge properly. You have to buy the stuff anyway so it's one of the incremental steps that makes sense while still being able to brew. It's not to say using a wort chiller is hard, it's just another source of anxiety when you've never used one before.

Bobby_M said:

Since I feel like dealing with full volume wort is a significant task load, it's the last thing you want to worry about when you're trying to hit mash temps and sparge properly. You have to buy the stuff anyway so it's one of the incremental steps that makes sense while still being able to brew. It's not to say using a wort chiller is hard, it's just another source of anxiety when you've never used one before.

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Plus you would not want to go to all the trouble of mashing, sparging, etc. just to have something go wrong in the boil. Not to say it will. But one step at a time leaves less room for error.

Bobby_M said:

My advice is to gear up for all grain by getting a 10 gallon pot and a wort chiller. With that gear, do an extract full boil batch. After you're comfortable with handling full volume wort, then convert a cooler to a mash tun.

The all grain primer in my sig should help you out.

Click to expand...

that's what I did.

I will also go all-grain eventually. Right now I dont have the money for all the extra gear.

I agree with what's been already said.

Start with the bigger kettle, and propane burner. Get used to full boils and the chilling process. Work your way up slowly as you can afford each piece of equipment. Keep reading and learning as you go. it'll take a few months at the least to build up all the equipment on a tight budget, but if you educate yourself along the way, you'll be ready to go when your equipment is.

Good luck and keep pressing on!

BeerPressure said:

I will also go all-grain eventually. Right now I dont have the money for all the extra gear.

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You could spin that and say you can't afford to brew with malt extract anymore since it just about doubles the cost of each batch.

Bobby, thanks for the "All Grain Primer", it answered a lot for me, particularly sparging techniques. It doesn't seem quite so threatening knowing that I don't have to stack 3 tiers high with wort flowing in this and out of that.

One question though, I realize that how vigorous the boil is going to determine the boiloff amount - do you just boil until you get to that amount? Obviously that isn't going to land you exactly on 60 minutes to get to 5 gallons so do you just keep boiling until you get to 5 gallons or is "close enough good enough"? How long is too long for a boil? Thanks again

You usually boil at least an hour, in order to get proper hop utilization and to get rid of all the DMS and what not. I do 5.25 gallon batches and boil 6.25 so if I boil to fast I'll still have about 5 gallons. Generally you lose 1 gallon per hour of boil.

But, back to your OP the 1st brew I did was AG. I was going to do my 1st brew as extract, but when I got to the brew shop and found out it was going to be about $15-$20 more to do the extract. I decided to wait and use that money to build my MLT and buy copper tubing. So, that is what I did. It really wasn't that hard. Watch this guys youtube vids a few times, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable with doing AG.




Here is the 1st vid of an 8 vid series. Watch all 8 of them a few times.

You can't decide to boil longer once you've begun your hop schedule because you'll begin bittering more and more with your flavor/aroma additions. Take a guess at about 1.25 gallons per hour of boil off and just live with what you get. Once you do two or three batches, you'll know exactly what your boil off rate is.

Ryanh1801 said:

Make the switch, I did one month after starting. Just read, and read some more until you can't read any more. You will be glad you did. All grain is really pretty easy, specially if you could find someone in your area to walk you through it.

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Look for what I call an "All Grain Mentor". If you can help someone brew are at least watch an All Grain batch, you will learn so much and see how easy it is. It will remove all sorts of confusion to the process and equipment.

Thank you all so much for the feedback! I have ordered some supplies for a few all grain recipes. Ed, I wish I could find an "All Grain Mentor" but I moved to this area not to long ago so I don't think I'll have much luck finding a mentor.

Maybe if I stand around the local brew stores and look confused and pathetic someone will offer to help haha!

Cheers all,
Pat

i made 4 batches before my first AG. I am glad i switched but i would stay up to 3 in the morning and watch chris knight's vids on youtube over and over and read and read and read. You may not be ready...but if u read read read you will be ready. And watch these series

Does your LHBS have AG demonstrations?

If you're comfortable that you have all the gear and steps figured out and written down somewhere, I say go for it! I'm an avid reader of all things homebrew, but I started to understand the process better when I started doing it, rather than just reading about it.

Go ahead and jump in there and go for it, it seems intimidating before you get started but once you get the first batch going you'll see its really just as easy as making an extract batch, just takes a little more time. Also its a lot of fun and there is a lot more you can do about playing around with different ingredients.

Bobby_M said:

Since I feel like dealing with full volume wort is a significant task load, it's the last thing you want to worry about when you're trying to hit mash temps and sparge properly. You have to buy the stuff anyway so it's one of the incremental steps that makes sense while still being able to brew. It's not to say using a wort chiller is hard, it's just another source of anxiety when you've never used one before.

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Especially since the OP live in a hot weather clime. We all know wort chilling is important, but trying to chill wort quickly enough in hot weather can be very frustrating. As Bobby said the extra frustrations of other parts of the brew can be overwhelming to the uninitiated.

for Your mentor check for local clubs and buddy up to the guys at the lhbs. Talk to their customers. You could easily meet someone willing to let you join there brewday.

+1 to reading Palmer, this site, Bobby_M's all-grain primer, and building an MLT.

I'm ready and will be making my first AG batch next weekend.