I am an extract brewer ready to make the jump to all grain brewing. I have done much research and think I have a pretty good method cooked up. The one thing that troubles me is that all I have read about AG brewing says that you must boil the entire volume of liquid (as opposed to to about half of the final volume that I do with extract beers) but I have never seen a definitive reason as to why this is the case. This is troubling because I have been adding several gallons of cold water to my wort after the boil in order to quickly reach appropriate yeast pitching temps and have had great results.
Several questions:
1. Is there a specific reason all the water must be boiled? Is it necessary for full starch conversion? or is it just that between mashing and sparging the full volume is inevitably already being used?
2. If there is no way around needing a wort chiller is it possible to fashion (as opposed to buy) one. Money is an issue.
Thanks for any replies!
Several questions:
1. Is there a specific reason all the water must be boiled? Is it necessary for full starch conversion? or is it just that between mashing and sparging the full volume is inevitably already being used?
2. If there is no way around needing a wort chiller is it possible to fashion (as opposed to buy) one. Money is an issue.
Thanks for any replies!