Better get these things off my chest and out of my head before tomorrow....
So my buddy and I are going to do a compilation brew. I've never done an AG brew, and he says it's the only way he'll ever go. I asked him if it were much more difficult than extract brewing, and he said it was easy, just steep/mash the grains until the water gets hot and use that for the wort. He never mentioned sparging. He also complains that he sometimes gets a "thin" tasting beer. Could this be because of not sparging?
I guess the question is this: is sparging critical? If it is, is specific gear really required? Could a sparging setup be jerry-rigged? What would be the effect of not sparging?
I was thinking just heat water to the right temp and strain it through the steeped grains using a strainer. Doing it in parts would keep the strainer from getting too clogged and it would take a while, but would this work?
One last question, which I'm sure will completely expose me a rookie if I haven't already: Do we need to mill the grains before mashing?
it's a lot to throw at ya'll, but hopefully you can help us out before we decide what to do. Thanks.
Scout
So my buddy and I are going to do a compilation brew. I've never done an AG brew, and he says it's the only way he'll ever go. I asked him if it were much more difficult than extract brewing, and he said it was easy, just steep/mash the grains until the water gets hot and use that for the wort. He never mentioned sparging. He also complains that he sometimes gets a "thin" tasting beer. Could this be because of not sparging?
I guess the question is this: is sparging critical? If it is, is specific gear really required? Could a sparging setup be jerry-rigged? What would be the effect of not sparging?
I was thinking just heat water to the right temp and strain it through the steeped grains using a strainer. Doing it in parts would keep the strainer from getting too clogged and it would take a while, but would this work?
One last question, which I'm sure will completely expose me a rookie if I haven't already: Do we need to mill the grains before mashing?
it's a lot to throw at ya'll, but hopefully you can help us out before we decide what to do. Thanks.
Scout