1st AG Brew

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Omegagodly

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This is more a question rather than a statement, and this felt like the appropriate section of the forum to do such.
First of I would like to extend a thank you to anybody who replies to this as this forum is a plethora of knowledge, and has a wealth of experienced brewers. :mug:
Okay so here it is. I have never brewed before, and i was wondering how hard it is to start off with all grain. I understand that there is a variety of things that could go wrong with an all grain brew session, especially with someone who has no prior experience. I have spent an abundance of time searching through these forums, read The Complete Joy of Homebrewing cover to cover, and watched a few dozen homebrew videos exhibiting various takes of peoples' techniques of homebrewing AG. I have what seems to be a decent but varying degree of the knowledge of what a brew day consists of, what the goal of the parts of the process of brewing is, and all the necessary tools to complete a brew; either Extract or AG.
I have two turkey fryers available to me, in which i believe the pots to be in 5 and 8 gallon capacities, a Coleman cooler that I would be converting into a mash tun(I will be obtaining the supplies to do so at a local hardware store, with direction from this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/), I will most likely be purchasing this equipment set from my LHBS:
http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/4,9465.html
and anyone of these AG ingredients kits depending on the style I decide I will be in the mood for(I am also splitting the finished brew with both my father, and father in-law, although this adventure is purely for fun as well):
http://www.thegrape.net/browse.cfm/2,1351.html
and a seemingly simple AG brewing method to reference:

of course, this is not my only reference, I have as previously stated searched this forum for much advice on techniques, and pointers by many of you very accomplished brewers. :)
So in your experienced opinion, should I start off with AG rather than extract right off the bat?
 
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Knowing what I know now, I would have started with AG instead of extracts. The biggest question is going to be, are you going to stick with it? If you are undecided you may want to do a couple stove top brews. If you enjoy the process and the beer, then move to AG. BTW - An 8 gallon boil kettle is big enough for a full boil 5 gallon batch, but that is it.
 
started with all grain brewing and have opnly lately done any partial grain recipes. as long as your water is good or you use bottled spring water i say go for it. other than that the process of brewing all grain to me is very simple. also i recomend having two different thermometers to compare to one another as hitting corect temps in all grain brewing is very impoortant
 
I am from the camp that says "Go for it!" --- I started with AG first, I understand why ppl say go extract first, but personally if you can boil water you can do all grain! BUT if you understand the process, keep things clean and you study and PLAN!... it is hard to mess up so drastically that it doesn't turn out to be beer.

I basically wrote out my first brew day - step by step and made sure I understood each step. I would also stick to a easy recipe, keep the hop additions to a min. and a normal ABV beer. Also, maybe stick to a dark amber, porter, stout - even wheat...

Have some extra CLEAN cold water and extra boiling water on hand. Also, I would say that having a spray bottle with water (for boil-over protection) and spray bottle with STAR-SAN is a must!!!

my .02

Good luck and as is said here many times "Welcome to the obsession"
 
I would say try just 1 extract batch first. Reason being, if you hate brewing, then you won't be out the extra money for the AG equipment. If you love it, then you can just buy the extra equipment and move to AG. All you really need for an extract batch is a big pot, a spoon, a fermenter (fancy word for bucket w/ lid), and a hydrometer.
 
I would go straight to AG. Read up a lot and plan ahead; you will be fine. +1 on 2 thermometers to get good temps.
 
Sounds like you have most of the equipment so go for it! I started extract then moved to PM and now to AG. If i would have known how much i would love this hobby i would have started AG.
 
all good replies, and i appreciate the comments. im not trying to sway my thinking into going all grain or anything, but just for stating the fact that what ill be buying is only differentiated by the mash tun equipment, which is all of 20 bucks and the ingredients, which is about 20 bucks. so thats forty bucks, where as buying an extract kit from the particular store is about 33, so really its if i want to spend the extra 7 bucks to go all grain first, or end up spending at least forty bucks on top of what im spending now to go from extract to all grain. personally i think i'll enjoy brewing. really it just sounds like im trying to make myself take the jump but hey, i dont know. my cooler is a little old so im going to see if i can make it maintain a stable temp for an hour of about 150 farenheit to see if it will be adequate. thanks for the replies!!!
 
Something else to consider is if you do mess up (since AG isn't quite as fool proof as extract) will you continue to brew? What if you have multiple batches you're unhappy with? That is the only reason I would suggest starting with an extract then working your way up.
 
Go for it. Read all the sticky threads at the top of all the forums here. Read as much as you can get your hands on. All grain is not rocket science, just give it a shot. I started out with AG and had great success, and so did tons of other people here. Good luck!
 
well that is a good point that needs to be made, but im sure unless i make beer that doesnt even taste remotely like beer or anything halfway decent quite a few times over, ill be happy with whatever i make. i dont have the pickiest taste buds when it comes to beer. which is a good thing or a bad thing possibly lol
 
I'll throw in with the "Go for it" camp. I've been brewing for ~25 years. I started with the kits you could get back then. Stayed with PG for many years and was quite happy. Wanting to go bigger (insert pig grunting noise) and having more time, I built an AG cooker and keggles. One of the LHBS has a very simple set up for AG. It's all done stove top and is very slick. I wish I would have seen their set up first, but I would recommend at least visiting a LHBS and possibly even watching an AG cook with them. All of this to say: use a proven recipe, watch your temperatures closely, both cooking and fermenting, keep it clean and you'll be fine. Luck and let us know how it works out - Dwain
 
Do a partial mash recipe first just to prove the process does work. You'll then be more comfortable doing an all grain batch. This will assure your equipment works also.

All the Best,
D. White
 
I agree with everyone here, start with all grain, its just a couple of more steps to do and by the sounds of it you have done quite a bit of reading. As a note to what Bradjoiner said about the themometers, just do a quick test to make sure they are calibrated. Ice bath should read 32-deg F and then boil some water in a counter top kettel and take a temp reading while the water is boiling and the thermometer should read ~212-deg F.

Also if you build the MLT as per the thread (i did and it works great), when is comes time to sparge and you are draining the wort into your brew pot make sure that if you have stird up the grains that you wait 5 minutes before you open the valve on the MTL because if you don't you will get a stuck sparge.

anyways, hope this helps and enjoy!
 
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