AG Question...

[amwarrior15]

How hard is it to jump into AG...I've brewed two batches now all extract and I'm not really happy at the quality...

 

[gcdowd]

It's not really all that much of a jump. A few more pieces of equipment and a couple more hours added to your brew day. When I made the move to all grain, there were three things I had to buy/make to get there. First, you need a mash tun, which can be made pretty easily out of a cooler. Second, you should have a kettle large enough to boil 7 gallons (my boil off is 2 gallons an hour). I bought a 10 gallon kettle. Third, you will probably need a wort chiller. Although this is optional, it is highly recommended. That really is all the additional equipment you need. If you can't get grain already crushed, you may need a grain mill of some sort but most brew shops have a mill so you can crush your grain right there.

 

[jbaysurfer]

It's not hard at all, it just requires the right equipment. The easiest foray is to do BIAB, but I bought a 2nd kettle and a 10G cooler and was off to the races. Honestly, it takes more time, but I HATE dealing with extract. dry or wet, it's messy as hell, and I think AG is just as easy if not easier. Its just more time, equipment and labor intensive...but not more difficult by any stretch.

 

[bottlebomber]

AG is not hard, but if you aren't satisfied with the quality of your extract recipes you may have other issues that need tending to. I made excellent beer using extract, in fact I drank my last bottle of extract beer last night at about 18 months old. It was awesome. You can make really great beer using extracts. What qualities about your beer are you not satisfied with?

 

[amwarrior15]

Thanks for all the tips

 

[amwarrior15]

AG is not hard, but if you aren't satisfied with the quality of your extract recipes you may have other issues that need tending to. I made excellent beer using extract, in fact I drank my last bottle of extract beer last night at about 18 months old. It was awesome. You can make really great beer using extracts. What qualities about your beer are you not satisfied with?

I'm just not happy with the way it tastes pretty much...my second brew was a Dead Ringer IPA and I made sure I did everything I needed to do. I followed every direction and sanitized everything completely and did secondary fermentation. I don't have a freezer for ferm temp control but the ferm temps were never over 72 or so degrees. I just think that if I'm gonna do it I might as well do it right..I know you can make awesome beer with extract and I'm probably just overreacting but I really want to make good beer

 

[BlueZooBrewing]

BIAB is defintely a great way to get into the All grain world. Doesn't require a lot of extra investment, and for the same cost as making a basic gravity fed 3 tier system, you can bling out a BIAB with the pumps, tubes, electric, etc, and you can always expand to a 3 pot system later if you want. As for your dissatisfaction with the extract, If you are still doing liquid extract, look into making the switch to dry extract. It stays fresher longer and might improve your results.

 

[ploppythesausage]

I do brew in a bag with a very simple setup. I have 2 pots: 15 litres and 9 litres. I heat up my mash water to about 70C (usually 15 litres water to 5lbs grain). I put the Bag into one my fermenting buckets, add the water and pour in the grain. Usually brings the temp down to about 63C. I leave this for an hour or two (never had any real temp loss but have hot water on hand to raise temp if needed). Then I take out the grain bag and strain out as much wort as I can. Meanwhile I heat up sparge water and dunk the bag of grains into it and leave there for half an hour or so. Take out the bag, drain it, squeeze it. Then pour the mash wort and sparge wort into the two pots and begin to brew. Takes a bit more time but most of the time you can just leave it alone (until the brew).
I am not one for the technical details of brewing so I don't know exact efficiency etc. so if you are then this method may not suit. Works for me though, get to brew all-grain with no extra equipment (other than the bag).