All Grain Expertise

[MacGruber]

I'm about to head into all grain brewing. I've been brewing for about 2 years now doing extract with specialty grain steeping. I just recently did a partial mash and have gathered all the materials to go AG. So, my question to you is:

Is it better to chose one particular style of beer and constantly brew/tweek that before moving on or did you find it easier to brew different styles in AG brewing?

How many of you chose one style and how many of you experimented with various styles when you first started AG brewing?

 

[BLM]

I have been brewing for 12 years now and in the last 3 months have been doing all grain. I have made six all grain batches and only two where IPA,s . I say if there is a style you like work on that. I have found I like IPA,s more so I am going to work on makeing different ones of those

 

[Stuntman]

I was into brewing for 5 years when I decided to go All Grain only. In the last year the only thing I did consistently was a New Castle that everyone around here likes, maybe forty gallons of it. Every batch besides the New Castle has been just what ever I feel like, and never the same twice. about a hundred gallons. I do ten gallon batches.

 

[jackson_d]

I'd say no, dont pick a particular style. Unless you really like drinking that style. I did 5 extract batches before I got pissed off at extract and switched to AG only. Now its been about 18 months of AG only, and I will never EVER do another extract batch, ever. The great thing about this website is the recipe database. Just click on whatever style you feel like, then find a recipe that looks good to you, and give it a try. If it ends up tasting good, try it again and add a little bit more hops or a little less of a specialty grain, depending on your tasting notes. Dont limit yourself to one style, just have fun dude. You got nothing but time to try every single recipe in the database and before you know it, you'll be getting 80% efficiency on every batch..

ps dont forget to look up Bobby_M's 'N.M.O.D.B.S' all grain technique. Its the greatest tutorial anyone has ever written about anything in the history of mankind....
:rockin:

 

[jpc]

My suggestion is to start with something pretty mainstream for the first one-- maybe an American Pale Ale or ESB or something. At the very least, do something that only needs a few weeks in the fermenter. Or, convert an existing recipe that you already make using extract so that you have some grounds for comparison.

After that, do whatever you want. When I started about 1.5 years ago, I went with an ESB, then did a porter (that works perfectly with my water), but have done a bunch of others was well since.

 

[ajf]

I brew about 80% Special Bitters, and 20% other things to keep SWMBO happy. If I enjoyed drinking a lot of different styles, I'd probably brew more styles.

-a.