Anyone considering going all grain, do it!

[Naggs]

Just finished up my first all grain brew, which is a Christmas Ale that I am thinking about adding plum and cinnamon in the secondary, and it was a blast!

I won't bore your with all the details, but I have been cobbling my all grain setup together for a few months and just finished my cooler mash tun and rib cage wort chiller.

Jumped in tonight with all the help I have been getting here and the youtube videos I've studied. Almost exactly 5 hours from first flame to lights out, and I don't have a brew buddy to help with the ugly clean up detail.

Anyway, thanks to all on here again and as a former extract/specialty grain brewer, I can't recommend all grain enough!

 

[dantheman13]

Deja Vu! https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/thinking-about-going-all-grain-do-275366/

 

[Naggs]

That's funny. Well then I guess I second the motion!

 

[Rev2010]

Made the jump myself recently, brewed my first AG last Sunday. I too find it well worth it. I'm also actually finding that while AG takes a bit longer it's really not that much. With extract I have to clean up many more items. I use Rubbermaid 1 gallon pitchers to pour in my DME so I have to wash two of them out. Have to wash my whisk, a plate to sit my whisk on, a bowl I put the steeping grains in after I remove them, rinse out my nylon steeping grain bag, etc. There's just more crap I have to clean up. Plus I can't stand how even if you pour extract uber slow it still kicks up a crapload of dust that then makes your hands/arms sticky and if done indoors often the table or floor gets sticky. I'd rather Oxyclean a mush tun. I just did the last extract recipe I had in line yesterday so this is why I'm suddenly observing the difference - going back is enlightening. I still think I will do an extract here or there in the future, and I've made some tried and true recipes, but from here on in it's pretty much AG all the way.

LOL, one other thing to mention... with extract I was getting a bit tired of always tasting the same Briess taste. It's not like we can get Weyermann extract here, at least not anywhere I've seen. There's always Munton's but outside of that I don't see any others.


Rev.

 

[HeavyKettleBrewing]

So hoppy to see that others have switched to AG on the same weekend. I have been laying out my cooler MLT requirements for weeks and just assembled it yesterday. Tested it for leaks on Saturday night and woke up early Sunday morning to start my first batch, ironically, a Christmas Porter for friends and family. My biggest reason for jumping into AG was the similarities in flavor I experienced with extract brewing. Glad to know it's not just me. Happy brewing!!!

 

[HerbieHomebrew]

Yes just did my first AG on Staurday, awesome sight to see the fermentation taking off, and was excited to hit 1.054 when my target was 1.056. AG is so much more fun.

 

[cdubbaya]

Congrats on your upgrade! We've been brewing extract/specialty for about 2 years now and are very close to going AG.

In all the books I've read, beers I've brewed, and threads I've followed, I'm amazed at how little I know about brewing AG. I guess that's why forums like this exist!

Good luck in brewing!

 

[Rev2010]

I'm amazed at how little I know about brewing AG. I guess that's why forums like this exist!

At the most basic level it's an hour long grain "steep" (mash) with a grain rinse (sparge). I'm personally finding it not all that different than extract with steeping grains.

This is a majorly oversimplified generalization here so don't chew me out fellas! Of course there is way more to AG and many different methods, I'm not trying to say otherwise. I'm only saying while you might feel you know so little about it you might actually know more than you think or may find it's a lot simpler than you think.


Rev.

 

[BigTerp]

I started brewing with extract and specialy grains 4 months ago. Have brewed 30 gallons so far. I'll be doing my first all grain this weekend. At first I never thought about going all grain. Figured extract was simply and easy enough, why change. I thought i was going overboard when I first starting by building a IC and stir plate. Now I have had my water tested, purchased brewing software and you should have seen the look on my wifes face when I was weighing water to get an accurate gallon measuring container. It never ends......