Brewer Progression

[BoDilley]

I have been at it for a few batches and I am amazed at the ease and results of this hobby! That being said, up until now I have been doing extract cookie cutter recipes and now am beginning to wonder what to do next. Are all grain brews that much better? So I guess my question is what is the natural progression of a brewer?

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

I don't think there is necessarily a natural progression. Some people love making extract batches- quick and easy and good beer. Some are never completely satisfied with their beer, and not just go all-grain but dabble in water chemistry and other "advanced" techniques. Some people just don't have the time to spend 5 hours making a batch of beer, so they do partial mashes in their kitchen in 2 hours. It's personal preference.

I think you just reach a point where the fun and time involved is equal to the enjoyment you get out of the beer- whether it's simple prehopped kits or a 1 bbl brewery. Each person is different, and that's why brewing is such a great hobby for so many.

 

[maida7]

I don't think all grain beer is any better then extract beer.

I'd recommend working on your processes. Temp control, Yeast handling, making the proper starters, fermenting at the proper temps.

Then move to recipes, make a beer then keeping making that beer better by changing the recipe slightly until you make the perfect beer. You can't really do that until you've got the process down pat and you have fairly good repeatability.

OR you could just make beer and enjoy drinking it.

 

[Revvy]

That's not an easy question, and everyone is going to say that THEIR progression is the right way to go.

Being on here I have seen to many folks who think jumping right to AG is a magic bullet, that doing that means they are going to instantly make "better" beer then the "crap" they feel they made from extract. You know, when they didn't use a hydrometer, racked it to soon, and drank their first bottles 3 days after capping them. And they this end up starting "is my beer ruined threads?" where we STILL have to suggest they take a gravity reading or do some other piece of "homebrewing 101" basic stuff.

If your process sucks as an extract brewer, it's gonna suck making all grain, maybe even more so because there are so many more factors that come into play.

So I believe it is important to work on your process, but also your education, learning about how the ingredients in your beer, and their amounts alter the recipe you are brewing.

When someone posts a "what's my next step" thread, I usually post about my progression, not that I think it's the "right way" but it kind of overlaps both technique and knowledge.

If anything it will give you an overview of different methodolgies in brewing.

The next step many make for cooper's style kits is to using an extract with steeping grains kit/ They are better quality and the steeping grains give the beer bigger depth of flavor than a straight extract beer.

After I did some of those, I started playing around with non kit recipes from this site, and I also started playing around with recipe formulations....I started using free online recipe calculators like this one, Beer Calculus . homebrew recipe calculator which helped me understand how the different ingredients affect each other. FIrst I started typing in these recipes and playinig with them to see what a pound of such and such grain did to the SG of the beer, or how this hop made the beer more or less bitter.

At the same time I started reading more and more about the different ingredients I was using....I found that googling the names helped get me a lot of info on them, plus reading articles and catalogs and books about it.

The BJCP style guide was a big help too, learning the numbers, OG, FG, IBU, SRM's ranges for different styles. BJCP Style Guidelines

Next I formulated a couple of my own recipes and played around with that, making them better or different.

My next step after that was transfering some of my recipes from extract to partial mashes, where I would get the largest amount of my fermentables from mashing my own grains, and then adding some extract.

Around this time I also played with harvest my own yeast, both washing and bottle harvesting.

After that I made a cooler and started doing 2.5 gallon All grain brews, converting those Partial Mashes to All grain, and brewing them on my stove top...

After that I got a turkey fryer and wort chiller so I can do full volume boils and started brewing all grain, brewing some of the recipes on here, and creating my own...

I also still do some extract with grain recipes, Partial Mashes, and 2.5 gallon stove top brewing, depending on my mood.

This winter I tried my hand at brewing lagers instead of ales, since I discovered a few that I like and was able to have some form of temp control....

I also tried my hand at brewing some strong ales, and playing with different yeasts, then my usually clean ones, trying yeast that added their own character to the beers.

A good thing to do is to try brewing Single Malt and Hop Beers where you brew very simple beers to get an idea of how different hops work with them, or different yeasts...it's a really good way to again get an idea how, like cooking, diffeent ingredients play off of each other.

As you can see, I didn't just jump from one technique like extract to all grain, I also tried to learn as much as I could about ingredients and recipe creations as well.....An I also tried to perfect my processes, like bottling, yeast harvesting, things like that...

I still have a long way to go, there's a ton of stuff to learn, different ways to brew to explore, and new styles to try and brew as well...

There's a huge amount of things you can do in this hobby.

Hope this helps!

 

[Handle]

Hope this helps!

That helps tremendously, even if only to give me comfort in knowing that I can't possibly know everything right off the bat.

I've yet to brew (gathering equipment to brew in the coming weeks), but it's nice to know I can start out small and then later go as far as my interest and knowledge will take me.

 

[heywolfie1015]

I'm pretty much in the same camp as you, with the exception that I now have two AG batches under my belt (one currently bottle conditioning and the other in primary for a few days). I tasted the first AG batch, a strong bitter, last night and I have to say that, so far, it's about the same as my first couple of extract batches. So, I guess you could say I've "progressed" in terms of how I brew, but the quality is about the same.

That being said, I've been really happy with my results since the beginning. I did tons of research before trying those first extract batches and tried to get my process down in advance so it felt natural when I made my first attempt. Based on tips gleaned from Palmer and HBT, the first attempts turned out pretty damn good. I switched to AG not because I was dissatisfied with the beer, but because I wanted to start having more control over the process and ingredients. With extract, I felt I was limited to recipes that used a full container of extract and a few specialty grains. With AG, the scope of potential recipes and tweaks on the end result has broadened considerably.

 

[KCBrew]

I've done 5 batches and will do my 6th in the next few weeks. My progression was:

1. LHBS American Ale with about 2# specialty grains and Wyeast
2. Stove-top all-grain for Orfy's Mild and harvested slurry from the first.
3. Stove-top all-grain for an English bitters using Nottingham
4. AHS Oatmeal stout partial mash pitched directly on the bitters Notty
5. AHS Promotional IPA partial mash with White Labs
6. (to come) Barley wine pitched on the IPA slurry

From a new brewer, all I have to say is that I absolutely agree with you about the ease and results being better than I could have imagined. I've done a lot of reading and studying up prior to and during my brewing, but at the end, the best advice is always in the end the advice everyone gives: rdwhahb!!


PS: I haven't found the partial mash vs the all grain to have significant taste differences (I've never done all extract) but I can say that telling someone that your beer is: grain, hops, water and yeast can be proud moment. And steeping/mashing grains is personally very satisfying to me (not to mention the extra 5-8$$ it saves)

 

[boredatwork]

I would agree that practically speaking there seems to be a natural progression of extract to AG. Regardless of whether or not AG is better, it defintely seems to be a progression from the point of view of the hobby.

However, in my opinion, having done several AG batches the determining factor of whether to do an AG batch or extract batch is time. If I have all day to brew then I will do an AG batch, but if I don't want to spend all day brewing then I will just make an extract batch.

 

[BarleyWater]

I've yet to brew (gathering equipment to brew in the coming weeks), but it's nice to know I can start out small and then later go as far as my interest and knowledge will take me.

You sir win the gold medal for being prepared. So many people come into this hobby having read nothing but the instructions that came with the kit someone bought them and then want to know everything about it after the fact, posting endless "Is my beer ruined" threads.

I came into the hobby having read How to Brew and some other crappy book on homebrewing, so I had the basics down before I ever touched any ingredient. I was so nervous I would mess something up, I had How to Brew on my computer and my other book in hand the ENTIRE time I was brewing up that no boil kit, and was constantly referencing them. Then I got done, and wanted to do all the other stuff the books talked about that the no boil kit didn't give me.

My next beer was a recipe the guy at the LHBS put together for me, and from that batch on I was making my own recipes. It only took a few months before extract brewing wasn't enough for me and I started piecing together the parts for my all grain system, and started partial mashing until then.

A year into the hobby I had a three tier gravity fed system on the balcony of my apartment. My favorite part was recipe creation, and with the help of Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels, I got a pretty good idea of what every ingredient was bringing to the table. Several brews and a few more books later, I was won a Gold in my first competition for my Schwarzbier.

After building up my all-grain system, I started kegging (Oh why did it take me soooo long), and very soon ended up with a bar and 7 tap kegerator that I built out of an old gas station ice cream freezer ( I now have a little more room). And then the obsession really started. :cross:

I got a $200 brewing technical brewing textbook and started reading (still am by the way). Also, helped along with encouragement from my wife and an interview with Kieth Lemke, I contacted Siebel and signed up for a brewing course.

I am know working at a craft brewery with a 10,000 barrel capacity, making 25bbl batches at work, and then coming home and making 5gal batches. I guess my progression as a brewer probably doesn't mirror most, but I just couldn't help myself, I love brewing.

 

[Casey27]

A lot of great advice has been offered already, but here's a simple answer:
Try DeathBrewer's partial mash...then maybe later on try his stovetop all grain method. Both are easy methods and save you money compared to extract (especially all grain). The partial mash is really not much harder than extract+steeping, just takes a little longer. And his all grain method is not much harder than the partial mash! Just takes a little more arm strength and bigger pots.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/