Grain Brew Intro

[dustinthompson85]

Is there a good set of reference material for when an extract brewer wants to try to step up and do some grain recipes? Should you start with a partial mash? What is a 'partial' mash exactly? Just looking for a good starting point. Cheers!

 

[dkennedy]

Read How to Brew, check out the BIAB (Brew In A Bag) stickies for a method to try all grain without the need for 2-3 vessels. Both should get you started. Pick a recipe that sounds like something you would like to have a batch of, and go for it!

Temperature control is probably the biggest tip for successful mashing, have a good thermometer.

 

[Pappers_]

http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/ is a good introduction on how to do all-grain brewing by Denny Conn, @Denny here on HBT

Or take at look at this post on HBT https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-pictorial-video-tutorials-78963/ that @Orfy put up, with links to some good all-grain tutorials on HBT.

 

[RM-MN]

Is there a good set of reference material for when an extract brewer wants to try to step up and do some grain recipes? Should you start with a partial mash? What is a 'partial' mash exactly? Just looking for a good starting point. Cheers!

Whether you should start with partial mash or just jump right into all grain is up to you. In partial mash, you get part of the fermentable sugars from mashing the malted grain and the rest from extract. If you are worried about how good your efficiency will be with all grain, this gets you a taste of what all grain entail with the backup of the guaranteed sugars of the extract to make the good beer.

I went from extract kits right to all grain but you can take smaller steps. If you want, you can do a small mash to see how it works, then add extract to get your intended OG. The next batch you can use more grain and less extract but it's still a partial mash. The next batch, use more grain yet and very little extract. It's still a partial mash, right? What happens when you get to where you only add a tablespoon of extract? It's still a partial mash, not scary at all. Then the next batch you just forget to add the extract and you've become an all grain brewer.

 

[dustinthompson85]

Thanks everyone!!