New to brewing all-grain kits

[rhythmsteve]

I've only done extract kits but this time I got an oatmeal stout all grain from Midwest supplies. Normally it comes with a malt extract, but this one does not.... How do I not mess this up?

 

[LLBeanJ]

Did you purposely get an all-grain kit, or was it a mistake? All-grain brewing is not terribly difficult, but does take some specialized equipment and a bit of planning before tackling your first one.

 

[Tinhorn]

Did it come with instructions ? Do you have a mash tun or are you planning BIAB?

 

[shuckit]

You will have to mash the grain. Partial mash kits would have grain and extract, all grain kits have all grain, no extract.

 

[rhythmsteve]

I do have instructions, I was going to mash in a converter cooler I use for brewing, or i can do a bag if necessary, but since there is no extract I want to make sure I do it correctly, thoughts?

 

[LLBeanJ]

There are a bunch of videos on Youtube that will point you in the right direction.

 

[rhythmsteve]

The truth is I want to learn the whole process and that's why I got an all grain kit this time around

 

[LLBeanJ]

Very good. AG brewing not that hard, it's pretty simple really, but you just need to know what to expect. That's why I recommend watching youtube vids. They will show you the whole process, whether mashing in a cooler or BIAB (or BIAB in a cooler) and you can decide for yourself which you think better suits you. Once you have a pretty good idea of what's involved in all-grain brewing, you'll likely have a number of questions and the HBT community will be able to help you with those.

 

[Tinhorn]

Ok it's not that hard to do

Is your grain crushed ? If so it's just a matter of hitting and holding your make temps for an hour or whatever the instructions say
I usually heat 14 degrees above mash temp as that how my mash tun works
Also a good idea to preheat the tun with hot tap water by putting a couple inches if got water I there for a bout 15 minutes it so before put the grain and mash water in
That way you don't lose heat when you add grain and mash water

Also site the living daylights out of it to make sure there are no clumps
Then sparge until you reach your volumes which amount of sparge and mash water should be included in instructions

I assume you have a pot you can do full boil in and thermometer ?

I recommend watching a YouTube to take some of the mystery out of it also as others stated

 

[Clonefan94]

As others have said, it's just not that hard. I actually find the over all process easier than extract brewing. Mainly because by the time you get to the boil, all you have to worry about it the hop additions. Extract has a lot of stuff to add and only adding X amount until later in the boil, etc.

 

[rhythmsteve]

Yes I have all the equip as I also do wine waking as well, and the grain is milled. as far as I can see the only difference is more of a sparge stage than anything else. Will I be able to yield about the same as a BIAG method?

 

[Conan]

The same produced volume, or the same gravity? Either way the answer is yes, if it's a five gallon batch and you're planning for that final volume. Kyle

 

[rhythmsteve]

I know it won't be the same gravity because at the end of the sparge ( will determine if I want to double sparge for another couple of pints) it will be different than the front end or middle because less sugars in the wort. But If I understand correctly I will get about the same amount of malt from the Grain as I would a typical extract?

 

[TheZymurgist]

Yes I have all the equip as I also do wine waking as well, and the grain is milled. as far as I can see the only difference is more of a sparge stage than anything else. Will I be able to yield about the same as a BIAG method?

Read this: http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/index.html

I don't know anything about wine making, but does your cooler have a false bottom or braid to allow you to separate the wort from the grain? If not, you'll need a grain bag and will have to go the BIAB route.

Check out these threads also:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/all-grain-pictorial-video-tutorials-78963/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/attention-new-all-grain-brewers-30466/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f244/biab-brewing-pics-233289/

Your questions so far have been extremely broad, so it'd difficult to tell exactly what you're looking for. The links above should give you the vast majority of what you need to know.

 

[Conan]

It sounds like you've got a couple crossed wires on terminology.
Sparges don't determine your final product volume- that comes from planning how much water you mash with, and then how much water you sparge with. You can hypothetically do any number of sparges. Say you want 6.5 gallons into the kettle (to boil off 1.25 gallons during the boil, ending with 5.25 into the fermenter and losing .25 to trub before bottling).
If you have 11 lbs. of grain at 1.25 qts./ lb. you will strike (your first addition of water to grain) with 3.4 gallons. The grain will absorb around 1.4 gallons, and you'll lose maybe a quart, depending on your system, to unrecoverable in the the tun. Let all this sit an hour, that's your mash step. Drain it off into the kettle, your gravity may be around 1.082- a lot of sugar dissolved into a little water, around 1.9 gallons.
Now it's sparge time (assuming batch sparging). Again you want 6.5 gallons, but already have 1.9 in the kettle. 6.5- 1.9= 4.6 gallons. You can single sparge that volume, or double sparge (2x2.3), or triple (1.5) or quadruple (1.15), though triple and quad are rediculous- I'm just making a point. So, heat whichever sparge volume you choose to ~180. Strike that to your wet grain, let it sit some amount of time. I use 20 minutes, others use 5, some folks go with >30. After that time, drain all this off. A single sparge may net 1.063 gravity. Repeat for additional sparges.
All you do with a sparge is to rinse residual sugar from the mash. Your grain starches have already been converted to sugar during the initial mash, you're just pulling more from them.
You should be at your boil volume now, so take another gravity reading. Commence boiling just like extract batches. Chill, pitch yeast, ferment, wait enjoy.

We're not doing anything with malt in the grains- the maltster did that for us, and that process simply starts the grain to sprouting, creating starches that we convert in our mash to sugar.
There's a lot of verbage to digest in this hobby and folks on the inside throw around the terms quite a bit- I got pretty twisted around when I started out, but following the links like TheZymurgist provided and reading the wiki https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Mashing will help. Kyle