Two questions from a new guy

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chatsprint

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Please bear with me as I try to get 2 for 1 assistance on my first thread.

First question - dealing with an extract Wee Heavy.
some details:
Recipe OG - 1.083
My OG - 1.081
Recipe FG - 1.021 @ 75%
Nottingham yeast, kept ~63-65

Day 19 - SG 1.030
Tasting thoughts: Sweet, malty, roasted caramel, a mild alcohol afterburn. No off-flavors, quite nice to be so young.

Day 29 - SG 1.028
Tasting thoughts: same as above, slightly less sweet, slightly more burn.

Unfortunately it seems to have developed a little of the often mentioned medicinal/band-aid aftertaste

This brew has been in the primary for almost 30 days now (no secondary).
I had hoped to get within a couple points of FG around weeks 5-6, bottle condition for 5-6 weeks then began sampling until I felt it had reached its prime.

Being that this heavy beer is so young could it possibly clean itself of the medicine taste issue over the next month or two or is it likely there to stay ?

Second question: Like many, I started with Mr. Beer a couple years ago, who now resides in the back of a closet. Extract brewing has been enjoyable but after 12-15 batches I have the urge to experiment with all grain while not making any investment in equipment at this time.

Could a 2 gallon batch of all grain be accomplished using the tools at hand; my extract gear (pots, burner, chiller, thermometers, etc.), a couple 3-4 gallon picnic coolers, a fine mesh strainer.

Anyone see a big issue in being under-equipped for small batch all-grain brewing ? Any minor purchases I should consider that will make it go smoother ?

Obviously I'll have some math to do in getting to a 2 gallon volume from a 5 gallon recipe.
 
to answer your bandaid question - once that flavor develops(from infection or water issues) it doesn't go away, but i wouldn't go dumping such a big beer just in case you've misidentified the issue. I had that problem with chloramine in my water - some campden tablets solved the issue.

you could probably just do a partial mash on the stove or very easily do a smaller batch in smaller coolers.
 
How big is your pot? You will need a large-ish pot, but you can do BIAB that way. And don't throw away the Mr. Beer! It's great for making small batches of cider or mead.
 
I don't know exactly how big my pot is (5 gal or so, maybe smaller) and before Christmas I brewed an RIS with an OG of 1.108 - partial boil, 5 gal batch, I think 11lb of grain. It was a bit of a stretch and a real pain to deal with that big a bag of hot wet grain, but a good time. You could certainly do "standard" 3 gal batches without being particularly complicated. I did mine on my kitchen stove.

Edit: ignore my OG. This was a partial mash, so its kinda unfair to use that to tout the BIAB system when I used 6lbs DME. You should still be easily capable of 5-7% ABV beers in your kitchen AG with BIAB.
 
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