Whats the Next step

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Grinder12000

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Lets say I have tried all of the Brew Kits with the steeping specialty grains - have followed the instructions which are pretty simple and have brewed some pretty good beer.

What is the next step. What if you want to move forward in your knowledge.

What can I do to make a Brew Kit "mine".
 
next is PM or partial mash where you do a miniature mash of 3-5# of grain with extract. or you could just jump right into AG= all-grain
 
What can I do to make a Brew Kit "mine".
The first "MINE" that I did was to find a good recipe...add something you like. In my case it was an extract Guinness Clone...I added a bucket load of Licorice...it was great. I did not do a kit...rather I used individual ingredients...bumping the Carmel to a 60L from 20 and adding almost twice the black patent as the recipe called for. You could do something similar. It's a ton of fun to change 1 thing in a recipe that you've made and see what the difference is.

If you are thinking PM....I'd recommend skipping it. I just went AG 2 batches ago, and it's kinda like riding a bike. If you can't...it's intimidating as hell....if you can....it's no big deal.
 
I went from extract, to all-grain (which I'm still studying), and next is developing my own recipe. For me the first beer that I develop the recipe for will truely be mine...that's just me though.
 
Just go to all grain...I feel I did quickly, ahead of schedule even, and I don't regret a single bit of it.

Go get a nice turkey fryer...and at least be able to do full boils if you want just for now...or can you already do that?
 
I second Big kahunas advice re modding recipes. take a kit that's worked well for you, and start tweaking it. keep records of what you like with each iteration, and keep records of the actual ingredients in the kits, so you can buy them individually. Most of my recipes originated from kits, and now that I'm on the 5-7th version of most of them, I can honestly think of them as my own

as for partial mash, don't discount that as a good intermediate step before AG. Partial mash is barely harder than extract with specialty grains. Since you're still using extract, you don't have to worry about efficiency too much, so you can mash in your brew pot using a large grain bag and sparge with the grain bag and a collander. No need to build a mash / lauter tun or any of that. you'll have more flexibility in your recipes, compared to extract with specialty grains.

And buying a propane burner with a kettle large enough to do full boils is an excellent suggestion also.
 
The first step I took from doing kits was to go to recipes. I'm still doing extract, no PM or AG. It's a baby step, sure, the only added task being to weigh everything out yourself. I think it helped me to appreciate the different grains and ingredients and get a feel for how they affect the beer. At least more so than "ok so i dump this bag of stuff in."
 
Yea - I'm going to recipes and have "Brewing Classic Styles" but there seems to be a lot of people confused about HIS process.

Just when I figure out the recipes and create my own algorithms in Excel people it's wrong.

For instance

HIS recipe for Taddy Porter (pg 155) has a partial boil (3 gallon) using 1.91lb of Extract - yet now people are telling me you MUST use 1 lb extract per 1 per gallon of water. (Converting to partial batch starts on page 34).
 
I guess I would say who really gives a sh#t, how does it taste to you is what matters. We can all give advice or what we think is the "best way". In the end you are the judge. Give it a try if it doesn't work try something else. Most importantly have fun doing it. Make smaller batches to experiment so if you mess something up it was a gallon or two...no big. That is what I love about this hobby. Sure you can put your beers up to be judged in competitions and have fun doing that or brewing to style an trying to get the perfect clone. But when you get down to the brass tacks of it, all that matters is do YOU like what you're brew'n.

Sorry, Jimbob's beer buzz'n, hotel live'n, half-a*# rant
 
OH - no prob - as my signature says it all. When I have nothing to do but plan I go over all the options and try to find the "correct way".

Since I'm new to this every corner is a new surprise. Someone says "makes sure you do this" and then someone says it's not that important . . . . I start to get MORE obsessed.

We all strive for perfection right? So having a general correct way is a good start - It's just that the "correct" way is a moving target LOL

As you say jimbob "which I'm still studying" which is what I'm doing by asking questions - my WIFE sure ain't going to answer them :)
 
Buy some brewing software like beersmith - you can look up a style, and then make your own combination of grains and hops to approximate the OG, color, and bitterness. You can brew to style, or make it lighter/darker, malty/dry, and as hoppy as you want.
 
Oh please don't get me wrong...I ask my fair share of questions too and I strive for the perfection also. I'm an engineer, so I've got that bad. Where I have to strech myself is stepping out on my own and make the mistakes. I hate making mistakes. I had to throw out a batch last weekend and my wife said I looked like someone just told me there was no such thing as Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and that the Yankee's were going to win the series this year (oh yeah...I went there).

My point, in my tipsy state, is that at some point this awesome hobby can become work...and we all have enough of that.
 
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