Which way to go?

[dutra2418]

Hey all,


I've been home brewing for about 3 years now and am at the point where I want to really ramp up the hobby and take it to another level. I'm currently doing 5 gallon batches and usually have one ready and another fermenting. I still mostly brew from extract, and bottle (natural carbing). I do steep grains every once in a while, but haven't taken the all grain plunge.

My question is....Which way should I go?

*I could go all-grain, make myself a cooler mash tun and all that, while still bottling and natural carbing.

or

*I could stay on the extract/steeping path and start kegging. Building a kegerator would be a pretty easy (but expensive) thing.

I ask you, the home brewing community..which will allow me to more thoroughly enjoy the hobby (and my beer)? Eventually both of these will be done, but it is easier on the wallet (and significant other) if I ease more money into the hobby. Suggestions welcome!

 

[Sean]

I think it is a matter of time and finance.

Kegging will save you time, but cost more, while allgrain will take more time, and not cost much more.

Kegging is a convienience, but all grain opens up a lot more options to you as a brewer. If you want to get more involved with the brewing process I think you are better off trying all grain. But it will take a bit more time.

Luck.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

I bought the kegging equipment before the all grain equipment. I didn't like bottling, so that's why I went the kegging route. When I started buying the AG equipment, I decided that I'll go with the keggle and cooler, which would allow me to do 10 gallon batches. I'm really glad that I didn't have to bottle 10 gallons of beer. I didn't like bottling 5 gallons, so I would have hated doing 10. Of course, this hobby is always looking for a way to spend my money...

 

[dutra2418]

Thanks for the quick responses. I'm considering the kegging route more than the AG one for the same reasons. Bottling sucks! I've also had problems on a few batches with good, but WAY over-carbed beer. I also hate the sediment. I feel like I can still get a lot of uniqueness from steeping grains, and not to mention, with two kegs, two plastic primary's, one glass secondary, and a bottling bucket I could have two beers on tap and three going at a time :rockin:

 

[bsdx]

I don't like bottling either and got back into kegging recently, kegging will save hours of time. Money aside, I would recommend kegging for the bigger impact on your brewing experience and making things easier. On the other hand, you don't really need to buy anything special to try all grain, if you have a 5-7 gallon boil pot or two smaller ones, or if you have your normal boil pot and an unmodified cooler, you can try all grain once and see if you like it. The place you buy the grains from can crush it. Its pretty much the same as steeping your grains except you have a lot more of them in a bigger straining bag (like a home depot 5 gallon paint strainer bag, really cheap) and holding temperature at a certain range for an hour or so becomes important. If your water has a pH considerably higher than 7 then you are better off doing darker all-grain beers, if the pH is not high then lighter beers would come out better. You can look up BIAB or Stovetop All-grain for some info. Holding the temp for an hour is easier if you have a full pot or a cooler with a good lid/insulation then you don't have to watch it closely. You could fiddle with knobs on the stove too.

Using all grains tends to be cheaper than extract, so you could start saving money if you don't buy a bunch of equipment and just rely on a little more labor and skill. For example, if you get into it, you can buy 50 lbs of a common base malt like Pale 2-row for 70 cents per lb. You need roughly twice as much grains per pound compared to extract, but even then that's $1.40 per lb which is about half the price of malt extract. You can make a lot of different beers for $10-20 of grain.

 

[misterVT]

The first time I started home-brewing I quit because I was sick of bottling. Two years ago I started up again after a 7 year hiatus and went the kegging route. No doubt it is much easier and has made brewing much more enjoyable. It gives me more time to focus on brewing, or shall I say the never ending cycle of upgrading and adjusting my system.

 

[cclloyd]

I guess I'm in the minority here but I went to AG and still bottle - I do agree that the actual process of bottling sucks though. I am happy with the transition and do like my AG beers. As far as the $$ side of it I did buy a chest freezer and Johnson Controller so now I can make any style with specific ferm temps and this more than any one other thing has made my beers consistently superior to the ones I made prior.

 

[HalfPint]

Personally, I went AG like many others before kegging, but it didn't take me very long to upgrade to a kegerator after going the AG route (maybe 10 ag batches before I built my kegerator). I will say this, if you enjoy your process/beer, why change? Yes AG opens doors to a more flexible process, but it's not absolutely necessary. Personally, over the past couple of years, I haven't bottled one batch, and I'm loving it. I will say, I like Ag more than extract brewing simply b/c I control every aspect of my brews, but I freakin love my kegerator too.

I suppose it's up to you on which route you take first,
J

 

[Yooper]

I bottled for years, but I realized it was a PITA. I think I bottled over 100-150 batches before going to kegging.

I guess ask yourself some questions. If you're completely happy with the quality of your beer, then kegging would be the way to go. If you're beer is good, but not to the quality of commercial beers or quite good enough for you, then go with the AG upgrade.

One thing to consider is you can sort of do both! You can go to PM by buying a couple of big grain bags, and still buy your kegging gear. The beer's taste should improve, you could do more recipes that require mashing (like oatmeal stout), and still get your kegging gear.

 

[dutra2418]

Great comments all around. Now I am back on the AG/kegging fence again, haha. I'm not quite satisfied with the quality of my brews yet. I've found since steeping grains they are starting to taste a little less 'homebrewy' and a little more 'commercial' but I would assume some of that is my brewing process improving as well. I think I'm going to sink a little money into building a cooler/tun. I found a sweet youtube vid a few weeks ago for a build. I'm not sure how efficient this setup would be, though.

If you guys think that would be a solid way to go then I'll buy a big bag of grain and try it out. Maybe I can convince the SO that $50 cooler-tun and a $70 Tap-a-Draft (for force carbing) is the way to go, instead of $540 for me to build a kegerator. I can dangle the prospect of getting 100 bottles out of the house in front of her for incentive, haha.

 

[david_42]

Going AG and buying a mill is about the same money as a basic keg setup. The freezer/fridge is the biggest investment and there are many used ones available.

 

[HalfPint]

I bottled for years, but I realized it was a PITA. I think I bottled over 100-150 batches before going to kegging.

I guess ask yourself some questions. If you're completely happy with the quality of your beer, then kegging would be the way to go. If you're beer is good, but not to the quality of commercial beers or quite good enough for you, then go with the AG upgrade.

One thing to consider is you can sort of do both! You can go to PM by buying a couple of big grain bags, and still buy your kegging gear. The beer's taste should improve, you could do more recipes that require mashing (like oatmeal stout), and still get your kegging gear.

Exactly what I was getting at.

 

[zanemoseley]

I only did 3-4 batches using extract and steeping grains. AG is easier than it seems when you first look at it, I would down right call it easy once you're comfortable with it. AG takes longer on brew days but made me feel like more of a brewer than someone making insta-brew. I don't own a mill and don't plan to, I buy my grains from brewmaster's warehouse and let them mill it. Its nice getting a bag full of measured grains milled perfectly. I do however buy bulk hops. Another think is I would go for the keggle approach so you can do 10g batches. Its really nice to do double batches in roughly the same time as a single. Brewing is fun but free time can often become sparse and double the brew for the same time sure is nice.

Kegging has a HUGE convenience factor. I honestly can say I wouldn't brew as much without it. Its also cool to have your brew on tap for visitors. I had the family over yesterday for the 4th and had a new keg of centennial blonde ale on tap, they seemed to really like it. It's much easier for someone to pull a pint then opening and rinsing bottles. Plus honestly I don't think people feel like they're putting you out as much when the drink from a keg, kegs just kind of imply sharing where bottles feel more like you're using up a finite supply of something.

 

[Teromous]

In my experience kegging is a better move if you're looking to make your process easier. All-grain is for taking the next step when you want something more complicated than extract brewing. People will tell you that AG is easy but here's the deal...it's not about the equipment or ingredients, it's about getting yourself more coordinated, precise, and getting the process down right.

 

[Homercidal]

I would say go for both. The cost of going AG is very minimal (well, it CAN be minimal!), and even scoring some good Craigslist deals on kegging equipment is going to cost more.j

You can start AG with a good burner, and Kettle, like a turkey fryer ($50, roughly), and Cooler MLT ($40?) and a Corona Mill ($30).

If you already doing full boils, then skip the burner and kettle and just factor in the MLT and Mill. Less than $100. If you buy your grain pre-crushed, skip the mill...

Kegging is very nice, but AG is much more fun IMO. And you can start saving more money too, if you buy in bulk and crush your own.