Wanting to go all grain.

[Mike Neilson]

Hi there.
I am passionate about beer and have just started to brew my own beer, I have just finished my first 2 exract brews, and have caught the bug.
I am realy wanting to get into All grain. I have read all the internet info I can find, all of it quite technical but not daughting but would love to here from fellow brewers on the best and most effective way to start my own all grain home brew setup from purchasing grains to drinking all info would be appriciated.

[Chris Mills]

All grain brewing is not too difficult at all and the additional equipment is pretty easy to source. The most tricky part that I have found is how to rapidly cool down your brew on completion of the boiling. I have used a couple of different DIY counter-flow wort-chillers and an immersion chiller. In each case a length of narrow copper tubing was used. For the counter-flow chiller I ran the copper through a larger vinyl hose and fitted connectors at the ends to run cold water around the copper. Hot wort goes in one end through the copper and cold water comes from the other end through the vinyl. The wort emerges cooled to near perfect temperature. If the fittings are not on just right water goes everywhere.

One of the risks of not cooling the wort quickly is the production of DMS which is not desirable in high quantities in most ales. I think it might be possible to get a faster cool-down by filtering most of the debris out of the wort before running it through the chiller. This raises concerns about sanitation though and in the end I keep coming back to what works and keeping it simple and tasty.

You can use a fancy sparging rig, but I have used two plastic buckets - one with lots of small holes drilled in the bottom fitted in my bottling bucket and a large colander at the top to distribute the water over the grains.

It's a lot of liquid to work with, but the results are quite worth it. I would be happy to share my notes with you if you are interested.

I've not done an all grain brew for a while now and instead prefer a partial mash with extract to bring the sugars up to the right levels. I also seem to brew mostly bitter-style ales as these are what I like to drink.

[Reviled]

Matey, I feel for you...

I did my first AG on saturday and I am not looking back, ever, in fact, im close to wanting to throw out the 100 odd litres of extract beer I allready have in bottles...

The cheapest, and in my opinion, easiest way of getting into AG is by doing BIAB, brewing in a bag, basically it involves a big sack made out of swiss voile material and a big pot, you dont need a lauter tun or an additional mash vessel, everything is done in the kettle!!!

Read my post on BIAB, I am now passionate about it as I would have never got into AG this year due to cost restrictions and having a 3 month baby... Do it!!! Its good for you :o)

Link http://www.biabrewer.info/

[Reviled]

Also, I dont chill, and heaps of people in Aussie do the no-chill method, siphoning the hot wort into a cube and leaving it to cool naturally..

Everyone argues that it wont work and will give you DMS, but it doesnt and people have been sucessfully doing this over the last 2-3 years.

[Barry]

I concur with no-chill. There's every scientific reason under the sun that it should be bad, but in my experience it's not been a problem.
My no-chill beers are just fine (I've never owned a chiller - when I brewed extract I used an ice water bath - BORING). The 5 beers I entered in last years NHC were no chilled, all my entries this year will be too.
caveat #1 - again, I've never chilled. So I have no scientific proof that my no-chill beers wouldn't be even better if I chilled.
caveat #2 - I don't brew lagers. Even I reckon you might get some DMS in a lager (or any really pale beer).
caveat #3 - hop profile. it can be tricky to nail. A huge deal with chilling is that it stops your hops from isomerizing, locking in the bitterness and character you achieved in the boil.

Two other words I'd suggest you remember: BATCH SPARGING.

biab, great stuff reviled. How big are your batchs?

[denimglen]

Get some brewing software, it takes the hassle out of calculations, I'd recommend BeerSmith. Punch in the recipe and it will give you a brewdaysheet telling you how much to heat to what temp and when to add what.

If you don't want to go down the route of brew in a bag, a chilly bin with either a SS hose braid or copper manifold is the way to go. Batch sparge for the win.

Start saving for some type of chiller, but no-chill would probably work until you get one. As much as DIY would seem like the obvious choice price-wise, it's almost worth just buying one pre-made, some of the prices in the states are extremely cheap. My plate chiller cost about the same as a coil of copper.

Start saving for a grain mill, it's a lot cheaper to buy base malt in bulk and you can store uncrushed specialty grains for longer.

Start saving for a kegging system. You'll want one soon.

Buy a freaking big pot (~40L for 20L batches) and a decent burner to match, that's the most costly part. Try second hand if you want to save some money. Or you could get an electric urn off trade me like myself and a couple of other brewers on here use. It's kinda expensive but a good deal considering you don't have to buy a burner and it comes installed with a tap and sight glass.

Buy a smaller pot (around 18 - 20L) if you don't already have one.

Expect the first brew day to be extremely frantic, but the second one is a hell of a lot easier.

Prepare as much as you can the night before and expect the brew day to last about 6 - 8 hours.

I'd read www.howtobrew.com or buy the book if you haven't done either already.

Start off with a simple recipe (with no wheat! haha - would be nothing worse than a stuck sparge on your first AG day).

Buy a decent thermometer. Either a glass lab thermometer or a digital one. DickSmith have a little digital waterproof unit for about $40 that's reasonably accurate, mine has served me well.

I'm sure some of the folks from Wellington can give you some advice on where to get grain. I believe that Brewer's Coop in Auckland have the best selection and prices and will ship to Welly.

I'm sure I'll think of some stuff to add to this later.

[jt]

From the Hutt .. You should check in with Mr Cherry for a brew day maybe ?

[Mike Neilson]

Cheers For that lads
am very keen for to do an all grain as soon as i can, would love to join in on a brew day, to gain some knowledge and how not to waste good grain.
Also where is a good place to buy grain in and brew gear in wellington?

Any Help?

[Chris Mills]

Back in the day of the Parrot and Jigger you might have been able to source grains from them - but they are no longer brewing on premises (that I know of). I have been ordering grains from Brewers Coop in Auckland. They are pretty easy to deal with and I would recommend them as a place to go.

If you find a local place to get a sack of malted pale barley then please share with us!

[Tony]

I too have just started all grain brewing. That's good advice from Denimglen. I just brewed my third batch on friday.

Check out this series of videos, on you tube, there are eight in total, it helped me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIGrsGPVA_Y

Getting the grain bill right and then letting it mash efficiently have been my biggest problems to date. I use a converted chillibin, but ideally it is not very efficient for holding the heat in. I use iodine to check my mash efficiency also, otherwise I find you can waste a lot of good sugars in the mash.

But I find it very exciting and I have not been disappointed with the results. Go hard.

[denimglen]

"...I use a converted chillibin, but ideally it is not very efficient for holding the heat in..."

Using this I went from about a 5 degree drop in temperature over an hour, to around a 1 degree drop.

It's ridiculous how well it works for just a rectangle of about 50mm styrofoam.

I also add the strike water about 10 degrees over my strike temperature, let it drop to the strike temp, basically preheating the tun, and then add my grain.

Although I don't really think it's that important, about 90% (or something like that) of the starches are converted in the first 20 minutes, where there wouldn't be much drop in temp.

[Mike Neilson]

Have Just Bought the beersmith which seems like a good program. as for mash tun and pot will have to go down to the local spice shop and see what they have as thoose indians make big currys. so intern need big pots. and mash tun? will proably go with a chilly bin.

[HerrSchnapps]

Theres 41L SS stockpots on trademe for $88:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Kitchen/Pots-pans-bakeware/Pot...

I'm not sure how good they are, but for that price, wow!