Brewing All Grain
Just tracking some thoughts from my first experience with all grain brewing.
Cooler converted to mash tun came in this week along with some grains. I had originally planned on a 4G batch with some DME, but then decided "What the heck? Modify the recipe a bit and drop that crutch."
First things, as with my BIAB approach, time was increased. The converted mash tun certainly helped things though. Works a lot better/faster than that ridiculous grain bag I had. Reason became apparent after I thought about why people vorlauf (AKA dumping the first gallon or so back in the tun). And that reason is, the grain bed is your filter. Sure, I've got a bazooka filter, but that thing has holes so big some grains go right through it. Once the tun starts draining, the grains settle and serve as the filter. Another thing which virtually no one seems to actually say.
It also means an extra set of things to clean. Not abundantly thrilled about that. But left it for tonight. Will clean that when I have some daylight to work with.
So, for the added time... what do I get? I went with the no sparge method. Fly sparging sounds like a pain in the butt and batch sparging sounds easier, but a waste of time. This approach allowed me more time to just let it do its thing. So, honestly, it didn't feel like a ton of added time. I knew it was going to add time, so I just planned around it better.
What I get is a cheaper way to make beer. My 33lbs of LME taught me one thing... that is too much extract (for me) to deal with in a reasonable timeframe. The price was great. But I really would need to split on that with someone if I do it again. As it stands, I'll need to buy more bottles to deal with it all. So, while it worked out to about $2.40/lb of LME, the volume is too high to be sustainable. Also, the recipes I made with that will all be one dimensional. The need to use it in a timely fashion meant that next nothing else was added to those batches.
My grains work out to about $1.69 on average with me just buying them by the pound. I can also drive that down by buying in bulk in some places. But, frankly, I can live with those prices.
Variety is the next advantage. Not sure how this will play into things. But, I can get maybe 5-6 types of DME and even less LME. Grains, I can personally get 40+ varieties quite easily.
Accomplishment is also in there. This is really just ego-inflating. But I feel better about using grains. There is no good reason for this. As long as I'm making beer I like it shouldn't matter.
Re-using spent grains. I saved 3-ish cups of spent grains and tossed in the freezer. I plan to make some spent grain bread and cookies with it. That is awesome to me.
Quantity control. With extracts you start with water in the boil and add extract. Volumes fluctuate, and then it becomes hard to predict where volumes will end up. With all-grain, the water into the kettle IS the boil volume. And there are a ton of calculators out there to help you hit target boil volumes.
Now, to end it all, circle back to some negatives. Quantity control for inaccurate people like me. I got used to eye-balling and projecting based on extract recipes, so while I know volumes are easier to hit now, it didn't come out where I thought it would. Also, I noticed a lot more heat break and cold break material in the kettle. This probably makes sense. Extracts, while not necessarily boiled have been pasteurized, etc... and some of those proteins are probably lost in the process. Not to mention, it likely affects the malts on other levels as well.
All-grain has its benefits and drawbacks. I doubt it will be a magical solution to anything and it certainly makes life a little harder. I'm less surprised that many end up going well north of 5 gallon batches when they go all grain. For the extra time AG adds, you might as well do a larger volume, as it won't as much time as a second separate batch. For me, that sounds like hell until I'm done with bottling. But who knows? Maybe if I make an AG recipe I really like, I might consider an 8-10 gallon batch in the summer.
In summation, as always, do what feels right. I did enjoy making the AG batch tonight. But, I may go back to partial mashes or even extract brewing when it feels right. If this batch kicks the pants off of my others I may sing a different tune. We'll see.
Cooler converted to mash tun came in this week along with some grains. I had originally planned on a 4G batch with some DME, but then decided "What the heck? Modify the recipe a bit and drop that crutch."
First things, as with my BIAB approach, time was increased. The converted mash tun certainly helped things though. Works a lot better/faster than that ridiculous grain bag I had. Reason became apparent after I thought about why people vorlauf (AKA dumping the first gallon or so back in the tun). And that reason is, the grain bed is your filter. Sure, I've got a bazooka filter, but that thing has holes so big some grains go right through it. Once the tun starts draining, the grains settle and serve as the filter. Another thing which virtually no one seems to actually say.
It also means an extra set of things to clean. Not abundantly thrilled about that. But left it for tonight. Will clean that when I have some daylight to work with.
So, for the added time... what do I get? I went with the no sparge method. Fly sparging sounds like a pain in the butt and batch sparging sounds easier, but a waste of time. This approach allowed me more time to just let it do its thing. So, honestly, it didn't feel like a ton of added time. I knew it was going to add time, so I just planned around it better.
What I get is a cheaper way to make beer. My 33lbs of LME taught me one thing... that is too much extract (for me) to deal with in a reasonable timeframe. The price was great. But I really would need to split on that with someone if I do it again. As it stands, I'll need to buy more bottles to deal with it all. So, while it worked out to about $2.40/lb of LME, the volume is too high to be sustainable. Also, the recipes I made with that will all be one dimensional. The need to use it in a timely fashion meant that next nothing else was added to those batches.
My grains work out to about $1.69 on average with me just buying them by the pound. I can also drive that down by buying in bulk in some places. But, frankly, I can live with those prices.
Variety is the next advantage. Not sure how this will play into things. But, I can get maybe 5-6 types of DME and even less LME. Grains, I can personally get 40+ varieties quite easily.
Accomplishment is also in there. This is really just ego-inflating. But I feel better about using grains. There is no good reason for this. As long as I'm making beer I like it shouldn't matter.
Re-using spent grains. I saved 3-ish cups of spent grains and tossed in the freezer. I plan to make some spent grain bread and cookies with it. That is awesome to me.
Quantity control. With extracts you start with water in the boil and add extract. Volumes fluctuate, and then it becomes hard to predict where volumes will end up. With all-grain, the water into the kettle IS the boil volume. And there are a ton of calculators out there to help you hit target boil volumes.
Now, to end it all, circle back to some negatives. Quantity control for inaccurate people like me. I got used to eye-balling and projecting based on extract recipes, so while I know volumes are easier to hit now, it didn't come out where I thought it would. Also, I noticed a lot more heat break and cold break material in the kettle. This probably makes sense. Extracts, while not necessarily boiled have been pasteurized, etc... and some of those proteins are probably lost in the process. Not to mention, it likely affects the malts on other levels as well.
All-grain has its benefits and drawbacks. I doubt it will be a magical solution to anything and it certainly makes life a little harder. I'm less surprised that many end up going well north of 5 gallon batches when they go all grain. For the extra time AG adds, you might as well do a larger volume, as it won't as much time as a second separate batch. For me, that sounds like hell until I'm done with bottling. But who knows? Maybe if I make an AG recipe I really like, I might consider an 8-10 gallon batch in the summer.
In summation, as always, do what feels right. I did enjoy making the AG batch tonight. But, I may go back to partial mashes or even extract brewing when it feels right. If this batch kicks the pants off of my others I may sing a different tune. We'll see.
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