66 replies to this topic

[BarelyBrews]

did you use the paint strainer concept?

For cracking the grains i used a 1gallon plastic bag and laid the grains on a flat surface and crushed them that way.It takes more than one bag to have the grains make contact with the table and your likely to put holes in the bag too but it works.And i used a grain bag for the boil from my LHBS.

[ChicagoWaterGuy]

And i used a grain bag for the boil from my LHBS.

"boil"?

[BarelyBrews]

"boil"?

My bad, steep is what i should of said.Been a while since i did the extract thing.LOL

[SchwanzBrewer]

Chris, here are my $0.02 since I just went through this process myself. This last January while I had time off from work and a little coin in my pocket I decided to go all grain. Up to that point I had made some seriously nice extracts in only my 3rd to 5th beers ever. Its didn't take long for my process to get to the point where I was going to need to do mini mashes anyway to make different styles (you can only steep so many grains, other things like flaked corn need to be mashed for texture... I think dont quote me on that).So I decided to go all grain. I had 2 keggles that I have been carrying around with me for years that I got from a restaurant that did not need to turn them in so I figured I would turn those into a boil kettle and and the other for heating the strike water (HLT?). So I read the instructions in the FAQ here and got a angle grinder and a few discs, a hole drill and set to work (I didn't have a dremel so its not as perfect as the FAQ one). Within about a day I had both of my keggles cut and ready for conversion. Next I needed some fittings (You can find those online or piece them together from mcmaster). Once I had those done, all I needed was a mash tun. I made a dip tube that goes to the HLT and it works perfectly, no water losses. I made my own copper tubing for the boil kettle and its offset in the bottom. I used the SS steel braid from a toilet pipe as the manifold for that. Burner - make sure your burner will safely hold your keggle! I bought the bayou classic (square one) its perfect for keggles, doesnt tip easily.Tip - get the thermometers that you can mount in the side of your keggles, or use electronic probes. I hate standing over the hot wort or strike water and steaming off all the hair on my hands.Mash Tun - I use a 70 quart coleman extreme. Walmart now has the marine cooler 70 qt extreme which is even better for $50! I made a manifold from CPVC with slits, which has never stuck in five batches so far on it and bought the fittings from the same place as the keggle fittings. Don't let anyone tell you this cooler won't work for 5 gallon batches. 4 of my 5 batches have been 5 gallons and that cooler works just fine. It will also work fine for 10 gallon batches. I use Denny Conn's batch sparge method. Bonus - the bigger cooler has enough surface area to double as an open fermentor should you want to try that (results pending).Lifting. I can lift 10 gallons on my own, but it is a PITA and if the wort is hot I wouldn't attempt it alone. I haven't got a fancy brew stand (WANT WANT WANT!!!) yet but I would certainly recommend getting the pump. So all of my stuff is gravity fed. I put the burner on an old sturdy coffee table and the only heavy thing I end up lifting is the wort to the burner and the mash tun onto the coffee table. For 5 gallons its not that hard. Chiller - GET ONE whatever type it is, get one. That has transformed my brew day. I use a shirron plate chiller. An aquarium pump is good to use for the counter flow if you dont have cold tap water (i need it, im in florida).Water - having an on demand water filter is also a pretty good idea. Saves trips to the store and having to spend $0.70/gal.Grain crushing - easy enough to buy grain pre-crushed online until you really want to try and control your crush. I use austinhomebrew.com for my grain buys and that seems to be just fine.Summary - All grain equipment is expensive and heavy! BUT, I think it is all worth it. My brew days are a little more intensive on the brain, but its that much more interesting and you feel that much closer to your beer knowing that you have control of the whole process. Oh, and read the FAQ here a bajillion times, it will help a lot.Cheers!Rich

[Mynameisluka]

Rich - Right on. Thanks for the insight and advice. My christmas list is shaping up pretty fast this year.Have you noticed significant improvements in flavor since you switched to AG?ETA In all honesty, though, the more i think about it, the more i think i am attracted to it due to the fact that it is much more hands on amd made-from-scratch throughout the entire process. I think this aspect appeals to me more than the potential for quality improvement...my extract beers are awesome.

Edited by chris, 12 August 2010 - 02:35 PM.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Rich - Right on. Thanks for the insight and advice. My christmas list is shaping up pretty fast this year.Have you noticed significant improvements in flavor since you switched to AG?

The batch i am currently carbonating is the first beer I have made that is supposed to be like one of my extracts, so I will see in about a week. I will say that the irish red, the cream ale, and Denny's Rye IPA came out fantabulous (especially the RIPA ZOMG its good!). I made MLPA as an extract 3 times and the second and third times I was told that it was indistinguishable from an all grain beer. I did everything perfect for those. The extract stout I made was really good, but the mouthfeel was just very very slightly off since it required flaked grains to add some texture that had to be mashed (I steeped them because I was lazy). The biggest thing that made me want to go AG was that I could not make a recipe because I could not get the extract form of a grain which means it must be mashed or it won't be just right. I couldn't let that happen so I made the jump down the rabbit hole.Cheers,RichEdit: I should add that my 2nd ag brew I messed up the grain bill for MLPA and it became MLPA Light or lawn mower beer as I like to call it, otherwise I would know if it tasted as good.

Edited by BewbieBrewer, 12 August 2010 - 02:39 PM.

[BrewerGeorge]

...I had 2 keggles that I have been carrying around with me for years that I got from a restaurant that did not need to turn them in so I figured I would turn those into a boil kettle and and the other for heating the strike water (HLT?). So I read the instructions in the FAQ here and got a angle grinder and a few discs, a hole drill and set to work (I didn't have a dremel so its not as perfect as the FAQ one). Within about a day I had both of my keggles cut and ready for conversion. Next I needed some fittings (You can find those online or piece them together from mcmaster). Once I had those done, all I needed was a mash tun. I made a dip tube that goes to the HLT and it works perfectly, no water losses. I made my own copper tubing for the boil kettle and its offset in the bottom. I used the SS steel braid from a toilet pipe as the manifold for that. ...

Two pieces of advice if you convert a kettle. First, do all of your cutting and drilling before you put it over fire. Heat will harden the stainless and make it significantly harder to drill or cut. So no getting anxious and making a test batch before it's all done.Second, drill a little hole or two in the bottom chime before you put them over fire. The chime is the band around the bottom that the sits on. The have weep holes in them already, but I've read stories about them being clogged. Any water in them can then turn to expansive steam and rupture. It's a really long shot, but one little hole is easy to drill to remove any chance.