Moving to All Grain

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After you have some experience with Extract Brewing, you will inevitably find yourself wanting to make the move to All Grain. While the all grain brewing process does take 1-2 hours longer (for the Mashing and Sparging processes, it offers a much wider range of ingredients and better control over the brewing process. This article details some of the items you need to consider when moving from extract brewing to all grain brewing.

Equipment

All grain brewing does involve an added investment in equipment. Here I assume you already have a 5 gallon fermenter, racking and bottling equipment but probably lack some of the items below:

  • Large Boil Pot - For all grain brewing you will need to boil the full size of your brew (usually 5 gallons) plus a gallon or so additional wort that will boil off during your 60-90 minute boil. In addition you need some space at the top to avoid boil-over. We recommend at least an 8 gallon pot for a 5 gallon batch size, or 14 gallon pot for a 10 gallon batch. In addition you will need a second pot equal to your batch size that you can use to heat water for sparging.
  • Outdoor Propane Burner - While it is possible to heat your huge pot over several burners on a stove, it can be quite dangerous moving large amounts of wort around and it also takes a very long time. A high BTU propane burner is relatively cheap and will boil your wort quickly in the driveway or on the back patio with less mess. Don't use it in an enclosed area however!
  • Gott Style Cooler - A water cooler makes the best Mash Tun for most homebrewers. A 5 gallon cooler can easily be converted to serve as a mash tun and lauter tun - and the insulation will make it very easy to do an infusion Mash. See the Mash Tun link for details on how to add a false bottom to your cooler.
  • An Immersion Chiller - While not strictly needed, it does take a very long time to cool 5+ gallons of boiling wort without a chiller. Cooling your beer quickly reduces the risk of infection and also helps many undesirable proteins and tannins to fall out of the beer before ferementation.

=The All Grain Process

All grain brewing starts with the Mashing process.

See Also