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Author Topic: How fast is too fast to move to all grain?  (Read 6147 times)

Offline bendbrew

  • Assistant Brewer
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  • Posts: 128
Re: How fast is too fast to move to all grain?
« Reply #30 on: September 03, 2010, 02:31:52 pm »
I did extract brewing for years.  I was always too nervous about doing all grain and postponed jumping in for way too long.  I then read "How to Brew" by Palmer, listened to Brewstrong from the Brewing Network and asked way to many questions on this forum (thanks for all the support by the way).  Finally I took a three session course offered through our community college and taught by one of our local brewers (from Silver Moon in Bend).  The last class was a full brew day.  It was incredible.  I have since done three 10 gallon batches with a fourth in two weeks.  The three batches came out excellent.  It was much easier than anticipated.  I wished I had jumped in earlier.  I agree the other posts in that extract with specialty grains gave me a good base to start with.  Good luck.

Offline dano14041

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Re: How fast is too fast to move to all grain?
« Reply #31 on: September 03, 2010, 02:57:39 pm »
Thank you all for your great advice!
I am looking forward to doing my first batch on the 11th!

Have a great Labor Day weekend!
Dano
Tulsa, OK

Offline rocketfuel

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  • Posts: 5
Re: How fast is too fast to move to all grain?
« Reply #32 on: September 05, 2010, 12:25:38 pm »
With all the info (books, articles, and online forums) you can figure just about everything out and make the jump as soon as you want to. 

That being said, I made ~6 batches with extract before moving to AG.  I thought this was about right because it gives you a feeling for what the specialty grains and hops do before you add all the variations of a mash.  To put it another way, all grain introduces a lot of other parameters into brewing.  For me it helped to understand by first tasting the outcome of recipe variations, so I knew how to tailor a beer's taste before I got into the complexity/freedom of all grain.

Just one person's opinion...
“A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.”