We have finally made the jump to all grain brewing. Previously, we have been using liquid malt extract (LME) to get our fermentable sugars and specialty grains to get flavor and color. LME is made by taking malted barely and soaking the grains in water. After a period of time, sugar has been extractd from the malt and the water is then dehydrated into a thick syrup. All grain brewing does not use LME, instead, we will be the ones soaking the malted barley and specialty grains in warm water for about an hour (it will be done in the red cooler from the picture above) and then lautering, or draining, the sweet wort into the boil kettle. A large part of our step to AG was buying a new boil kettle. Our previous kettle had only a 5 gallon (20 quart) capacity. We could only start with about 4.5 gallons of water and after an hour of boiling only 3-3.5 gallons of wort would remain. To reach our target volume of 5 gallon, additional water would have to be added, much to the detriment of the overall flavor of the beer. Now, we have a 12.5 gall (60qt) boil kettle. We will be able to drain about 7 gallons of sweet wort from the cooler and after the 60-90 minute boil, will have the 5 gallons we need. Being able to do full boils will help with the flavor and body of the beer.
AG is a little more complicated than extract brewing because temperature control of the mashing stage is crucial. The usual temperature range is 148-158; the higher the temperature the more body and less alochol the beer will have, the lower the temp, the more potential for alochol but you lose some body with it. Mash temperatures are then selected based on the style of beer being brewed. A good diagram of the mashing process can be seen if you click here.
The first few batches will proably not be our best beer, but it will still be good. But now, we have much more control over the flavor and body of the beer, and eventually will be making beer as good as commerical breweries. With the giant boil kettle we also have the possibility of making 10 gallon batches in the future.
We were able to buy the boil kettle and mash tun used from a local homebrewer for $40 and 2 beers at a brewpub. We want to thank Dennis for helping us out and selling us his old equipment for such a good deal.
Before we can brew our first beer we have to make an immersion chiller to be able to cool 5 gallons of beer from 200 F to 60 F as quickly as possible. This is done by running cool water through copper tubing immersed in the beer; here is a picture of what one looks like. Cold water is fed into one side and cylces through the tubing and the heat is transferred from the beer to the water and the hot water comes out and is drained away. We are going to attempt to build it ourselves which should be intersting to say the least. This is an exciting step for us and we cant wait to brew our first AG batch.
