How long did you extract brew before going al grain?

4 years for me. Had more to do with living/family situation than anything.

 

9 batches/1 year

 

I've yet to brew all grain, but God willing, will do so for the first time this weekend. This means I will have brewed extract 5 times before going all-grain.

 

I brewed one extract batch, one mini-mash (counted as extract in my vote), then on to true all grain in my third batch.

 

Six Extract, two partial mash and my ninth batch of beer was all grain.

 

I did extracts with specialty grains for a year or so - 8 batches, give or take. Then started doing a mini-mash. I've been doing all grain almost exclusively for the past 3 or 4 years. I still do an occasional stove top extract batch in the dead of winter when my pipeline is getting dangerously close to drying up.

 

I only brewed extract only once: my very first time using the recipe that came with my starter kit.

That one turned out so mediocre that I immediately moved to BIAB (which requires only a minimal investment beyond what the starter kit gave me). I quickly moved from that to a mash tun though because I wasn't happy with how much grain debris was left in the wort from BIAB.

So I moved to all-grain quickly, mainly due to fear that I was going to be churning out 5 gallon batches of crappy extract beer all the time.

(For the record, I now know that not all extract beers are bad. The ingredients and yeast that I got from the starter kit were not a good match for the beer it was supposed to produce. I'm sure they picked the ingredients that way to make the kit idiot-proof, but it did not make a good first-impression.)

 

Just two batches, although I have brewed a half dozen extract beers since. Amazing how much better the more recent extract batches were with full boils, starters, temperature control, proper sanitation etc.

 

“Amazing how much better the more recent extract batches were with full boils, starters, temperature control, proper sanitation etc. …”

Lots of people think that their beers got better by switching to all grain but it is really process improvement which makes better beer.

Cheers!

 

I started brewing in 1983 when I was seventeen. I did not start brewing all-grain until the mid-nineties (I think '94). That is also when I started kegging.

 

Straight to all grain, first 2 batches dumped.

 

I also went straight to all grain. First batch was dumped, but the rest have been good to great.

 

I was doing partial mash after 3 or 4 extract brews, then went straight to mashing in a ZapPap(which I still have and occasionally use). But I have taught 5 or 6 people to brew all grain from the start.

 

I've done two batches of extract so far, one exactly as the kit directions said, the other with tweaking the recipe to add another hop addition and citrus zest. Im planning on doing one more kit with some more tweaks to it, possibly aging on oak chips in secondary, then maybe a few batches that I come up with the recipe all on my own, then I will make the jump to AG. I'm really interested in getting started on AG, but I want to make sure my level of knowledge and experience grows at a good pace before I make it any more complicated.

 

All grain straight out of the gate.....

 

I'm in my first year of brewing and have my 19th extract batch fermenting. I do full boils and recently added fermentation temp control and oxygen for aeration. I have noticed a nice jump in quality since these were added. I have been studying up on all grain and plan to switch in the near future. Mainly to cut down on cost per batch.

 

I said 6-10. FWIW, I did one partial mash before starting to brew all-grain. I did it because I had no known mash efficiency, so planning to make a beer with partial extract seemed like a safe way to go. Then I knocked off about 90 all grain batches, with the periodic extract batch to save time, and a few partial mashes here and there too.

 

2 batches extract, 1 mini-mash, AG ever since.

 

Curious as to why you had to dump your first 2 batches. I am 5 extract batches into this obsession and I have a new cooler sitting in the garage waiting for me to modify. Process control?