Transitioning to all grain...

One of the joys of all-grain mashing is the stuck sparge. For your first few all-grain batches, I recommend using copious rice hulls so that you don't have to worry about it. This may be overkill, but it is one less thing to worry about as you start getting experience with mashing.

My other word of advice is to clean the spent grain out of your mash tun promptly (same day). That is not a cleaning job that you want to leave for the next day, because it can start to smell terrible.

 

Some things I wish I knew, and other things I was advised of before tackling AG:

Get a false bottom for your MLT. I got way too many stuck sparges before I spent the $40 on a nice SS false bottom.

I wish I had tested the temperature stability my MLT before actually mashing. Obviously the grain will suck heat our while doughing in, but I'm talking about water-temp stability after that step is complete.

Write down steps that might be 'forgotten' in the midst of conducting your first all grain. I forgot simple stuff like vorlouf and pre-heating sparge water on my first AG brewday.

Lauter slowly, i went way too fast at first.

Dont mess with water chemistry (too much) on first few brews. Listen to your LHBS suggestions.

Double check your grain crush. Sometimes LHBS mills get out of adjustment due to a lot of use. Ask questions, they'll be happy to help.

Dont overly obsess about efficiencies on your first couple batches. Of course monitor gravity readings at various stages, but increasing efficiency should be something to work on after the basics are second nature.

Get BeerSmith, or similar.

Last but not least (at least for me) have fun while brewing! For many of us, brewing is relatively 'therapeutic' so dont forget that part.

 

Yah, I started off using BeerSmith and it was great. Helps greatly when trying to dough in and hit the correct mash temp. My first try I hit the temp perfectly.

As for water chemistry, I've been doing that since day 1. It's fairly easy once you get going. I also think it's very important, so I'd do some of it. I know some guys that just use straight tap water to brew, and I definitely think my beer turns out much better.

But my main advise, assuming you know the process, is start brew day early. It'll probably take 50% longer than you plan on your first time.

 

Build for the future. If you enjoy big beers like imperial stouts or barleywine you should buy or make the right sized equipment. Also, if you're into double batching, same thing, buy big. Conversely if you go too big you may have too much space in the mash tun, which leads to looooong sparges and stuck sparges due to grain bed depth. I have a 10 gallon mash tun for 5 gallon low gravity beers, and 15 gallon converted kegs for the big jobs.

 

If you're not doing batches larger than 5 gallons, I would highly recommend starting with BIAB. It's a cheap way to get into all-grain, especially if you already have all the right-sized equipment from doing extract brews. It's faster than the traditional mash and lauter setup, and stuck sparges are non-existent. There are probably some down-sides to BIAB depending on what you want to do, but I've not found any yet.

 

Brew in a Bag

 

Been said but if you don't already have your 3 vessels or 2 plus the cooler BIAB is an easy entry. I actually went from a cooler back to BIAB. It is just way easier to hit temps don't have to account for all the loss during transfers. Pretty easy to rig up a little pully to help get the bag out. Can do pretty much whatever a 3 vessel can do and can add some control if you want more precision. I do think the 2 vessel is probably the most efficient when it comes to control, space and ease of use.

 

Just to pile on..I transitioned a couple years ago from extract to all grain using BIAB. I purchased a high quality, 16 gallon SS brew pot, a high quality bag, (which has lasted 30+ brews), and a cheapo pully from Harbor Freight. This setup, along with kegging, has worked well for me and would recommend this path for anyone.

 

Doing a mash for the first time was confusing for me. I feel that it wasn't emphasized enough that you need to throughly stir for a few minutes. A wired thing I ran into: taking a temp on the tip of my igloo cooler yielded incorrect temp. It said it was too low when it was not. I solved this by getting a floating thermometer, and closed the lid and let it sit for a minute. I then got accurate temp results. pH is important, building a water profile; not so much.

 

Watch some all grain videos on Youtube. You'll get to see all of the steps in order and they will make much more sense to you. Get a digital thermometer. The dial thermometer that you've using for baking chicken won't give you the accuracy you want.

 

two major tips, have about 6 hours of killer brewing tunes to listen to while brewing, and don't start drinking too heavy till getting close to clean up. (at least on your first few). Big thing to remember as well, have a blast and don't overthink it, good beer will come!!!!

 

Yes, use your favorite brewing software as a guide and make sure you understand the big picture: separate grain from wort efficiently while keeping temperature controlled and pH reasonable. There are easy ways to do this, but until you've done it, a lot can go wrong...and right if you've planned accordingly.

 

-Pre-heat your mash tun, I've found it much easier to consistently hit my strike temperatures by doing this. I use some or all of my sparge water to do this, which saves time and energy heating sparge water later
-Start with batch sparging. It's simple, effective, and leads to a shorter brew day. If you want to try fly sparging after a few batches, give it a shot and see what you prefer.
-Make your first recipe a simple one with only one temperature rest, a SMASH of some sort is a good option.

 

Start here:

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/how-the-mash-works/an-allegory

 

I've only done all-grain.

Without plowing over ground already covered, the thing that had me the most puckered over the first half dozen batches was getting the volumes of mash and sparge water to add up to the target volume into the boil. Then I bumped into the formulas to calculate that in How to Brew / Palmer. Then I discovered BrewCipher which works it all out for you.

 

Preheating my mash tun is what I wish I had known.

 

I'm trying to remember if I preheated my mash tun... I don't think I ever did, I never had problems hitting mash temps though. My efficiency was pretty good.