Advice for a first time homebrewer?

that'd work! My first all grain batch was in a Chicago apartment. I didn't have a plan for the grain. heh, I thought I'll just throw it outside and the birds or some such will eat it. I have to say, no, not them. but... I think I attracted rats. :-( The current compost method works reasonably well. Other home brewers have found ways to dispose (some sprinkle it loosly on their gardens, or some such thing, right before planting I might do that.) Composting isn't the worst solution, but it's certainly not the best.

Once I thought I'd dry it in my oven for spent grain goodies (since i bake), heh... 4 days later... I was still drying.

Like I said I jump into the deep end.

 

I started brewing last October and and it was all grain from the start. I can say that from the first batch of beer I brewed to the batch I brewed a few weeks ago, nothing has been undrinkable, and a couple of them were outstanding. It really wasn't that hard to learn and pick up the fundamentals using the above mentioned books and also internet websites such as this one. Brewing all grain was not a very hard thing to pick up and I personally think it does a disservice to tell new brewers that they shouldn't try all grain and to stick to extract when they're starting out. If you've got the bug to start brewing why not learn how to brew AG from the beginning? Other than needing to purchase a MT and learning the mashing and sparging processes it's really not that hard a thing to get the hang of. Not to mention when buying ingredients, grain costs are going to be much more favorable than buying DME and LME. I realize not everyone is going to feel that way but it just seems to me that there's this prevailing attitude that you HAVE to start with extract or you're going to fail miserably and in my situation I found that to not be the case at all.

 

"I would not try all grain until you're comfortable with the initial steps of brewing."

However you want to get comfortable, and have worked out all the steps you need to do, purchasing the extra equipment, and the clean up, and the disposal (which is a consideration, especially if you pay for your waste removal). then, that's fine.

But, there's also this incredibly unnecessary attitude about all grain vs extract that all grain is better. And, that's not true. And, I think that does a disservice to extract brewers (be they professional or home).

 

and another comment, it's pretty hard to make undrinkable beer if you're not adding weird stuff or getting contamination. You can generally rest assured that if it's not contaminated and you haven't decided to try a bacon jasmine wit you'll have drinkable beer.

 

I am doing my first batch this Saturday... Decided to go right to all grain. I spent a few months researching and learning the process, so I feel quite confident. I am excited for my first! My brew kettle just came in yesterday and I got the ball valve and thermometer installed... Now I just need to run to the store and get the proper sized bazooka tube (accidently grabbed the wrong NPT size, didn't know they have different ones...).. The one in my mash tun was correct, but the second one I bought was wrong.

 

I think it's fair to say that All Grain is better, as long as we say what we mean by better. You pretty much covered it in your other post above... added control. (I'd add water profile flexibility to your list.) If the kind of control enabled by All Grain brewing is important to the brewer, then it's better in that respect.

 

I made some dog biscuits after the brew this weekend but this only used up 5% of my spent grains.

The dogs did appreciate the effort.

 

Isnt grain free the new fad in dog diets? Seems the complete opposite

 

4 observations: In addition to the added control in all-grain , there is the greater flexibility of ingredients, ...I'm assuming whoever made the extract did an above average job of it...a few beer styles don't even benefit tangibly from going all-grain...and chickens do indeed love spent grain : )

 

Grain makes my dog puke. He has a hard time digesting it. He hasn't puked once since I switched to grain free food two years ago.