taking the step to all grain

All Grain isn't really very hard. Have you read the All Grain section of How to Brew? For me, that was plenty to get started. But if you still feel lost, there are about a million youtube videos on the process. And ask your specific questions here. Also, you'll probably get a ton of tips in this thread, but if you haven't read up on the basics, you may not have the vocabulary to understand what they mean.

 

Just think of it as a really big, one hour, specific temperature grain soak. Just like you have been doing with extract beers with steeping grains.

 

Yep, you can BIAB (brew in a bag) for minimal investment to get your feet wet in all grain brewing. There's not much more to it than that, at least initially. Once you get comfortable in the extra steps, there are always more pieces you can learn about if you choose to do so. Water chemistry was the thing that scared the crap out of me, so I ignored it for my first several batches and still made pretty decent beer.

 

Also if money is a concern I highly recommend using a zapap lauter tun (look it up if you haven't heard of it, basically a bucket with a ton of tiny holes drilled in the bottom inside a bottling bucket). I used this for my first several all grain batches and it worked like a charm. CHeers!

 

That's kinda funny, after 4 years of all grain I can say I have no extract experience whatsoever, but just ordered 2 extract kit to try and see how it gos. be preper to answer some extract question.

All-Grain It's pretty easy (after 10 batches). You may consider do your first batch on a small scale like One gallon Kit.
With 2 years of experience, you all ready know most of it.
So you GTG

 

I hear ya, bro. I bought a Brewers Best BIAB kit, but I'm hesitating on the water question: is it good enough to mash with or does it need supplementation of some sort? I think Saturday I'm just going to go for it.

 

I was scared, but once I made my mash tun, and did one, it was easy. Maybe easier? More fun for sure.

I used an old cooler and some copper pipe. Not too big a deal, really.

 

I just made the jump to 2.5 gallon BIAB, myself, and it hasn't been too painful. I needed to order one $6 bag, which is plenty big for the amount of grain you need for a batch that size, as well as a few small bags of different minerals like gypsum and calcium chloride. I'm also going to get a stainless steel colander to put on the bottom of my brew kettle (10G) so that I can apply direct heat during mashing without melting the bag. Total material investment of about $25 to get started, although I already had a large kettle and a propane burner lying around.

Compared to extract brewing, it takes a hair longer, especially because most people recommend a 90 minute mash for BIAB. Functionally, though, mashing is a very low-intensity process, so I start right after dinner and can do stuff like put my son to bed while the grains soak. I did a batch last Friday, started mashing at 7 PM and was finished (including cleanup) before midnight. I can't comment on the quality of the beer yet, since I've only tasted a single hydrometer sample so far, but it certainly feels more satisfying to do everything from the source. I've brewed this way twice and if the results are good, I may not go back to extract brewing.

 

This is news to me. Any reason why that would be? If too thin of a mash is a concern, part of the volume can be reserved to either mash out or to add at the start of the boil.

 

My (very limited) understanding is that it's to increase your efficiency, since you won't be sparging. Some folks also recommend making the last 20 minutes a mashout at 170F, but I haven't tried that yet. I got 75% efficiency on my first batch with a bit of bag squeezing, which I'm happy with.

 

As long as you have the right equipment to do the job you'll be fine. For my first all-grain brew, I watched this video and pretty much knew what to do afterwards.

 

Since you are brewing small (2.5 gallon) batches another option for you is to mash inside your oven. Use a smaller pot (e.g., 16 quart) that will fit inside your oven and just maintain the oven for the temperature you select (e.g., 150 degrees F). No need to apply direct heat to the mash this way.

I am uncertain whether conducting a 90 minute mash increases efficiency all that much; it is my understanding that the vast majority of the conversion occurs in 30-45 minutes of mashing. Conducting a 90 minute mash certainly will not hurt anything though.

IMO, the ‘best’ way to maximize efficiency for the BIAB method is to very finely crush your grains. The fine crush will optimize conversion and since you are not lautering/sparging, a fine crush will not create any issues.

Cheers!

 

Longer mashes (beyond full conversion) do not increase efficiency. They do increase fermentability though. In other words, the longer mash won't affect your OG, but will affect your FG.

 

Interesting. I can't remember where exactly I first got the idea, but it seems to be something that a lot of BIABers do, though I can't find any hard science to back up the practice. One thing that some have said, which I think makes good sense, is that traditional mashing techniques actually leave the grain in the water for longer than 60 minutes, since they stay in contact with the water during sparging (or is it lautering?). But with BIAB, there isn't really a second step, you just pull the bag and add the drippings back a bit later. From a brew-day perspective, the time I spend mashing is time I couldn't easily do anything else with, so it isn't costing me much to mash for 90 minutes. But if it's having an impact on the fermentability of the wort, then I'll have to reconsider the practice. If my first few beers turn out really dry, I guess I'll have one possible reason why.

 

I can't find (yet) the original post I read about why 90 minutes on a BIAB (as explained by one of the Australians who invented the technique), but I did find this.

 

If in doubt, do an iodine starch test after 60 minutes. If it reads negative, there are no more starches to convert, and the only thing that can happen after that is further breakdown of the dextrins/sugars. But conversion is already done and efficiency is already determined.

 

On a longer than necessary mash, what is the effect? A less malty beer and higher booze factor?

 

Longer mash --> More Fermentable Wort --> Lower FG and Higher ABV

But it shouldn't really affect maltiness (malt flavor) per se. Most malt flavor doesn't come from unfermentable dextrins. But if you interpret sweetness as maltiness, then you would perceive less maltiness.