With my first extract brewing kit nearing the bottling stage, I’ve been giving some thought to trying the all-grain approach to brewing. I’ve looked on numerous websites and forums for information on getting started (without getting confused) and at this point, I’m leaning towards sticking with the extract kits.

I did find a web-based book by John Palmer, where he talks about the all-grain brewing process and ALL of the chemistry behind it [it was almost like reading a college textbook], but it sort of left me drowning in information overload. Granted, I’ll give him credit for providing comprehensive and detailed information for the advanced brewmasters, but it was overwhelming for me.

There are added steps involved in all-grain brewing and also requires additional investment in equipment — the investments aren’t that bad, but it’s the fact that there are also more opportunities for user error that intimidates me from venturing into the all-grain world. Adding to the user-error factor, it also requires a heckuva lot more space. For a five-gallon brew, you need about a nine-gallon boiling pot (with plenty of overhead) — and if you’ve seen our kitchen, we really don’t have a lot of space. The only way to get around that is to set up a propane system… and I’m not quite ready to go that far just yet. So I may stick with the extract kits for the next several rounds of brewing and perhaps I’ll be comfortable enough with the brewing process to try an all-grain or partial mash kit.

I was originally going to try the Oatmeal Stout, but that isn’t available as an extract kit. So instead this time around, I’m going to try the Dark Cherry Stout or the Honey Brown Ale extract kit from Northern Brewer. It sounds like a pretty interesting brew.

January 28, 2006, 12:29 pm

Filed under: Mmm...Beer

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