Enlighten Me!!!

[MARK123]

Can someone give me the web page for turning the cooler into a mashing machine??? I think I'm ready!!

[brewmonkey]

http://realbeer.com/spencer/cooler-tuns/dh-cooler-mash.html

http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/MashTun.html

http://www.primetab.com/gottmashlautertun.html

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/qarre/gott1.jpg

Just a few I found on google.

[MARK123]

Thanx brewmonkey!!!

[DreamWeaver]

What kinda cooler do ya have? Round, rectangular, Coleman, Gott? 5/10 gallon? I just converted my Gott48Qt rectangular cooler and may be able to help.
-DRWeaver-

[Brownbeard]

This is the setup I just built. I had the cooler already, so the parts cost me about $15 total. The author of this web page was featured in a recent BYO with this setup. It was very easy to make.

http://hbd.org/clubs/cascade/public_html/dennybrew

[MARK123]

Can all grain be THAT much better than extract/partial????...I have brewed some AWESOME beers with extract!!!!!...Waiting for them to mature seems to be a big factor!!..Why is all grain so good???..Isn't extract just a big guy doing the mashing for me???
PS. Dream....I want to get the cooler I need!!

[Tweek]

Originally posted by MARK123
Can all grain be THAT much better than extract/partial????...I have brewed some AWESOME beers with extract!!!!!...Waiting for them to mature seems to be a big factor!!..Why is all grain so good???..Isn't extract just a big guy doing the mashing for me???
PS. Dream....I want to get the cooler I need!!

All grain is just the next step. It will give you complete control over the end product. you can make some way cleaner beers with all grain.

That being said, yes you can make some GREAT beers with extract. And yes it is like some big guy made the wort, reduced it down and gave you your extract. The cincher there is that you have no control over what he/she used to make that wort. Some of it may be subtle, some of it is night and day.

I know a lot of guys who will never go to all grain and make kick ass beers. It is not a necessary step, only one to make if it is where the hobby takes ya.

[DreamWeaver]

I have brewed some good extract beers and won't knock anyone for that. Unless you bought a MR BEER or BEER Machine(heheheh) I won't make fun. But if ya do a 3 gallon boil and add 2 gallons of make up water, you have added water that has'nt had a chance to blend (as hops isomerize ect) with the whole content of the brew. If you can do a full 5 gallon boil, you come closer to Ag and a better beer, but then you are relying on ingrediants. All grain is just one step closer to a perfect beer IMHO. That's my story & I'm stickin to it! :cool:
-DRWeaver-

[MARK123]

Some one needs to send me a hoppy ( cuz thats what i like ) all grain brew to me on my fed ex account, to show me!!!
and I started with mr beer with added stuff to make it good...it was just a 2 gallon fermentor...now i got 6 car car'boys in the closet workin!!

[toneyc]

My hippy friend that critiques all my beers said, when tasting my first AG batch, that this beer didn't have the same sorta metallic twang as the rest of my beers. He doesn't homebrew and he didn't know that it was an all-grain vs extract thing, he just said that up until that point, all my beers had a metallic twang. They weren't bad beers, but you could tell the difference.

:)
Toney.

[Stumptown]

Originally posted by MARK123
Can all grain be THAT much better than extract/partial????

Yes it can. And all grain is so easy too. I was shocked at how much better my all-grain brews were compared to extract. Night and day.

[Tweek]

I had a similar issue when I brewed with Extract. For me it wasnt a mettalic taste, but rather a sweet quality that was very subtle but the same in all of my beers. My friends insisted that they couldnt taste it but I could. I would switch extract companies periodically and the quality of that sweetness would change but it never went away. All Grain took care of that. That is what I meant by a cleaner beer.

[S.F.B.]

I am in agreement with Tweek. I have brewed, IMO, some very good beers with extract. Howevere, they always had a risidual sweetness to them. Not unpleasant but something that I tried like crazy to get rid of. My first AG batch still had the malty flavor but the sweetness was gone. Real clean finish.

I'm not saying everyone needs to brew all grain. It is just another step in the brewing process. Not good or bad. Just different.

[Beerconnoisseur]

...but I actually prefer brewing with extract to brewing AG batches. I do ike my beers to be on the sweeter side, though, and that may have a lot to do with it. Yet the difference just doesn't seem to be that great, unless you have a VERY specific flavor profile you are shooting for.

[Tweek]

Originally posted by Beerconnoisseur
...but I actually prefer brewing with extract to brewing AG batches. I do ike my beers to be on the sweeter side, though, and that may have a lot to do with it. Yet the difference just doesn't seem to be that great, unless you have a VERY specific flavor profile you are shooting for.

Have you tried brewing all grain? You can still make beers as sweet as you want. That is the whole point. Ultimate control. Being happy with your extract brewing and having no desire to switch Ill buy, but prefering it, unless it is a time thing I dont get.

[Stumptown]

"Clean" is actually a very good word for all-grain taste. There is no funky junk in it. Nothing is in the beer that you didn't intentionally put into it. It just tastes clean.

I, too, made some pretty decent extract brews. And all the while my wife kept buying Lagunitas or Bridgeport or whatever every week.

Since I went all grain, the wife hasn't bought a single bottle of commercial beer. She now says my beers are as good or better than anything she can buy in the store. And when it comes to beer, she is one tough customer.

[Caffinehog]

I like all grain because it's a lot cheaper to make your beer. Plus, I can control the body by raising or lowering mash temperature. It also lets you use adjuncts like corn or rice. And I haven't even mentioned the control you have over the grains you use.

[PCaravan]

I too had a residual sweetness to all my extract brews. Don't get me wrong, the extract brews I made were awsome. But there was always that residual taste that I couldn't get rid of... not that it was bad but sometimes it just didn't seem like it belonged and I did do different things to fix it. First, I just tried things like improving fermentation condidtions and changing yeast strains. I then learned that different brands of extracts were different. I had been primarily using Laaglanders DME and it appearantly doesn't ferment out as much as it should due to an abnormally high maltodextrose count. I started using Munton and Fison's LME and it finished out a little better but not a lot. I tried using better O2 tequniques and using yeast nutrients but none of these helped. I've read that the process of concentrating the extract produces more carmelization of the malt and I think that may have contributed to the what I was tasting.

In the end, I've switched to all grain, but it had nothing to do with taste considerations. I just wanted to make beer at a lower cost. I haven't had anything reach maturity yet but tasting of the hydrometer samples of the two batches I've done I can tell that that residual sweetness that all of my extract batches have had is completely gone.

Also, so far my two beers seem to be much clearer that my extract beers and less sediment in the bottle. Next week, I plan on trying a beer and if everything is right, it all goes in the fridge... waiting is sooooo hard!