All Grain Vs Kit?

[Rick]

I'll have to agree with the love afair part. As for I have to get my grain mailed to me or pick it up when in Adilaide but regaurdless I dont think I will ever do a kit again. I also dont realy see thepoint of doing parcials when all your doing is leaving out one ingredeant, might as well go all the way but thats up to you and what equipment and time you have access to.

 

[tangent]

music to my ears Rick.
Partials are ruining a real beer with extract. There's no point when a real beer can be made easily at home without loads of equipment.
Look hard enough and someone on here even made an AG batch in a coffee plunger. Not enough to fill a keg but it's 100% AG beer.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I'd like to try an all grain brew - i've only ever used kit beer - what are the benifits of all grain?
Please excuse me if this is a dumb question.... i am blonde

Bek

The benefits are that " you made it all yourself, and you know exactly what went into it"

Bit like buying bread from the shop..or spending all day making it from scratch and knowing that all the hard work was all yours.

It is not a difficult thing to do, BUT I would strongly recommend that you go and watch someone do a full AG, ask 50,000 questions whilst doing so and get ready for the life changing event that is called "Your first AG berr"

 

[blackbock]

music to my ears Rick.
Partials are ruining a real beer with extract. There's no point when a real beer can be made easily at home without loads of equipment.

Once you start getting into high gravity beers, the differences between AG and extract start to diminish, I think. How many RIS recipes out there call for ALL grain? And what about barley wine? Personally I couldn't tell the difference between an AG barley wine and an extract/partial mash version. They both taste just as sickly!

 

[Rick]

THe best way to get into AG is to read How To Brew and then start brewing, make mistakes and learn. Ive made alot of mistakes so foar but nothing that wasnt drinkable, and I learn some thing new with every batch. Have fun with it.

 

[hairofthedog]

I'd like to try an all grain brew - i've only ever used kit beer - what are the benifits of all grain?
Please excuse me if this is a dumb question.... i am blonde

Bek

give a brew in a bag a go bek its the easyist & quickest way to get into ag & the benefits r endless totally fresh beer heaps more flavor & the worst ag u ever do will kill anything u can make with a can

 

[paterson2929]

If all you have ever eaten is McDonalds, then McDonalds tastes good. Once you have eaten at a good restaurant a few times, your tastes buds get educated. You can still eat McDonalds, but you taste the flaws and short comings.
You can still get bad all grain beer (go to a club competition and see what I mean), but it is usually fresher, tastier and without the kit beer extract 'twang'.
Horse for courses. All Grain is not for everyone. It takes a lot of time and is outrageously addictive.

McDonalds : Nice Analogy

 

[tangent]

your beers will cost $ more per glass than kits....

I disagree. I've made VERY cheap AG beers with Coopers yeast, high a/a hops and cheap ale malt. Cheaper than buying tins of goo and a better beer.

 

[geoffi]

If you buy grain in bulk, it is much cheaper than kits/extract.

If you take into account the extra time it takes, of course, that makes things different. But do you want great beer or not? If your answer is yes, but your time is too short or too valuable to allow AG, forget cans and go with wort kits.

 

[MVZOOM]

I've only done maybe 20 AG's, but ALL of them have been better than my best partial / extact / kit beer. Even the crap ones have been very good. It really is a different plane of result.

Think Ikea shelving unit vs solid wood cabinet, made by a very motivated and skilled amatuer......

 

[geoff_tewierik]

Think Ikea shelving unit vs solid wood cabinet, made by a very motivated and skilled amatuer......

So which is the better one?

Ikea is only as good as the person putting it all together

 

[MVZOOM]

So which is the better one?

Ikea is only as good as the person putting it all together

I'm sure you understand where I'm trying to get to...

 

[sanders4_]

Bek, the proof is in the pudding. Try and track someone down that has an AG brew on tap, and give it a try. I tried an AG pilsner someone had and it blew me away. So fresh and good. That was the turning point for me, so try some.

Grain will cost you a bit more UNLESS your local homebrew shop has reasonable prices on grain OR you get set up for milling grain and buy in bulk.

For me, I wanted to try it out, and didn't want to buy a mill straight up. It is cheaper to get cracked grain sent from QLD, with postage costing around $10 a brew (less for multiple orders of course) then it is to buy locally.

Just try AG beer and you'll have your decision.

Sanders

 

[troydo]

I went to the july Qld Case swap and since then i have Canned my cans and brewed 5 AG recipes, i have a 6th batch of grain on the way and i have a mill coming end of jan... sooo GOOD! sooo Addictive,,,, you will want to try everey recipe ever!

 

[bear09]

Good beer costs money. There is no way around this if you want truly good - great beer. Premium crafted beer costs $70 a slab. 35% of this is tax and 15% is profit for the brewer(and they deserve it because of this: "Berr is the easiest drink in the world to make but the hardest drink in the world to make properly"). This leaves $35 left over for 24 beers. I have found that I can get this down to about $25 for 24 beers. Now for those of you who say "screw that - he is crazy" - you still have much to learn. Home brewing craft beers should not be about making 60 stubbies for 10c a bottle. Its those people who ruin home brew and give it a shocking reputation. Beer made that cheaply tastes horrible. I meet people who rave about it - they have not developed their taste properly.

For me to make 24 high quality All Grain beers is costs over a dollar a bottle. This is still very cheap in my opinion. I could get this down using cheaper yeast and upping my batches but I only make 25 bottles at a time (smallies). You need top quality grain and hops. You need filtered treated water - PH tested. You need all the right nutrients and clearing agents. You need to be meticulous when brewing; time, temp, water amounts, cleanliness everything needs to be watched and you need to take your time. Rush a sparging/lautering session and you will pay later. I could go on for hours.

All grain can be set up for $100 but I have spent about $450. I have full control over everything and the beer in the end is utterly superior. All grain is highly addictive and you will never go back to the horrible 'twang' of kit beers.

Enjoy.

 

[troydo]

ag setup doesn't cost much to setup.. just need a fermenter and a boiler.. use the fermenter as the mashtun and a few pots on ths stove as your HLT, the only cost is a boiler and if you keep your eyes open you can get one cheap/free

 

[Lukes]

I'd like to try an all grain brew - i've only ever used kit beer - what are the benifits of all grain?
Please excuse me if this is a dumb question.... i am blonde

Bek

Try one of the fresh wort kits. :chug: they are a dark side welcomer.
No shortage of retail members of this forum who make em and sell them online and in home brew shops around the country.

(Bek you have no location filled in your info so I don't know the close one to U).

- Luke

 

[Adzmax]

I'd like to try an all grain brew - i've only ever used kit beer - what are the benifits of all grain?
Please excuse me if this is a dumb question.... i am blonde

Bek

Apart from the obvious factor of setup cost I don't think you can compare a kit beer to a AG beer and I simply don't care what others say. No matter how many kit brews I try (brewed by myself and others) they simply DO NOT taste as good as AG. AG tastes like beer, kit tastes like home brew. I think that's probably the easiest way to explain it. Also there is sooo much more variety with AG, you're not restricted by extracts etc.

AG scared the crap out of me before hand but I'm on my 5 or 6th now and my beer's never been better and it's pretty darn easy. My 1st AG tasted better than ANY kit I'd ever done :icon_drool2:

 

[braufrau]

I disagree. I've made VERY cheap AG beers with Coopers yeast, high a/a hops and cheap ale malt. Cheaper than buying tins of goo and a better beer.

My colleague is very proud of the fact that he can make beer for 15c a stubby with a kit and 1.5kg of sugar.
The result is :icon_vomit: but he's happy.

Can you beat 15c a stubby, $9, total?

 

[troydo]

My colleague is very proud of the fact that he can make beer for 15c a stubby with a kit and 1.5kg of sugar.
The result is :icon_vomit: but he's happy.

Can you beat 15c a stubby, $9, total?

bottle of metho and tap water...

tastes just as bad!