Thinking of All Grain Brewing

As I'm finding recipes on the Internet, it seems that most of them are all grain recipes. This means that instead of using a dried malt extract, the malt for the beer is extracted from malted barley grains. This adds an extra step in the brewing process. With extract brewing, you make a tea of specialty grains. With all grain brewing, the "tea" is ramped up with lots of malted barley and the tea is left to steep longer at precisely controlled temperatures. Malted barley has enzymes that will convert its own starch into simple sugars. With the right conditions, these enzymes will convert most of the barley starch into malt for the beer.

With this extra step comes extra equipment. I'll need a mash tun, the vessel for steeping the malted barley grain. There are several designs on the internet, and I've decided to convert a 5 gallon igloo cooler into a mash tun. I can also use this mash tun to steep my specialty grains during extract brewing. I'll post a youtube video of someone making an igloo mash tun shortly.

I'll also need a way to cool the wort that is more efficient than putting it in an ice bath in the sink. When you are brewing an all grain beer, it is more important to cool the wort down quickly than with extract brewing. I bought an immersion chiller from the homebrew store to do this.

Because I'll have to boil up to 7 gallons of wort with all grain brewing, I'll need a bigger brewpot. I found an old beer keg on craigslist for $20. I bought it, and cut the top of it off to make a 15 gallon brew kettle. I'll use a propane burner to heat it up.