Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Why And How Brewing With All Grain Kits Is Great

By Peter Martin


Hail the magical golden fluid of conversation also known as beer. It is so good a whole month is dedicated to celebrate its existence. If one is really an aficionado of beer, over time brewing a personal crafted beer may not be so far fetched of an idea. Brewing, after all, is an art and a science.

There are two ways of brewing beer. That is extract brewing and all grain. While malt extract is a great way to learn how to start brewing, all grain on the other hand is for those who are really taking the whole beer thing seriously. All grain kits are required for the latter method.

This way of making beer is a smaller way of making the beverage all the way starting from the grain. It is like a smaller way of how the big manufacturers do it. Admittedly, there is an investment involved in setting up the kit since there are specific instruments needed to accomplish the task. It will all be worth it once the perfect craft beer has been made.

There are no preprocessed ingredients involved in this method. The grains solely produce the sugars and malt. This provides the brewer freedom to dictate the texture and flavor which is why most experts brew this way. The risk is having a whole batch and batches of trial and error, if one is still a beginner in this method.

There are a number instruments and supplementary instruments that are needed for this. Imagine a bigger chemistry set. A mash tun with a false bottom, a boil kettle and a hot liquor tank are the main components comprising the set. Supplementary tools include stands, a thermometer and more.

First is the mash. This is the adding up of total pounds of grain that needs to be used. When filling the mash tun with water from a source, it is recommended to use a carbon activated filter to remove any chlorine or other substances that may affect the taste of the beer. Mash temperature also plays a huge role in the overall outcome of the drink.

Temperature plays a large part in the final outcome. 148 to 152 degrees produces a dryer beer while a high 154 to 158 produces one with a maltier flavor. For a compromise, the mid range of 151 to 154 is a great range. When adding the grains to the water, there should be a nine to fifteen temperature drop due to the grains sitting in room temperature. It is important to remember that grains are supposed to be added to water and not the other way around so that there will be no dough balls.

The wort that the initial mash produces is then recirculated into the top of the grain bed. This help clear up the run off from the mash. This process is repeated until the runoff is nearly free from visible debris, then we can now proceed to the next step.

The sparge is essentially rinsing off the mash for the sugars to go into the boil kettle. This process goes at about 45 to 60 minutes. Make sure that there is excess water. There is a calculation to have the right ratio between the grain, sugars and water. During this process the temperature should stay at 170 degrees and should go no higher. At the end of this step there should be around one to two gallons of wort more than the expected final amount.




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