Home Brewing and the All Grain Brewing Revolution

Commercial and craft brewing have taken great strides in the United States over the last three decades, and the home beer brewer has moved right along with them. In fact home brewing has often been the driving force behind the myriad of beer styles that have appeared on the market.

There are hundreds of stories of home brewers who have turned a hobby into a job, and in the process, have brought excellent beer to the masses who subsisted on the yellow, fizzy stuff for far too long. The newly developed national beer tastes have caused the home brewing hobby to take off in the US, and while some home brewers are happy to share simple ales they made themselves with their friends, some want to take it to the highest level. The highest level of the hobby is all grain brewing.

Home brewers can be characterized by the methods they use. As with most hobbies, home brewers usually begin at the easier, less expensive level, then evolve as their success and interest grows to more complex methods and more expensive equipment that results in better beer.

Most home brewers will enter the hobby as an extract brewer. Beer, for those new to the hobby, is normally made from malted grain, water, hops, and yeast. Very simply put, sugars are extracted from the grain by water, hops are added to offset the sweetness, and then the yeast does its job by converting the sugar to alcohol. Several companies produce the syrupy, concentrated malt extract for home brewers to make the process easier, which involves simply mixing the extract with water, boiling it, adding hops, and pitching yeast. Very high quality beer can be made using packaged malt extract, and many home brewers are happy to “extract brew” for many years. Some of the upsides to extract brewing include overall convenience, time conservation, and the ability to make beer with very little investment in equipment. An extract brewer can make a batch on his or her kitchen stove.

On the other side of the coin, extract brewing limits the types or styles of beer the home brewer can produce. Many extract brewers will add variety to their brews by steeping grains or using a method called partial mash. Steeping grains involves adding grains to brew water in a bag (like a teabag) and holding them at a certain temperature. The process of steeping grains does not add any fermentable sugar to the process, but it does provide additional body, flavor, and color to a beer beyond what the packaged extract can generate. Partial mash is a step beyond steeping, as the home brewer adds a small amount of crushed malt to water in order to actually extract sugars. This extraction, or wort, is then added to the packaged extract. Partial mashing is an intermediate process that allows the brewer more control over the finished product’s flavor and color without the investment of time and equipment required for all grain brewing.

For those home brewers who want more creativity and control over the styles of beer they make, all grain brewing is the way to go. All grain brewing is the process used by commercial and craft breweries to go from “grain to glass.” While extract brewers are offered only a handful of base malts, all grain brewers can choose from dozens. all grain brewers can copy virtually any beer style on the planet, and also create their own.

The fundamental technical difference in the all grain brewing process is that all the wort, or unfermented beer, is produced by the home brewer by crushing malted grain and running water through it. The ability to produce all the wort used in the brew offers the homebrewer ultimate control over how the finished beer will look, smell, and taste. When considering ingredients for different recipes, all grain batches cost significantly less than packaged extract batches. Of course, dealing with larger amounts of wort (both boiling it and cooling it down) will more than likely require the purchase of additional equipment. The process also takes more time, extending an extract brew session from a couple hours to an entire day. Some all grain brewers get into the hobby for less than a hundred dollars, while some brewers invest thousands of dollars into their equipment. Like any hobby, you can put in as much time, money, and interest as you want.

If you are interested in learning more about the technical points of all grain brewing, or if you are ready to make the evolutionary leap from extract brewer, see our page, The Basics of All Grain Brewing.  Be sure to check out our guide on Ceramic Grills too!