All grain from the beginning or do a couple of extracts first?

Although I am an inexperienced brewer, and don't do all grain yet, I will play devil's advocate and recommend kit and kilo to start with, here's why:

I started about two months ago with kit and kilo, moved on to kits and bits and just bought a 19L pot to do extract sometime in the future, although I am not in a rush. I think starting with kit helped get a drinkable result with not too much effort, you learn sanitising procedures without too much other stuff to worry about, and you get a feel for how the fermentation, bottling and bottle conditioning processes go.

Here is the order I have done, and what I learned from each brew.

1) Coopers Pale Ale kit

  • Take Original Gravity
  • Watching fermentation phases
  • Taking wort samples and specific gravity readings
  • Priming bottles and bottling
  • Patience while bottles carbonate!
  • Tasting changes in beer from wort to through to bottle conditioning changes week by week
  • Cleaning and storing fermenter and bottles after use
  • Tasting basic kit flavour with just dextrose

2) Coopers Fruit Salad ale : kit + steeped hops

  • Steep hops
  • Storing unused hops in freezer
  • Smelling the difference between hop varieties (Cascade and Amarillo)
  • Used all DME instead of dextrose
  • Learn to get your pitching temperature right!
  • Thoroughly mix ingredients, aerate wort
  • Leave in fermenter for 2 weeks instead of just until fermentation finishes
  • Tasting bitter green beer and seeing it become much better after more time in the bottle
  • Tasting the difference that hops and DME makes to the base kit.

3) Munton's Nut Brown Ale : kit + steeped grain + steeped hops + dry hop

(Not from Coopers but similar steps to this with the addition of 25g Kent Goldings steeped and 25g dry hopped)

  • Steeping grains
  • Doing grain and hop steep at the same time (in different vessels)
  • Maintaining correct temperature during grain steep
  • First encounter with actual wort from steeped grains
  • Smelling an English hop variety in comparison to previous US varieties (Kent Goldings)
  • Keeping cat out of brew room...
  • Dry hopping, learning why people say to use a hop sock...
  • Use of swamp cooler to control fermentation temperature
  • Cleaning and sanitising bottles before re-use

Next will probably be a Fruit Salad Ale again, but I will learn to culture the yeast from the commercial Cooper's bottles, and maybe add a little steeped grain. I would also like to try using some different commercial yeasts rather than the kit yeast. My rule has really been to start as simple as it gets and get a good result with that, then add one technique at a time to make sure I am not overwhelmed. I think repeating a similar recipe with small changes lets you taste the difference that each ingredient makes as well.

It has worked well so far, I have produced a really nice beer already with the Fruit Salad Ale, and things are only looking to get better. The benefit is you start with minimal equipment, and can just add what you need as you go. I am prepared to do extract with just a 19L pot, which only cost me $20, and will even be able to do small BIAB batches with the same vessel and minimal further investment.

I think learning to be patient, plan well and be methodical with the easier stuff is a good basis to build before getting into the more complicated processes and larger investments. At first I was keen to jet in to extract but I have realised that there is a lot to learn at the kits and bits level, and you can definitely make some delicious beers as well. You will probably also appreciate all grain that much more when you eventually get there, too!

/r/Homebrewing Thread