So far, all of my batches have been extract-based. I have been wanting to move into all-grain brewing, not necessarily because I buy into anti-extract snobbery, but because I want to play around with grains a little more and learn how to make beer from scratch. As they say: it’s one thing to make the soup, it’s another to make the stock.
A few things were holding me back though: I don’t have room for much more equipment, I don’t have the option of brewing outside, and I’m limited to the volume I can boil on my stovetop. I knew that the main process I had to negotiate was mashing the grains, and the more I learned, the closer I realized that I already was—I was already steeping grains, and mashing grains is really only different in time and temperature. So I started to collect information about how I could do all-grain on my stovetop using the equipment I already had.
I noticed that Charlie Papazian mentioned mashing in a grain bag in his book, and once I found this thread, it was a done deal. I decided to set up a simple all-grain process using two pots, two grain bags, and not much else. Because I can’t fit tons of grain in my brewpots, and because I can’t boil down 7 gallons of wort, my all-grain batches will have to be cut in half. No worries though. I’m not too concerned about yields—I’m starting to brew faster than I can drink anyway.