A BRIEF DEFINITION OF ALL-GRAIN BREWING
All-grain kits are ingredient kits designed with the advanced homebrewer in mind. They do not contain any malt extract, but instead the homebrewer extracts the sugars from the barley himself. This requires a much greater amount of time, equipment, and experience than many homebrewers have.
The processes involved are "mashing"--the breakdown of the grain's starches into sugars by a carefully controlled steeping process, and "sparging" or "lautering"--the controlled rinsing of the grains to wash the sugars away from the husks, thereby creating �wort.� If this wort were dehydrated into a thick syrup or powder, it would then be called "malt extract", the main ingredient that most homebrewers use regularly to brew their beer. It is only after mashing and sparging is completed that the all-grain brewer begins the boiling process that extract brewers are familiar with.
Although some commercial breweries brew with malt extracts, the vast majority go through the mashing and sparging proccesses on the large scale required for commercial operation. The disadvantages of duplicating this process at home are the time required (at least 4 hours) on brew day and the extra equipment and attention necessary for successful all-grain brewing. However, most grain brewers would agree that brewing from grains has rewards that are well worth the extra effort. The appeal for the homebrewer is the "from scratch" nature of all-grain brewing, allowing for complete control of every phase of the brewing process. Additionally (as you may note below), the cost of ingredients is greatly decreased when the brewer does his own "extracting."
If you have further questions about all-grain brewing or are curious to find out what equipment is necessary, feel free to contact us.