First Brew in 5 months

mangine77 · 09-22-2009, 04:36 PM

Hello,

Doing my first all-grain brew in almost 5 months and I'm wondering what I'm most likely to forget?? I've tried to run through the process in my head but it has been awhile.

Those of you that have taken some time off, what tips do you have and how do you shake off the dust? I'm going to ease back in with a simple American Pale Ale, nothing complicated.

Is it like riding a bike?

OldSole · 09-22-2009, 04:46 PM

Depends how familiar you were with AG before your hiatus. I took a few month long break after my first two AG batches, and completely forgot about the vorlauf on the next one. Beer came out fine though.

Definitely didn't have my technique down before taking that break.

Dougan · 09-22-2009, 10:13 PM

You're going to forget to heat your sparge water.

mthompson · 09-23-2009, 02:05 AM

1. Turn the valves off before adding liquid to your vessels!! (I always dump with that thing pointed at me, one time and you'll never forget again)

2. Print out a brew log, and go over it and over it during the process, it'll tell you what you should be measuring and give you a handy place to write it all down.

Dubcut · 09-23-2009, 02:29 AM

This is just me, but I went the extract/steeping rout last saturday after not brewing for a couple of months and really enjoyed my time. Didn't take a whole day of planning a recipe, preparing the grain and then getting around to actually cooking the beer... Just put a recipe together and made the beer; no need for siphoning the beer anywhere, it was nice. Might be a good way to ease your way back.