Obligatory first AG post.

I brewed my first AG the other day, and everything went swimmingly.

It's pretty much BM's centennial blonde, but tweaked a little bit, and with extra grains (I assumed poor efficiency, but was pleasantly surprised.)

9# 2 row
.5# victory
.5# cara vienna
.5 oz centennial (9%) (60 mins)
.25 oz centennial (20 mins)
.25 oz centennial (5 mins)
4 quarter sized slices of ginger (10 mins)

I did a single temperature infusion mash for 60 minutes at 152, which only dropped to 151 by the end, before draining + sparging.

I let it chill overnight, then opened up the kettle spigot and drained into a 6gal BB. I've got about 5.25 gallons in there now, with a packet of notty.

I estimated I'd get around 65% efficiency, but came out around 75%, so the OG is a little higher (1.046).

It was surprisingly simple and straightforward, and certainly less of a hassle than stovetop extract batches in my 5 gallon aluminum kettle. I even had time to brew up an identical batch today (though I adjusted the grains a bit, and came in at 1.041 FG.

anyway, picture time...

the old kettle still has it's uses.


waiting for the mash/eating the mash paddle.


the porch beer fridge is an essential part of my brewing system. recirculating wort.


hop additions/ginger slices, arranged after several pints.


assistant brewer otis, responsible for additions of flavoring hair.


boil boil, toil and trouble...


brewing in an early afternoon thunderstorm... i love my porch.


measuring final volume with appropriately notched kebab stick thing.


life is good.




did i mention that i'm officially re-hooked on brewing?

cheers, HBT. thanks for all the help.

I like your porch, too. barefoot brewing is brave(stupid?) but I have been known to do it.

Nice day! The pic of the "hop smiley face" made me laugh out loud, as well as the caption with the dog photo. I may have to steal that line!

Congrats on a good brew day.

BTW, I'm right up the road in Hamden. If you're "missing" anything from your porch fridge, it weren't me. lol

I'll be doing my first AG this coming Sunday. woot

Sweet mustache

Looks like fun.

haha, the feet and mustachio both made it safely through.

the fridge has some (going stale) birthday cake and 5 leftover redstripes, however they'll likely be gone by the end of the night.



AG is fun, sadly this will be my last brew session for about a year

bottleopener said:

I brewed my first AG the other day, and everything went swimmingly.

Click to expand...

Nicely done.

BTW, do not pour hot water/wort/sparge on your bare feet. Don't ask me how I learned this.

these days I brew in those Croc things. Comfortable, light, have traction, and hoseable offable. If that makes sense.

No more brewing for a year??

Yeah, I'm off to teach english in china. Just under a month left stateside.


Incidentally, my carboy is absolutely exploding right now. the krauzen blew off the tin foil, and made a massive bubble-fortress on top of the carboy.

i wiped ot off, went upstairs for a few minutes, and another one was already in the works.

i knew i should've gotten a tube for blowoff...

Holy attenuation, batman!

OG: 1.045
FG: 1.005

88.4% apparent. I like mashing.