First all grain!

Just finished my first all grain brew last night and it went fairly well. OK, so my step mash turned pretty much into a infusion mash but it still seemed to work. Most importantly I near enough hit my OG, without adding any DME apart from the starter, which I was worried I wouldn't because of various things.

A couple of things... I started brewing about 1pm and didnt finish til... 11pm! Has anyone else spent this long when they were starting out? Not complaining or anything it was all good fun :rockin:

Also, does anyone use a digital 'meat' thermometer? I had the probe and wire sitting in the mash and I think it's broken; Its readings are now way off. Has this ever happened to anyone?

Congradulations on you first AG. I just did my first last weekend also. And it was fun. As for your meat thermo, they wern't made to be submerged in water and when mine got wet (cleaning in the sink) i put it in the oven at 250 for 30min. and it came back to life. Just don't use a direct flame on it, like a match or lighter etc.
Hope this helps.

Jim

KA6GZJ said:

As for your meat thermo, they wern't made to be submerged in water and when mine got wet (cleaning in the sink) i put it in the oven at 250 for 30min. and it came back to life. Just don't use a direct flame on it, like a match or lighter etc.

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Right. You have to make sure that the braided part of the probe doesn't get wet. You can submerge the tip of the probe with no problems, just not the braided cord.

-walker

mysterio said:

A couple of things... I started brewing about 1pm and didnt finish til... 11pm!

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thats not all that bad, you should be able to shave a few hours off that, the more batches you make, the more efficient youll get.

it depends on your set up too, if i mash on my electric stove it takes like 60 min. to reach 130F , but my propane burner can hit the mash/strike temp in about 10-15 minutes

i like mashing on my stove though, i dont even have to watch it... just wait, and wait, and wait, then wait some more, take a shower, still wait, read a novel, still wait, learn how to speak russian, wait some more...

Yeah. I'm not sure how to put quotes into boxes, but I would definately echo some of the other responses here... we all have stories about our early brewing. One of mine includes not only ten hours for a batch (extract at that) but also a six- hour road trip, a redefinition of home, and an experiment in the dark world of....

Well, all I can say now is, keep mulling over your brewing process, take in all the advice you can, and don't be afraid to reinvent what you see... according to your own needs (and, of course, your taste in beer)

Happiness to your yeast, jp

Welcome to the dark side!

With more batches, you'll be able to get the time involved down a bit, but even then it does take a while from start to finish.

Thanks for the encouragement, my all-grain hefeweizen is bubbling away and smelling great! I'm going to give it a week in primary and secondary respectively, then bottle it for one more. Does that sound reasonable for a hefeweizen?

I tried the oven trick and the thermo is a bit better, seems to be getting more accurate now.

Congrats on the all grain leep. As for the brewing of a Hefe... need I repeat myself?

Actually, I would probably never have brewed a hefeweizen had I not heard it mentioned on here so much. Then I tried a really excellent one in a brewpub and asked the brewer for some tips, so that clinched it. Plus, it's relatively cheap and fast.

Just racked this to the secondary after an open fermentation and had to fit a blow off tube a few hours later... this WLP300 yeast is an odd breed, indeed.

I just brewed my first all grain this weekend, also a hefeweizen. I used a turkey fryer pot with propane tank ($80 at Amazon) and it was very, very fast. I started around 8:00 a.m. and finished around 2:00 p.m. (including clean up). I don't have a wort chiller yet, just filled the tub with cold water and some ice and it cooled down pretty quick, like a half hour. All in, I was pretty surprised at how it went (thought it would be a lot harder). I didn't quite boil down the wort to 5 gallons, so I did have overflow problem. Of course, time will tell how it comes out...

My next one will be a Belgian Strong Golden Ale. Anyone have any thoughts on my first higher gravity beer?

Jeff

Way to go. That's fantastic that you made the leap. Take notes, and eventually you will get it dialed in to around 5 hours once your efficency improves.

You are already on your way to making a first rate product!

JeffNYC said:

My next one will be a Belgian Strong Golden Ale. Anyone have any thoughts on my first higher gravity beer?
Jeff

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Aerate the hell out of the wort prior to pitching, and make a BIG starter...like 3-4 qts...And of course pick a good yeast!

Let us know how the Belgian strong ale goes. I'm going to go a couple of pale ales then have a stab at a Belgian style stong ale like Duval or Leffe.

Also looking at cheap fridges on ebay so I can try an Oktoberfest or something... no doubt i'll wake up one morning realising I've won an auction and have to drive 300 miles to pick it up :cross: