What was your very first All Grain Beer

As I get myself set up for my first All Grain brew I started to think of what I wanted to brew. I haven't decided yet, but I wanted to see what all you people started with and how it turned out. Anything funny happen during the brew or was it smooth as silk.

My first AG beer was this APA.

It actually went very smoothly. I was kindof anal about preparing: I did dry runs of all of the gear, and so on. The beer was actually one of my best ever.

Also, I did it on a weekday that I had arranged to be home. Since everyone else was at work or school, it was a very relaxing environment for my first AG attempt. I highly recommend that approach.

Vanilla Caramel Milk Ale. Can't wait to see how it turns out. I need to rack it real soon and take a test sip.

Papa Charlie's Good Life Pale Ale.

Should have been Cheese's first AG, too...

cweston said:

My first AG beer was this APA.

It actually went very smoothly. I was kindof anal about preparing: I did dry runs of all of the gear, and so on. The beer was actually one of my best ever.

Also, I did it on a weekday that I had arranged to be home. Since everyone else was at work or school, it was a very relaxing environment for my first AG attempt. I highly recommend that approach.

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Ah, Take a day off to brew. Got to love that.

German Pilsner.......wrong choice for the first! multi-step mash, filled the mashtun w/ incorrect water infusion calcs, had to do crash course in decoction, FB was not mounted happily and it clogged three times. scary stuff. agree w/ bird, papa charlie's good life woulda been a safer choice.

Mine was an AHS Kolsch. Had a stuck sparge as the silicon tubing came off the ball valve. What a disaster. I dumped in 6# of 7 year old German Pilsener LME from Williams Brewing. It made for a big beer at 7.5%, but folks sure liked it.

Since then, I moved from a 5 gallon cooler to a 10 gallon and I now use a stainless braid. No more stuck sparges.

An IPA. Doesn't matter what your efficiency is, how fermentable it is, or where the malt notes hit: dry hop with 2 ounces of Cascades & you've got an IPA!

[I think we used about 7 ounces total in that batch]

the_bird said:

Papa Charlie's Good Life Pale Ale.

Should have been Cheese's first AG, too...

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Hey Bird, did you get a promotion? and so did Yooper Chick.

My first is the Dogfish 60 minute clone that I bottled before I went on vacation. When I get home, I'm having one. Planning on having my first one tomorrow night! I figured (as David mentioned) that an IPA is probably the most forgiving beer. Too bitter, cover it with dry hopping. Too dry, cover it with more dryhopping. Too sweet, well, you get the idea. It did finish lower than I anticipated, at 1.008. Still, I think it'll be a good beer!

My first was the 'Company red' demo recipe that comes with promash. It's actually an awesome beer. Hmmm, I know what I'm doing next!

I made the mistake of trying something too big; a Wee Heavy. Too much grain for my first try. I only ran off 6 gallons for the boil, which was nowhere near what I needed.

Keep it simple, as stated above. Go with a APA or IPA. I have done 3 pale ales since my first AG and they have all come out a bit dry, but I tend to like them that way. I always dry hop my pales, so the beers are excellent in flavor and aroma.

With a little luck, and some planning, we'll be attempting our first AG this weekend.

We're doing an Irish red, the recipe was conceived last night in bed with the help of Beersmith (how's that for a threeway? LOL) which seems like it should be a simple, straightforward brew for our first AG.

I'll post the recipe for critique in a bit.

Now I just need to finish the cooler conversion, and make sure we've got a big enough brew pot, and finalize the grain bill and, and, and, and ...

My first was a big Belgian dubbel. Gave my 12G tun a run for it's money. Turned out awesome after 3 months in the bottle though.

Bombshell Blonde Ale

I did alot of blondes when I first went AG so I could easily taste any mistakes I was making

Chimone said:

I did alot of blondes when I first went AG

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Ahhh, the glory days. I did a lot of blondes back then, too, my man. Brunettes, too. Good times, good times.

Fiery Sword said:

Ahhh, the glory days. I did a lot of blondes back then, too, my man. Brunettes, too. Good times, good times.

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rofl

good one

Scottish Ale. Everything went smoothly just as the beer going down. Got alot of great reviews from family members that like darker beers.

Did a robust porter. Turned out great despite my nearly frantic state throughout the process. In hindsight, I guess I did three things wrong.

1. I did NOT relax
2. I did worry
3. I did NOT have a homebrew

Won't be making those mistakes again (I hope)

I made what was supposed to be an Irish red ale, but added way too much roasted barley, and it looks more brown than red. I used an Irish ale yeast and managed to get crazy levels of attenuation (like 83%), but that's because I mashed a little too low. The brew itself went very well, though.

FWIW, I think all red ales are more reddish brown (or copper colored if they are lighter).

I did a robust porter, recipe in my sig... turned out real well (I think) its still in secondary but smells and tastes GREAT! Followed immediately with a Hefeweizen, which is bottled and will be tasted on St. Patty's day.. sample tasted excellent.

Oatmeal Stout. I was worried about lautering problems but everything went great! Great beer too.

Guess..............




Hobgoblin

I did one of the simple English Bitter recipes in one of Papazian's books. Very straight forward, probably only 7-8 lbs of grain total, a little crystal malt and fuggles and EKG. I still love the style for its flavor and simplicity.

Chimone said:

Bombshell Blonde Ale

I did alot of blondes when I first went AG so I could easily taste any mistakes I was making

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We are talking about beer. Right

I did a Diamond Knot IPA clone from a local brewery with great beer. It went easier than I thought; I had read up on all grain so much I thought it would be more complicated than it actually was. Turned out pretty good thanks to an instruction sheet I wrote up before hand outlining the steps needed. It takes me a good 7 hours from setup to cleanup, and after that you might wonder why do it, but after chilling out with a couple homebrews I found myself formulating my next brew session. Have fun!

Well, sit back sonny and I will tell you. It was back in 1979 I think (I was "experimenting" back then so I can't say for sure). There wasn't much going on in the way of home brewing in Oklahoma and so it was by hook or by crook for me. I was at the University of Tulsa, and a professor told me what to do. I had made two batches of extract brews already and thought I was hot ****. I used 10 pounds of malted barley from a healthfood store. Crushed it in a hand crank coffee grinder. I mashed it in a pot of hot water and poured the mess through a colander, rinsing the grains with a tea kettle's worth of boiling water. Boiled the liquid with 3 pounds of table sugar and some hops from the same healthfood store (no idea what kind). Added some molasses for color and topped of with tap water a left soaking in the sink over night. Pitched with a package of "dry brewers yeast" from the same healthfood store. Fermented it in the cooking pot. I bottled it with talbe sugar, a spoonful per bottle. Capped it and drank it in a few days. I thought it was great, although I remember it being strange tasting and my friends not wishing to have any. I think my beer has improved over the years. Well, at least my equipment has. Damn, that means I have been brewing for 27 or 28 years.

I've been waiting to do my first AG since Jan., I've built a immersion chiller and it's been sittin' waiting for me!!! I'll be doing it this weekend, a simple SNPA style ale. Can't wait

Our first Ag brew was a Bock. Our verison of Mich's Amber Bock. Came out nicely, good color and taste. After 20+ brews, it is one of the best beers we made yet.

Brewpastor said:

Well, sit back sonny and I will tell you. It was back in 1979 I think (I was "experimenting" back then so I can't say for sure). There wasn't much going on in the way of home brewing in Oklahoma and so ....

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Can you post that recipie?

Great story

My first brew ever, which was all-grain, was a Fullers ESB clone. The day of, I realized how unprepared I was, having to figure out how to measure my water, having to boil a bunch of water, and so on. I had a thin mash because I GUESSED at the strike temp to get at the right mash in, and had to keep adding boiling water to get up to temp. So, around 8 o clock that night (started at 10 am), I was finished. Alas, I didnt know how smack paks worked, and only smacked it about 1 hour before pitching. This would have been bad enough, if it wasnt that persnickity 1968 ESB Yeast. Well, after 3 DAYS, fermentation started.

What did I end up with 2 months later? A phenolic, marker tasting, wild yeast infected beer. O well. At least its 6% ABV, if I could only get it down.

Not knowing yet my yeast was bad, I decided to save money and use it on my next batch, but luckily I thought to do an experiment and used bad yeast (unknowingly) on half of my 10 gallon batch of Pale Ale, and threw Windsor dry yeast on the other. Then I found out about my bad yeast, and dry hopped the bad half of the new Pale Ale with 2 oz of Cascade.... It is GREAT! Im just about sick of my yeast problems though.

First was a Saison, about a month ago, spent 4 weeks in the primary, OG was 1.075, SG at racking was 1.043 this past weekend...still trying to figure out what to do about this. I think we mashed at too low a temperature (what we thought was 150*F but used a metal thermometer that turns and goes out of whack, I thought it was calibrated, guess not)

ColoradoXJ13 said:

First was a Saison, about a month ago, spent 4 weeks in the primary, OG was 1.075, SG at racking was 1.043 this past weekend...still trying to figure out what to do about this. I think we mashed at too low a temperature (what we thought was 150*F but used a metal thermometer that turns and goes out of whack, I thought it was calibrated, guess not)

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Did you get full conversion?

A S.N. pale ale with about 1/4 of the hops they use so the wife would maybe like it.
I decided I wanted to brew my own beer and extract brewing just wasn’t enough of a challenge I’ll do an all grain brew instead so:

I built the Mash Tun and after 2 failed attempts over the previous 2 weekends to build a counterflow wort chiller and get it to stop leaking I decided I’d slap together an immersion chiller this past weekend and do an all grain brew or bust.

First while putting the tubing in the mash tun I noticed that the store bought false bottom had a different diameter hose fitting than what I had installed in the mash tun. Sure did look like the same size until I tried to get the hose over it.

So off to Home Depot, 3 year old child in tow at 8:00am. Back home at 9:00 and am dumping the strike water by 9:30 I hear a popping sound as the mash tun expands from the heat and then starts to leak. I had failed to test the new hose connector that was just purchased at home depot. Luckily I had a spare 5 gallon Igloo cooler so I dumped the mash in it. And proceeded to try to get the mash tun to stop leaking. Finally success the mash tun was no longer leaking.

So I dump the contents of the 5 Gal. igloo back into the mash tun and get ready to sparge. The homemade sparge (basically a shower head) works less than spectacularly but it works. So as I fill up the boil pot I see
that uh oh I forgot to install the valve and forgot to sanitize it. Now I can't remember if I washed it or not, so I wash it. As I'm wrapping the teflon tape around the nipple I catch a stainless steel frag in my finger, now I'm bleeding like I just went to the doc for a test. So I think can't leave it like this, I need to file this sucker off then rewash and sanitize again no problem. All the while the boil pot is still filling.

Finished with the valve now I noticed wort is coming out of the boil pot. Oh S---- so I try tilting it backward where's the damn teflon tape? This ain't working. I spot a 1/2' barb connector and put that in, hold my finger over it till the boil pot stops sloshing back an forth. Finding the teflon tape I wind it around the nipple and as I start to thread it I realize I've wound it backward for what seems like the 5th time. Back in goes the barb connector .

Finally, success! I've got the valve into the boil pot. By now wort is all over the boil pot, burner and everything. No problem I'll wheel it outside and hose it off. On the way back in the boil pot falls off the burner. I manage to catch it with no more than a 2/3 gallon lost, I think.

At this point I’m thinking this beer is gonna suck. Why waste the yeast? But during the baby's nap I figure what the Heck so I flame up and start the boil. All goes well and now I'm ready to start cooling with my immersion wort chiller only unlike the counterflow unit I had failed to test it. Thinking no problem this is simple stuff. Guess what, it leaks like crazy but I see them and get them fixed. It's working great and warm water is coming out of the chiller; So I go back to stir then I notice an unusually strong current well after I stop swhirling the chiller. Pulling the chiller out I see it gushing water.

So now I'm wishing I had not popped the yeast pack that I had originally forgotten about. Oh well plenty of commercial beer in the fridge. Thank goodness for sam adams. But I give up on the chiller it’s fairly cool now and I dump the wort into the primary fermenter.

I ended up with 4.5 gal where I should have had 5 no telling how much from the chiller. Happy to report that despite all this and a too cold temp it’s fermenting. I’m in the process of getting the temp in the basement up to where it should be and thinking I’ve had some horrible home brews before surely this can’t be worse than any of those.

A couple of weeks ago I let the wife try it she said it was the best beer she ever tasted. Last weekend I let the next door neighbor have a glass he said it was good and I figured he wasn't just trying to humor me when he asked for a 2nd glass. It must be pretty good I usually drink too much of it a problem I rarely have with commercial brew.

Whoa, Abra. Take a breath man. Paragraphhs were invented and are used for a reason.

can we get abracadabra a brewers purple heart?

I'm all cockeyed.

I started with a lager as my first try.

I'm still tweaking my recipies, but the best thing is
that I'm steadily improving to get the taste I want from
my lagers. Also dialing in stouts has taken some time.

Made a Dunkelweizen on March 04, '07. Still in fermenter. Racking off this weekend into secondary for one week and then bottles. Not sure what to expect but it was very enjoyable.