1st AG Brew Day Coming Up

Hey guys I've found some awesome write ups, and done tons of research and am ready to do my first AG batch. My 1st recipe Revvy's banana bread ale (love wells banana bread beer). Brew day is this Saturday and wanted to hear if anyone has any tips/tricks of the trade or some easy rookie mistakes to be avoided.

I have a 9 gallon SS brewpot, homemade mash run, wort chiller, sanitizer/cleaser, primary bucket, and of course bottling supplies. Thanks for looking! Cheers

I'm not a pro only done 3 AG batches so far but I raised my effieciancy from 60 to 76 by making sure my tun was preheated and slowly draining it to the kettle. You'll just have to get a feel for your set up. Surely a more experienced brewer will chime in and give you some more good advise. Best of luck with the brew.

Are you batch sparging? Fly sparging?

goodyx7 said:

I'm not a pro only done 3 AG batches so far but I raised my effieciancy from 60 to 76 by making sure my tun was preheated and slowly draining it to the kettle. You'll just have to get a feel for your set up. Surely a more experienced brewer will chime in and give you some more good advise. Best of luck with the brew.

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Do you preheat the tun with water the same temp as the strike water?

And I'll be batch sparging for sure

This is a good resource: http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

I've always just filled my 10g Igloo water cooler straight from the water heater to warm it up (after installing the false bottom). (I add that note because I forgot once and damn that water is hot.) Not as good as heating it with strike water, but its enough that I always hit target temp.

Take a lot of notes. It will help you look back at what you did to realize where you can improve your efficiency (i.e. when to start washing MLT during boil, when to rehydrate dry yeast, when to bring liquid yeast slurry up to pitch temperature, etc)

+1 to preheating and taking notes. I'd also add that you wanna stir the hell out of it, you want those grains to be splash mountain soaked. No clumps.

For my first AG brew I would go very basic, FOR THE FIRST TEN BREWS !

Thanks for the tips. I'm feeling confident but know that some issues will come up. I'll def preheat the MLT. I didn't even think about that.

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Read as much as you can and have some DME ready just in case the efficiency is terrible. With that noted, once you get the hang of it you'll love all-grain brewing.
Good luck!

P.S. I'm willing to bet that if you don't have your own grain mill yet....within a few batches of all-grain brewing you'll be getting one.

My advice to first-time AG brewers -- don't chase the needle in your mash. When you mix the strike water with the grain, give it a few minutes for the grain to soak up the water and for the temperature to settle out. Don't start making adjustments the first second your temps seem too high (or low).

Just an update on how my brew day went. I took notes as others had suggested and also pre heated my mash tun. I only dropped about 2 degrees from target temp in an hour. I think I might have used too much heat during the hour long boil as I ended up one gallon shy of my final volume. Too much heat is the only reason I can figure out why I lost so much. But now I'm having trouble keeping a high enough ferment temp. Seriously considering buying a temp controller with a brew belt.

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robb117 said:

Just an update on how my brew day went. I took notes as others had suggested and also pre heated my mash tun. I only dropped about 2 degrees from target temp in an hour. I think I might have used too much heat during the hour long boil as I ended up one gallon shy of my final volume. Too much heat is the only reason I can figure out why I lost so much. But now I'm having trouble keeping a high enough ferment temp. Seriously considering buying a temp controller with a brew belt.

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Better to ferment a bit cool than to ferment too hot.

Yeah thats what I've been reading. I've been at 66 degrees so hopefully its doing ok. The one thing I did was add a half gallon of sterilized water to my batch since I was a gallon shy. I hope I didn't ruin it. I didn't want to add too much to water it down but wanted to have a little more final product

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Topping up with cold boiled water is ok,
Continuously taking the SG during topping up is good to do, however make sure each portion is mixed in thoroughly. To do this input the hydrometer or refractometer directly into the FV.
My ferments are at the moment all sitting at low 60, I am sure it's better than high 60, I don't get any crazy krausen this way.

Realising big losses during the brew is a real irritation, but it's a normal part of the game.

And congratulations on what what seems to have been a relatively smooth first time out.

I've only done 4 AG batches myself, and I'm still getting dialed in. Seems like there's always something I could have done better, or simpler, or sooner, or....

Your dead right there Troy2000, there is always something that was not just as it should be. In my brew this week I made mistakes with my yeast, I had my rehydrated yeast solution it was about half a jug , this was to be devided into three fermenters, two of about a gallon and one of four gallons, I did my sums and refered to my half jug as 500mls, It was actually only 250mls, so I have over pitched the one gallons before realising there wasn't much left for the larger volume. Ok , I swore !
All are bubbling fine though and I think all will be ok.

As for your volume loss robb117, it could easily be dry air. Your profile doesn't give a location, but in the Midwest the air has been so dry lately that evaporation is much higher (I lost ~2gal while boiling my last 10g batch). I typically keep my keggle partially covered when brewing in cold weather to limit evaporation but make sure enough steam vents to eliminate DMS.