First All Grain was a success!

Spent yesterday brewing my first all grain batch and 5th batch overall.
I don't think things could have went any smoother. Mash and sparge went so well I constantly thought I must be forgetting something. All of my virgin equipment worked so much better than I could have imagined. It was a 90 Min Clone recipe and my first time using liquid yeast. Only missed my OG by onw point ( should be 1.084 i got 1.083). 16 hours after pitching and this thing is goin nuts and have SWMBO watching it in case I need to run home from work and attach a blow off tube.

Congrats, just wondering...why not just attach a blowoff the first 3-4 days of fermentation then go back to airlock so you can both rest a little easier.

didnt even think about it! Im so used to just cramming the airlock in there... but this batch was rockin and rollin this morning. I may do a blow off when I get home..

Great job! Welcome to the AG club. Next up....making a starter for those high-gravity beers!

made a starter for this one. Should have been 1.084OG but came in at 1.083.

I am working on my setup to go all grain as well. How did you like it? How much longer did it take than extract?

I loved it. I will probably never do extract again. It didn't seem like a longer brew day. Started about 10am and pitched yeast at 2:45. I must have went over it in my head for a month before I did it. Did a dry run with my gear to oxidize my aluminum pot. Go for it!

Did you batch or fly sparge? And congrats, once you go all-grain, it is tough to go back to extract. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

started with a simple batch sparge. Hit all my temps and just missed my OG by .001 point! Im happy:rockin:

Congrats on your your first AG. I just finished my 2nd AG last weekend. Hit all my temps and OG perfectly. My 1st AG was a simple blonde ale and the recipe was based on 75% efficiency and I hit 83% with batch sparging. I'm enjoying a few pints of that brew now off the keg which ended up at 7% ABV! My 2nd batch was based on 80% and I hit 82% so this batch should be more in line with what I expected. It's a SNPA clone. I'm finding it's taking about 5.5 to 6 hours to do all grain from start to finish including setup and cleaning up all the equipment afterwards. It's totally worth it though after tasting these brews. :rockin:

Sort of hijacking, but not really since Pearlbeer started it.

For high gravity beers should you always make a starter? If so, why?

T

timm747 said:

Sort of hijacking, but not really since Pearlbeer started it.

For high gravity beers should you always make a starter? If so, why?

T

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I would say that you should always make a starter because it drastically reduces your chances of making off flavors or developing an infection.