Graduating

First off, no, I'm not dead, but those of you who were following me know there has been some personal crap in my life I'm dealing with. If you're interested in how *that* is going, see my latest comment in that thread. Now, back on topic.

So I have a buddy in town who brews, and he wants to get together for a brew day this weekend. He might let me piggyback on his equipment, so I'm thinking I may take this opportunity to do an all-grain recipe, since the cost of equipment has been my primary barrier thus far.

I have a few partials under my belt, I have a hard copy of How to Brew, and I will be working under the supervision of a more experienced brewer. I will probably spend some time re-reading HtB, but for all you AG brewers, if you had to condense your knowledge into a single sound bite, catch phrase, etc.--that is, if there's one nugget of wisdom you feel I absolutely must bear in mind come brew day--here's your chance to lay it on me.

Also maybe recipes to avoid for the first go at this, decent recipes that are harder to mess up... whatever.

And let's keep it limited to advice that would apply to AG in particular, rather than extract/partial and AG brew equally, since I'm pretty solid there.

Biggest advice for first time AG I can give is RDWHAHB. I looked at my first run and just going through the motions and got beer out of it. If you've done a partial mash then you've brewed AG. just doing a larger scale mash now and not adding DME.


Hope everything ended up ok for you on the other thread as well. I was just thinking yesterday, I wonder what ever happened to Brownie Bite

I always suggest Ed's Pale( Haus) Ale. Hop to suit.

Find a rectangular container of a few gallons to put your equipment into a mix of star san.

Mind your water volumes, mash temps, and sparge temps, and you'll be fine.

I have two different thoughts on this. One is to make your favorite PM batch as an AG for your first batch. That way, you can see how the AG changes and what differences you can pick out. Fresher? Grainier?

The other thought is to do what I did- pick your favorite style of beer and make it.

Any recipe will work, except for a multi step mash. So, no German bocks with decoctions, or anything that requires a protein rest. (Most beers don't need a protein rest anyway). No adjuncts that require a cereal mash. If you want to make an IPA, do it! If a stout, just do it! All grain bills are relatively simple. 99.9% (I just made that figure up, but you get the idea!) of ales can be done in a single infusion mash, with a saccrification rest at 153 degrees.

I think just about any style of beer you want to make can be done as a first AG.

Watch the temps and volumes. Beersmith can make this easy as pie if you like.

Also note that if you did not know, mash temp affects the body and residual sugars of a beer. The warmer the temp, the more body and residuals it will have. I did not know this my first AG and my IPA turned out much sweeter than I really like.

You know, other than that, it's just the same or PM or Extract. If you have someone with experience there with you, you will be fine. RDWHAHB!

Definitely, RDWHAHB, or 2,3,4....

"How to Brew" is awesome. Plus, you've got someone whose been there before to help.

Advice, patience in spades! Don't try to rush anything. Plan on your first AG experience to be an all day event.

make sure your thermometer is accurate.

Document everything. Volumes, temperatures, times, etc. Have everything written down so that someone else could pick up your notes and recreate the events.
This sounds meticulous, and it kind of is at first, but you get used to it, and it makes subsequent batches easier from all the information you've written down.

oh and relax....take your time.

Organize the process in advance.
Calibrate your thermometer.
Have fun during brew day!

The best piece of advice is to watch and learn. You can learn a lot from reading and books but just like most things, nothing compares to hands on teaching. Watch what he does and ask lots of questions. Question everything he does and why he does it that way.

Thanks guys. Got my ingredients for a stout -- 10 pounds of grain, 2 oz NB and 1 oz Willamette and a pack of SO4... the giant bag of grains is pretty exciting! I'm gonna calculate my volumes and temps tonight so I'm all set to go tomorrow. He plans on going first anyway so I'll take the time to observe what he does. It'll be at 5 gallons instead of 10, since I'm brewing for bottles, not a keg, so I'll have to modify my process accordingly.

All right... problem. Turns out I totally misunderstood *something* because my friend is not an AG brewer. So we went and purchased a Kewler Kit, a manifold, and an Igloo cooler. We assembled the thing, but it's not watertight. Suggestions???

How is it built? On my DIY effort food grade silicon (to seal the inside bit of the tun, try to get stuff that is ok for the mash temps) or teflon tape (if it is leaking from the threads) helped seal it up.

Where is it leaking from, and how much? If it's not too bad, don't worry about it. If it's like a sieve, then it needs to be fixed!

One easy fix is to either tighten or loosen threads. If they are too tight, they might leak. Too loose, and they might leak. Otherwise, as danlad said, some silicon should fix you right up.

It's leaking out the seal. Turned out I installed it wrong, had the O-Rings, washers and lock nut reversed, and cut myself bad getting it unstuck and reinstalling it. Now the leak is pretty slow, so I figure I'll put a bucket beneath it to collect any extra wort and add it to the boil if it's substantial.

Download the 30 day trial of Beersmith and trust the numbers (mind the pre-heat mashtun functionality if you so choose) and give your mash five minutes after stirring for the temperature to normalize before you add ice or boiling water to adjust.

RDWHAHB, but keep it to two or less until you pitch the yeast. I still have a scar from a steam burn several months ago when I had a group of friends over and didn't follow that advice. Prior to that I dropped another beer into my boil, again with multiple friends over and overimbibing.

I, too, have been looking for ways to make my first AG brew successful. I expect to do it sometime later this month, unless something comes up. My goals pretty much parallel a lot of things I read in this thread.

The theme that unifies the following things is KISS:

1. Assist someone else who already does AG. Check; last month I helped my son brew a porter on a visit.

2.Use a recipe that's very familiar to me, in AG instead of extract (MW's Amarillo Ale). I am planning on using Brew Alchemy on my laptop, but with the first batch it won't really be doing anything.

3. Employ a widely used, well established MLT cooler conversion. I got the Rubbermaid 10 gal. cooler and converted it with the 1/2" components from Bargain Fittings (including braid).

4. Batch sparge using a relatively thin mash; 'nuff said.

5. Don't try to do AG on a shoestring; use the correct equipment. I bought a Bayou Classic SP-10 propane burner, a refractometer and a good thermometer (I got a Thermapen). I was guided in these purchases by what seems to be working for homebrewers on this and other forums.

6. Keep everything else from flameout to sealing the fermenter the same as I've always done- I haven't had a bad batch yet.

These things may not eliminate all the possibilities for error, but they should be greatly reduced.

We ended up not getting around to my batch, so I brought the equipment home and I'm gonna try tomorrow.