First All grain Brew day today

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HopTrap

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When I get home from Church this afternoon I will be brewing my first all grain. I have opted to keep it simple and will be using a kit I purchased from Northern Brewer. I am making a sweet stout. I feel like I know what I am doing, but looking for any last minute tips to ensure that the day goes smoothly. I do not want this to turn out like my first Coffee roasting attempt!
 
Good luck...I'm sure everything will turn out fine. Once you go all grain it's hard to go back. GIVE ME AN AMEN!
 
When I get home from Church this afternoon I will be brewing my first all grain. I have opted to keep it simple and will be using a kit I purchased from Northern Brewer. I am making a sweet stout. I feel like I know what I am doing, but looking for any last minute tips to ensure that the day goes smoothly. I do not want this to turn out like my first Coffee roasting attempt!

Take pictures, please! I LOVE seeing photos of my imaginary friends and their set ups, especially on the first brew day!

Good luck. Give us a hollar if you need some help.
 
AMEN! I haven't touched extract since I went all grain.

Good luck my friend, just take your time and enjoy the experience. It get's easier after the first one.

My first time, I used a check list, with all the steps laid out, and checked them off as I went.

Have fun....Let us know how it went. :mug:
 
If you feel confident about knowing what your doing, follow that plan and enjoy the process.

When the fermenter is filled, yeast pitched and all equpiment washed and put away, soak in that awesome feeling of having made YOUR beer.

Have a great time today and welcome to AG!!!!!!!!!
 
  • Resist the temptation to drink.
  • Take notes.
  • Watch that pot closely.
  • If you skim some of the pre-boil scum on the surface, you can minimize boil overs. (I use a SS ladle and a sauce pot).
  • Hook up your wort chiller and run water through it ahead of time. You don't want to be dealing with leaky connections during the brew session.
  • Prep all the equipment ahead of time. You don't want to be leaving a boiling kettle to go sanitize your fermenter.
  • Take pictures.
  • Enjoy
:rockin::rockin::rockin:
 
Make sure you pre-warm your mash tun, or add your water to the tun (prior to adding grain) that is 5-8 degrees higher than your strike temp, then add your grain when the water gets to your strike temp. Make sure you take the temp of your grain also. If you have it sitting out in a cold garage you may need to adjust your strike temp.

I still have a problem with estimating the amount of evaporation in order to judge when to add my different hop additions. You may need to boil for 15-20 minutes before you add your 60 minute hops, depending on how much wort you collect from the grains.
 
I brewed Haus Pale Ale for my first all grain experience. I collected 3.5 gallons of water to mash 10.5 grains of mash. I fly sparged with 4.5 gallons of water and collected about 6.5/7 gallons of wort. All was going well until after an hour full boil, I was only able to collected 4 gallons of wort for the fermenter. I am wondering if my hard boil was to high, if this is possible. Not sure why I would loose 2+ gallons in an hour boil. Any suggestion would be appreciated for my next batch.
 
So they included a lb of lactose with the sweet stout kit. When does this go in? No instructions to speak of. Just about to put the grain and water in the mash tun
 
So I don't even know where to begin. For all intents and purposes to anyone who is all geeked out about temps, and times, and all those things that matter to homebrewers....Just thank your lucky stars you were not here. I had not brewed in 4 years and never AG. I used to pull of these hip pocket brew sessions and I used to know what to do and when. This thing was just sillyness. I started by overdoing my strike temp and held at 170 before dumping in some cold water to bring the temp down. Too much cold water, mash dropped to 110. Three times I pulled about 1-3 gallons into a seperate kettle, btought to a boil and introduced it back into the mash. Finally on try three I was back up to 155. I did manage to get 60 minutes out of that. The sparge went ok. I fly sparged with 170 for about 30 minutes and got some unknown amount in the boil kettle. In the end the boil went well and I got about 5.5 gallons in the carboy after spilling about a gallon on my shoes because the fittings I thought were fine did not fit.

What did I learn?
-brewing is not like riding a bike
-All grain requires way more planning than extract
-I know have an understanding of how my system operates so I have a better feeling of where to bring my strike water
- start earlier - today i began at 3, that was way too late
- Plan better was the big lesson
 
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