Mistakes to learn from

Ok well last week I finished my first full AG brew ever, and I have a list of mistakes I need to learn from for next time, I'm hoping that none of them will of ruined my beer!

1. Need to fix my coolbox mashtun the hosepipe from my grain filter fell out of the tap during the 2nd batch sparge, which meant the tap got blocked, I ended up having to jug to the boiler HLT and using a kitchen sieve to filter out any grain. This meant I was somewhere in the region of 4 litres down on my target 23 L batch!!!!!

2. I forgot to add the Protofloc tablet to the last 15 mins of the boil. DOH!

3. The airlock, I only just realised needs to have water or gin in it (hadn't previously read anything on that until this morning)! To late now anyway I've already primed the keg and transfered!!!!

You mean you have never brewed before this batch?

This book is always good to read and reread.
How to Brew - By John Palmer

boo boo said:

You mean you have never brewed before this batch?

This book is always good to read and reread.
How to Brew - By John Palmer

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Nope not even kits or extract, it went relatively well but I obviously need to tie up these loose ends.

Was the airlock thing a big mistake?

PaulStat said:

Was the airlock thing a big mistake?

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No, it's not that big of a deal. The vast majority of bacteria and fungi in the air move straight down, coming to rest on whatever's below them. The airlock has curves, so that'll minimize anything that gets in. In addition, the beer is blowing off CO2 during its most vulnerable stages, so you're probably ok. Just put some water in next time to be sure.

I'll add a number 4,

I'm now suspecting I'm from a hard water area as the trials I tasted after measuring the FG did taste quite bitter, I'm hoping though that this is down to the beer being very young.

PaulStat said:

Ok well last week I finished my first full AG brew ever, and I have a list of mistakes I need to learn from for next time, I'm hoping that none of them will of ruined my beer!

1. Need to fix my coolbox mashtun the hosepipe from my grain filter fell out of the tap during the 2nd batch sparge, which meant the tap got blocked, I ended up having to jug to the boiler HLT and using a kitchen sieve to filter out any grain. This meant I was somewhere in the region of 4 litres down on my target 23 L batch!!!!!

2. I forgot to add the Protofloc tablet to the last 15 mins of the boil. DOH!

3. The airlock, I only just realised needs to have water or gin in it (hadn't previously read anything on that until this morning)! To late now anyway I've already primed the keg and transfered!!!!

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Not a huge mistake but you can also some of your sanitizer solution. I prefer to use cheap vodka. I keep a big bottle of store brand Vodka around just for air locks. A friend uses Everclear but I've heard it'll mess up plastic air locks, but I'm not sure he's had any problems yet.

I sure wouldn't use gin...it's not a matter of if an airlock sucks back...it's a matter of when, and when it does....I don't want 5 gallons of ginale.
I'm in the vodka croud.

PaulStat said:

I'll add a number 4,

I'm now suspecting I'm from a hard water area as the trials I tasted after measuring the FG did taste quite bitter, I'm hoping though that this is down to the beer being very young.

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The most important aspect of brewing is patience. Your beer is very very young. It's helpful to taste it at every point in the process, but at this point I wouldn't draw any conclusions.

first brew ever and you went straight to all grain?! very nice!!! even if your beer was horrible, way to jump in head first!!!

NoClueBrewMaster said:

first brew ever and you went straight to all grain?! very nice!!! even if your beer was horrible, way to jump in head first!!!

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Well I researched it for a good month before I jumped in, I know you can apply lots of science to it. But ultimately it's breaks down into a relatively simple list of steps to follow

I was initially worried about having to be anal about sanitising, during my research however I learnt that this was only really necessary post boil