Last night my first AG batch went flawlessly!

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brrman

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Gotta thank everyone on this board, cuz without all the great info here I probably would have made a mess of things.

I've been extract brewing for nearly two years, and finally got the urge to try all grain. I made sure my new mash tun (coleman extreme) can handle 10 gal batches because thats my goal by mid summer.

I brewed a very basic recipe kit from AHS. The Canadian Ale. Figured something simple and lawnmowerish for the summer. I heated the cooler for 10 mins with 150F water, then emptied. Then added grains and 170F 2.5gal strike water. Temp came down to target of 151. I had a couple BBC porters while I waited for the hour to pass. I vorlaufed, drained, batch sparged with 5gal at 170F.

I ended up with 6.5gal of beautiful wort! Boiled off about 1.25gal. Gravity was on target too. Basically everything went as simple as pie - and I was done (including clean up) in 3.5 hours: 8pm - 11:30pm. I was amazed at how simple it was - and how rewarding it was to make beer from scratch!

So thanks again!
 
Glad to hear that your first AG went so well. I think most of us were a bit intimidated by making the jump but, like you, quickly realized that it's not anywhere near as difficult as we made it out to be.
 
Excellent! It's always fun when everything goes as planned. Congratulations.

Chad
 
Would you mind posting the ingredients? A friend of mine loves Labatts, and I would like to make it for him. Thanks, and congrats on your first ag brew.
 
Thanks guys - really the only difficult thing is getting the temps right... I guess when I start making my own recipes the difficulty factor will go up - but it will be even more enjoyable.

I am so hooked on brewing I will need an intervention soon... somebody help me...

Would you mind posting the ingredients? A friend of mine loves Labatts, and I would like to make it for him. Thanks, and congrats on your first ag brew.

Pretty basic recipe:
* 8.75 lb of rahr 2-row
* 3/4oz Ahtanum (60 min)
* 1/4oz Ahtanum (5 min)
* Nottingham dry yeast (what I used) or Wyeast 1335 British Ale

Mash at 151F for 60 min.
 
* 8.75 lb of rahr 2-row
* 3/4oz Ahtanum (60 min)
* 1/4oz Ahtanum (5 min)
* Nottingham dry yeast (what I used) or Wyeast 1335 British Ale
Mash at 151F for 60 min.


Wow, that's going to make beer? Hmm, as long as it's in the ballpark of Labatts, I guess it will work. Thanks!
 
brrman, How much water did you begin heating at the start? How did you heat your strike water?
It took me forever to heat the stuff up- and I'm using a new gas range w/ "high-speed" large burners. I had about 4 gallons in my large 20 gallon aluminum pot and it struggled to make it past 150 deg. cel. thanks!
 
what kind of lauter mechanism do you have?

I did my first AG today as well and did the copper pipe manifold in the igloo ice cube marine cooler (also so I can 10g as soon as I can pick up a keggle).

When you were vorlaufing, (how's that for butchering the german, eh?) what did you do? I collected in a big glass pitcher and poured back in on a plastic container lid floating on top. seemed to work okay. I can really see the reason people buy pumps and set up stands, which I intend to do anyway, but I'm glad to be learning WHY. You rock my brother! :mug:
 
brrman, How much water did you begin heating at the start? How did you heat your strike water?
It took me forever to heat the stuff up- and I'm using a new gas range w/ "high-speed" large burners. I had about 4 gallons in my large 20 gallon aluminum pot and it struggled to make it past 150 deg. cel. thanks!

My strike water was 2.5 gallons. I heated that up separately. During the 60 minute mash I heated the 5 gal of sparge water. I am using a turkey fryer to heat my water. If you are having trouble getting the water to temp, I would separate it into more than one pot and try that way on multiple burners (or buy a turkey fryer).


what kind of lauter mechanism do you have?

I did my first AG today as well and did the copper pipe manifold in the igloo ice cube marine cooler (also so I can 10g as soon as I can pick up a keggle).

When you were vorlaufing, (how's that for butchering the german, eh?) what did you do? I collected in a big glass pitcher and poured back in on a plastic container lid floating on top. seemed to work okay. I can really see the reason people buy pumps and set up stands, which I intend to do anyway, but I'm glad to be learning WHY. You rock my brother! :mug:

Awesome, man! Ain't it great to make beer from scratch!?
There were a couple places I had to improvise. I had no valve on my turkey fryer pot, which I used for my lauter. So I used oven mitts and actually picked up the pot and dumped the water into the cooler! LOL. Wasn't too bad. Dumping in the 5 gal of sparge water was a challenge but I got it.

When I vorlaufed I caught the runnings in the glass pitcher and poured it over a plastic lid top as well. Seemed to work pretty well.

Honestly - pumps and stuff are all fine, but the only thing I really noticed that I need to add to my procedure is get a valve on my lauter tun. I have 2 kegs waiting to become keggles, so I haven't bothered to add a valve to my turkey fryer pot.
 
I used a 2qt glass pitcher to move water from my turkey frier pot to my mash tun. I realized that with only one big pot, I had to catch all my wort in smaller pots, so I had three oft hose sitting around until I finished emptying the frier and could put them in. I felt kind of goofy like I was juggling, but it worked.

A hint on the turkey frier... I wrapped mine in foil today, the whole stand and then around the pot loosely up to the handles on top. I left a big hole on bottom for air to come in, and mine was up on cinder blocks, and air could come in under. I was able to get a boil going FAST with the burner on very low, so I saved a ton of propane. It took a while to get arranged, but was pretty easy. Be careful trying to manipulate hot foil, I burned my fingertips. I would set it up ahead of time THEN light it. :)

if my ingredients come today from AHS (ordered tuesday) I'll be brewing a close copy of biermuncher's centennial this sunday. :rockin:
 
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