First AG tomorrow, excited/nervous

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chrisgood1

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After getting my early xmas gift, 15 gal SS mash tun, I am ready to go AG. I have been lurking on the forum for a while and it has been a wonderful resource so thanks for all the insight. I am going to do a five gallon batch of BierMuncher's hooked on bitters, doing a dry run tonight just to make sure I am all dialed in when i go to the real thing in the morning. Again I cannot not say thanks enough for this resource without it I am not sure i would have made the jump to all grain.
 
Remember:

-vorlauf a half gallon or more
-a good thermometer
-blankets for the mash tun
-fill the tun with water and see if it leaks.
-water 1st and then grains
-a bowl of ice
-make sure the water is hot enough initially to account for mash tun absorption. better too hot than too cold. cover and let sit for 10 minutes and check temps.
-have fun:cross:
 
Just finished adding all my grain and strike water, missed my mash temp by a little but that was to be expected on new equipment and doing AG for the first time. I under estimated how much heat my tun would suck up, got if fixed so my first mash is rocking. :) I know the more I brew the better I will get but I'm excited for the rest of the brew day.
 
Good luck, Ive been AG brewing for about 8 months now, just remember that its a learning process and keep to your guides and you should be fine!
 
Good luck! You will be just fine and when you are done you will say "man that was easy" and plan for the next one.
 
Yeast is pitched and all that is left is the clean up. I was over on my SG by a few points but i figure that is better than under. I learned a lot today and will use my knowledge for the next round.
 
It's a matter of trial and error until you figure out how efficient your system is at extracting the sugars. I planned on 60% efficiency for the first few batches, but have now learned my system runs about 70-75%.

Also a good idea to boil a gallon of water and dump it into the mash tun to preheat the system, especially the steel/copper pieces. That'll help keep your mash water warmer initially. Just dump that gallon of water out before adding your mash water and grains.
 
Awesome! Glad to hear you were over a few points rather than under. My first 10 or so batches, I couldn't figure out all my volumes and was getting only about 60% brewhouse efficiency. Turns out, I measured my boil kettle wrong -___- Oh well though, live and learn. Lesson learned: make sure you can measure the volumes of all your equipment well, it will save you a lot of head scratching.

Might I ask what you brewed?
 
I made a version of BierMuncher's Hooked on Bitters, had to make some hop changes to get the correct IBU's. It is happily bubbling along this morning and looking good. This was also the first time i used a liquid yeast, London Ale Yeast WLP013 and made a starter so it was a day of experiments but it looks like it will work out. Doing my first all grain had been great and done nothing but make me want to learn more and keep on brewing.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
 
Tapped this last night and it is great. I am so happy it came out and I learned so much in the process. I got my ingredients for cream of three crops ale now once the day time temp gets above freezing I will brew it. I don't think trying to heat water when its -2 degrees out is much fun.
 
Tapped this last night and it is great. I am so happy it came out and I learned so much in the process. I got my ingredients for cream of three crops ale now once the day time temp gets above freezing I will brew it. I don't think trying to heat water when its -2 degrees out is much fun.

I use days like that to brew half size batches in my kitchen. I can easily boil that much on the kitchen range. I hate to give up a good brew day to bad weather.:ban:
 
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