First all grain tomorrow

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storm1477

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Just so you know, this is all YOUR fault!!!!

I'm going to brew up a Scottish Heavy all-grain kit from Austin Homebrew (that's for Forrests' sanity) tomorrow. I've read up on Bobby M's all-grain primer and I've turned off the perlicks in the basement, so I'm expecting an uneventful brew day. Yeah right.

I'm going to ask ahead of time that all of you be glued to HBT from noon until say 5 PM tomorrow (that's MST in case you were wondering), so that you are available to answer questions/calm nerves/laugh at/make sigs out of what I may ask.

In all seriousness though, I owe a ton of thank you's to everyone on this board. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even think about doing this as my 7th brew. See, it really is YOUR fault!!!! :mug:

Storm
 
Just so you know, this is all YOUR fault!!!!

..... I've read up on Bobby M's all-grain primer and I've turned off the perlicks in the basement, so I'm expecting an uneventful brew day. Yeah right.


....See, it really is YOUR fault!!!! :mug:

Storm

ahhh you have the bug as well I see. Shortly after my 7th or 8th I went all-grain as well (I havent been brewing very long)

I do notice, however, that you kegged before you all-grained. I think if I had had to keep bottling I wouldnt have made it so far!

Congrats and Good luck on the All-Grain brew!!
 
I haven't bottled a single bottle of beer......yet. SWMBO decided that I had behaved myself long enough to warrant an ultimate starter kit for Father's Day.

I say yet because I got a counter pressure filler with a bunch of other stuff I found on CL. I'm gonna start bottling some of my brews when they get a little low in the keg so I can free them up.
 
I brewed 2 extract kits from the LHBS, then did one PM thanks to the posts on this site. Then worked up the nerve to build my MLT (thanks again to HBT). Haven't looked back. Once you go all grain you have to score a barleycrusher. Best investment ive made so far besides my keezer and 4 keg setup. The flexibility of AG is amazing....enjoy!
 
The first all grain is done. It was a relatively uneventful day.

I got started at about 2 in the afternoon, a couple of hours later than I wanted, but no big deal.

I got my keggle filled and onto the burner warming up the mash water. I put 3 gallons of 175F water into the mash tun and let it sit for an hour. I drained the mash after an hour and only got about 1.25 gallons before it slowed to a drip. I shut the valve off and added 2.5 gallons of 170F water to do my first sparge. This is when the fun started.

I ran downstairs to grab an airlock and I heard water running. I assumed that one of the kids had flushed the toilet, but it just kept running. I opened the door to an unfinished room in the basement and it was soaked. Apparently, the last time I brewed I left the hose connected to the bib overnight and the pipe had burst behind the valve. It didn't take long to get the water turned off and the valve shut off to wait for tomorrow for repair. Definitely not what I needed during my first all grain.

I got back up to the brew 15 minutes later and drained off the first sparge. Added 3 gallons of 180F for my last sparge and let it sit for 15 minutes. I drained that off and ended up with 6.5 gallons going into the boil.

I boiled for 70 minutes and put 5.5 gallons into the fermenter. I measured OG at 1.055 which is 4 points higher than Beersmith estimated at 75% efficiency.

Not too bad for a first go I figure. I can't wait for the next one.

Storm
 
Congrats!

Welcome to the addiction. Your wife will fall out of love with you as you fall in love with the brewing mistress.

Life as you knew it is ended. All thoughts lead to brewing now and how to upgrade/improve/bling your system. It's ok though, because you get to drink some really AWESOME beer now and it will only cost you 10 times what a bottle of store bought beer would (when you factor in all your equipment costs). Then again, it's a hobby you'll love and the money spent for equipment is an investment, so screw the per bottle costs and have a blast!

PS. Kinda miss Parker. In Thornton now. hmmm
 
Teufel,

Thanks for the encouragement. If you decide you want to come ALL the way down to Parker for a brewday you're more than welcome.

Storm
 
congrats storm! sure is fun, ain't it? I just started AG less than a year ago, and I'm hooked.

I really enjoy the art and science behind it with strike water, mashing, sparging, etc. So much more fun that just boiling up some extract; and don't get me wrong, both styles make beer --- but I really enjoy turning that dry barley into sweet nectar!

Sounds like your brew day was relatively flawless -- great job! :mug:
 
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