newguy
Well-Known Member
Well after one hell of a day my first all grain is officially under my belt. I planned to do my first AG yesterday. I have been planning this for weeks. So sure enough a couple days before brew day I get some great news....weather forecast for Saturday December 1st-Mid to low 60's with a high chance for rain. Winds in excess of 35-45mph.
So did this stop me? No way in hell I was going to brew my first AG, hell or high water.
Should I have reconsidered after hearing the weather forecast? Yeah would have been a good idea!
Got started around noon and was mashing by 12:30. (sorry all my pics of the mash came out blurry) Mash went great!! hit my strike temp but it raised a bit on my over the hour and I'm pretty sure my actually mash temp was more around 156 instead of my initial temp that I wanted to be 154. Ohh well no big deal it's my first mash!!
So 1:30 rolls around and the clouds are rolling in and the winds are starting to rip of the mountains something fierce. But I'm staying diligent and holding true.
Sparge goes great and I get my boil volume just right at 6.5 gallons to the keggle. Now the funs begins.
For the past 30 minutes or so the winds picked up to about 30 mph and getting the keg to come to a full boil with all the wind took over an hour...DOH!!! It's getting really freakin cold outside.
Now the rain,sleet and snow starts.
So for the last agonizing hour of the brew me and a few club members...and die hards at that! stood vigilant over our brew and saw it to the end. So about 5 and a half hours later we finished up my first AG and I was so pleased!
Even with all the bad weather it was really great to brew beer from scratch. I also really found out for myself that the "fear to jump to AG" really isn't that much. It really wasn't hard at all. I'm glad I decided to make the jump! I just wish it had been about a year sooner!
A huge thanks to everyone here at HBT for all the great tips, advice, and ideas along the way. Also goes with out saying a big thanks to Ed Wort for his great beginner's AG recipe!
The hydro test tube tasted simply amazing! so I cant wait to try this beer out at X-mas time!
Enjoy the photos!
Cheers,
So did this stop me? No way in hell I was going to brew my first AG, hell or high water.
Should I have reconsidered after hearing the weather forecast? Yeah would have been a good idea!
Got started around noon and was mashing by 12:30. (sorry all my pics of the mash came out blurry) Mash went great!! hit my strike temp but it raised a bit on my over the hour and I'm pretty sure my actually mash temp was more around 156 instead of my initial temp that I wanted to be 154. Ohh well no big deal it's my first mash!!
So 1:30 rolls around and the clouds are rolling in and the winds are starting to rip of the mountains something fierce. But I'm staying diligent and holding true.
Sparge goes great and I get my boil volume just right at 6.5 gallons to the keggle. Now the funs begins.
For the past 30 minutes or so the winds picked up to about 30 mph and getting the keg to come to a full boil with all the wind took over an hour...DOH!!! It's getting really freakin cold outside.
Now the rain,sleet and snow starts.
So for the last agonizing hour of the brew me and a few club members...and die hards at that! stood vigilant over our brew and saw it to the end. So about 5 and a half hours later we finished up my first AG and I was so pleased!
Even with all the bad weather it was really great to brew beer from scratch. I also really found out for myself that the "fear to jump to AG" really isn't that much. It really wasn't hard at all. I'm glad I decided to make the jump! I just wish it had been about a year sooner!
A huge thanks to everyone here at HBT for all the great tips, advice, and ideas along the way. Also goes with out saying a big thanks to Ed Wort for his great beginner's AG recipe!
The hydro test tube tasted simply amazing! so I cant wait to try this beer out at X-mas time!
Enjoy the photos!
Cheers,