My wife is leaving me.

Yup, she's leaving me........

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But just for a week, she will be out of state then she will be home for a week then gone to Africa for 2 weeks. Looks like I will have a lot of time to do some brewing... :rockin:

So, I am planning to bust out my first AG brew while she's gone. Going with Ed's Haus Pale Ale.
I have the gear to do 10 gallon batches. So what do you think? Should I go all out and do a 10 gallon batch of this or just stick to the 5 gallon batch.
It's my first AG and I have no idea how well my MLT is going to do or how well I'm going to do.
Or my other choice is to do 5 gallons on one day and another 5 of either the same or a different brew the next day..
Any thoughts? Anyone else have a tried and true recipe that is a good starter brew that I could do?

Mine too! She's taking my daughter out to San Diego and helping her move into the dorm for college. I have 3 weeks to get ready for brew week.

Awesome man! Good luck with the all grain. I would say since you have such a long span and some time to brew, do a few 5 gallon batches. This will give you time to practice the routine and help you find the efficiency of your system. Plus, this will give you more excuses to drink wonderful home brew while you're hard at work brewing. Ahh, the good life.

Let us know how things go!

Suprise the he!! ouf of her when she gets home. Have 10-15 carboys full of liquid goodness. That'll teach her to leave you for that long.

My best friends dad used to love it when his mom would go out of town. One time, he bought a Porsche, one time he bought a Harley, one time a boat, one time started building his garage and wine cellar, also, many guns were purchased during her trips. She used to go out of town for a week at a time 3-4 times a year. Funny thing is that his new purchases would be gone within a couple weeks of her getting home.

When my wife is busy or out of town, etc., the first thing I think about is brewing.

Hmmm, are we pathetic, or roxxorz? A little of both, I suppose.

I just dropped 130 bills on ingredients. 55-lb sack of Gleneagles Maris Otter. Bunch of miscellaneous specialty grains. Some bulk LME. WLP099. More montrachet and nottingham packs.

I'm a bit surprised at how fast I went through that last sack of M.O....but damn, I love the gleneagles for my house base malt. Kicks the shiznit out of regular old pale 2-row any day.

Umm, why not a 10 gal of Haus and 10 more of summit else? I mean, you're already gonna be doing most of the same work, so doubling up just seems like the logical thing to do if you've got the equipment. Best of both worlds .

RadicalEd said:

Umm, why not a 10 gal of Haus and 10 more of summit else? I mean, you're already gonna be doing most of the same work, so doubling up just seems like the logical thing to do if you've got the equipment. Best of both worlds .

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I was thinking along those lines but at the same time, if I'm going to really F*ck it up I would rather it onl be a 5er not a 10.

The beauty of a 10 gallon batch of my Haus Pale is you put in a pack of Nottingham in each fermenter. No need to make a big starter and try to pour half in each fermenter while wondering which one got the most. It's hard to F it up.

Then again, you have time and two batches just up your experience points.

EdWort said:

Mine too! She's taking my daughter out to San Diego and helping her move into the dorm for college. I have 3 weeks to get ready for brew week.

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Are you totally freaked out about having a daughter in college? I have a 2 and 4 yr old and am REALLY not looking forward to that ...or dating.

EdWort said:

The beauty of a 10 gallon batch of my Haus Pale is you put in a pack of Nottingham in each fermenter. No need to make a big starter and try to pour half in each fermenter while wondering which one got the most. It's hard to F it up.

Then again, you have time and two batches just up your experience points.

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Hey Ed...question: when you split a batch up into two carboys, is there ever a difference between the two? it seems like there's a good possibility there for more break solids in one, etc.

Evan! said:

Hey Ed...question: when you split a batch up into two carboys, is there ever a difference between the two? it seems like there's a good possibility there for more break solids in one, etc.

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So far, so good. I've made 10 gallon batches of my standard beers (Bavarian Hefe, Kölsch, & Haus Ale) and each one tastes like the previous batch. I'm enjoying consistency in my brews so far. (knocks on wood).

I'm upgrading to 25 gallon pot soon (as soon as I get a hole drilled) and I'll going to give the Jamil recirculating whirlpool wort chiller method a try.

I wonder how much I have to boil to do a 20 gallon batch? It will be interesting.

I would say since it's your first time, do a 5 gal. batch. Then a second 5 gal.

Your post seems to indicate you are bothered by the potential to make a mistake.

And since you are new to AG I'd say you are probably bottling rather than kegging and over 100 bottles is a lot to do at 1 time.

I did 3 brews, all 5 gal. before I stepped up to 10 gal. mostly on the advise of people on this forum. I think is was good advise and that I made an equally good decision to accept it because I very much wanted to start with 10 gal.

Go for 10! Let's us know how it turns out. I am slowly getting all my gear together for my first AG. Getting my kegs welded today and am working on my MLT too. I would say go for 10, so that maybe you could force carb one and condition the other with corn sugar. That way you'll be drinking quicker and have another waiting in the wings. That's what I would do if I was in your shoes. Good luck and RDWHAHB!

abracadabra said:

I would say since it's your first time, do a 5 gal. batch. Then a second 5 gal.

Your post seems to indicate you are bothered by the potential to make a mistake.

And since you are new to AG I'd say you are probably bottling rather than kegging and over 100 bottles is a lot to do at 1 time.

I did 3 brews, all 5 gal. before I stepped up to 10 gal. mostly on the advise of people on this forum. I think is was good advise and that I made an equally good decision to accept it because I very much wanted to start with 10 gal.

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I have 5 corny kegs. I was thinking of kegging 5 and bottling 5.
But I do see that doing two 5 gallon batches would be a better way to go. Seeing how I need to get my system figured out and the only way to do that is to do more.

rdwj said:

Are you totally freaked out about having a daughter in college? I have a 2 and 4 yr old and am REALLY not looking forward to that ...or dating.

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my six year old brought home a trinket ring from a little boy in her kindergarden class this spring. he's already on the list to be fitted for cement shoes... i'm dreading h.s. and college......

Get a 55lb sack of base malt and try to finish it while she's gone
Do the 10 gallon batches if you have all the eqipment. Brew as often as you can while you have time. AG is no more complicated than any other brewing procedure, it is just your first time.

FSR402 said:

I have 5 corny kegs.

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Dude, do the 10 gallons. EdWorts haus ale is easy. Do a second 10 gallons while you're at it if you've got 5 cornies. Women seem to love the Belgian Wit (Blue Moon) and the recipe is just as easy. They're both quick beers so you could be servig her cold beer by the time she gets back from Africa.

The only reason I would consider doing a 5-gallon batch right now is if it were a recipe I wasn't sure I'd like.

BierMuncher said:

Dude, do the 10 gallons. EdWorts haus ale is easy. Do a second 10 gallons while you're at it if you've got 5 cornies. Women seem to love the Belgian Wit (Blue Moon) and the recipe is just as easy. They're both quick beers so you could be servig her cold beer by the time she gets back from Africa.

The only reason I would consider doing a 5-gallon batch right now is if it were a recipe I wasn't sure I'd like.

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You know what, I think I'm going to go for the 10 gallon batch of the pale ale. Then do a 5 of something else the next day. I think that my MLT will do better with the bigger batch anyways, it's 20 gallons.
Then she will be home, then she will leave again and I can brew again. I have 2 fermenting buckets and 3 6.5 gal carboys I can use for primary so I should have no problem doing up 25 gallons. I could even pick up a few more buckets.
Damn, I'm going to be busy, looks like I will need to add onto my fermenting room while she's gone too. :rockin:

rdwj said:

Are you totally freaked out about having a daughter in college? I have a 2 and 4 yr old and am REALLY not looking forward to that ...or dating.

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Nope. She's been indoctrinated with my values at an early age. Great kid and on an athletic scholarship. She'll be too busy working on keeping her scholarship and her GPA up to stay in the business major to worry about boys. (I hope). If she loses the scholarship, she comes home to a community college.

So EdWort, if I'm going to do 10 gallons, is it just as simple at doubling the recipe?

FSR402 said:

So EdWort, if I'm going to do 10 gallons, is it just as simple at doubling the recipe?

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I think Ed's traveling today. I did 10 gallons of his haus ale, but I backed off the grain bill a bit for more of a session ale.

However, here is the original recipe scaled up for 10 gallons.

16.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.2 %
4.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 19.0 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.8 %
2.00 oz Cascade [6.60%] (60 min) Hops 22.4 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [6.60%] (30 min) Hops 8.6 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60%] (15 min) Hops 2.8 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [6.60%] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
2 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

This should get you 11 gallons of post boil at 1.051 and a 34.9IBU.

SWEET thanks man