First AG Brew Day set for Saturday... Wish Me Luck!

Hey all, as stated I'm taking the leap into All-Grain starting on Saturday. I bought all my ingredients last night from my LHBS for my Scotch Ale. Tonight I have to finish up my MLT Cooler but it didn't leak last night. Excited for the new endeavor, but hopefully I won't have too many screw ups. In the end I'll have beer I'm sure just hopefully I don't screw up the efficiency too bad.

Here's my recipe:

16lbs American 2-Row
8oz Crystal 120L
8oz Crystal 75L
8oz Roasted Barley
8oz Cara-Pils
3/4oz Magnum Hops (60 min)
White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale Yeast

Beersmith says OG should be 1.090 I believe, so hopefully I hit somewhere around there. Starter will be made tonight.

Comments?

Good luck! I am a new AG brewer myself. My advice for your first batch is to keep some extra sparge water on hand as well as some cold water in case you have problems with temps using the new cooler. My 2nd batch was better after putting HOT water into the cooler to warm it up before mashing. It's a lot of fun!

Good luck, and take your time. It gets easier after this one.

oceans11_gt said:

Hey all, as stated I'm taking the leap into All-Grain starting on Saturday. I bought all my ingredients last night from my LHBS for my Scotch Ale. Tonight I have to finish up my MLT Cooler but it didn't leak last night. Excited for the new endeavor, but hopefully I won't have too many screw ups. In the end I'll have beer I'm sure just hopefully I don't screw up the efficiency too bad.

Here's my recipe:

16lbs American 2-Row
8oz Crystal 120L
8oz Crystal 75L
8oz Roasted Barley
8oz Cara-Pils
3/4oz Magnum Hops (60 min)
White Labs WLP028 Edinburgh Ale Yeast

Beersmith says OG should be 1.090 I believe, so hopefully I hit somewhere around there. Starter will be made tonight.

Comments?

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Good luck. Take your time and have some fun... But don't drink until after you're done! That helped my brew day out tremendously in the beginning. You'll do great!

Thanks guys! Overall, the process seems no harder than doing extract brews just more time consuming. I'm definitely liking the ability to be able to manipulate so many variables and having more control. I guess I've caught the Homebrew Disease.

I also recently made the jump to AG brewing, there is a sticky in this forum that is very helpful. One of the most hepful suggestions was:

Jaybird said:

If I may I would like to add. I would suggest have a game plan on paper the day before you mash in, with all your math calculated. and all your targets calculated also a game plan for "what to do if you dont hit those targets" this has helped me more than anything with a smooth running brewday.

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good luck. don't stress too much during the brewday. just go with the flow. take notes. if something doesn't go right, its not a big deal. **** happens, and you'll still have beer at the end. just learn from that.

preheat your mash tun. have additional hot water on hand incase your strike temp is too low.

take pics. post them. let us know how it went.

but most importantly, have fun.

Good luck, i want to take a leap after i have a few more batches under my belt.

motleybrews said:

good luck. don't stress too much during the brewday. just go with the flow. take notes. if something doesn't go right, its not a big deal. **** happens, and you'll still have beer at the end. just learn from that.

preheat your mash tun. have additional hot water on hand incase your strike temp is too low.

take pics. post them. let us know how it went.

but most importantly, have fun.

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+1. Notes notes notes. You won't know just how important notes are until you screw up and make the best beer ever!! Take notes!

divrguy said:

+1. Notes notes notes. You won't know just how important notes are until you screw up and make the best beer ever!! Take notes!

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This. I can't tell you how mnay times I've taken great notes, have the recipe and brewing process in my brew software only to find one little piece of info missing and I need it later to decipher the beer.

divrguy said:

+1. Notes notes notes. You won't know just how important notes are until you screw up and make the best beer ever!! Take notes!

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Very good point, if you make a mistake, or something didn't go as planned and the out come is far better than you could have ever hoped for. We always tend to look at something not going right and ending up with a batch of very difficult beer to drink. You may possibly be a proud popa with your chest puffed out and swelled head!

I guess I never thought that much about taking notes, but that's definitely a great idea! I will be doing that. What better way to duplicate, or not duplicate for that matter, a beer if you know exactly what you did? Thanks for the info. I forgot to make my starter last night, but I'm hoping if I do it tonight it should be far enough along by the evening tomorrow to pitch. I've read a bunch of different opinions on how long a starter should sit prior to pitching so I'm hoping 12-18hrs will be sufficient.

I did my first without brew software, and I spent a long time writing things down to make sure I wouldn't forget things. I still forgot things. It's easier with a brew sheet printed out by something with a brain less squishy than mine.

I'd measure everything you can whenever you can and take notes.

Mash tun dead space, pre-boil gravity, pre-boil volume, OG, post-boil volume, any changes you make on the fly (oops I put in my flavor addition 2 minutes late! etc).

You should measure temperature loss in your mash tun also to get an idea about what is happening in there during your mash. You might want to wrap it in a blanket if you're using a cooler.

Also, consider how you're going to be moving things around. Logistics can really get overwhelming.

Jesus, I re-read that post and it makes it sound like a nightmare, but if you think things through it really isn't.

It sounds like it will be a lot of fun.

Good luck!

Started at 11am this morning. Got sidetracked with getting tires put on my car for winter but im done with the brew as of 5:30pm. Things went well, I believe. Estimated OG was 1.090, actual was 1.082 so I hit roughly 70% efficiency. Pretty good in my mind. Sanitation was ok. Had to cool the wort out in the snow since my cooler never showed up yet so I was a little worried about being outsude thag long. I vorlaufed almost a gallon for first running but was still getting a few small grains. Hopefully its still good. Sparging went through without a problem. Pics to come soon. Thanks for the info!!!

Awesome. I'm still getting my AG brewery together but should have it running soon.