First AG Today - Lessons Learned

Thought this might be of some use to someone else transitioning to AG. Did my first AG today (Edwort's Haus Pale Ale, natch), I've been doing PMs for nearly a year, but not doing much brewing since April/May. Apart from taking a bit longer than a PM this was no major difference (*) - but what I learned:

- get a good thermometer or two - i ended up mashing in the upper 150s
- test your cooler - mine performed very well, better than i expected, hence high mash temp
- find your hydrometer before you start brewing
- have plenty of chilled homebrew to accompany the process
- don't bottle a batch of homebrew before you start, and another after you finish, it makes for a very long brew day

But other than that - get on it! Assuming reasonable results, I'm all about the grain from now on.

(*) disclaimer: i was doing PMs indoors on the kitchen stove, i'm AGing outside on turkey fryers. the time to get the water up to temp is higher but i'm much happier with the boil i'm getting outside

Congrats on making the transition. I just put my 4th AG brew away to ferment. Today the process went flawlessly and clean up was even a breeze. The first time I brewed an AG batch I believe I used every piece of kitchen equipment I owned, so cleanup was a nightmare.

Here's to hoping that your next AG brews get better with each brew day. By the way, get a digital thermometer; they're worth their weight in gold.

Congrats. I've been doing PMs and about to make the transition into AG very soon. I've been using two thermometers with the PMs because I don't really trust either one I have. I just ordered a lab thermometer that I'm going to use to check the other two to see how accurate they are.

Easiest way to check a thermometer is to boil a kettle of water and check the temperature. During a vigorous boil you should hit 100c and can make adjustments based on this figure. As it happens, my traditional thermometer hit 100c bang on, my lovely digital one told me that water boils at 98c so I wouldn't always assume that digital is better.

Congrats and welcome to the AG club.

Parva said:

Easiest way to check a thermometer is to boil a kettle of water and check the temperature. During a vigorous boil you should hit 100c and can make adjustments based on this figure. As it happens, my traditional thermometer hit 100c bang on, my lovely digital one told me that water boils at 98c so I wouldn't always assume that digital is better.

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I did the boil check and my cheap dial one read 100c but my digital was at 104c. When I did the ice water test, my digital was way more accurate.

We are starting our first all grain batch this coming week. We have been doing pm's for about a year now and I will keep going with the pm's but I am looking forward to the all grain process at the same time.

Congrats, I also did Ed's Haus Pale Ale a month ago as my first AG. I'm doing number 3 two weeks from now (addictive). As long as you have the process thought out ahead of time, it seems to go very smooth. I was surprised how well my first one went. I also used 2 thermometers and one of them broke while checking my strike water. I guess it wasn't waterproof! Have some ice cubes handy to cool your mash if it ends up too hot. My mash tun setup also was much more efficient than I though. I lose no heat during the 1 hour mash.

I'm shopping for coolers to AG soon- what brand did you guys used that held temp so well? I'm looking to get a 10 gallon cooler.

Flic said:

Congrats, I also did Ed's Haus Pale Ale a month ago as my first AG. I'm doing number 3 two weeks from now (addictive). As long as you have the process thought out ahead of time, it seems to go very smooth. I was surprised how well my first one went. I also used 2 thermometers and one of them broke while checking my strike water. I guess it wasn't waterproof! Have some ice cubes handy to cool your mash if it ends up too hot. My mash tun setup also was much more efficient than I though. I lose no heat during the 1 hour mash.

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So I guess it's ice cubes to cool the mash and boiling water to heat it up a bit? What thermometers are people recommending? I did some research on here before but the recommended ones were more than I wanted to pay - am I just being a foolish cheapskate, spoiling the ship for a ha'path or tar? Seems like you're going to all this trouble, it's daft to balk at the idea of $40 for a thermometer that will make the process so much better.

I also need more measuring stuff to get water amounts better. I ended up with more into the fermenter than planned, so it will not have as much alcohol but it's all beer, as they say.

Parva said:

During a vigorous boil you should hit 100c and can make adjustments based on this figure. As it happens, my traditional thermometer hit 100c bang on, my lovely digital one told me that water boils at 98c so I wouldn't always assume that digital is better.

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The King's measurements if you please!


BTW CD if you do too much of #4 then you will certainly ruin your brew.

I've done 5 AG brews and have just recently gotten to the point where it is drinkable. My first was way too fermentable from too low mash temp from a botched unnecessary step mash. It is not bad but has a protein haze and is a bit thin and high octane for a 1.053 SG Pale Ale. I was a bit disillusioned until I cracked open my first bottle of Oatmeal Stout (2nd batch) and I think it is the best beer I've ever made. I think I've got my system down now where I am expecting pretty good results but now I am experimenting with my own recipes so who knows.

My thermometer is the proAccurate digital pocket thermometer that NB sells for ~$20. You can calibrate it in a glass of ice water and it has been pretty much right on with my traditional theromo, only much easier to use.

Good Luck,
Al

elkdog said:

I'm shopping for coolers to AG soon- what brand did you guys used that held temp so well? I'm looking to get a 10 gallon cooler.

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I got a 10 gallon rubbermaid round cooler, it keeps temps very well.

I have a 5 gal rubbermaid round - excellent heat retention

I also have a coleman 10 gallon that is the same style as the rubbermaid rounds, but is more squareish. It also is excellent.

Both lose only about 1 degree in an hour.

GIusedtoBe said:

BTW CD if you do too much of #4 then you will certainly ruin your brew.
..

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I hear you, and I've been in enough alcohol-related kitchen catastrophies to know to err on the side of caution! But the brew day is 4+ hours, one or two shouldn't hurt...

GIusedtoBe said:

The King's measurements if you please!

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It's actually surprisingly easy to read either method off of an analogue thermometer and by the press of a button digital ones can switch between the two too, you should try it sometime. 0c for freezing water and 100c for boiling water just looks so much easier to check.

cd2448 said:

So I guess it's ice cubes to cool the mash and boiling water to heat it up a bit? What thermometers are people recommending? I did some research on here before but the recommended ones were more than I wanted to pay - am I just being a foolish cheapskate, spoiling the ship for a ha'path or tar? Seems like you're going to all this trouble, it's daft to balk at the idea of $40 for a thermometer that will make the process so much better.

I also need more measuring stuff to get water amounts better. I ended up with more into the fermenter than planned, so it will not have as much alcohol but it's all beer, as they say.

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I completely agree with the need for an accurate thermomether. My first couple batches mashed at way too low of a temp because of a bad thermomether.

I have been using this one:
Amazon.com: CDN Proaccurate Stainless Digital Thermometer: Home & Garden

Was extremely accurate out of the box and also cheap.

Parva said:

It's actually surprisingly easy to read either method off of an analogue thermometer and by the press of a button digital ones can switch between the two too, you should try it sometime. 0c for freezing water and 100c for boiling water just looks so much easier to check.

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Parva the metric system is far better. We're just too lazy to learn it well enough to apply it!

Regards,
Al

elkdog said:

I'm shopping for coolers to AG soon- what brand did you guys used that held temp so well? I'm looking to get a 10 gallon cooler.

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I got a 70 quart igloo extreme cooler for $40 at K-Mart.

It rocks!:rockin: