Last minute advice?

So my first foray into the AG world is tomorrow. I'm doing 5 gal of EdWort's Haus Pale, as it seems to be the equivalent of prom night for most of the AG folks here. I've got my checklist, ingredients in labeled baggies, and all of my equipment ready. Any last minute advice from the experienced masses? Things I should or should not do?

Don't spill boiling water on your foot during your maiden voyage like I did

Watch your mash temps, watch for boil overs, other than that, your in business! Brew some beer!!!!

I guess the best tip that I could offer after only doing one AG brew is related to mash temps... I'm using beersmith, and my numbers provided by beersmith were pretty accurate. I overheated my strike water by 10 degrees and put it in the MLT and let it stabilize for about 12 or 13 mins and THEN let it cool down to the strike temp that Beersmith asked for to keep myself from undershooting my temperature...

JMSetzler said:

I guess the best tip that I could offer after only doing one AG brew is related to mash temps... I'm using beersmith, and my numbers provided by beersmith were pretty accurate. I overheated my strike water by 10 degrees and put it in the MLT and let it stabilize for about 12 or 13 mins and THEN let it cool down to the strike temp that Beersmith asked for to keep myself from undershooting my temperature...

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Yeah!! Do that. I should have mentioned that, it's a regular part of my brewing process, so i didn't even think of it......

drink a beer or two while you brew. it's the law. I wait until I get my boil going, or just before. ENJOY THE RIDE.

and of course.. Don't Worry. Relax. Have A Homebrew. (or store bought, if that's all you got)

Have fun. welcome to the addiction. and take good notes.

just did my first AG on saturday. same recipe. i would set your strike temps a few degrees higher. when i added the grain it ended up being 2 - 3 degrees lower than it was supposed to be. if your strike temp calls for 163...i would shoot for 165.

My advice is this:

Something will probably not go as planned. Don't sweat it. RDWHAHB. The beer will still turn out OK. Just take good notes on everything as you go; temperatures, times, volumes, gravities, etc. so that you can duplicate the results later when it turns out to be the best beer you've ever had.

Dont drink too much and just make sure you learn what you did wrong (you will do things wrong) and don't do them again.

Run! And don't look back! Once it has it's claws in you, you will never recover.

1. Don't bless up
2. When you DO bless up, don't panic
3. Don't bless up again
4. Repeat (2)

Even if you don't care to admit it to this forum later, something will go wrong. It will most likely be minor. Just try and relax and don't try to be perfect.

Your most likely problem will be that you don't hit your mash temps dead on. Don't sweat this too much. You have up to 10 minutes to make adjustments, and even then a couple of degrees either way will not make the FBI come and destroy your equipment. Always remember that you are having fun, even when it seems like you are not.

Have EVERYTHING ready and set to go. Go over the brew process in a dry run. Think of everything that you will need and have it ready to go. I brew outside and for my first couple of brews I spent more time running back into the house to get things.

Take good notes and even if you don't hit your numbers your beer will still taste good. I totally messed up my first all grain and it STILL tasted really good.

Good luck!!!!

Sweet. Thanks for all of the tips. I'll let you know how it goes.

Be ready for it to take way longer than you expect. So don't try and rush things. If you've gotten everything set up and ready beforehand it will be a smooth day with plenty of time in between steps so you can clean up/prep as you go.

-Nathan

Great day. 80% efficiency, hit my temps, and have the primary bubbling away as we speak. When I got it into the primary, I thought about starting with only grain, water, hops and yeast, and had the urge to yell "I made beer!"

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

Even if you don't care to admit it to this forum later, something will go wrong. It will most likely be minor. Just try and relax and don't try to be perfect.

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I had a bless up on my first AG brew last saturday but I'm not admitting it until I find out if it made a difference or not

JMSetzler said:

Don't spill boiling water on your foot during your maiden voyage like I did

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Ugh, I did this two days ago while cooking. I'm still limping around with a bandage on my foot and probably wont be able to wear sandals for a week or two.

tidehouse said:

Ugh, I did this two days ago while cooking. I'm still limping around with a bandage on my foot and probably wont be able to wear sandals for a week or two.

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Mine has healed enough on day 6 that it actually doesn't hurt to walk on it but I still can't wear regular shoes yet. I would post a photo of it but its too gross looking to put up here... lol