First ag is a done deal... well almost.

[mrmuskie]

Well i brewed my first ever all grain batch yesterday. The mash and sparge went great hit all my temps on the money (lucky i guess). I collected 7 1/2 gallons of wort for my pre boil volume.... now is when i hit a few bumps... first thing i boiled over, not real bad just a little. I ended up putting a clip on fan on my snowblower handle and aiming it at the boil and that fixed the boil overs. About half way through my boil i noticed i wasn't losing enough volume so i cranked the heat a bit.... needless to say i boiled off too much. i ended up with 5 gallons in the fermentor when i was wanting 5 1/2 to 6 but oh well it was my first go at this brewing thing. The airlock was bubbling like a big dog this morning so thats good. The reason i titled it ... "well almost" is because it isn't beer yet, guess we will see in a month. One thing i know for sure is I really enjoyed the whole process and now im hooked.

 

[djfriesen]

Sweet dude! I love hearing stuff like this. Does my homebrewing heart good to see other people as entranced with the idea as I am. What did you make? Will it really be done in a month? Or are you anticipating fermentation and cleanup to be finished in that time?

 

[mrmuskie]

It was a centennial IPA. Yeah i dont really know if the 1 month time is gonna happen lol. This is my first time brewing so I dont have any real world experience. I know i probably should have done extract first but.....Im the type that jumps in the deep end and hopes he can swim lol. Seriously though i want to thank all who have ever given good advise on this site, I have done countless searches and read tons of posts and i belive this is why everything went so well for me... oh yeah John Palmers book helped alot too. Thanks everybody!

 

[broadbill]

FYI, if you find that you over-boiled and your volume is too low-just add water back to get the volume you want.

Best practice would be to add it and let it come back to a boil, but I've also added some top off water at flameout with no problems....

 

[KevinW]

There you go! A testament to all the homebrewers who want to go AG but are too shy to just do it!

Some reading and asking questions coupled with a little extra equipment and viola, an AG brewer is born!

Congrats and welcome to the obsession!

 

[djfriesen]

It was a centennial IPA. Yeah i dont really know if the 1 month time is gonna happen lol. This is my first time brewing so I dont have any real world experience. I know i probably should have done extract first but.....Im the type that jumps in the deep end and hopes he can swim lol. Seriously though i want to thank all who have ever given good advise on this site, I have done countless searches and read tons of posts and i belive this is why everything went so well for me... oh yeah John Palmers book helped alot too. Thanks everybody!

I started with AG by accident. Found an AG starter kit and brewed it before I knew anything about extract brewing. In fact, the first time I visited these forums, I thought the forum on extract brewing dealt with flavor extracts! Super glad that's how it worked out, though. I'm real happy doing AG batches.

Best thing I can advise is patience. It's your first brew, so I can understand getting excited. But keep in mind, It will get better the longer you wait (with the possible exception of hop aroma/flavor fading slightly over time).

 

[mrmuskie]

I started with AG by accident. Found an AG starter kit and brewed it before I knew anything about extract brewing. In fact, the first time I visited these forums, I thought the forum on extract brewing dealt with flavor extracts! Super glad that's how it worked out, though. I'm real happy doing AG batches.

Best thing I can advise is patience. It's your first brew, so I can understand getting excited. But keep in mind, It will get better the longer you wait (with the possible exception of hop aroma/flavor fading slightly over time).

I am pretty excited but I hear ya on the waiting. I want to make good beer not just beer.

 

[mrmuskie]

FYI, if you find that you over-boiled and your volume is too low-just add water back to get the volume you want.

Best practice would be to add it and let it come back to a boil, but I've also added some top off water at flameout with no problems....

Duhhhhh! Im slow to see the obvious sometimes but maaaan i should have thought of that lol. thanks for the help man.

 

[imrook]

Don't worry about it. There's a lot going on in your first few brews. For my second beer I wanted to do an oatmeal stout. Since oats have to be mashed, I decided to try my hand at a partial mash. I forgot to crush my grains and put them all in a muslin bag, tied very tight into the kettle. I didn't get anywhere near the color or sugars I needed out of the mini-mash. I realized this at the time and was kinda bummed out, but I thought "it'll still make beer." I then proceeded to follow my hop schedule for the recipe. Needless to say, the beer was way overhopped. I knew I needed to crush my grains, and I knew that the hop schedule needs to be adjusted for the gravity, but I was too distracted by the process to be able to catch these things and correct them in real time. Once you get your process down, you'll have a lot more time to think about and correct little things like that. Of course, once you have your process down, you won't be boiling off too much water or not milling grains, but that's beside the point.

 

[mrmuskie]

Well I dry hopped with 1 oz of amarillo this weekend and took a gravity sample, the beer ended up finishing at 1.010 from 1.060 so thats good. I tasted the sample and it was pretty damn good for young as it is. I want to brew another beer but i want to make sure my process is good enough before i throw down on the next batch. man this stuff is addictive.