First time brewing and doing all grain to boot

[billm67]

I am going to brew my first beer Friday night. I have three friends who are all experienced all grain brewers. So I am jumping in both feet and doing an all grain batch. I bought an 8 gallon brew kettle and burner, a 10 gallon Rubbermaid cooler based mash tun and a 5 gallon cooler for a hot liquor tank. Also have several donated carboys and lots of brushes, siphon, stoppers, airlocks...and other items. I put together a yeast started Sunday and it is well on it's way to being ready to go. My friend will be here with me guiding me through the process (we are brewing a two hearted ale clone).

So any tips for a first time brewer? What do you wish someone would have told you before you brewed your first batch? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

thanks

Bill

 

[Redlantern]

If your friends are experienced, let them walk you through it first. Good chance you will spend all of you energy listening to them. I started that way and it was great when they took over and I knew nothing. It was a lot easier to focus that day as opposed to my second batch when I thought I knew stuff.....

 

[GPP33]

X2 on letting your friend guide you. At this point you probably want to take his advice over some random dude on the internet.

Brewing "Friday night" sounds like a late night. Have fun!

 

[billm67]

I am going to get everything set up and ready to go Thursday. It will just be a matter of sanitizing and starting water to boil. I am sure it will take some time...but it will be a fun night.

 

[kristiismean]

best advice I can give is take notes, lightly. and don't drink a lot.

I remember my first few batches, and used a checklist. and honestly, still should but rarely do anymore.

I still print out a rough draft of the recipe to follow, or have it on a tablet or my phone for Hop addition times, and that's about it.

 

[Redlantern]

Here is what I used when I first started...

Two days before
 Build yeast starter of 1.040 to 1.050 sg
 Add water treatment according to Bru’n water spreadsheet minus acid additions
 Prepare ice for chiller
 Inventory everything - all grains, hops, yeast, and equipment needed
 Ensure propane tank has enough propane

Day before
 Make sure enough beer for guests
 Ensure equipment is clean – sanitize all hoses and place in zip loc bag
 Ensure all equipment is serviceable
 Print and post recipe / schedule.
 Set up brew station
 Ensure StarSan is prepared (1 gal bottle under sink and spray bottle)
 Verify towels are clean and ready
 Crash starter – just before bed

Day of
 Ensure equipment is clean
 Retrieve starter from fridge and bring to room temp (approx. 3 hrs prior to Pitch)
 Sanitize fermenter and close lid
 Ensure all ball valves are in closed position on tun, HLT and fermenter
 Fill sanitation bucket (StarSan or Isosphore)
 Verify mash water ph @ room temp
 Heat mash water to target
 Mash grains - ad acid if used
 Verify sparge water ph @ room temp
 Heat water for sparge during mash and add acid if used
 Place strainer bag in boil pot
 Vorlauf and lauter
 Sparge - remove strainer bag from pot
 Boil and add hops
 Steep/Whirlpool
 Chill
 Transfer to fermenter, oxygenate, pitch yeast and close lid
 Ensure StarSan is in blowoff or airlock and ensure it is properly installed
 Clean up

Notes/Issues:


It was extensive, but it sure allowed me to place my twitchy excitement in a good and productive place.

 

[unviewtiful]

Since your friend will be there walking you through the process, ask questions about everything. Stuff like:
"What's the purpose of this step?"
"Why is it done this way?"
"What would change if we did XX differently?"

If you understand why you're doing something, it will be much easier in the future to plan out the process yourself.

 

[billm67]

I've already been asking a ton of questions. Another friend introduced me to Brewer's Friend and I have a copy of it on my IPAD. I will be using this for the recipe info, the timers and to document what we are doing. I am getting a 50 foot coil of 3/8 copper tubing tommorow so my goal is to have an immersion chiller built and ready to use for Friday night. I am really hoping it goes smoothly....I probably have more equipment than the average first time brewer, but I tend to over engineer everything I do. As I am starting out with all grain I want to make sure I have what I need to try to put together a good beer. I already started a checklist so hopefully we will have the bases covered. I do need to check how much propane I have for the burner...that could create a problem!