First AG (and first post!!)

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billym99

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2008
Messages
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Location
Shrewsbury
Hey everybody,

First, THANKS!... I've been reading this forum for weeks gathering knowledge about the homebrewing process. Needless to say, I probably haven't absorbed 10% of what there is to know about homebrewing, but I feel like I'm starting to understand the basics.

Today I brewed my first batch of homebrew... and yes, it was all grain. After reading, and reading, and reading, and then some more reading I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the all grain process. Built myself a mash tun (48qt. cooler with the steel braided hose process), built a wort chiller (home depot, only $30!!) and bought a turkey fryer with a 30qt. stainless steel stockpot. Also purchased a homebrewing kit from Northern Brewer that included everything else that I needed.

I brewed "Aberdeen Brown Ale", a recipe submitted to this website by "BierMuncher". I cut the recipe to a 5.5 gallon batch using BeerSmith, OG was 1.047 giving me 76.33% brewhouse efficiency according to BeerSmith. This program estimated the OG @ 1.046. Biermuncher had the estimated OG @ 1.043... not sure if the difference was cutting out the roasted barley, lowering the IBU as he suggested in a later post, etc. Any ideas??

All in all, today was fun and rewarding... I can't wait to try beer that I actually made rather then bought. Thanks again for all of the great information located on this website.


Billy M.
 
Welcome to the forums Billy and congratulations on your first brew! Sounds like your first brew went a lot smoother than my first and lots of others as well! Patience is key at this point, but I'd be lying if I told you I didn't tear into my first few brews when they were still green! Keep up the good work!
 
Welcome to HBT Billy. Kudos to you for jumping in with both feet! Sounds like you had an awesome first brew-day, and I'm excited for you to try your first brew! :mug:
Ev
 
Wow, jumping right in with AG! A few people have gone that route. I was too timid! Good for you; you seem to have really gotten a handle of it all on your own. Cool.

OG might have been a little low from cutting out the roasted barley, but being so close and since there are so many variables, it's really hard to say. Just be glad you came so close. As you get more familair with your system, you'll be able to adjust and hit your target OGs a bit more consistantly. Still, I've been brewing AG for nearly three years now I never hit them dead on every time!
:mug:
 
Congrats. I hope the recipe doesn't disappoint.

More than just the efficiency setting can affect your OG so I would sweat it too much.

Make sure to give that beer a good 2 weeks in the primary to get nice and "clean".

And...go get yourself another batch to brew. :D

Welcome to the club and the forum.
 
I'm in Columbia, MD.

Patience is very much key, I definately agree. I did two dry runs where I literally was pretending to pour water into my mash tun, mock vorlaufing, etc. That helped very much.

This forum was key, though... a month ago i was simply researching how to build a kegerator and somehow ended up here, a few weeks later I've decided to brew my own beer, GO FIGURE! :mug:
 
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