First AG tomorrow

[treacheroustexan]

Brewing my first all grain batch tomorrow! I'm so pumped. Tips? I am pretty nervous, but at the end of the day all i am asking for is a drinkable beer in a few weeks. Doing an irish red.

 

[lazarwolf]

orgainize before you brew. review your recipe, always be clean, remember it's not a race.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

Pre heat that mash tun and have plenty of hot water on hand. Better too much than scrambling if you don't hit your mash temp! No reason to be nervous! Have a blast!

 

[mblanks2]

+1 on organizing. Have everything laid out, grains crushed, hops weighed and labeled and enjoy yourself.

 

[chuckcomm]

Get everything you can ready today. Measure out ingredients and have them ready to go. It will go fine just take your time.

 

[brewing_clown]

Keep a close watch on your temps, and don't rush the sparge.

 

[Sammy86]

Have some fun and if you start freaking out just remember

RDWHAHB

Best of luck tomorrow!

Cheers!

 

[Tinpanharry]

Don't start enjoying a beer until you are chilling the wort.

Cheers!

TPH

 

[kh54s10]

Don't fret it too much. If you were successful with extract and maybe partial mash you are well on your way. Set everything up in advance, pay attention and nothing should go wrong. There are a few more things to pay attention to, but it is really no more difficult.

And most of all, have fun doing your first all grain brew.

 

[SnakeRidge]

Get organized tonight. I'm sure you're running the process on a loop in your mind. Don't get too worried if little things go wrong with temps and gravity just roll with it. You can do it!

 

[treacheroustexan]

I'm just nervous about my beer smith actually. I had it set it fly sparge and it seemed easy, but I will be using batch sparge. I'm just confused on beer smith it says to batch sparge with 3 steps (1.33qt, 9.03 qt and 9.03qt). Can anybody clarify? I was just going to heat up 20 qts or so and sparge until I hit 6.5 gallons.

 

[signpost]

Stir the mash like crazy. Every time I've had lower than expected efficiency, I haven't stirred much. Every time I stir a lot, I get great efficiency.

 

[kh54s10]

With Beersmith you can change the sparge parameters. I just ignore the printout. I measure the amount collected from the mash, determine about how much more I need for my preboil volume. I then do a sparge, stir very well and drain about half the amount. I re-measure, add the water to get to preboil and stir, drain, measure then boil. As long as you collect the proper preboil volume, the rest is simple.

Another note. Don't put a bunch of water into your tun for mash then only drain what you need. That way you would be leaving a lot in the left over water. Use just a tad over what you need, stir the bejeebez out of it, vorlauf, then drain.

 

[soccerdad]

remember it's not a race.

What he said !!

 

[boozelover]

Congrats! Lazarwolf is right on...

Preparation is key- if you are not using a brew software, spend a few minutes and sketch out you plan, get your hops ready while you are mashing your grains, and get your egg timer (or iPhone).

Plan on at least one 'hiccup' and have fun.

Other than taking longer, it's not much harder than extract (at least in the beginning).

Good luck, and report back!

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

My process:
While water is heating I mill grain-different room
dump grain stir,walk around sanitizing stuff,drink few homebrews..got an hour to kill,zero need to rush.
Measure first hop bill
Pull grain bag after 60 min
add hops,measure more hops, and so on and so on
chill,rack to primary.
The hardest part is the cleanup,not much to worry about really

 

[b-boy]

I'm just nervous about my beer smith actually. I had it set it fly sparge and it seemed easy, but I will be using batch sparge. I'm just confused on beer smith it says to batch sparge with 3 steps (1.33qt, 9.03 qt and 9.03qt). Can anybody clarify? I was just going to heat up 20 qts or so and sparge until I hit 6.5 gallons.

Beersmith will figure out your batch volumes based on your equipment profile. It bases it on how much room you have in your tun. Look at your equipment profiles and make sure it matches what you're using. You can split it into 2 batches, or even one, if your equipment can handle it.

 

[SnakeRidge]

Dont't worry about BS. Run off the first runnings. Measure how much you have. Sparge with (how much you need - how much you have collected) Its just that easy. Take notes so you know what to expect in the future

 

[grrickar]

I'm doing my first AG tomorrow too. Best of luck and may the Force be with you...

 

[treacheroustexan]

I'm doing my first AG tomorrow too. Best of luck and may the Force be with you...

Good luck! Post back with your results!

And to everyone else thank you much. I will post some pics after I'm done to show off the success of this new born irish red

 

[bowman5150]

Good luck did the raging red ale last week going to do the red ale from more beer this weekend that has black roasted in it and Crystal 120 to see the difference and have a red ale off

 

[treacheroustexan]

First thing I have already learned today.. better/more accurate thermometer. My mash temperature was jumping from 139-148(my target mash temp) on my thermometer. So I'm not sure what it actually is. I'm hoping it still converts though. 50 minutes until i sparge. I heated up my water to 163 F (According to my thermometer) and dumped it in my tun, put the lid on for a couple minutes and then added my grain. Any advice on thermometers? Preferably one I can just attach to my tun somehow so i can monitor the temp at all time.

 

[treacheroustexan]

I did it on my stove top on a split boil between 2 5 gallon pots. I had one pot boil 3.5 and one boil 3. I never thought about how i would take a pre boil gravity reading. Anyone have any ideas how to calculate my eff? The 3 gallon pot was 1.051 and the 3.5 gallon was only 1.021. and after I took them I knew something wasn't right. Any suggestions what I can do? I will take a post boil reading but not sure how good it will do me.

 

[signpost]

Don't worry about the pre-boil gravity. Unless you use a refractometer, you probably had a hard time getting the wort to the temp your hydrometer is calibrated for.

Just check your gravity after it is in the fermenter, right before you pitch your yeast. And since you're doing a split boil, give it a chance to combine thoroughly before measuring.

 

[treacheroustexan]

Don't worry about the pre-boil gravity. Unless you use a refractometer, you probably had a hard time getting the wort to the temp your hydrometer is calibrated for.

Just check your gravity after it is in the fermenter, right before you pitch your yeast. And since you're doing a split boil, give it a chance to combine thoroughly before measuring.

Perfect thank you.

 

[treacheroustexan]

I'm doing my first AG tomorrow too. Best of luck and may the Force be with you...

Well! How did yours go?

 

[grrickar]

Time will tell but I missed my OG. I also ended up with a lot more trub in the fermenter than I expected. I did get a good handle on the process, and aside from a small leak in my HLT the equipment worked well.

 

[lazarwolf]

Don't sweat your first couple of batches. You'll learn your equipment, and you'll improve every time. Also have some dme on hand, just in case.

 

[SnakeRidge]

Also, dont sweat the trub in the fermenter. Myself and many others on here dump it all in. That stuff compacts down and you can rack over it

Cheers to both of you!

 

[lazarwolf]

How goes fermentation gents?