First Ag = ....

[Brewin_Bob]

SUPERMASSIVEUBEREPICPILEOFEFFINGFAIL!!!!!

[rant]
Planned a 3.5 gallon batch (4 gallon boil). Should have waited till this weekend. No. Dumb bless Robert here says, "I think I want to try it tonight."

Single malt, 6 lbs. of Amer. 2-row, 1.3ºL. Planned single infusion of 1.25 qts/lb. = 7.5 qts of water and mash for 75 minutes. Beersmith says mash infusion needs to be about 165ºF to get a mash temp of 153ºF. But wait, grain has been in the fridge and is no where near 70ºF. I would have way undershot my mash temp. So, I hop onto howtobrew.com (because I know from perusing the site multiple times) to recalculate my strike water temp. ~172ºF. Ok, crisis averted.

Here's where the bless up occurred. Actually, it occurred weeks back, but it decided to bite me in the a$$ before kicking me in the crotch now. I bought an 8 qt. Igloo thinking it would big enough for 7.5 qts of strike water + 6 lbs. of grain. I thought it would fit. Just barely, but it would fit. As I (attempted) to dough in, I came to see that this was not going to work, even after removing a qt. of water.

I quickly cleaned out a bigger cooler and tried to pour everything inside.

That's when the handle of the smaller cooler popped off and **** decided to fly everywhere in the kitchen. I am now beyond the point of piss-tivity. I haven't even had a drink tonight.

Maybe that was the problem.

I know I'm going to try again, but bless this is discouraging. Somebody post sledgehammer dumba$$ from the epic fail thread. I'm too pissed to do it.
[/rant]

 

[The Pol]

MIN size for an all grain brew is going to be 5 gallons... 20qt or so, comfortably.

Generally the biggest problems in AG brewing I see are inadequate equipment. MLT, HLT and small BKs.

 

[Brewin_Bob]

Worst part is, in the back of my head, I KNEW it would've been too small. I KNEW I should wait until the weekend. I've gleaned that much from just lurking around. Jumped the gun and paid the price.

 

[kirscp]

If I recall, Beersmith should tell you the size of the tun needed. I have it on a different computer and am too lazy to check.

 

[Kriznac]

Well at least you learned something from it. Like an old boss of mine used to say, "If you ain't f***in' s**t up, you ain't workin'."

 

[mnadamn]

at least it was a small batch, could have been worse

 

[notwoohoo]

ProMash will tell you the total mash volume as well. The constant in ProMash is 1 quart water plus 1 pound grain = 1.32 quarts mash.

 

[IrregularPulse]

I would also recommend picking up some sort of brew software if you plan on AG brewing. I use Beersmith and love it but have not tried the others. A lot of people Use Beersmith, Promash, and I think there's one more common one. I've never heard anyone being disappointed in which ever one they chose. but FWIW the writer of Beersmith is on this forum so that helps with questions

That sucks to hear, but don't let it discourage you, You knew it wouldn't work from the start. Just get a big enough cooler. and you'll be golden. Did you have a manifold or braid with a spigot in that cooler?

 

[Brewin_Bob]

I do use Beersmith and a part of me knew that it was too small. Just got impulsive and excited. This was more of a mini-rant. A "this is what I did wrong" not "what did I do wrong". Guess I should have put this in DR+MM.

 

[wildwest450]

Mash Calculators

This page will help you. I love EPIC fails, especially when they're not mine.

 

[BrewDey]

That sounds rough-AG is definitely a weekend thing. Great thing about brewing is that it only tkaes one mishap to recognize a faulty process.

 

[IrregularPulse]

That sounds rough-AG is definitely a weekend thing. Great thing about brewing is that it only tkaes one mishap to recognize a faulty process.

I brewed an AG during the week once. Did a split batch. Mashed and sparged tuesday night after work, then did the boil the next night. My SCottish 60/ (RIP) turned out as good as any other using this split schedule.

 

[davesrose]

Here's where the bless up occurred. .....I thought it would fit. Just barely, but it would fit.

Yeah....see bold letters.....that was the screw up Luckily for my first AG, I was totally sweating bullets about everything, so I never went for "it should fit.....just barely, but it should fit". My philosophy is that this isn't a precise science (for most of us at least)....so it doesn't hurt to factor in an extra gallon or two in your containers

At least look at it this way....your first attempt was still a success because you now know what not to assume!

 

[TeufelBrew]

Way sorry the first AG went so poor!

Buck up now, you KNOW what you need to do, and you have the brains to recognize, (even before hand it sounds like) what need to be changed.

You're next one will kick butt and you'll be off and running.

 

[tokolosh]

hahaha! sucks for you!

The good news is you got your EPIC FAIL out of the way early. Now you should only have smaller less devastating failures!