First brew and it was AG

[r_u_maching_me]

So I have loved the craft brew industry for a long time and figured it was time to try it on my own. Well the kind of person I am I start where I want to finsh. i.e. starting by popping my brew cherry with a AG batch. Just like others ran into some snags no biggie. Everybody, including my LHBS, said I would not come close to the efficiency that the recipe called for. So I took their advice and picked up a little extra two row for my grain bill and a can of extract just in case. For the short story my brew day went swimingly as one would expect for somebody that hasn't done this before.

OG started at 1.074 and this was for a porter.
been in the ferm for 2 weeks just checked and gravity is 1.022
Of course had to give it a taste and sure enough its beer.

So excited and cannot wait to rack it. Hopefully I have the patients to wait.

I know I missed my gravity but it was higher. much higher than the recipe called for. I can live with that. lesson learned.

 

[BrewinHooligan]

Congratulations on your first brew and having the testicular fortitude to jump into AG! I only did 4 Mr Beer batches before jumping to AG and wish I would have started there too. My last batch, I tried brewing something huge (20.5+ lbs of grain) and got horrible efficiency due to the size. I am always happy getting higher efficiency than expected! As soon as you package this one, start something new because batch #1 will be gone before you know it!

 

[KuntzBrewing]

I started like this (sorta) I used to make wine then realized I'm not a wine drinker. Made one extract batch turned out not as planned. Lol then 2 years later I decided to plunge into all grain, when I bought my ingredients they were asking me about the size of my mash tun and I didn't even know what that meant lmao

Welcome to HBT!

oh and ull wanna buy more fermentors, nothing is worse than the lag period between brews! I always try to have something fermenting

 

[jetmac]

Oh ya. That's how I started. All-in AG. Congrats.

I'm curious as to why your LHBS would say you "would not come close to the efficiency that the recipe called for" since that's based on their crush and your system and not your experience other than hitting your mash temperature.

If you want to try to get the FG down a little more, you might try shaking up the yeast a bit and bumping the temp a couple three degrees. That might work.

 

[r_u_maching_me]

Thanks. I already have plans to make my wife a cider once this gets bottled. Unfortunately I don't have the space in my house to get multiple brews fermenting at the same time. I made a ferm chamber out of a old refrigerator and can only hold one carboy at a time. As for my LHBS, one of them was not to helpful and told me I was pretty much wasting his and my time. I did let him know my efficiency was more on his grains and crush and that making home brew is simple cooking and a little chemistry. Luckily there is another one in my area. As for dropping the FG a little more I'm in the fence about it. I put the numbers in a program and have 70% attinuation with a white labs british ale yeast and ABV is 6.97%

 

[jetmac]

Thanks. I already have plans to make my wife a cider once this gets bottled. Unfortunately I don't have the space in my house to get multiple brews fermenting at the same time. I made a ferm chamber out of a old refrigerator and can only hold one carboy at a time. As for my LHBS, one of them was not to helpful and told me I was pretty much wasting his and my time. I did let him know my efficiency was more on his grains and crush and that making home brew is simple cooking and a little chemistry. Luckily there is another one in my area. As for dropping the FG a little more I'm in the fence about it. I put the numbers in a program and have 70% attinuation with a white labs british ale yeast and ABV is 6.97%

Cool. I have a spare batroom with no windows that I ferment ales in. I fill the tub to the bottom of the fermometer and wrap a wet towel around the carboy , letting the towel hang in the water so it stays damp. If the temp starts to rise, I use a small fan to blow air across the carboy. This works well and may be an option for you. You could also maybe buy a big plastic tub to do the same. You really want to keep the temp stable the first 3 days, after that its not as important. And the yeast would rather do their work in the dark also.

Sorry to hear that about one of your LHBS.