Hold My Beer, I'm Going In

[PanzerOfDoom]

Gonna do my first all grain on Monday, sort of a Skull Splitter Clone:
14.5 lbs Briess 2 row
8oz Cara wheat
10oz 60L Crystal
2oz Roasted
4oz Munich
1oz Smoked
1.5oz EK Goldings
Pitched onto a yeastcake of a Poor Richard's Ale using Wyeast Scottish Ale 1728.

Any advice for a first all grain?

 

[SwAMi75]

Keep some cool water on hand in case your strike temp is too high. Take notes on your strike/mash temps. This will be invaluable info for future batches. Stir your mash and break up any dough balls.

Also, don't get in a big sweat. Once you're mashed in, you've got an hour+ to prep the rest of your equipment, ingredients, etc. I made that mistake on my first batch. I was all frantic trying to get everything ready before I mashed in, then was bored out of my skull during the mash and sparge. If your gravity looks low, don't be afraid to boil it down some.

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

[Beer Snob]

Any advice for a first all grain?

Drink. Drink heavier then I did With all the problems my first AG had and seemed like it was doomed to have problems to the end all the way to bottling. It still taste like beer! HAHAHAHAHAHAAHA

 

[Lost]

As for the recipe, you should specify rauch malt or peat smoked. 1 oz peat smoked will be noticeable but 1 oz of rauch will not be - you'd need more like 1.5 - 2 lbs. I haven't used "cara wheat" before but if it's anything like plain old wheat malt it won't be noticeable.. if you're just using it for head retention then carapils will do the job very well.

As for the actual brewing, give yourself extra time since it will take longer than you think and you will run into snags. Also make sure you do it on a day when the LHBS is open so you can call them with questions or make a run to the store if need be. If you haven't been working with the turkey fryer and full volume boils in the past then be careful not to burn yourself. I've been doing this for a while and I always manage to hurt myself on brew day - usually by doing something stupid like touching the handles of the brew pot with my bare hands after I've been boiling the wort for 1hr + (drinking doesn't help either though it's mandatory on brew day).

And make sure you have some music, a book, or some friends handy so you don't get bored sitting around staring at the mash/lauter tun.

 

[SwAMi75]

So, how did it go?

 

[PanzerOfDoom]

Delayed it until Friday, I'll post afterwards.