It's beer! - First AG batch

[altenmuenster]

My Brother in law and I brewed a batch of Common Room ESB this weekend. It was my first AG brew, and he isn't a brewer.

Two problems that arose:
I missed the mash-in temp, something like 9° low, so I just used Beersmith to figure out an infusion to bring it up to temp (nailed it). I'll know better next time (I'm thinking that I misunderstood Beersmith when prepping) - I skipped the mash-out step since it was in the cooler so long and I had added an extra gallon or so to raise the temp.

I was batch sparging and I came up about a gallon short - I quickly heated up another gallon and ran it through, all seemed ok.

My Pre-boil OG was 1.054 - spot on what the recipe said, but after boil-off I hit 1.060 (adjusted for temps) -- does this sound off?

I *think* I am right when beersmith calculated an efficiency of 68% (using the pre-boil gravity. not bad for a rocky brew day!

Anyway, the beer looks great, I really enjoyed the process and putting everything I've learned from you guys on the forum. Thanks for everything!

 

[hough77]

Congrats! Slowly working my way up to AG.

 

[Yooper]

Sounds like a good day, with good results!

Your preboil SG and postboil SG should match, according to the volumes. What I mean is that if you had 1.054 with 6.5 volumes, you HAD to have 1.070 when you boiled down to 5 gallons. The sugars don't go anywhere, just the liquid evaporates and condenses the wort. But in order to get them correct, you have to know the exact volume when you take the SG readings.

Also, the wort sample needs to be cooled from the preboil sample. I know they say you can use "temperature correction" charts, but they are notoriously inaccurate above 90 degrees or so. So the preboil SG sample needs to be cooled in the freezer or in a pitcher of ice water to under 90 degrees, and then the temperature correction can be used.

Overall, it sounds like you had a wonderful first AG without any problems. Most people talk about a stuck sparge, a leaking valve, a big mess, etc. I'm sorta disappointed in your story! :cross:

 

[rjschroed]

Lots of people, including myself, don't even bother with mash out on a batch sparge. The biggest challenge to AG is knowing your volumes. It's so very important to know how much water to sparge with to get to your target pre boil volume, which requires you to know your boil off rate to get to your post boil volume. The good news is that it is pretty simple to calculate your sparge volume if you can measure your first runnings volume. should be something like this: Preboil volume - first runnings volumes = sparging volume.

 

[PurpleJeepXJ]

Great work!! I remember my first AG and you are much better off than I was. Extract is like 2D brewing. Welcome to the 3rd Dimension!!

 

[BBKing]

+1 to Yooper and Puprle.

Sounds like you have a great brew day.

BTW, I've done just shy of a dozen AGs since Tax Time (when I upgraded) and havent worried about temps/O.G.s (yeah, I probably should) and all my beer has come out great.

 

[altenmuenster]

Thanks for all the encouragement! Looking forward to many more.

 

[kh54s10]

+1 to Yooper and Puprle.

Sounds like you have a great brew day.

BTW, I've done just shy of a dozen AGs since Tax Time (when I upgraded) and havent worried about temps/O.G.s (yeah, I probably should) and all my beer has come out great.

I'm a noob but this sounds like:
A) you have been very lucky
B) you are not very picky about the taste of your beer.

Congrats to the OP on a great brew day, a few bumps but no train wreck.

 

[Thehopguy]

Eh, my first and only AG so far wasn't great. Missed my volumes and I was way low on my intended OG. But I'm eagerly looking forward to working out those problems next time!