Pat my own back

[boothbrew]

Alright, I have to pat my own back here.
I have been extract and PM brewing for about a year now. It was definitely time to move to AG.
I brewed my first AG about 1 month ago and I really screwed it up.
Mash and sparge temperatures and times were way out of wack. In addition, I got a few stuck sparges and ended up bringing through some of the husks to the boil.. (fixed false bottom since then)
After things were said and done, the beer ended up tasting very astringent.
BUMMER.

Next I brewed an AG Cream Ale. My efficiency was pretty crappy but the beer doesn't taste bad at all, just a little weaker than I hoped.

And here is where I pat my own back.....
I did an Irish Red over the weekend and had 72% efficiency, target was 75%...


This post should be a testament to those that are apprehensive or nervous of going AG because it isn't as daunting as I originally thought. You just need to dive in and learn from your mistakes.

HBT really helped a great deal along the way.

God I love homebrewing....

 

[freyguy]

Good to hear. I just did my first one yesterday (see post further down), and was wondering what it took to fix your false bottom?

 

[boothbrew]

I had a plastic false bottle in my ML tun (Rubbermaid 10 gallon Gott cooler).
The grains were getting underneath the bottom somehow so I used a grain cloth used for steeping grains and wrapped that around the false bottom.

In the future I plan to make something more permanent though.

Did the trick though, no more stuck sparges....

 

[DeathBrewer]

i got a 58% efficiency on my Blood Ale this weekend. The funny thing is i had miscalculated the recipe to begin with, so i actually hit my originally intended OG on the nose, lol.

all my other PM and AG batches have been around 75%. life is good.