Questions for My First All Grain Batch

[gerard weyns]

So I've never actually brewed beer before. I was planning on starting out slow, but I am at a point in my life where I had the time to do it so I pulled the trigger and built a 3 vessel eHERMS with 15 gallon pots. You can check it out in the DIY forums. Anyways I am just finishing up the wiring on my controller and plan on brewing my first batch this weekend! I'm going to make a trip to the homebrew store on Friday to pick up ingredients for a centennial blonde. Here are my questions:

As of right now I have my brew system, a mash paddle, a refractometer, star san, 2 6-gallon glass carboys, and 4 corny kegs. Am I missing anything? Trying to avoid as many "oh sh#!" moments as possible.

The recipe is pretty detailed on the mash ingredients, hops, and yeast that are to be used. Is there anything that is not commonly included in recipes that I am going to need?

I have seen a lot of talk about water in the All Grain forum and I'm a little intimidated. Is getting the correct water profile essential to all grain brewing, or can I just use bottled water from the store this first time around and tackle water profiles further down the road?

And finally I have been reading up a lot on tips and tricks/dos and dont's, but are there any last words of advice out there for a newbie like me?
Thank you in advance and I can't wait to get started

 

[AzOr]

You may have these items but didn’t mention them- accurate thermometer and hydrometer.

Also I find it useful to have a spare plastic bucket filled w star san for my brew day.you can dunk utensils, hydrometer,air locks etc.
Best of luck. You’ll have a blast. Don’t forget to take good notes of your brew day.

 

[Brewsit]

Don’t worry too much about your water profile to start. Bottled water is a great way to go, since there are some minerals to help. You don’t want to strip everything out unless you planned to add minerals back in. If your city water is decent (not terribly hard, drinkable out of the tap) you could use that too, just be sure to use a campden tablet if there’s chlorine/chloramine.

It’s also good to have a buddy with you to help you stumble through the process with, even if they aren’t experienced either. That way you can at least get drunk together if it all goes wrong

 

[RM-MN]

So I've never actually brewed beer before. I was planning on starting out slow, but I am at a point in my life where I had the time to do it so I pulled the trigger and built a 3 vessel eHERMS with 15 gallon pots. You can check it out in the DIY forums. Anyways I am just finishing up the wiring on my controller and plan on brewing my first batch this weekend! I'm going to make a trip to the homebrew store on Friday to pick up ingredients for a centennial blonde. Here are my questions:

As of right now I have my brew system, a mash paddle, a refractometer, star san, 2 6-gallon glass carboys, and 4 corny kegs. Am I missing anything? Trying to avoid as many "oh sh#!" moments as possible.

The recipe is pretty detailed on the mash ingredients, hops, and yeast that are to be used. Is there anything that is not commonly included in recipes that I am going to need?

I have seen a lot of talk about water in the All Grain forum and I'm a little intimidated. Is getting the correct water profile essential to all grain brewing, or can I just use bottled water from the store this first time around and tackle water profiles further down the road?

And finally I have been reading up a lot on tips and tricks/dos and dont's, but are there any last words of advice out there for a newbie like me?
Thank you in advance and I can't wait to get started

KISS. Keep it Stupid Simple. You are making such a big deal about going all grain and that makes it quite a bit more intimidating and complicated. Do your first batch all grain as simple as possible, then add the complications.

BIAB is as simple as it gets. Heat water to calculated strike temp, drop in bag and stir in your milled grains. Cover pot and let it set for your 60 minutes (or 90, or 120 or maybe even just 45 or 30 depending on the milling of the grain). Pull out the bag and let it drain. (that's equivalent to draining the mash tun) Dunk the bag of grain into some water, dunk it up and down a couple times and pull it to drain out (there's your sparge). Combine the two containers of wort, measure the OG and start the boil. The OG and quantity will be important for calculatiing the mash efficiency so note the volume of wort collected.

You can do BIAB just once if you feel you know how all grain works or you can repeat it.

 

[cubalz]

Just brew as a full volume, no sparge BIAB. It really does not get any simpler than that. I have not sparged in years and do not plan on it.

 

[balrog]

Another vote for no sparge BIAB here. Grind it down to atomic dust, use a Wilser BIAB bag, full vol mash, drain 10-15m while kettle comes to boil, done.

 

[gerard weyns]

I'm not too intimidated by the brew process for my system. I've become pretty familiar with it having spent the last 3 months researching and building my system. Glad to here it's ok to go with bottled water. I was under the impression that my refractometer would replace a hydrometer, but after reading into it I will definitely be picking one up tomorrow. Keep the tips and tricks coming I need all the help I can get!
Link to my build below
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/3-vessel-eherms-build.642973/

 

[Dcpcooks]

I did the same thing! You’ll be fine.

Don’t start your pump until you let the mash rest a bit

Make sure your water is at temp before you strike in. It’s easier to raise the temp before you mash in.

You will see a lag between your mash temps.

Take notes

Have fun

 

[curtisbrewer]

agree with everything said about the water, definitely not a necessity starting out. great beer can be made without worrying about water chemistry, that comes when you want to make EVEN better beer . which is what everyone here starts to chase in the end! only thing i will say is the sooner you ditch those glass carboys the better off you will be . they are a thing of the past , extremely dangerous compared to whats out there , and offer no valving. one of the best things i did early on was ditch the glass. i now have 5 of em collecting dust unless i do a couple of ciders that dont require moving the glass and even then i only use those to keep the speidels open . have fun and enjoy !

 

[gerard weyns]

nly thing i will say is the sooner you ditch those glass carboys the better off you will be . they are a thing of the past , extremely dangerous compared to whats out there , and offer no valving. one of the best things i did early on was ditch the glass. i now have 5 of em collecting dust

I have been looking into the plastic inductor tank conical fermenters that people have been building. What kind of fermenter are you using?

 

[RM-MN]

I'm not too intimidated by the brew process for my system. I've become pretty familiar with it having spent the last 3 months researching and building my system. Glad to here it's ok to go with bottled water. I was under the impression that my refractometer would replace a hydrometer, but after reading into it I will definitely be picking one up tomorrow. Keep the tips and tricks coming I need all the help I can get!
Link to my build below
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/3-vessel-eherms-build.642973/

It will depend on how you want to use the refractometer. If you want to know the exact FG so you can calculate the ABV of the beer then the hydrometer is the right tool as the presence of alcohol skews the reading of the refractometer and calculation are needed to get an approximate FG. If all you care about is that the gravity has stopped changing so you can bottle or keg, the refractometer will do that.

 

[Griffin495]

If you do use bottled water, don't use distilled or RO. Those have been stripped of everything. I have not gone down the rabbit hole of water chemistry yet (even though I'm a chemist in a lab at a wastewater treatment plant) and I use spring water and its worked well for me so far.

What are your plans for maintaining temperature during fermentation?

 

[gerard weyns]

What are your plans for maintaining temperature during fermentation?

I've got a big free standing cabinet that I am installing an ac unit in until I feel like dropping some more cash to build a good fermentation chamber. Not the most precise way to go about it but it should work for now. In general how much does the wort heat up during fermentation? The recipe for this centennial blonde says to ferment at 68 degrees, and I've got a room in the basement that is around 60-65 this time of year.

 

[newtobrew1981]

Get yourself a ph meter

 

[gerard weyns]

Big thanks to everybody for all of the advice! Nearly two weeks later than originally planned I worked out the kinks in my control panel and was finally able to brew my first batch last night. It was surprisingly easy. I hit all of my numbers and currently have 5.5 gallons of centennial blonde beginning fermentation in a 65 degree room. I've got another question for you guys about wort chilling, and there may already be a thread on this but I haven't found it yet. I have a copper immersion chiller but it got left back home last time I was there, so I ended up filling my HLT with ice water and recirculating the wort in the boil kettle through my herms coil (hard mounted in the HLT), and it brought the temp from near boiling to 70 degrees in a matter of a few minutes. Why aren't more people doing this? It seems pretty efficient, saves money considering you don't have to buy a separate chiller, makes for less equipment to clean at the end of the brew day, and as long as you sanitize between mashing and chilling I can't see any issues arising. I'm still very new to brewing so let me know if this is a good idea or not, but I'm thinking about selling my immersion chiller.

 

[newtobrew1981]

The only thing I don't like about that is

 

[seatazzz]

I will repeat what others have said (kinda) and say, don't overthink it. Brewing beer is really easy. I shied away from going all-grain at first but I will never look back. Above all, keep in mind that you WILL have a failure or two along the way and don't let it discourage you (for examples, check craigslist sometime for starter brew kits, a lot of those are for sale because someone got discouraged from a failure). I'm still learning two years in and still have screwups once in a while. Learn from your mistakes, and know that whatever else happens YOU ARE MAKING BEER and that is awesome. Beats many other hobbies all hollow since you'll be making something you can enjoy.

I'll also +1 to the water chemistry question - unless your tap water is really nasty, you should be fine. Campden tablets are super cheap insurance against most anything. Our water here is pretty good, but I still use 2 tablets per batch just in case.

 

[Morrey]

I've got a big free standing cabinet that I am installing an ac unit in until I feel like dropping some more cash to build a good fermentation chamber. Not the most precise way to go about it but it should work for now. In general how much does the wort heat up during fermentation? The recipe for this centennial blonde says to ferment at 68 degrees, and I've got a room in the basement that is around 60-65 this time of year.

As a "rule" doesn't mean always, but exothermic heat produced by yeast at high activity is potentially up to 8F above ambient. For most ales that ferment in the low to mid 60's, your basement may just do the trick. However, I'll be the first to say a well controlled fermentation chamber is a sure way to better beer.

If your A/C in the cabinet setup can be switched on and off with an ATC device like an Inkbird, that would be a start in the right direction. Also, don't fail to consider you may need a Fermwrap or heat source of some type during periods that are not considered high krausen that you may need heat to keep it at 68F in your cool basement.