The Smell of Sweet Success

[jbeauchamp]

Well, I figured I would share my experiences on my first All Grain batch. I have seen many others do this, so I figured why not. I did my first all grain on Saturday the 28th. I was a little worried about the weather as it was only 30 degrees outside. I was hoping my MLT would be able to hold my temperatures for the entire hour. Besides adding about two hours to my brew day All Grain really is not that hard. I was able to hit my temperatures pretty well and my OG after putting the wort in the fermentor was spot on at 1.052. I did have to add an additional 2 quarts of boiling water to my mash to get the temperature up to where I wanted. That is a good thing though as I ended with 7.5 gallons in the brew kettle and just about 5.5 gallons after the boil. Having a 15 gallon brew pot that is over 18 inches across causes a lot of boil off, especially in 30 degree weather. All in all it went very well and I am glad I made the move to AG. It also seems a little cheaper to brew AG. I believe my total bill for this beer was around $25. Now I only had 1 hop addition of 1 ounce so that could have something to do with it.

I checked on the fermentation tonight and notice it was pretty cold, around 62 degrees. So I wrapped a blanket around the carboy. It is now bubbling away like a good little bottle of wort on its way to becoming beer.

I can't wait to do my next AG batch. I think next Sunday I will be trying the Niera Sevada IPA from the recipes section of this site.

 

[squeekysheep]

sounds like you hit the first AG nicely, mine ended up being more like a decontation mash i messed up the temps so much. the beer still turned out great tho and my seconds i was able to hit temps. the first time i really should of had an extra 2 quarts of hot and cold water but it's all good.


Grats

 

[BierMuncher]

Sweetness.

Now make notes so next time you hit that mash temp the first time in. It's all about dialing in your system.

Congrats...and welcome to the club.