Upgrading to all grain. Looking for lessons learned

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jefferybouton

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After a couple years of extract brewing I have grown bored. I have upgraded my equipment, and am ready to go into all grain as soon as I return to the states. Just my luck I Uncle Sam called me out of the country the day I converted my 10 gallon igloo. Now that work is wrapping up, I am looking for a fool proof 5 gallon recipe to start on, as well as any wisdom that people can pass along.

This will be my first full grain batch so I would like something to put me through the motions. I am a fan of American Ales, Farmhouse Ales, and almost any other beer(minus the sours), but need to start some where.

I am equipped with a 10 gallon mash tun, 5 gallon hot liquor tank, 10 gallon kettle, and will aquire an arm sparge before the brew day.

I by no means a pro, but think I could take on a moderately complicated brew with proper instruction.

Any wisdom will be very much appreciated!
 
If you haven't done so already. Do a total dry run. It sounds tedious but it'll expose a lot of holes in your plan that you can make a note of. It'll also expose any missing equipment you forgot. It might be especially helpful being that you've been out of the game 9 months to a year.

I mean from start to finish, especially if you're doing gravity fed because I found that my hose lengths were too long, heights were too short or too tall to lift the weight. Put the same amount of water your recipe calls for, go through the mash process to make sure your seals are all good if you're doing weldless. Then do the transfers. It's far more enjoyable fixing transfer issues with water than sticky wort, and you're not wasting it either.

If you haven't done so before, do a full boil for an hour and figure out your boil off amount. If you've been doing extracts and topping off to get a full 5 gallons, it's good to know how much water you'll lose so you can adjust your mash and sparge water. It's spent propane, but it's better than making a 5 gal batch and coming up with 4 or less gallons of yield.
 
Brew this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/ it's pretty popular around here simple and best of all it tastes great, it's what I made for my first batch.

You want something easy for your first batch so you can get your process down. You don't want to attempt a difficult recipe the first time you brew on new equipment. Get to know your equipment & get back into the swing of the whole process before you try anything you can easily mess up.

Good Luck!:mug:
 
There's a chapter in Palmers book that walks you through, complete with a decent pale ale recipe. I did that for my first all grain several years ago and pretty much stick to that procedure for every batch going on 150 or so now.

My advice is to get a good mash paddle - I have a big stainless one I can also use to kill mutants with a after the apocalypse, cost me $25 I think...

Steve da sleeve
 
My suggestion is to brew something you can directly compare to, whether that is a readily available commercial beer that you like, or something you've brewed as an extract version and still have some on hand. Brew something with a simple grain bill and simple boil additions. That will allow you to focus your attention on the process and not additions-timing. Make sure to ready all of your equipment ahead of time. Test your mash tun and boil kettle for leaks. Determine your kettle's boil-off rate by boiling plain water. Dial in your burner settings so that you can achieve a nice, rolling boil without causing a boil over. Get some Fermcap-S and/or a spray bottle filled with distilled water in case you do experience conditions where a boil over is imminent. Stirring also can tamp down an imminent boil over. Be especially careful when adding hops and Whirlfloc, as they create oodles of nucleation points that can lead to boil overs. Fermcap, a ready spray bottle and stirring can all help prevent they before they turn into a messy disaster if you're aware and at the ready. It all seems overwhelming at first, but adequate preparation and an easy first brew day will give you the confidence boost to tackle bigger, more complicated brews in the future.
 
My advice is to stop "getting ready to do it" and simply do it.

You will learn more in an afternoon of brewing than you will in three months of preparing for it - and you will have some beer to show for it. :)
 
TasunkaWitko said:
My advice is to stop "getting ready to do it" and simply do it.

You will learn more in an afternoon of brewing than you will in three months of preparing for it - and you will have some beer to show for it. :)
Click to expand...

That's my advice too. Just do it! I brewed my first AG batch on September 15th and my second one on September 25th. There was lots of wasting time and worrying about this and worrying about that. The best thing was to just get in there and do it, learn from my own mistakes, and then improve upon those. My second batch on Sep 25th went pretty well with a few minor hiccups such as leaving the mash tun valve open when I poured hot water in! Live and learn and improve!
 
make a schedule / checklist for your brew day until you have your process down.

know your boil off rates and calculate all your volumes before you start.

Take notes you cant make it again if you don't know what you did.
 
It seems like this question comes up often, and I am always reluctant to respond because I am not sure if others would agree with my advice or practice, so please take this with the appropriate amount of salt.

I started doing a bunch of 1 gallon all grain batches just to get the conceptual process down. Those were the first brews of my life. Then, I went right into 5g all grain batches, and I am making great beer. So, I add the following suggestions, which may or may not be acceptable practice.

1: Be aware of sanitization practices. There can be a lot going on with all grain, so you want to make sure you have every step accounted for, especially post boil, especially any tubing.

2: When I encounter a problem, I ask myself only one question: will doing nothing significantly impact the final product. For example, if my OG is 10 points low, I do nothing. If I am only at 4 gallons but my OG is on the mark, I pitch and get 4 gallons of beer. If my mash temp is 3-5 degrees to high, I let it be and live with the result. Why? Because trying to correct it may cause a result worse than the initial problem. There are innumerable threads on here dealing with low OG, low volume, and remedies. I would consider those to be more advanced techniques. Your goal is to get consistency with the process and the equipment. Get some brews under your belt and get comfortable with the process. Then, you will be able to solve any issues with confidence.

3. Take notes. That way, if you have an issue, you can state it specifically and get an accurate answer. Also, if you make a "happy accident" then you can repeat it.

4. Start with a straight forward recipe. based on your likes, I suggest BierMuncher's Fire Rock Clone recipe. It's easy, straight forward, and awesome. Another suggestion would be the Big Basin Amber Ale by John Palmer. Just google it, it is everywhere.

5. Start early. Don't wait until 6 pm to start brewing if you can avoid it, as it makes for late night and mistakes. I like to start no later than 8 am, that way I am fresh and have the rest of my day free and don't feel rushed.

You will be just fine. This isn't rocket surgery. You will make beer, you will enjoy it, and you will want to start kegging if you don't already.

Good luck! :mug:
 
I'd recommend trying brew-in-a-bag if you're concerned with the complications of All-Grain brewing. I started off with BIAB, planned to transition to traditional All-Grain and just decided to never make the move. Its so much easier with one vessel to clean after brewing, less transferring, and a greatly reduced brew-day length (3-4hrs from heating the strike water to pitching yeast)

For the bag, I just went to Home Depot / Lowes and bought these 5-gal paint strainer bags that have an elastic band at the top. They fit great over my 8 gal kettle, I dont even need clamps to hold the bag in place. From there, its just like doing partial-mash extract batches, but with a giant "mini-mash".

And if you want some recipes, I posted a big table of the ~50 recipes I've made so far here
I haven't had time to type them all up yet, but I can give you very detailed instructions for any you are interested in.
 
Practice, practice, practice. Be prepared for your first few batches to not be as good as your extract beers. You have to learn the nuances of a new system and it takes a lot of practice to get consistent results. Start off with something that has a moderately high OG. That way if your efficiency is bad you won't end up with a 3% abv beer. Or keep a bag of dme on hand for gravity corrections. Thanks for serving!
 
I'd recommend trying brew-in-a-bag if you're concerned with the complications of All-Grain brewing.

I have done a handful of Brooklyn brew one gallon kits. Thanks for the reminder.

As far as everyone else I appreciate the input.
 
m00ps said:
I'd recommend trying brew-in-a-bag if you're concerned with the complications of All-Grain brewing. I started off with BIAB, planned to transition to traditional All-Grain and just decided to never make the move. Its so much easier with one vessel to clean after brewing, less transferring, and a greatly reduced brew-day length (3-4hrs from heating the strike water to pitching yeast)
Click to expand...

Can't agree more with going BIAB. My first all grain, which happened to be my second batch of beer ever, was a Green Flash West Coast IPA clone. BIAB is so simple, I don't see myself ever doing anything different.

Takes me around 2-2.5 hours on a typical brew day now. And I'm generating ideas to make it even quicker.
 
Yeah BIAB is where its at. Some people worry about efficiency but I am always between 70-75%. The only limit seems to be the batch size since it'd be hard ot find a bag big enough for a 10-gal grain bill. Plus you need a pulley system to lift it unless you have a bunch of friends to help.

Let me know if you want any of the recipe ideas. I'd be happy to do instructions for any of them
 
Decide all the equipment you think you are going to need and if you can double the size; pot ,immersion feeder , mash tun , everything , you will find yourself very soon wishing you had more space in this or that
 
My advice is to be patient when you are doing all grain. For example, on my first batch I added the strike water to the mash and almost immediately started chasing the needle to get to my mash temp. What I should have done is, after mixing it thoroughly, gave it a few minutes for things to reach equilibrium. That would have saved me a lot of stress on brew day.
 
Before my first all grain brew, I watched this video: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5J8S5nBdUc[/ame]

John Palmer explains the all grain process very well, and I pretty much knew what to do after watching it a few times. I also bought a pre-made ingredients kit for my first time ag brew off northern brewer's site. Once I got more familiar with all-grain I then started tweaking recipes or creating my own. BUT, I think for the first time all-grainer, stick with a recipe that's relatively low gravity (5-6% abv) and go right off what the recipe says. You can't go wrong!
 
TasunkaWitko said:
My advice is to stop "getting ready to do it" and simply do it.

You will learn more in an afternoon of brewing than you will in three months of preparing for it - and you will have some beer to show for it. :)
Click to expand...

This! I spent a lot of time thinking about the process, my equipment, and recipes. My first brew day was a big learning curve. Since then it's gone so much smoother.
 
Just kick 'er in the guts and rip into it. I would look at doing a infusion mash with batch sparge and keep the grain bill simple, maybe even a SMaSH
 
Assuming you are using a cooler as your mash tun, I learned the following: Heat your strike water hotter than what the calculators tell you. I heat my strike water to 180 because it's easier and faster to cool it once you dough in than it is to make it hotter. In addition, given how fast conversion starts, you want to hit your target mash temperature as quickly as possible. Keep a gallon of cold water available. When you dough in and stir, check the temperature. Now add cold water little by little and stir until you hit your target mash temp. Now let it sit for an hour. That was easy.
 
just do it. a few things i do to make my day easier.
1) set up all all equipment the day before, test for leaks.
2) gather water day before.
3) have check list of ingredients and procedure day of.
4) have fun.
5) have a brew(typically after boil)
 
Assemble everything the night before, measure out your strike and sparge water, clean everything you'll be using post boil. one you've mashed in clean everything you've just used, and when you have about twenty minutes of mash time left, start heating your strike water. clean as you go and it should go smoothly. All Grain takes a little more time and effort but the process is able to be tweaked that much more and the benefits are endless! Good Luck and Happy Brewing!
 
haha sorry about the triple reply but I keep thinking of more things when i hit send....
If you don't have one already, brewing software programs such as Beersmith help a lot, and you can set up a profile according to your equipment to really fine tune your experience.
 
FiddlersGreen87 said:
If you haven't done so already. Do a total dry run. It sounds tedious but it'll expose a lot of holes in your plan that you can make a note of. It'll also expose any missing equipment you forgot. It might be especially helpful being that you've been out of the game 9 months to a year.

I mean from start to finish, especially if you're doing gravity fed because I found that my hose lengths were too long, heights were too short or too tall to lift the weight. Put the same amount of water your recipe calls for, go through the mash process to make sure your seals are all good if you're doing weldless. Then do the transfers. It's far more enjoyable fixing transfer issues with water than sticky wort, and you're not wasting it either.

If you haven't done so before, do a full boil for an hour and figure out your boil off amount. If you've been doing extracts and topping off to get a full 5 gallons, it's good to know how much water you'll lose so you can adjust your mash and sparge water. It's spent propane, but it's better than making a 5 gal batch and coming up with 4 or less gallons of yield.
Click to expand...

This is good advise. I did this, well most of it. I did 2 boils in my new 16 gallon, one with 7 gallons pre-boil for 60 minutes and one with 12 gallons pre-boil for 90 minutes. I calculated my boil off rates and was able to learn how to adjust my propane to dial in the boil off rate I wanted. Made a couple of little marks on my regulator for future reference. Then I transferred to my mash tun and measured my BK dead space. Then I drained my MLT and measured its dead space. This really helped with adjusting recipes to match your system.

I recently added a pump to my system. The day before brew day I went through the whole process minus the boil; fill BK, pump to MLT, fill BK again pump to HLT, pump from MLT to BK, drain HLT to MLT, pump MLT to BK again, then pump to fermenter. I discovered where any problems may arise, and was able to have a mostly smooth brew day knowing how it would all come together.
 
As far as picking a bew - go with a style that you've had success with in extract. Don't pick something overcomplicated unless you really want that. For my first, I chose an IPA because I'd had success with that and find the extra hops to be forgiving of certain mistakes.

As for lessons learned, my top 3 summarized:
1) Assemble everything at least one day before
2) Do a 'wet run' - doesn't have to be full volume or full boil, but using water only do everything at say 25%, test for leaks and flaws in your process
3) Don't spend forever planning - get brewing!

I did my first AG earlier this month. TheKraken linked to my post earlier, but if you haven't read it yet go take a look. It's hopefully a good laugh at some of the issues I ran into - and others have been adding their own 'learning opportunities' as well. Have a chuckle. And when you've recovered from your first session, I hope you'll add on to my post with some of your well earned wisdom:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/what-i-learned-my-first-ag-brew-day-495099/
 
Make a list of all the equipment you will need and get it set up the night before.
You should have already done a wet run/leak test of your equipment at this point.
Make another list detailing the steps you need to execute your brew day.
You should know what your strike temp. needs to be, and volumne.
You should have a method to measure your wort collections.
If you have a handle on all that, you are good to go.
 
eko said:
Don't spend forever planning - get brewing!

I did my first AG earlier this month. TheKraken linked to my post earlier, but if you haven't read it yet go take a look. It's hopefully a good laugh at some of the issues I ran into - and others have been adding their own 'learning opportunities' as well. Have a chuckle. And when you've recovered from your first session, I hope you'll add on to my post with some of your well earned wisdom:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/what-i-learned-my-first-ag-brew-day-495099/
Click to expand...

Sounds like you could have benefited from better planning :)
 
runkelia said:
Sounds like you could have benefited from better planning :)
Click to expand...

MORE planning - no, I was doing too much of it already. Ah, but that's not what you said...

BETTER planning - I'll give you that :). Unfortunately, I had apparently reached the upper limit on the quality of my planning.

And of course there's the things I planned to do, but then didn't bother doing. I planned to assemble my gear the day before, but got tired part way through and put it off. I planned to use plumber's tape, but then forgot. (I never did think to do a wet run, which would have solved at least one and maybe both of my biggest issues.)

At the end of the day, we don't know what we don't know and more and more planning will only bring incrementally more of the darkness to light. Thus my #1 learned lesson - plan, but don't plan forever, brew!
 

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