What was your very first All Grain Beer

[Mutine Bullfrog]

Well, sit back sonny and I will tell you. It was back in 1979 I think (I was "experimenting" back then so I can't say for sure). There wasn't much going on in the way of home brewing in Oklahoma and so ....

Can you post that recipie?

Great story

 

[banjopicker16]

My first brew ever, which was all-grain, was a Fullers ESB clone. The day of, I realized how unprepared I was, having to figure out how to measure my water, having to boil a bunch of water, and so on. I had a thin mash because I GUESSED at the strike temp to get at the right mash in, and had to keep adding boiling water to get up to temp. So, around 8 o clock that night (started at 10 am), I was finished. Alas, I didnt know how smack paks worked, and only smacked it about 1 hour before pitching. This would have been bad enough, if it wasnt that persnickity 1968 ESB Yeast. Well, after 3 DAYS, fermentation started.

What did I end up with 2 months later? A phenolic, marker tasting, wild yeast infected beer. O well. At least its 6% ABV, if I could only get it down.

Not knowing yet my yeast was bad, I decided to save money and use it on my next batch, but luckily I thought to do an experiment and used bad yeast (unknowingly) on half of my 10 gallon batch of Pale Ale, and threw Windsor dry yeast on the other. Then I found out about my bad yeast, and dry hopped the bad half of the new Pale Ale with 2 oz of Cascade.... It is GREAT! Im just about sick of my yeast problems though.

 

[ColoradoXJ13]

First was a Saison, about a month ago, spent 4 weeks in the primary, OG was 1.075, SG at racking was 1.043 this past weekend...still trying to figure out what to do about this. I think we mashed at too low a temperature (what we thought was 150*F but used a metal thermometer that turns and goes out of whack, I thought it was calibrated, guess not)

 

[zoebisch01]

First was a Saison, about a month ago, spent 4 weeks in the primary, OG was 1.075, SG at racking was 1.043 this past weekend...still trying to figure out what to do about this. I think we mashed at too low a temperature (what we thought was 150*F but used a metal thermometer that turns and goes out of whack, I thought it was calibrated, guess not)

Did you get full conversion?

 

[abracadabra]

A S.N. pale ale with about 1/4 of the hops they use so the wife would maybe like it.
I decided I wanted to brew my own beer and extract brewing just wasn’t enough of a challenge I’ll do an all grain brew instead so:

I built the Mash Tun and after 2 failed attempts over the previous 2 weekends to build a counterflow wort chiller and get it to stop leaking I decided I’d slap together an immersion chiller this past weekend and do an all grain brew or bust.

First while putting the tubing in the mash tun I noticed that the store bought false bottom had a different diameter hose fitting than what I had installed in the mash tun. Sure did look like the same size until I tried to get the hose over it.

So off to Home Depot, 3 year old child in tow at 8:00am. Back home at 9:00 and am dumping the strike water by 9:30 I hear a popping sound as the mash tun expands from the heat and then starts to leak. I had failed to test the new hose connector that was just purchased at home depot. Luckily I had a spare 5 gallon Igloo cooler so I dumped the mash in it. And proceeded to try to get the mash tun to stop leaking. Finally success the mash tun was no longer leaking.

So I dump the contents of the 5 Gal. igloo back into the mash tun and get ready to sparge. The homemade sparge (basically a shower head) works less than spectacularly but it works. So as I fill up the boil pot I see
that uh oh I forgot to install the valve and forgot to sanitize it. Now I can't remember if I washed it or not, so I wash it. As I'm wrapping the teflon tape around the nipple I catch a stainless steel frag in my finger, now I'm bleeding like I just went to the doc for a test. So I think can't leave it like this, I need to file this sucker off then rewash and sanitize again no problem. All the while the boil pot is still filling.

Finished with the valve now I noticed wort is coming out of the boil pot. Oh S---- so I try tilting it backward where's the damn teflon tape? This ain't working. I spot a 1/2' barb connector and put that in, hold my finger over it till the boil pot stops sloshing back an forth. Finding the teflon tape I wind it around the nipple and as I start to thread it I realize I've wound it backward for what seems like the 5th time. Back in goes the barb connector .

Finally, success! I've got the valve into the boil pot. By now wort is all over the boil pot, burner and everything. No problem I'll wheel it outside and hose it off. On the way back in the boil pot falls off the burner. I manage to catch it with no more than a 2/3 gallon lost, I think.

At this point I’m thinking this beer is gonna suck. Why waste the yeast? But during the baby's nap I figure what the Heck so I flame up and start the boil. All goes well and now I'm ready to start cooling with my immersion wort chiller only unlike the counterflow unit I had failed to test it. Thinking no problem this is simple stuff. Guess what, it leaks like crazy but I see them and get them fixed. It's working great and warm water is coming out of the chiller; So I go back to stir then I notice an unusually strong current well after I stop swhirling the chiller. Pulling the chiller out I see it gushing water.

So now I'm wishing I had not popped the yeast pack that I had originally forgotten about. Oh well plenty of commercial beer in the fridge. Thank goodness for sam adams. But I give up on the chiller it’s fairly cool now and I dump the wort into the primary fermenter.

I ended up with 4.5 gal where I should have had 5 no telling how much from the chiller. Happy to report that despite all this and a too cold temp it’s fermenting. I’m in the process of getting the temp in the basement up to where it should be and thinking I’ve had some horrible home brews before surely this can’t be worse than any of those.

A couple of weeks ago I let the wife try it she said it was the best beer she ever tasted. Last weekend I let the next door neighbor have a glass he said it was good and I figured he wasn't just trying to humor me when he asked for a 2nd glass. It must be pretty good I usually drink too much of it a problem I rarely have with commercial brew.

 

[Orfy]

Whoa, Abra. Take a breath man. Paragraphhs were invented and are used for a reason.

 

[Mutine Bullfrog]

can we get abracadabra a brewers purple heart?

 

[Fiery Sword]

I'm all cockeyed.

 

[boo boo]

I started with a lager as my first try.

I'm still tweaking my recipies, but the best thing is
that I'm steadily improving to get the taste I want from
my lagers. Also dialing in stouts has taken some time.

 

[medic_35057]

Made a Dunkelweizen on March 04, '07. Still in fermenter. Racking off this weekend into secondary for one week and then bottles. Not sure what to expect but it was very enjoyable.

 

[abracadabra]

Whoa, Abra. Take a breath man. Paragraphhs were invented and are used for a reason.

Now you know why I had to take English 101 three times. Writing is not exactly my strong suit. Still don't know why I like doing it. Maybe the challenge. Can't spell or type worth a flip either

 

[Orfy]

I'm the same but I guess I over use white space.

I think it makes linger posts easier to read.

I quite often go through after a post and remove some of the blank lines.

I'll look at a post and thin WFT I know the difference between "add" and "had" but my fingers sometimes do thier own thing!!!!!

 

[carpe3dm]

My first AG batch was supposed to be a "simple" blueberry ale for a camping trip. I got good extraction but since I always think I know more than I do about things I decided to add 1/2 the blueberries at the beginning of the boil instead of the end like the recipie said. The result was the most unique brew I've ever seen or made. My friend's named it blue hole, because it had a purplish/blue color and was so thick no light could escape it! Anyway after aging it for a few months it tasted alright (not like a blueberry beer, or any beer for that matter) so all wasn't lost. I agree with most in saying a pale ale is probably the smartest way to start.

 

[Bobby_M]

I popped my AG cherry about a month ago and it was an IPA. It's in the keg now for 2 days and I'm not impressed yet. It's still a bit green and harsh but I'm sure it will mellow. I'm dry hopping in the keg and I'm assuming it's just too young and also needs to mellow after the initial carbing.

I'll tell ya what though, kegging becomes easier with every batch and that includes rebuilding the keg. I had it done, including racking and dryhopping in 20 minutes. Try bottling on that schedule.

 

[Mutine Bullfrog]

....I'm not impressed yet. It's still a bit green and harsh but I'm sure it will mellow. I'm dry hopping in the keg and I'm assuming it's just too young and also needs to mellow after the initial carbing.

I have an IPA in the bottles now and I'm getting the same green harshness. Its been bottled for 3 weeks. It's mellowed a little but still not enjoyable. It seems to be the style since your getting the same taste.

 

[david_42]

Know what you mean Ofry. There are some posters here I just skip over, too hard to read. Having gone through the "stream of consciousness" writing in the '60s, I don't need to go there again.

 

[Brewsmith]

My first AG brew was my 12th and it was a pumpkin spice beer. I wish I had tried a few before I made it because the spices over did it or me.

 

[Organic Mechanics]

My First ever brew was all grain ,
A Hefe, lots of things went wrong
the grain bill came improperly crushed
Conversion took forever
I lost control of the temp.
The runoff stuck.
I had no clue really what was going on during the sparge so i managed to make it very grainey i wound up with an extra gallon of wert
ummmm
I had no chiller so I put the boil into a keg and put the keg in cold water overnite,
It fermented well we drank and we cheered and it was all good

 

[BierMuncher]

Kolsch...had to get back to my German roots. I still show off my pics through my sig-link below.

The first beer my SWMBO liked so she made me name it for her...

 

[flippindiscs]

My first was a big ol' barley wine. Turned out great but drank all of it after only 6 months of aging. I wonder what it would have been like after a year or even two...

 

[Hops-4-Life]

The video says it all LINK

 

[diagft32]

My first was a Double Chocolate Stout. Went off without a hitch. I just did my third AG today. Still havn't had any problems.

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

An ESB. As of yesterday. Things seemed to go smoothly for the most part. It's starting to bubble this a.m.

However it turns out, it was really enjoyable making it. I don't know if I'll go back to extract soon.

 

[Tony]

My very first AG was a Hop Rod Rye. Turned out excellent, and drove me into the total insanity of adding rye to all kinds of beers. My recent Hop Rod Stout is fantastic.

 

[Walker]

Mine was a pretty basic Pale Ale.
Santa Maria's Maiden Voyage

It all went much more smoothly than I had expected, but I had a veteran AG brewing present to nudge me a long.

The beer is really good, but there was a lot of sediment in the keg. If you jostled it around at all, you would get cloudy pints until it settled down again.

-walker