Hey everyone, long time lurker, finally decided to sign up to post.
Anyway, my friends and I jumped straight into all grain, and made our first batch yesterday. All in all, it was awesome and I can see getting addicted to this. We were making St. Faud's Irish Red (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/st-fuads-irish-red-22821/). The only change is that we used 1lb Crystal 15L because they didn't have the 30L (on the advice of the LHBS). Our pre-boil gravity was 1.054ish (wasn't exactly 60*), so we were surprisingly efficient for first timers. Had a small boil-over when we turned our backs, but not much. Post boil, we had a bit over 5 gallons at 1.072! Clearly we boiled off more than expected. We also found out the hard way that an auto-siphon isn't meant for hot wort, ended up going with the ice-bath method instead of our counterflow chiller. I managed to step on the center cap thing from the air lock, but improvised something with foil, replaced it today, and it seems to be going strong (we did make a starter).
We definitely learned a few things: 1) install a ball valve on the kettle, 2) don't turn your back on the kettle when it's first approaching boiling temperature, 3) know where on our stir spoon our target volume is, so we know if we're boiling off way too much, and of course 4) don't step on airlocks.
I suppose my question is, based on the St. Faud's recipe and the fact that we well overshot our OG, how do you brewing gurus think this might turn out? I know in the recipe thread somebody else who had similar numbers said it was pretty awful, but I'm not giving up hope... it's our first beer ever, so we will love it no matter what, haha.
Anyway, my friends and I jumped straight into all grain, and made our first batch yesterday. All in all, it was awesome and I can see getting addicted to this. We were making St. Faud's Irish Red (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f65/st-fuads-irish-red-22821/). The only change is that we used 1lb Crystal 15L because they didn't have the 30L (on the advice of the LHBS). Our pre-boil gravity was 1.054ish (wasn't exactly 60*), so we were surprisingly efficient for first timers. Had a small boil-over when we turned our backs, but not much. Post boil, we had a bit over 5 gallons at 1.072! Clearly we boiled off more than expected. We also found out the hard way that an auto-siphon isn't meant for hot wort, ended up going with the ice-bath method instead of our counterflow chiller. I managed to step on the center cap thing from the air lock, but improvised something with foil, replaced it today, and it seems to be going strong (we did make a starter).
We definitely learned a few things: 1) install a ball valve on the kettle, 2) don't turn your back on the kettle when it's first approaching boiling temperature, 3) know where on our stir spoon our target volume is, so we know if we're boiling off way too much, and of course 4) don't step on airlocks.
I suppose my question is, based on the St. Faud's recipe and the fact that we well overshot our OG, how do you brewing gurus think this might turn out? I know in the recipe thread somebody else who had similar numbers said it was pretty awful, but I'm not giving up hope... it's our first beer ever, so we will love it no matter what, haha.
