1st All Grain - Lessons Learned

[clarkey7]

I had my first crack (pardon the pun) at AG yesterday......

I was/am a little nervous about stocking up on all the biggest equipment just in case I don't continue to brew using AG.

My theory was just to get an AG under my belt using whatever equipment that I already had (with the exception of a 36L cylindrical drink cooler mash tun which I happily purchased ) then go from there.

Then, depending on results and my "feel" for the process and time involved, scale up my brewery.

So off to purchase my ingredients and get some help with a recipe that could work with my small equipment.

A fellow AHBer is also a manager of a brewers choice store here in Brisbane. He assisted me with scaling down a recipe to suit my equipment (thanks Mothballs).

We decided my pot (15L) wasn't big enough to do a full size brew in one go, so aimed at a 12L "in fermentor" batch size just to get me started.

Heres what I found in my kitchen.

- 8L of strike water can't magically get to 77 deg quickly.
- My 1.5L kettle took quite a while to boil 8L of water just to start off the mash.
- Again - it takes a while for a 1.5L kettle to boil water for a 3.5L mash out and a 5L sparge.
- It really sux to find out that 4-5L of your wort has to go into a second pot because your 15L pot is really a 12L one.
- You have to watch 2 really full pots with lids on like a hawk for an entire hour to head off the boil-overs.
- It takes way to long for an electric stove top to get 12L to a rolling boil.
- Cooling becomes an issue if you want to ferment straight away.

Anyway, I woke up this morning to the lovely sound of my 1st AG - a stout - bubbling away happily and it made it all worthwhile.

What are the take home messages:

1) HLT, HLT, HLT....yes people a Hot Liquor Tun is essential for AG.
2) An appropriate sized brew kettle for whatever sized boil volume you have - don't overfill pot/kettle
3) Adequate heating for a large volume of liquid is essential - GAS baby.
4) Plan cooling method - no chill or gadget such as immersion chiller, ice bath etc...

AND the biggest lesson of all: :excl: Never make an AG half size batch as all the effort for 13-14 tallies is a huge waste.

I should have known better.

I've learned from my mistakes....I hope I can assist others with this little story..

Cheers :beer:

PB

 

[Jye]

Well done Pocket Beers :beer: and you cant go wrong with Mothballs guiding you.

Do you have any pics of the big day?

 

[Thirsty Boy]

AND the biggest lesson of all: :excl: Never make an AG half size batch as all the effort for 13-14 tallies is a huge waste.

You are a Queenslander after all so this might not count for you, but... once the AG bug kicks in you'll want to brew all the time, then you wont have enough bottles, there wont be any room left in the garage for all the damn beer, your liver will beg for mercy. You'll know that you really dont need to brew for a few weeks at least, but dammit, you want too..

Then a half sized batch can be justified as "experimental" and a "learning experience" .... when you get desperate enough, you might even stoop to the lows of some around here and brew 4-5L test batches... yeah they still take half a day, but you get to brew.

Congrats on the first AG. It'll be great and you'll be hooked.

Cheers

Thirsty

 

[Ross]

Well done Dave....welcome to the darkside

Make sure you bring a bottle along to BABBS for us to enjoy. You can't go wrong with Anthonys guidance, no going back now :beer:

cheers Ross

 

[Mothballs]

Well done Dave. There is no turning back now but always remember RDWHAHB

 

[BottleBitch]

Nice one Pocket Beers,

I think that is all part of the learning process, you really have to stuff it all up to get it right, I remember my first AG and it was terrible experience, just about everything went wrong including the under engineered false bottom collapsing, but at the end of the day the brew was not that bad, I used all the experience to design the current setup that I'm now building and its going to be pretty good, its got a massive hot liquor tank, the kettle is 30% bigger than my batch size and the burner is a thing of beauty. I never got bored of it because its a very creative thing brewing, I loved it so much that its now my full time job and I couldn't be happier.

 

[warra48]

Nice one. You will definitely enjoy the beer more, because:
1. You did all of it yourself.
2. AG mostly just tastes better.
I struggled with my first AG, and wondered at the end of the day how the hell I only ended up with 15 litres into my fermenter, when it was a 20 litre recipe. Anyway, it's a learning experience, and before long it all starts to become second nature. Keep it up.

 

[tangent]

get a decent kettle and use that for your HLT as well (to start with). That way you'll kill two birds with one stone.
Sparge into a fermenter and then gently transfer that into your kettle when you don't need any more HLT water.

Don't ever do anything brew related in your kitchen. Especially if you co-habitate. Do it somewhere you can spill stuff and hose stuff down.

Great work though. I used to read thread after thread about why people don't try an AG, ranging from "my parents won't let me" through to "I don't have a HERMS system yet", so it's great to see so many people trying it instead of making excuses!
:beer:

 

[kevnlis]

- You have to watch 2 really full pots with lids on like a hawk for an entire hour to head off the boil-overs.

Why did you have the lids on?

 

[tangent]

i'd say the electric stove was struggling getting the pots up to a boil.

 

[stoutdrinker]

I agree with Tangent, great to see new guys giving AG a go.

A much wiser & more experienced brewer than I told me not that long ago, that simply brewing AG will give you a good beer.

However its the finer control over things like mashing temps & fermentation temps that lets you make really great beer, over and over again.

Cheers,

Stout.

 

[Kleiny]

Good work, i hope all the effort was worth the taste /im nearly just a bit more organisation

 

[clarkey7]

Jye I didn't photograph anything. Was there something in particular you were interested in?
Thirsty Boy is onto something with the garage full of beer (I have twenty cartons full and 4 kegs). He is a wise man.
Ross I will save a bottle for the next BABBs meeting.
Kevnlis - yeah my cooktop was struggling with the full pots.

Thanks to all for your help (especially Mothballs who assisted with recipe design) and encouragement.

Your right - no turning back now :chug:

Cheers

PB

 

[Jye]

Jye I didn't photograph anything. Was there something in particular you were interested in?

Nothing in particular, just great to see how others brew and if your brewing on a basic setup it will inspire other to make the jump to AG.

 

[clarkey7]

Nothing in particular, just great to see how others brew and if your brewing on a basic setup it will inspire other to make the jump to AG.

Here's a photo of the equipment I used (including the small kettle and the cooktop it's all sitting on).



Pretty simple stuff really.

Cheers,

PB B)