My First AG

[fergi007]

Hi all,
I just finished my diy mash tun, boiler and sparge and tested it with water and all seems to function. I recieved my delivery from the copper kettle for Theakstons OP clone. I intend to get this on the go the week after next so what Im after is any last minute hindsight, advice, tips and tricks to make my first all grain a success. Much appreciated in advance.
Wayne

 

[RobWalker]

First time around, take a tonne of readings. water going in, water coming out, water after boil - temp at dough in, temp after mash - pre and post boil gravities. that will give you a great understanding of your equipment and allow you to tweak future brews with ease.

Get everything ready and weighed out, take it easy and enjoy it!

 

[Hawks]

+1 to Robs suggestion, plus write down everything you plan to do before as well. Its all too easy to miss a hop schedule, forget finings etc the first time out ( still is now to be fair ), but with it written down and planned you will more than likely get it right :thumb:

Oh, and have fun, never forget to have fun :thumb:

 

[LeithR]

One thing not yet mentioned is to write it all down. Get yourself a good notebook or diary and keep good notes including all the good stuff mentioned by Rob about SG's etc... You will be creating a very useful document which you can return to time and time again, especially if you make a brew that you find you want to do again.

Another thing you need to know as part of understanding your system is to know how much liquor you will boil off in a 90 minute boil and if you are BIABing you especially want to know what the grain absorption is as you will be taking the grain along with a lot of contained water out of the boiler. You might want to think about having another smaller boiler available so you can replace liquor if/as necessary. I have an 8L boiler which I use for this purpose.

Is your boiler fitted with a sight glass? If not get one fitted as soon as you can, with it you can more easily track boil off and other liquid levels, fairly simple to do and not very expensive.

Lastly, on your first time, take it slowly and enjoy it, it gets a lot easier once you have repeated the process a few times but its important to completely understand the brewing process. If possible get a brew buddy to join you, this helps immensely with keeping track of the process and the shared enjoyment.

All the best :thumb: :thumb: :

 

[kev]

As per above. Notes are critical but seem pointless at first. You'll be writing stuff down that'll seem pointless but when you have a volume/temp issue in a few brews you can look back and see what changes you need to make.

Another thing I'd recomend is having an accurate way of measuring volumes of liquid. I was 4 batches in before I got the hang of how much was in my boiler. In other words, my first few batches were about 50% larger than I expected and about 3% ABV as a result.

K

 

[johnnyboy1965]

A 500g bag of DME is always a useful addition, because if you fall short of your targets, you can always adjust. If you ont you will always be disappointed with your finished brew, knowing that you didn't reach your set targets.

 

[Rivvo]

Good luck, if you go on brewers friend, on the right side down towards the bottom there are some brew day check lists which may be useful :thumb:

 

[Duxuk]

If you have no better way to measure the volume in your boiler then you could always do what I do. I knew the total volume of mine and just did the maths to find the volume of a centimeter of depth. I just measure down to the liquid surface with a ruler and can thus tell exactly how much is in there. Mine's a 32l and happens to be 32cm high. I don't even need a calculator.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Measuring jugs are very unreliable, If in doubt, weigh your water, Check on your bathroom scales. But you must calibrate your bathroom scales....." I only weigh 16 stone" just wont do.

 

[Rivvo]

I used a sawn off broomstick and weighed my water in two litre increments then marked the broom stick with an indelible marker pen

 

[fergi007]

Outstanding advice guys, There was a heck of a lot of info I hadn't considered or thought to be important i.e. writing everything I do down and the precise measurements in the water.
Again much appreciated.

 

[RobWalker]

oh shucks.

Last of all - remember, even if something goes pretty pear shaped, it'll almost definitely still make good beer :thumb: