First all grain

[RudiC Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RudiC]

Did my first all grain brew this weekend. It was such a pleasant rush to get everything done perfectly. It turned out to be a big learning curve, but I'm looking forward to this journey.

Made a Blonde Ale and things seemed to be going well, well till the real action started hahaha.

I screwed up my water quantity, lost count of how much I put in. The reason is that when I put the grains in the basket, I saw the legs were too tall and the grains weren't fully submerged. Added some water to cover the grains and then all seemed to go well. Tested gravity and completely forgot to temp correct the readings. Ended up with a slightly higher gravity and thought I screwed up with the water quantity, so put some more water.

Completely forgot about the Irish moss I bought.

All in all a very eventful brew with lots of lessons learned. Cooled the wort in my urn overnight and tested the sg in the morning to realise I'm over the sg worked out at 70%. Was supposed to be 1.038 and ended up at 1.040. This was supposed to be a 23L batch, but I filled my fermenter to 25L and there is probably another 1L left.

It was really a fun brew, even with all the mistakes. So I ordered the same grains to try again. This time I'll prepare better and hopefully do better. So glad I got the first one done with reasonable success. Can't wait for the next brew day

[Mark250GP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark250GP]

What recipe did you use?

[RudiC Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RudiC]

What recipe did you use?

Got a recipe off a website and had my LHBS make it up with what they had.

There is plenty of nice sites to get recipes from. I enjoy Brewers Friend, spend lots of hour there

[FaanP Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close FaanP]

Awesome - sounds like you had fun - and all coming brew days will be fun .....

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Your first was pretty tame, actually. Some of us had REAL horror stories... :P

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Your first was pretty tame, actually. Some of us had REAL horror stories... :P

no that was only you i do remember the hand burning and kitchen soaked in wort episode. that was a snorter, all in good jest

@rudic ; congrats on popping your craft beer soon. now the fun begins, do check out brewfather too, the free version is good enough

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Man I almost had the same shit when I brewed my first beer "from scratch" again in a long time. Because I had so many of those beer kits left over I just brewed those and drank them for so long at some stage I literally forgot what to do, and ended up overshooting my strike water, etc. etc. Was a mess.

[RudiC Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RudiC]

I've been reading up, watched a ton of YT videos and lots of reading and questions here and on other groups. This prepped me I think, but learning by doing works best for me. Now I know what needs to be improved.

Next one should go a lot smoother, can't wait.

Now I have other problems, what to brew next lol. I've ordered the same beer, but need to try other styles as well. I like Blonde Ales, most of the ones I made and bought anyway.

[AlexBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AlexBrew]

Congratulations. I think it went better than expected.
What does help (for me) is to prepare the little time wasting things and have a step-by-step schedule to work from.

I, for instance measure out water amounts in 5gal carboys and 5litre water botles. Measure off my mash/sparge volume, then confirm total volume. I also calculate and weigh off brewing salts the day before and split them for mash and sparge. I have tupperware bakkies numbered 1, 2, 3 for my hops/irish moss additons.. etc. All this before I start brewing. Makes brew day so much less stressfull. Imagine you heat strike water and about to mash in when you realise you haven't got your salts together yet - by the time that is done strike water has cooled down (unless you have an elec temp controlled urn), that adds another 45mins to you brew day. Also usefull to record everything - you'll look back at that data and learn a lot from that.

[AlexBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AlexBrew]

Now I have other problems, what to brew next lol. I've ordered the same beer, but need to try other styles as well. I like Blonde Ales, most of the ones I made and bought anyway.

Try Castle Malting Recipe Library (Belgium - the home of blondes):
https://www.castlemalting.com/Castle...erRecipes.asp?

[RudiC Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RudiC]

Congratulations. I think it went better than expected.
What does help (for me) is to prepare the little time wasting things and have a step-by-step schedule to work from.

I, for instance measure out water amounts in 5gal carboys and 5litre water botles. Measure off my mash/sparge volume, then confirm total volume. I also calculate and weigh off brewing salts the day before and split them for mash and sparge. I have tupperware bakkies numbered 1, 2, 3 for my hops/irish moss additons.. etc. All this before I start brewing. Makes brew day so much less stressfull. Imagine you heat strike water and about to mash in when you realise you haven't got your salts together yet - by the time that is done strike water has cooled down (unless you have an elec temp controlled urn), that adds another 45mins to you brew day. Also usefull to record everything - you'll look back at that data and learn a lot from that.

I will get everything ready before I start the next brew, thanks. It was a bit rough trying to get everything ready in time, but I learned.

Try Castle Malting Recipe Library (Belgium - the home of blondes):
https://www.castlemalting.com/Castle...erRecipes.asp?

Wow thanks again Alex, I will definitely browse that site. Would love to have a nice Blonde recipe to make often, or at least till I get bored with Blonde ales. Thanks bud

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

Even after 200-odd brews, we use a brewing steps ticklist.........no shame in that.

And our first all-grain was a circus. The kitchen was under wort, we burned our hands, the grain bag caught alight, it was a comedy show.

So well done for not having a total failure.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

for sure, i had a boil over and made a mess in the kitchen, lost sparge count and made a piss poor sweet beer, but it was awesome

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

RudiC, do you have temperature control? If you like Blondes, chances are you'll like a lot of other styles as well, like lighter pale ales, pilsners, regular pale lagers, etc. You can even try a Vienna ale on the cheap - 50/50 Vienna and Pale malt with an IBU addition around 20~25 IBUs and a late/flameout addition of your favourite hop that'll pair with the maltiness and you're good to go.

That's the beauty of all grain - it's SUPER simple once you get the basic down. And hella cheap.

[RudiC Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close RudiC]

Even after 200-odd brews, we use a brewing steps ticklist.........no shame in that.

And our first all-grain was a circus. The kitchen was under wort, we burned our hands, the grain bag caught alight, it was a comedy show.

So well done for not having a total failure.

Sounds like you had an eventful first brew hahaha.

I will definitely work on a checklist. The shame part would be in a bad beer for me. Thanks for the input