My First All Grain!

[David Woods]

So going for it after many weeks of deliberating!

How many of you felt like this??
One good thing is the beer I will drink whilst stressing out!

Thank you to all that have helped, advised and encouraged. Wish me luck

Dave

 

[Clarence]

So going for it after many weeks of deliberating!

View attachment 90062
How many of you felt like this??
One good thing is the beer I will drink whilst stressing out!

Thank you to all that have helped, advised and encouraged. Wish me luck

Dave

Are you going to give us a clue as to what you're going to brew or is that posted in a different thread?

 

[Rwilts]

Its exciting isn't it ? Don't worry follow your receipe, your plan and embrace the mistakes , gives you a good excuse to get number 2 planned.

 

[peelman]

Good luck. I’m sure you’ll love it.
I remember doing my first all grain brew like it was 12 years ago..
What are you planning to do? My first one was an Old Tom clone from the GW book

 

[David Woods]

Yes sorry - going to try a hoppy IPA - recipe given to me by a very kind person on the forum. More concerned about a possible boil over! Going the All in one route. I will report back and may even have a link to a video! Boil over won't be included though.

The wife doesn't know what all the fuss is about "it's only beer!"

Dave

 

[Clarence]

The wife doesn't know what all the fuss is about "it's only beer!"

I agree with the wife. Get on with it lad. Keep it simple, minimum process, minimum faff, minimum opportunity for error.

 

[Sadfield]

Adding your first bittering addition of hops before the boil is reached will prevent a boil over.

 

[lmbollinger]

Good luck! It’s a big step in the brewing evolution. Hope it goes well

 

[starseeker]

Good luck, you will have a great time ,bit stressful maybe ,but fun

 

[David Woods]

Well finally got around to doing it! and had a very major issue! very stressful!

Firstly when I was about to do it I got Covid - great start so I delayed. Then I delayed further as we are prone to power cuts here and it started getting windy which usually brings on an outage. Then eventually...

I planned everything perfectly, got everything ready and off I went.... Using my brand new Brew Monk and the mash started bang on temp and all was going great - until the Brew Monk stopped working!

Still had power but the BM was dead - oh my god, just what I needed on my first attempt! I was using an extension lead but that was fine. Is there a fuse in the BM - god knows and couldn't get to it anyway if it's in the bottom. No fuse in the BM plug.

So major panic ensued and I decided it was the adapter I was using - totally my fault as the BM comes with a Euro plug but it has a very thick lead so didn't want to fiddle that into our small 13A plugs so I sourced a decent quality Euro to UK adapter, not from Ebay or the like so I assumed all would be OK - big lesson learned - that thing had packed up!

So I frantically found a plug and wired it to the BM and the thing came back into life. Problem was I had lost 15 -20 mins faffing about and the temp had dropped a lot, I also lost track of the timing so had no idea how long the mash had been going or how long was left to go - and where before the recirculating wort was sitting nicely just above the lid with the holes it wasn't anymore and attempts to speed up the flow did nothing so I assumed some holes/gaps had appeared in the grain bed and instead of filtering through was just running through a gap!

So what to do? well I continued and I was steaming as much as the boil and I revisited some long lost and fruity swear words!. The rest of the process went fine, I decided to use a hop spider but what a bugger to clean up! I transferred to a no chill cube and bunged it in the fermenter this morning so time will tell.

Thing is, I hit the SG numbers perfectly - bang on in fact and it tasted lovely but I have no idea what damage was done by this problem. I didn't have any Iodine so couldn't tell if conversion had happened so I just let it go on longer than my estimated 60min mash.

I realise this is my fault but come on Brew Monk - £420+ you would think they could afford to put a UK plug on it!! Beware do not use this with an adapter and good luck fitting a UK plug to this very thick lead.

I also forgot to attach the Bazooka filter - any thoughts?

I will report back when it's done - it was a bloody hard and stressful day!! And I didn't realise how much steam this thing produces during the boil!

Dave

 

[Clarence]

Well finally got around to doing it! and had a very major issue! very stressful!

Firstly when I was about to do it I got Covid - great start so I delayed. Then I delayed further as we are prone to power cuts here and it started getting windy which usually brings on an outage. Then eventually...

I planned everything perfectly, got everything ready and off I went.... Using my brand new Brew Monk and the mash started bang on temp and all was going great - until the Brew Monk stopped working!

Still had power but the BM was dead - oh my god, just what I needed on my first attempt! I was using an extension lead but that was fine. Is there a fuse in the BM - god knows and couldn't get to it anyway if it's in the bottom. No fuse in the BM plug.

So major panic ensued and I decided it was the adapter I was using - totally my fault as the BM comes with a Euro plug but it has a very thick lead so didn't want to fiddle that into our small 13A plugs so I sourced a decent quality Euro to UK adapter, not from Ebay or the like so I assumed all would be OK - big lesson learned - that thing had packed up!

So I frantically found a plug and wired it to the BM and the thing came back into life. Problem was I had lost 15 -20 mins faffing about and the temp had dropped a lot, I also lost track of the timing so had no idea how long the mash had been going or how long was left to go - and where before the recirculating wort was sitting nicely just above the lid with the holes it wasn't anymore and attempts to speed up the flow did nothing so I assumed some holes/gaps had appeared in the grain bed and instead of filtering through was just running through a gap!

So what to do? well I continued and I was steaming as much as the boil. The rest of the process went fine, I decided to use a hop spider but what a bugger to clean up! I transferred to a no chill cube and bunged it in the fermenter this morning so time will tell.

Thing is, I hit the SG numbers perfectly - bang on in fact and it tasted lovely but I have no idea what damage was done by this problem. I didn't have any Iodine so couldn't tell if conversion had happened so I just let it go on longer than my estimated 60min mash.

I realise this is my fault but come on Brew Monk - £420+ you would think they could afford to put a UK plug on it!! Beware do not use this with an adapter and good luck fitting a UK plug to this very thick lead.

I will report back when it's done - it was a bloody hard and stressful day!! And I didn't realise how much steam this thing produces during the boil!

Dave

You worry too much. In the great order of things, if your first one goes wrong and you have to chuck it, so what? It sounds as if it's going to be ok though. Brewing's supposed to be fun; if you need tranquilisers then maybe it's not for you!

Only joking.
Well done on overcoming a load of problems on the first brew. I wish I'd had you around on my first brew!
Hope the beer's a good one.

 

[David Woods]

Thanks Clarence, Whilst it was stressful, in a way I also enjoyed it - not sure the wife enjoyed the language though!

The thing I was most concerned about was a boil over but no probs.

Hopefully the beer will be drinkable!

 

[starseeker]

Congratulations on your first AG brew day ,your beer will turn out fine ,and it won't be long before you start planning your next brew :)

 

[Deadhead]

Congratulations!!!

I consider it a good brew day if I only make one or two errors. I have lots of stories. Even last weekend, I did my like gazillion home-brew and I decided to leave my plug in my boiler as I filled it. Soaked the plug completely. Water was dripping out everywhere. Numpty!! I was pretty much ready to sparge at that point so I had to go and get 15L to 77C on the stovetop and walk back and forth across the house to batch sparge (instead of fly sparging). Soaked the floor in the process. (Hubby was not impressed) Efficiency and OG were still fine.
You learn to roll with it!!! I hope you love your beer. Or learn loads! Or both!

 

[NIGHTSKY BREWING]

Top work Dave, l think all most everyone has a very long stressed brewing day ....l believe my day finished around 10pm around 2006 when l started all grain.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I decided to use a hop spider but what a bugger to clean up

Yes, hop spiders are a pain to clean. I have attached a short length of silicone tubing to my cold tap which I can use to easily fill/wash brewing kit. This has the advantage that if you pinch the end of it, it turns into a mini pressure washer which is a much easier way to clean the spider.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Ha ha, that sounds like a dream first ever brew day to me.

1. If the temperature was correct at the start of the mash I don’t think the drop in 15 minutes will cause a major issue. I’ve had similar from accidentally kicking the plug out of the wall and not noticing for 15-20 mins
2. A longer mash is fine. I sometime mash overnight, as do others. If you hit you planned OG then happy days.

So long as you remembered to chuck the yeast in I’m confident you’ll end up with beer

Oh, and if you are thinking that soon you will be having a perfect brew day every time then don’t. I have been brewing AG for nearly three years, and over 100 brew days in, I could count on one hand the number that have gone exactly to plan with no issue. I have made beer every time though

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Yes, hop spiders are a pain to clean. I have attached a short length of silicone tubing to my cold tap which I can use to easily fill/wash brewing kit. This has the advantage that if you pinch the end of it, it turns into a mini pressure washer which is a much easier way to clean the spider.

I stopped using a hot spider because it clogs and I was concerned about how much it was restricting the flow.

I now put all my hop additions in supermarket fruit and veg bags and chuck then in the kettle at the correct timings. You can squeeze them out at the end and, although a bit messy to clean, they do clean up well and dry in no time.

 

[Rwilts]

I also stopped using for same reason . Now I just throw hops in , get a whirlpool going for a few minutes after end of boil and seems to work fine.

 

[David Woods]

Thanks all - and I forgot to mention, whilst pre cleaning the AIO I turned the pump on not realising the return tap was open spraying the kitchen with - admittedly - clean water!

Right now all of my cock ups are out of the way I can look forward to better brew days - I hope