I cant believe I actually brewed this!

[ChrisG]

Yeah okay its only been conditioning for one week but I just had to try it.

Clearing quite well and when poured there was a slight head of foam. Smells good, colour a nice light brown to red.

Now for the taste..................absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!!! Hop aroma coming through nicely and not too over powering. I can taste the effect of the 540g of crystal malt and to be really honest this has to be one of the best beers I have tasted.

Not to blow my own trumpet or anything but I just can not believe I have brewed this from grain.

WOW!

You kit brewers get over to the All Grain side of the fence....NOW!

[Bongo]

By your own hand,good stuff innit Chris,really tunes your senses doing it from scratch.

[ade1865]

I felt exactly the same way when i tasted my 1st AG,only a few qweks ago. I kinda wondered if I'd ever be able to make something so good again! Waiting on my 2nd to settle a bit before I find out.......

Oh, and congratz

[ECR]

Yep, makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it

[Matt]

Nice one Chris. Once you have tasted the dark side you can never go back

[softlad]

Good work ! I'm just a tiny bit jealous though

The more I read, the more I want to .... make that 'need to' get the kit together and knock up my first AG brew.

Two more 3kg kit beers to brew and then I'll build up the courage to buy my first AG setup

[Madbrewer]

good for you .... it's not THAT hard to do .... we gripe on about batch sparge verses fly sparging, controlling temperature of the mash, when we know the mash is done, how long to boil for, what yeast, how to 'fine' it and how to seperate the hops but when all is said and done all we really do is:-

i) Get a good recipe
ii) steep the malts in hot water (keeping it between 62 and 70c for 90 mins
iii) Gently rinse the sugars out of the grain (not overdoing it)
iv) boil it up with the hops for 90
V) cool it
vi) put it in a fermenter .... & the rest's just the same.

to do this all we need is:-

you 'could' even mash in an unconverted thermo box (although admittedly a tap and the slotted tubing does makes it alot easier.) & seperate grain with a grain bag (think net curtain), (or even two fermenting buckets one with drilled holes,the other with a fitted tap)

.... and then rinse (sparge) with jug fulls of v.hot water and a bed of tin foil

boil it all up in either a fermenting bucket with a kettle element plus tap fitted (hops sock (stocking net) to seperate hops, or do the boil outside in a big stainless steele 25litre stock pot and some propane. The cool the wort in the sterilised fermenter by standing it in a bath of cold water & the rest of the process is just like a kit.

I am guessing somewhat but at £8 per fermening bin, £8 for a tap, £8 for a t*scos cheap kettle you could be up and mashing for under £50 (plus what you have to hand for kit brewing already.)

The £8's above are guesstimates ....

[ChrisG]

I was actually very surprised at how easy it was.

You can read too much on the subject though and get overwhelmed by all the different things you need to do.

Just jump in and start, half the fun is building your own equipment....I did it that way and it wasn't difficult. There is just so much good info on the net and so many helpful people here.

I started home brew in Feb 2008 with kits and didn't have a problem with them.....not even one spoiled brew and I don't even clean the equipment that well......meaning never once let the equipment soak for 30min in cleaning solution....that's going off topic though.

It was a fun day starting All Grain but it does take a long time to brew (5 1/2 hours).

[Madbrewer]

It was a fun day starting All Grain but it does take a long time to brew (5 1/2 hours).

I'm not a big fan of cleaning up but the rest of the day is amazing all those malty smells and hop additions makes me feel like an Alchemist discovering gold.

Then you have a brew halfway through the boil and remind yourself what reward you are doing this for ..... ah lovely stuff

[softlad]

When I first saw all the terms I was a bit overwhelmed but reading up - especially with forums such as this have taken away some of the mistique.

I'll remind myself of that when I'm up to my neck in my first brew wondering how the hell to convert this pile of ingredients into beer

[GlossopTiger]

With the limited experience i have of parial or AG mash's, the repeating theme is keeping it simple

None of it is rocket science, although it may seem confusing to start with

This forum is where i have learnt more than any book

Keep the faith

[highwayman]

Well Done Chris Wait until you let your mates have a taste ...That's when you get the real buzz .. That's if you've any left after all your sampling

[J_P]

It's a beautiful thing isn't it Chris, I still get that excited sampling each new brew 18 months in

Softlad - the best way is to dive straight in and get on with it, provided you follow a recipe and sanitise well you've really got to try hard to cock it up

[Parva]

It's a beautiful thing isn't it Chris, I still get that excited sampling each new brew 18 months in

Softlad - the best way is to dive straight in and get on with it, provided you follow a recipe and sanitise well you've really got to try hard to cock it up

To be honest, the sanitising thing was what I feared most when going all grain but it was completely unfounded. The only thing that needs any kind of special treatment is the fermenting vessel and anything after it. No need to do anything with the mash tun, the hlt (if you have one) or the boiler as everything is sterilised in the boil. I even chuck my big aeriating spoon in for the last 15 minutes of the boil along with the chiller. As for sanitising the FV, 2.5 litres of water mixed with Videne and a damned good shake, rattle and roll have even made that idiot proof for me.

[PaulStat]

^^^ That's what worried me at first when I started reading, all the advice at www.howtobrew.com made it sound like if you didn't santise everything at every stage then your brew would be ruined. When I read on here that it's actually only necessary post boil it made things so much easier