My first AG brew: preparatory questions.

[ade1865]

right, having decided on my recipes for the first AG brew [thanks Del and Daab], and having made my mash tun and immersion chiller [mucho thanks spudbrew ] Its actually getting to the stage where there are fewer and fewer excuses not to get started. Terrifying! lol.

anyway, I've started this thread cos I know theres gonna be a mountain of questions leading upto the special day, so I can keep them all together.

Firstly, I've read some of the posts on water treatment and it all goes way above my head at the moment. seeing as I have reasonably successfully brewed several kit beers with only half a camden tblt in the brew water, can I safely carry on with this as my water treatment for now? Basically I don't want to get too complicated first off. I live on the Mendips, within Wessex Water territory.

Ooooh, the excitement is building

[steve_flack]

The campden treatment is a bare minimum really but will serve you OK for a first brew. Your water is likely to be high in bicarbonate seeing as you live on a huge lump of it. You might (in the future) want to have a look at reducing your alkalinity with either acid (CRS) or pre-boiling. If you're not doing that you'd be better starting out with darker, lower bitterness styles of beer as they better suit your water.

[ade1865]

cheers Steve. So would I be okay brewing this recipe:

viewtopic.php?t=14773

if I'm just going the campden tablet route for now?

[steve_flack]

You'll be fine brewing it with just campden although the mash pH would probably technically be too high. I'm not saying don't brew it or that you have to do the water treatment. Many people do nothing to adjust for alkalinity and get along fine. It would probably be a better beer if you did but it won't be a disaster or taste bad or anything if you didn't

[ade1865]

cheers guys. I'll bear all this in mind, and after working out everything else, if i feel confident I'll go for it this time, otherwise I'll wait til slightly further down the line

Now, whats next

[ade1865]

right enuff!

[Ianb]

Having only been AG brewing for 16months, I can remember first hand the sleepless nights leading up to my first AG attempt. Then you mash in and realise that all the horrors you have read about in the text books are real worst case scenario's and that it's actually a pretty straight forward enjoyable process.

You'll make a few simple errors (mine was too hot a mash), but when you taste the first drop of your first AG it will be marvelous and you'll never look back.

Your main issue then will be knowing when to stop!!

If your ingredients are pretty fresh, your temperatures pretty close to ideal, your timing right and brewing equipment properly sanitised, there should be no issues. The golden rules i have adopted are.

Make sure everything is to hand before you start.

If you're drinking as you're brewing, set an alarm clock for each of your timing intervals as you will forget.

And a useful one for the first few brews is to write a ticklist of all additions for the boil with times, weights etc. That way you don't forget to put something in (I kept forgetting the irish moss or protofloc)

There are a lot of old wives tales about brewing, which make people more wary of it than perhaps they should be. It's a fun way to spend half a day!!!

[ade1865]

cheers ian, thats some very good advice. Checklists and timings will be, hopefully, properly choreographed

Was getting quite excited as i cycled about today, and have already plannd brew number 2!

[Dennis King]

Good luck. At least you know there are people on this site to help if you have a problem.

[ade1865]

Cheers Dennis. And the speed of some of the replies means it'll be just like yer all there in the room.

Another question for the collective: As I'm treating this first brew as very much a way to get used to the equipment and the processes involved, what kind of readings etc do I need to try and keep an eye on for working out things like efficiency at a later date? At present I haven't buried myslef in the science side of recipes and IBUs etc, I'll leave that for afterwards, but what should I be keeping a record of and why? if that makes sense.

[Dennis King]

I would just brew and not worry to much about efficencys, IBUs etc. but taking a hydrometer reading before pitching is importent. Plenty of time for the science when you have mastered the mechanics

[ECR]

Good luck with it

[hoppingMad]

Was getting quite excited as i cycled about today, and have already plannd brew number 2!

Ahhhhhhhh ...... yes, well you see, this is what happens..... and it only gets worse ... ah better.