inaugural brew AG#01 American IPA

[Secla]

6.30am saturday morning will be the first brew on my AG setup ! (Probably not the best timing as it will be after an 8hr night shift) I will set off to the garage bacon sandwich in hand to try and craft beer awesomeness (or maybe just something drinkable for the first attempt)
Im a big fan of american style IPAS, the hoppier the better for me, Ive draughted up a recipe in beersmith and after months of setting up equipment im ready for the off. If im honest theres elements of my kit that im still not entirely happy with but i figure my first beer is not going to be perfect so im best just jumping in and giving a go rather than just fiddling with shiny kit. So..... tomorrow i`l be giving everything a good clean down and final checkover, weighing out malts etc. in preperation and hopefully everything will go without a hitch

Any tips anyone can offer on a smooth AG1 will be greatly recieved

I`l update with photos as and when, Hopefully I wont be running round like a headless chicken and forget to take any.

[Matt in Birdham]

Any tips anyone can offer on a smooth AG1 will be greatly recieved

The only real tip I can give you is to write down every single thing that you need to do, in the order that you need to do it (with timings as appropriate).
AG brewing is not really complicated, but there are a lot of simple steps that you need to do along the way and it is easy to get flustered (for me, anyway ).

Worth going through the whole process in you head beforehand, writing down the order of activities and checking that you have everything easily to hand (e.g. you don't want to find out that you have lost the seal for your fermentor tap when you are ready to drain the wort from your kettle, etc etc..!).

[Secla]

One of the good features of beersmith, I have printed out a brew sheet which basically has a step by step with volumes and temps

[Matt in Birdham]

Yeah - that's good as far as it goes. Make sure to add in other bits and pieces that BS may not include - adding campden tabs if required, other water additions, drop your IC in near the end of the boil etc. AG is a bit like fishing (my other hobby) in that you get periods of tedium interspersed occasionally with moments of mild panic

[Secla]

Cheers, il make a few extra notes on the brew sheet

[kearnage]

Close all taps. Then close them again.

[Secla]

Haha yes I've don't that on my test runs
Especially the bleed tap for the chugger pump, hopefully I won't make the same mistake when the waters boiling

[Secla]

So it begins



Grain shot

[Secla]

Mash



Pretty much bang on 66 degrees after dough in


Happy about that also guesstimated a 5 degree loss in temp transferring through pump into tun

[Secla]

Hop additions weighed out while I'm waiting ....

[VANDEEN]

Looking good

+1 for the write everything down tip.

I forgot to write "add Irish moss" & guess what I forgot to add!

Also have a pen handy so you can write down anything that happens and actual timings during the process.

I can't really offer much errors of wisdom as having only done 1 non kit brew myself so I'm by no means an old hand, see the post below for my first brew day.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=74009#p772676

Things I would say though.

Have timers with "pingers/sounders" and be prepaid to have to adjust timings on your new sheet as necessary.

Have a water spray bottle ready to catch the hot break, and watch everything, you turn your back and =-O

Allow time for the clean up afterwards, you won't feel like doing it and it will be far harder if you leave it

It was a stressful evening/morning for me and took far longer than I expected, but by god did the trial jar taste good last night when I racked to secondary.

Best of luck
EDIT

Oooh and have towels / cloths standing by for drips, spills, and kitchen towels for somewhere to stand wet things that you don't want on the floor/bench.

You'll be well under way by now though.....

[Secla]

Sparging



Running off



Connected up my plate chiller for a clean while the remainder ran off



Hit around 26litres at 1.042, temp corrected thanks 1.050, that's .001 off where beersmith predicted

Onto the boil

[bquiggerz]

You're first all gain is going better than mine to be honest, well done so far!

[Secla]

Sitting down with a beer now while the boilers going

Slow work, think my kettle could do with a second element.
In the upside, presently surprised how smoothly everything's going. Still the dreaded plate chiller to go though

[Secla]

Got there eventually