After studying and accumulating gear since June, I finally brewed a 5 gallon batch yesterday.
What went wrong:
Got to enjoying the event so much at the store, I misread the grain bill and added ~twice as much Roasted Barley as the recipe called for. The beer will be darker than intended.
I didn’t preheat the mash tun adequately and had to add more water to the mash to keep the temp up.
My Vorloff (sp?) sucked. I disturbed the grain bed way too much.
First runnings on the batch sparge went well, but stuck the second runnings. This turned out to be caused by my dip-tube being too close to the bottom of the keggle (legally obtained).
WAY too much grain getting by the grain bed/false bottom. I had to filter the wort through a strainer.
What went right: pretty much everything else. The estimated OG was 1.053 and I hit 1.051.
It is in the kegerator designated as the fermentation chamber and bubbling away. We’ll see…
Congrats! Missing .002 on your first AG is something to be commended on. I take it this is your first time brewing beer at all? Jumping in feet first I see.
Yeah it’s gonna be quite roasty depending on how much roasted barley you actually used- if it was just ounces I wouldn’t worry. Pounds are another matter… :o
Ha ha, Ounces, not pounds. The recipe called for .09/lb. of Roasted Barley and I looked at another grain which was .25/lb… When I noticed my mistake I took back out as much as I could without getting too anal about it. yeah, I think it will just be darker.
I commend you going straight to all grain as your first brew. If I hadn’t gone with extract for my first 6 months of brewing I would have had no idea what was going on haha!
Yep, 2nd brew on Saturday. A Pale Ale, lightly hopped with orange and coriander. I’m not going to be able to drink them this fast! I’m also scheduled to do a 10 gallon IPA batch with a friend the following Friday. Need more fermenter room…