So after reading all of the AG threads, I figured it sounded easy enough and I should at least give it a shot. Got me a 5 gal cooler and a false bottom (and a free beer to boot) from my HBS and a decent sounding steam beer recipe. I figured it would be a bunch of trouble, but the only problem I had was all the warnings from the people that already do AG (don't get discouraged, the first time never works out quite right.) Blah! I got my mash going. The temp in the cooler came out a little low (140) but that was easily fixed by adding 1/2 gal of boiling water. I did an iodine test at 45 minutes and had no change of color at all. I mashed out 6.5 gallons and boiled it up. Two more firsts - my first time w/o a boil-over (woo-hoo!) and my first time using whole hops rather than pellets. There was a noticeable difference in aroma and I hope taste. Got my wort chiller in and cooled it down to 78 in about 15 minutes. Took my OG (another first - never used a hydrometer before) and got a reading of 1.050 at 76 degrees, so I figure about 1.052 which is right in the range I was shooting. Pitched my Wyeast California Lager yeast at 75 degrees (from a starter - another first... always just pitched from the tube).
So... everything went EXACTLY like it was supposed to, which has never happened before. The only place I could go wrong is infection, and the odds of that are minimal. Either I'm getting better or the beer gods are toying with me and I'm gonna find an inch of mold on my beer tomorrow
Thanks everyone for all the advice! It really helped.
So... everything went EXACTLY like it was supposed to, which has never happened before. The only place I could go wrong is infection, and the odds of that are minimal. Either I'm getting better or the beer gods are toying with me and I'm gonna find an inch of mold on my beer tomorrow
Thanks everyone for all the advice! It really helped.