I just had the first bottle of my first all grain batch… I was fretting for weeks about it and all the perceived flaws (low efficiency, I kind of went overkill on the hops, throwing the BU/GU ratio off, tried to compensate by adding sugar during fermentation, etc), but it’s beer. I think it will actually serve well as a summer beer… the thin, dry, zippy taste sort of works for hot days. So, success! The next two are in the pipeline, and I actually feel much more confident about them. This all grain thing isn’t so bad after all… thanks for letting me lurk on all these threads to learn enough to get started.
All grain is a great move…and I think you will agree, its much simpler than its made out to be. A refractometer is a great pick up, that way you can compensate for high/low efficiency by boiling harder/adding some extract/adding some water depending on your pre-boil gravity.
Always good to have a summer beer on hand though…my first AG was a dubbel that turned out to be a Belgian pale ale due to miscalc of water volumes/low efficiency. Still great stuff.
Thats the beauty of making beer. It almost always come out beer. Congrats.
Thanks… yes, I forget that beer is beer. Mediocre beer is still pretty darned good on a hot day. Heck, if it’s over 90, I’m okay with a PBR.
Good call on a refractometer. I’ll add that to my list… it’s funny, buying in bulk for all grain saves a ton of money, but then you end up finding other things to spend that savings on.
all in the name of better beer my man! Don’t even think about buying a refract before you have a chest freezer and temp controller, or Nighthawk and I will come after you.
When I was studying for my BJCP, we actually did scoresheets on PBR and Natty Boh (both 1B: Standard American Lager), and I wanted to find flaws. I was trying to find them. But they are great examples of the style, and well-brewed…both were north of 40 points.
PBR-me ASAP.
:lol: That’s an instant classic
Order your refractometer off eBay they’re super cheap on there and even though they ship from China its really fast shipping I think I paid less then 19$ which included shipping for mine 
