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alright you guys, come along with me now.

itsratso

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this is for all you cool dudes (and dudettes) that have held my hand this far. just started my first all grain brew! i will give you the low down as i go here. so far, i have witnessed the end of the world. seriously. a huge motherfukin storm just hit as i stood in my back yard screwing in the hose for my wort chiller. how huge? i heard a giant cracking sound and looked across the alley as a huge tree disintegrated. a huge chunk of it flew end over end all slow motion-y like in a special effects movie and bounced off the roof of a garage. this is either a good sign or an ominous one, but it was REALLY COOL. i am making a one gallon (to test my equipment and get my feet wet) batch of pliny the elder. if you can't live in california, how else ya gonna get some, right??

because i got overly excited i didn't write out all my steps to follow. dammit. i forgot to salt up my brewing water first (i am following a thread on homebrewtalk about how to simply alter distilled water for different beer styles). no biggy, i added it into my sparge and call it good. it's a learning process here right? i know i know, i promise i will write it out the next time. mash is going and only 3F off my target temp, pretty happy about that. more to come.
 
    I had just carried my pitched carboy fermenters, 2 years ago, into my cellar, when I got hit by a F1 tornado. My tarp hut was flattened and my equipment was OK. My home sustained $25,000 damage. My neighbor had a natural gas generator, so that was the first thing I hooked up was my fermenting fridge. In a moment of crisis, you have priorities! It was like I had spent my whole life training for that moment!
    Brewing is a very forgiving process. It lets us enjoy good beer after some circus level blunders!
 
i'm sorry that happened to you. but at the end of the day, when you can look back and laugh, that is a frigging awesome story.  8)
 
well i wish i could tell you it's been smooth sailing so far. but umm of course that could not happen right? my temps in the mash tun were holding steady at 147F, a little low, but okay (shooting for 150F). until i got curious and opened it to peek. dammit. dropped like a stone to 140F. tried to get it up with boiling water, scalded my hand in the process (heh). i wasnt adding it fast enough though, having no experience i didn't want to overdo it. finally i just added a big glug of it and got it back up to 147F. so final gravity came out way low and had to correct with DME. wort is boiling now. 

so discouraged? hell no, im actually excited. i know what i did wrong and will do better next time. i may have made a pliny so bad that RR may send out a hit squad for me, but that's okay. i don't know what pliny tastes like so i will pretend that mine is the most perfect clone in existence. i can't wait to do this again and i got through it and know what is going on thanx to all you guys. just wanted to share my first all grain with you guys because i owe a lot of this to you. thanx!
 
RiverBrewer said:
          Brewing is a very forgiving process. It lets us enjoy good beer after some circus level blunders!

Welcome to the circus!

Itsratso just repeat this quote a few times and have a few beers!
 
doing it right now my friend. kentucky bourbon barrel stout. not as good as when i had it in louisville a few years ago. but not a poke in the eye with a sharp stick either.
 
The one gallon batch may be what bit you in the a$$.  With a larger mash, you probably would have had an easier time holding your mash temperature.  A larger mash volume wouldn't have dropped temp so quickly!
 
Way to go, itsratso! Welcome to All-Grain brewing!

I particularly like your method of adjusting the OG on the fly- "...corrected with DME" - this is exactly what I did for a few batches until I had dialed-in my set-up; nicely done!

Keep working at it and keep having fun!

Cheers - Phil
 
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