Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I just ordered the ingredients for my first all grain batch. I cheating a bit, since I am making a Black Braggot (think Black Ale with a good bit of honey thrown in to push the OG up to around 1.10) so I will still have a bunch of my fermentables coming from added sugar, but braggots are my specialty. The order will hopefully be here in time to brew this weekend; I plan on reusing the yeast from my bitter and wheat stout so I'll be using 3rd generation yeast.

Wish me luck.

Best of luck.  Let us know how it goes or if you have any questions.

Just finished the mash and sparge; collected 5 & 1/4 gallons of wort to which 3/4 of a gallon of honey will be added to start with 6 gallons preboil. I took a gravity reading to see how my extraction went and started freaking out a bit when I missed my target by 12 points. Then I remembered that I didn't adjust the reading for temperature. Plugged the numbers into BeerSmith and I actually beat my target by two points.

So I guess everything is going well so far.

All finished with brewing the braggot. I only had one boil over (it was also my first full boil), but after I got the burner adjusted the rest of the boil went perfectly. I had a bit more evaporation than I expected so I had to top off with some extra water, but still had a starting gravity of 1.116. I'll bring it out for tasting in about 4 or 5 months.

Congrats!!!  I remember being amazed at the transformation that some hot water and time can have on malted barley soup and turn it into sweet sugar water, when I did my first all grain batch.  In the end, it is not that complicated and just takes a little getting used to and you can make great beer.  I am glad your brew day went well.

I just finished brewing a Scottish 80/~ for a friend today.  It was a great day to be out on the deck, surrounded by spring and the sights, sounds, and smells of a brew day.