Just did my first all grain batch this Saturday. It went pretty smooth start to finish and it's fermenting to beat hell right now. I decided to do a Northern English Brown Ale since I figured it would be a little more forgiving if I did something wrong but that could all be in my head.

Used 10.25# Belgian Two-Row
1# Belgian Bisquit
1# Belgian Aromatic
.75# British Chocolate

1oz Magnum, 1 oz Challenger for 30 min
1 oz Challenger at KO
Irish Moss for last 15 min
WLP002 English Ale Yeast

Mashed at 157 for an hour, batch sparged at 170.
OG was 1.049, a little bit shy of what q-Brew said it should have been for 6.5 gallons.
Looking forward to this being ready when I come back from a bear hunt in May.

Nice Brian, looks tasty

Nice! Looks and sounds great!

No major snafus?

No snafus, it all went nice and smooth. I need to make a wort chiller thou. Even sitting outside at 22 degrees it took a while to cool down to pitching temps.

Congrats, especially on a smooth first AG brew day. Sometimes the snafu stories are amusing, though.

Congrats! Welcome to AG!

I split this batch up and put some in 5L kegs and some in flip-top Grolsh bottles last week. I just did some quality control testing on a couple bottles last night and there is no sign of carbonation yet. I bought these bottles from a guy on CL, cleaned and sanitized them really well and the rubber seals all looked to be in good shape. The only thing I can think that might be causing this problem is that I think I left to much head space in the bottle when I filled them, I only brought the beer up about 3/4" into the neck leaving about 2" to 2 1/2" space to the top. Could that be a major contributor to the lack of carbonation?

On the flip side, the flavor is amazing with the chocolate and bisquet malts leaving a nice finish, so no matter if they carbonate or not they are going down the hatch. I guess I will have to test the kegs and see if they carbonated to be sure it wasn't a problem with the beer itself.

Congrats on getting that first all-grain batch completed, Brian. It's all downhill from here!

Thanks Mark, I think I'm really going to enjoy drinking this hobby.

I think you may have left too much space in the bottles. I usually go for about 1 inch from the top, which translates into releasing the bottle filler right at the point where the beer almost overflows. I find that usually leaves the right amount of space at the top of the bottle. Congrats on the all-grain batch!

+1 Dunkelbier

Well I tried one of the kegs tonight and zippo on the carbonation. It looks like all the yeast dropped out in secondary. I did move the secondary out into the garage which was around 50* at the time but I didn't think it would totally clear the beer of yeast like that. But now that I think about it, it was super clear when I bottled, but I thought that's what I wanted to see right?

How much priming sugar did you use?

I use those mini kegs all the time and it normally takes about 6-8 weeks to condition if you are not force carbonating.. And mine condition at 58 so give it time I always cold crash mine out there too so it just takes time be patient..if all else fails go buy the tap-a-draft adapter kit its 45 bucks

I put 1/2 tsp of cane sugar in each bottle, 1 tsp in each mini keg. It will get a little over two more weeks to condition before I get back from my trip and I'll see if anything changes. I have a nice tap with the CO2 cartridges for the kegs, you think if I shake it while the valve is full open it might force carb it a little bit? I know they don't have a lot of pressure behind 'em.

I know you did not put near enough priming sugar in the mini keg I used a full table spoon in each now i boil the sugar and mix in a bottling bucket that way they all have the same amount .... but you really did not put enough in the keg..

I would suggest adding the priming sugar to the bottling bucket, that way you get even distribution and less likly to have bottle bombs on your hands. What temp is the beer setting at?

Thanks for the advise guys. The beer is sitting at 68* right now.

Shaun, I've been trying to find a good level in the kegs so that it's carbonated but I'm not pulling 5 pints of foam out of each one so I've been lowering priming amounts each time testing levels. But this being my first AG batch I might have to start that process all over again, I don't know yet.

Here is a little tip Widmer makes a 5L mini keg with a pressure valve on the bung...I use that when i condition in the keg if it is properly carbonated like i said It takes a while, but when its done you can use that to bleed off some of the excess pressure in the keg and get a better less foamy pour.. I know with all that pressure the pours come out really fast and foam and its hard to get a good pour like that good luck and enjoy..