auto4life

Recipes 

Id call my first all grain batch of beer a successful failure. Despite wrapping my 15 gallon sanke mash tun in blankets I had a heck of a time maintaining temperature and ended up recirculating my wort while heating the mash tun off and on for around 75 minutes. I also tried putting a mesh screen comparable to a false bottom on top of my grains to prevent channeling during my fly sparge. According to my calculations I only ended up with a 62% efficiency. And had an original gravity of 1.042 from a 11.5 pound grain bill.
I'm thinking I may convert a 10 gallon water cooler for now then begin buying parts for a rims system if I get decent with all grain. Thanks for the awesome resource HBT!

SamHain

Recipes 

Keep it simple for now..go with a 10g cooler and batch sparge. Work on your process then upgrade as you want later.

auto4life

Recipes 

I agree. Ordered a false bottom for my 10 gallon cooler today

SamHain

Recipes 

Way to go...good luck!

FoamyMustache

Recipes 

Finished up our first all grain brew 2 weekends ago. A little daunting but we did our research and went with a 10 gallon cooler for the mash tun with a 18" stainless hose as the screen and used a 5 gallon cooler as the HLT. We mashed at 154 and lost less than 1 degree over 60 minutes then fly sparged at 168. Calculated efficiency was 86% a lot higher than we expected, but exciting non the less. We also milled our own grains, which had to help a bit. The 2 converted coolers and all associated hardware was just over 100 bucks and well worth it.

abarker8541

Recipes 

Fill your pipeline with all grain beer first, then start worrying about efficiency.

rdann87

Recipes 

Yes.. Learning the process is much more enjoyable when u have some finished home brews to sip on

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Transamguy77

Recipes 

I use a converted keg with a false bottom and fly sparge, I get around 80% efficiency consistantly. I have never tried batch sparging so I can't comment on if that will help but I would look at your crush and make sure that is not your issue. I have my own mill and have always milled my own so i can control the crush and eliminate that as a factor.

auto4life

Recipes 

I think my biggest problem was temperature control. I lost way too much heat. I'll probably go back to my keggle once I figure out a temperature controller. But until then I'll simply with a cooler.
Thanks for the advice everyone