Sorry for the dumb thread title - I put these two things together because I tried them both for the first time yesterday
It was an all grain AHS Double Chocolate Stout. About 10 lbs of grain total. After playing with spacers, I got the mill perform as needed. I am not quite sure whether it was the best crush or there is still some room for improvement. Seemed OK to me though. It took me less time to mill than I expected - half an hour maybe (with the help of my two younger kids, 7 and 2 year old). Picture included.
I messed up with the boil volume. Instructons called to sparge with 5 gallons, and to collect no more than 6.25 gallons. I sparged, and suddenly realized that there was nearly 7 gallons in the kettle. To fix it I added a cup of DME during the boil. My main surprise was when I took the OG reading and it was exactly what the instructions called for: 1.056! It was my 18th batch, and I have never matched the desired gravity - always ended 2-5 points below. It is tempting to explain my gravity success with the new mill
And the second novelty was liquid yeast. I have been always using dry yeasts, but this time decided to give it a try. Since the vial came to me from Austin, TX via ground UPS, it was quite warm, and I decided to boost the cells with a starter (DME+water). In 24 hours I didn't notice any activity, and pitched it with some pessimism in the evening. No, I coudn't RDWHAHB because I ran out of it a few days ago :-( However, in the morning I saw a nice krauzen and a lot of happy bubbles in the airlock. Now the hard part begins - five weeks...
It was an all grain AHS Double Chocolate Stout. About 10 lbs of grain total. After playing with spacers, I got the mill perform as needed. I am not quite sure whether it was the best crush or there is still some room for improvement. Seemed OK to me though. It took me less time to mill than I expected - half an hour maybe (with the help of my two younger kids, 7 and 2 year old). Picture included.
I messed up with the boil volume. Instructons called to sparge with 5 gallons, and to collect no more than 6.25 gallons. I sparged, and suddenly realized that there was nearly 7 gallons in the kettle. To fix it I added a cup of DME during the boil. My main surprise was when I took the OG reading and it was exactly what the instructions called for: 1.056! It was my 18th batch, and I have never matched the desired gravity - always ended 2-5 points below. It is tempting to explain my gravity success with the new mill
And the second novelty was liquid yeast. I have been always using dry yeasts, but this time decided to give it a try. Since the vial came to me from Austin, TX via ground UPS, it was quite warm, and I decided to boost the cells with a starter (DME+water). In 24 hours I didn't notice any activity, and pitched it with some pessimism in the evening. No, I coudn't RDWHAHB because I ran out of it a few days ago :-( However, in the morning I saw a nice krauzen and a lot of happy bubbles in the airlock. Now the hard part begins - five weeks...