joejaz
Well-Known Member
This was the second AG batch we did. The weather was great in Jersey for outdoor brewing. We ( me and my son, Janzik) did our first batch 2 weeks ago and watched 2 batches being done compliments of Bobby M. So along what we picked from the board and read we were all set. My nephew came over and being the two experts we were, we explained all the technical aspects of what we were doing. Now, let me say this, Bobby M had a rule of no drinking till after 11am --- that's a good rule, too bad we didn't follow it. I think that if you are going to drink and brew (especially all grain) you better write down every step you are going to do ( in detail) and check it off. Well we heated up the sparge water and were crushing the grains when the battery went dead on the drill. We had to crank the rest of it by hand. Then we filled the mash tun with hot water. It would have been a good idea to put the manifold in the mash tun first. We finally got the manifold in place without getting scalded and then added the grains. It would have been a good idea to take a temperature reading of the water first. So after adding ice to the mash tun we had another beer. Everything was now running smooth until the boilover. Also I converted my counter flow chiller into a parallel flow chiller which is not as efficient. There's only 2 ways to hook this thing up and of course I did it backwards. As far as efficiencies and gravity readings -- who knows. Maybe my son wrote them down. All in all, it was a good day, I didn't burn my hand on the kettle this week.