First All Grain

Setting up and getting the Mash and Sparge water to temp.

All doughed in and the lid is about to go on for the next hour!

Mash is finished and now fly sparging the grains with 170* sparge water.

Ah.... The Boil! 1st oz of Hallertau are in!

Boil done and Wort chilled... Now racking to carboy for the goodness to begin!

Finally! Kolsch! ( a bit dark for a kolsch, but hoping as is settles out it might lighten up a bit!)
WILL STILL BE DRINKABLE!!!


Details:
9#'s 2-row
.25 #'s Carafoam
.25 #'s Carahell
.25 #'s White Wheat
1 oz. Hallertauer (60 min)
1 oz. Hersbrucker (15min)
White Labs German Ale/Kolsch Yeast
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Experience? It was freakin' hot outside today!!! so other than sweating my a$$ off the process went well! Followed my brewsheet from beersmith and just carried it througth all the stages. The system is pieced together and the keggles are borrowed (still waiting on mine to come back from the welders) but it does the job!

I'd enjoy any input on what I should change to get the color more in line with a kolsch style.

Thanks,
Mark

Congrats!!!
keep in mind all brews lighten up after the yeasties have had their way with it! Look like a good day!

Yea, it will lighten up a LOT. Don't worry about that.

That outdoor kitchen looks ideal for brewing. Lucky.

Nice set up. I like the outdoor "kitchen" area. I'm a little jealous!

Congratulations! Very nice setup! The color is probably lighter than it looks. It always looks darker in bulk in the carboy. And like deuce said the yeast will scub some color.

cool thanks... I just know all the kolsch's I've ever had before were very light color like a pilsner or other "adjunct laden lager"...

And yes the out door kitchen does come in handy ALOT! This may sound strange, but the SS Sink is my pride and joy! It's perfect! I can purge 2 sacks (80-90lbs) of crawfish at a time in there, or fill it half way with Ice and put a few sacks of oysters in there for parties! With the grill I can shuck and serve raw or shuck and grill the oysters right in their half shell! Works great! or just fill with ice and load it down with bottles of beer!

It's used almost daily and is very handy!!!

what's that counter made of?

I just poured concrete. It came out ok, but I learned alot in the process. I may break it all up and redo it a little nicer.

What I did was put down a 3/4" pressure treated base and then ripped left over 3/4' ply into 4" strips and screwed it in making sure it was all level. So the top is just over 3" thick. Then I screwed 1" drywall screws into the base for two reasons 1. to give the concrete something to grab on and keep it attached to the base material and 2. to hold the wire mesh up in the middle of the stab. Then I mixed and poured the counter top.

What happend and what I learned. I didn't put anything down to hold the water in, so the water ran out and the concrete dried out very quickly. Because of that instead of having a nice smooth surface I have a pourus and brittle surface. I also mixed the concrete a bag at a time... next time I'll get a U-cart with a yard of concrete and be done with it! (not to mention you could stain the concrete as a whole that way if you wished!) I'll also make sure all the seams and joints have some sort of barier to hold the water in and allow the concrete to harden properly. In my case I had oysters ordered and people on the way so I had to have it done within 72 hours!

It still works and I get complements on it often, but I know you guys probably are much like me... if you build something and learn lessons while you build it, no matter how someone else likes it you'll drive yourself nuts because it's not perfect!

Thanks,

Mark

I'll get some better "finished" shots of it this week and post for you.

But here are some framing out and pre-pour build.

Kolsch made with 2-row?? Kolsch is a pilsner. I think that's why your color is off.

My fellow Marylander, Kolsch shares some characteristics of a Pilsner (like color) but the two are not the same. Kolsch is typically a warm fermenting beer where Pilsner is lagered.

I was thinking on a redo, that I would cut the 2-row and use Pilsen malt. 50/50?

I said I would post some more pics later, and I have just been too busy. so here they are.

Nice place to brew!

Welcome to the club...The All Grain Club!

Thanks!

I had some apfelwein according to your recipe the other day and it was great! I tried my hand at making a cider before finding your recipe and it has actually turned out more like an apfelwein so I'm aging it until new years. We'll see how it ends up!!!