Beer Snob
Well-Known Member
My problem with doing all grain is something that I'm sure many have. No very large pot at the moment..... living in an apartment... on the second floor no less. Wanting to do it in my kitchen... on my stove... I had inicially set out to do PM thinking that AG was just not what I was going to be doing for a while. I found this site sockmonkeysandbeer:
http://www3.telus.net/sockmonkeysandbeer/beer/HowIBrew/howIbrew.html
He describes a method of doing AG in two smaller pots instead of one large one that you typically can't do on a smaller home stove in an indoors setting and this is what I attempted to do for my first try at AG. I had a lot of different problems that made things challenging, however in the end I was able to follow the general process of this method. Being the process was not what was challenging but the normal first time AG stuff was the challenges.
Outside of the recipe challenge that I had (used 5 lbs of wheat that gave stuck mashes) and the low temp hose that came undone between the false bottom and the connections to the outside assembly. One other problem is that I came up far shorter in a 5 gal quantity then wanted. I have no markings on the pots to show me where 2 1/2 - 3 galons are so it was realy hard for me to judge if I had enough.
Another challenge I had was I did not pre-calculate the amount of sparge water needed. I just filled my HWT as much as it went and attempted to judge from what I collected in the pots if I had enough. I think this problem would be solved next time I do this if I mark the pots to show where the amounts are. I also have Promash now, which will help with this greatly.
Another problem I had which will be resolved is I did not have a wort chiller. I thought well since I'm working with smaller batches, the ice water in the sink will work fine. I think it could... however when working with two at the same time there is A LOT OF THINS HAPPENING. A wort chiller will at least take that part out of the equation and my focus will come back on what they need to be on.
Don't know.... I've had a few weeks to mull over what happened as well as all the great input I got from you guys on the thread I posted.
Has anyone else used this method?
http://www3.telus.net/sockmonkeysandbeer/beer/HowIBrew/howIbrew.html
He describes a method of doing AG in two smaller pots instead of one large one that you typically can't do on a smaller home stove in an indoors setting and this is what I attempted to do for my first try at AG. I had a lot of different problems that made things challenging, however in the end I was able to follow the general process of this method. Being the process was not what was challenging but the normal first time AG stuff was the challenges.
Outside of the recipe challenge that I had (used 5 lbs of wheat that gave stuck mashes) and the low temp hose that came undone between the false bottom and the connections to the outside assembly. One other problem is that I came up far shorter in a 5 gal quantity then wanted. I have no markings on the pots to show me where 2 1/2 - 3 galons are so it was realy hard for me to judge if I had enough.
Another challenge I had was I did not pre-calculate the amount of sparge water needed. I just filled my HWT as much as it went and attempted to judge from what I collected in the pots if I had enough. I think this problem would be solved next time I do this if I mark the pots to show where the amounts are. I also have Promash now, which will help with this greatly.
Another problem I had which will be resolved is I did not have a wort chiller. I thought well since I'm working with smaller batches, the ice water in the sink will work fine. I think it could... however when working with two at the same time there is A LOT OF THINS HAPPENING. A wort chiller will at least take that part out of the equation and my focus will come back on what they need to be on.
Don't know.... I've had a few weeks to mull over what happened as well as all the great input I got from you guys on the thread I posted.
Has anyone else used this method?