Long hard day

Just brewed my first all grain (sort of) with new newly built mash tun. What a pain in my ass. Nobody open on Saturdays in this town has ever heard of a bulkhead fitting, I finally got the cooler to seal, all was going well, and my filter clogged while lautering, had to continuasly stir, scraping the sides of the stainless braid to get the darn thing to drain. Not being a computer whiz I don't do all the calculations and whatnot, so I wound up over boiling and came up a little short of five gal.(my OG at this point is .050) I had about a pound of amber DME left from my last batch, so I boiled it along with 1lb. honey in 1 gal. water. My final OG was .070. I used Whole NB hops, and dug them out of the wort for an hour( tried my funnel w/screen, but clogged). All in all about 8 hrs. This can't be normal and I'm pretty sure I'm retarded.

Sorry to hear that. I'll bet that this one will turn out fine and the next one will go more smoothly.

Not really. My first AG took that long and was full of similar complications. It's just about getting the new process down. Even now it takes me 6 hours because I take my time and enjoy the process. Have fun with AG, it's a great way to hone in on the exact characteristics you want in your beer!

don't get too discouraged. there is always a bit of a learning curve with new equipment. how did you build the braid drain? it shouldn't clog like that.

being a 'computer whiz' is not a requirement for calculating anything with brewing. look into one of the computer programs that help you figure out the math, those program are a lifesaver.

android said:

don't get too discouraged. there is always a bit of a learning curve with new equipment. how did you build the braid drain? it shouldn't clog like that.

being a 'computer whiz' is not a requirement for calculating anything with brewing. look into one of the computer programs that help you figure out the math, those program are a lifesaver.

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I made it from the biggest hose I could get, 3/4", it's gutted, of course, it runs the full length of the cooler, plugged at the rear, clamped in the front. It was plugged for almost the whole first drain, I shut the ball valve, added sparge water, stirred a bit, opened the valve and it drained just fine for this and the second sparge, so.....I don't know what happend. Thanks for your help, guys.

i use beersmith. it has a brewsheet view for the person who is still new (or experienced and inebriated), and shows step-by-step. my brew-day for 12 gallons takes 4.5-5 hours.

So just go to Beersmith website and follow directions? Also, with 6lbs. wheat and 6lbs. barley for 5 gallons and 1.050 OG, what would you guys say my efficiency is?

Imay have a problem here, guys. I checked my fermentor this AM and I didn't get all the hop leaves out(I scooped them out with a strainer). Will this be a problem? Should I run the whole batch through a strainer into another fermentor or just let it go?

hops in the fermentor is fine and some have speculated beneficial for the yeast. Try using rice hulls in the mash. This is especially important when mashing wheat. I use them anytime I use 30% or more wheat. You used 50%, so that was probably the issue. Normally I dump my wort through a mesh strainer into a bucket, then into the fine mesh funnel. Its still a pain sometimes but I prefer to leave the hops out of my fermentors/final product, mostly because I like reusing my yeast and it prolly makes racking easier/cleaner.

Thanks JNye, what do the rice hulls do?

rice hulls will help create a natural filter bed so that stuff has a smaller chance of making its way into the final product