Almost ready for All-Grain!

Picked up these items yesterday with a 20% discount from Sportsmans's Warehouse. Will be converting by next weekend.

One 10 Gallon Coleman Cooler.


10 Gallon Aluminum Brewpot.

Awesome!!!

Welcome to the dark, and not so scary side!

And your brewpot came with a cute kid!!!!!! Did you have to pay extra shipping for the kid to come, too?

That's great Mck! Almost ready!

You will love the beer.

I'll definately post some pics of the conversion when it's done. That's my youngest in the picture (she just turned 5). Her small size makes for great pictures like that one.

wahoo, another member stepping over!

McKBrew said:

Picked up these items yesterday with a 20% discount from Sportsmans's Warehouse. Will be converting by next weekend.

One 10 Gallon Coleman Cooler.

10 Gallon Aluminum Brewpot.

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Ill trade ya brew pots, But I think My Swmbo wants me to keep my son. No seriously Hope you enjoy AG I know I do! Also I love your quote in your Sig.

Dude...you're brewpot is already contaminated with some little buggers!

Got the parts to put this bad boy together tonight, but having a very small leak problem. The pre-drilled hole on this one is a bit bigger than the rubbermaid cooler.

I'm going to try to find some plastic washers to shore this up a bit, but was also thinking of using some food grade high temp silicone as well.

See if you can find a neoprene washer at a hardware store. That did the trick for me.

Thanks for the suggestion. I had also considered buying one of those silicone baking sheets for about 10 bucks and cutting gaskets out of it, but I think I'll make the trip to Lowes today and check out their washer selection.

YooperBrew said:

And your brewpot came with a cute kid!!!!!! Did you have to pay extra shipping for the kid to come, too?

That's great Mck! Almost ready!

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I hope they put air holes in the box, and some crackers for her to munch on..........


It's a good thing I have boys. If I had a little cutie like that at home, I'd be a big pile of mush. Love that pic!

Excellent. You're outlook on brewing will change completely once you go to all-grain.

The conversion is complete. Spent quite a bit of time trying to stop the very slight leak (maybe 10 drops a minute). Part of the problem I think, is there is a seam in the cooler which conveinantly runs right down the middle of the drain hole.

Once I put a silicone baking sheet washer on the outside, I got it to stop leaking, but I am sure there is probably going to be some collection of liquid in the hole area between the inner and outer wall. In the long run, I'll probably invest in some food grade silicone adhesive, but in the mean time I'll just take it apart and clean it once in awhile.

Used tie wraps instead of clamps, the package said they are heat resistant to 185 degrees.

Awesome McKBrew and congrats!

Be sure and save a bottle of that first AG for me.

What's next?

In the next week or so, I should get my tax return and I'll finish up then. I'm going to put a weldless fitting on my boilpot and maybe on the 24 quart pot as well (sparge water). I'm debating getting a second cooler for a sparge tank instead.

If all goes to plan I should be brewing the first batch the weekend after this one.

For the price I paid for all of the pieces and parts to make this work, I could have bought a cooler conversion kit from Austin Homebrew or Northern Brewer. Would have saved a bit of frustration.

McKBrew said:

For the price I paid for all of the pieces and parts to make this work, I could have bought a cooler conversion kit from Austin Homebrew or Northern Brewer. Would have saved a bit of frustration.

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But then you wouldn't have a good story to tell about how you had to figure it all out on your own, and run to the hardware store half a dozen times.

Congrats on making the jump to AG. You'll love it for sure.

An update.

Finally have everything I need to start, including a large outdoor burner. Will be losing my AG virginity on Saturday or Sunday.

If anyone has any sage advice, or step by step checklists that will guide me through the process I would appreciate it. My biggest concerns are with batch sparging and getting the correct amounts of water. I'm sure that with my handy dandy copy of how to brew, I'll do just fine, but anything you have to offer would be appreciated.

Thanks for all of your help up to this point.

McKBrew said:

An update.

Finally have everything I need to start, including a large outdoor burner. Will be losing my AG virginity on Saturday or Sunday.

If anyone has any sage advice, or step by step checklists that will guide me through the process I would appreciate it. My biggest concerns are with batch sparging and getting the correct amounts of water. I'm sure that with my handy dandy copy of how to brew, I'll do just fine, but anything you have to offer would be appreciated.

Thanks for all of your help up to this point.

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Sparge hotter than you think you want. Try 180-185°. With a mash around 154 or so, this is not going to extract any tannins or anything like that, so damn those naysayers that tell you otherwise.

The thing that helped me most was beersmith. Imo, the best $20 you will spend on homebrewing. It can save a lot of headaches on figuring strike and sparge amounts and temps. And I always measure out my exact water the day before I brew, one less thing to complicate the actual process. This is sage advice form someone with a whopping 1 all grain brew to my credit.

The only problem I ran into on my first AG brew was missing my strike temperature. I found that I had to heat the water a few extra degrees higher than what Beersmith reported in order to make it hit 154. That includes using the preset brewery equipment in Beersmith and having it calculate for heat loss.

Also, I don't know if this makes a huge difference but I found that heat was escaping from the MLT via the installed metal valve so I wrapped it in a towel to minimize the loss.

Finally, don't underestimate how hard it is to lift 5+ gallons of hot water. If you don't have a HLT, be careful in transferring the strike/sparge water and try to get someone to help you.

Good luck! I'll be brewing my 4th AG batch this Saturday!

So I didn't brew this weekend, but bottled teh 8-8-8 RIS. I still might give it a go in the next day or so, if not definately next weekend. Tested out my Bayou Classic burner, sounds like a jet with the regulator fully open.

I've been up since 1230 AM, but not brewing. Had to go in and stand watch at the building I work at. 6 hours staring at monitors, answering the phone, dealing with people. Yay. Right now I'm doing the vessel calibrations for my MLT in Beer Tools Pro. 5 gallons of water at 155 degrees, holding at 154 10 minutes later. Since I know that grain helps retain heat, I'm sure this cooler will do an excellent job.

Edit: After one hour I had a total loss of 5 degrees (empty/no grain). I also pre-heated with 172 degree water but probably could have left it in there a couple more minutes. My big concern was whether or not my cooler would warp at all with temps approaching 180, but there were no issues.

Had a very slight leak come back, but that will be rectified when my silicone sealant comes in from McMaster Carr later this week. I'm going to replace the original valve with a larger ball valve and stem matching the one on my brewpot.

I was so close to brewing today, but felt that being too tired I'd probably fxck something up. The closer I get to actually starting the first batch, the more impatient I get.

I did my first AG recently. I'll be posting pics up here pretty soon. I was pretty excited going in and a bit worried I would screw something up. To be honest, it was A LOT easier than I thought. :rockin:

As long as you've done a decent amount of research on the whole process it should be a piece of cake. You'll see.

McKBrew said:

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What's the cooking time for a human child?

Congrats on AG. It'll happen soon.

That is so cute. The bottom of my pot seems pretty thin. I'd be afraid of my daughter denting it.

you will never go back