Beehemel
Well-Known Member
Yesterday I brewed my first all grain beer after 6 batches of extract and here's a few things I learned:
1. I need a new thermometer. Turns out my digital thermo breaks when subjected to higher temps of strike water. I can't shell out the money for a thermapen, but I was thinking about buying this one instead:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GE2XF8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
2. Sparge water volumes are tricky. I say this because after all the research and calculations I had done, I thought I had it down. I doughed in with 5 gallons (15.5 lbs of grain, roughly 1.5 q/lb), then sparged with three gallons. I ended up with 5 gallons in the kettle. I did another sparge with 1 gallon, and that got me closer to my pre-boil volume.
3. Dialing in my system is going to take a while! I think it could possibly be because I didn't have a reliable way to measure temps, but my mash efficiency was down. Luckily, I was originally shooting for a beer that was going to be pretty high abv, so I'll still end up with a good balance in the end (I hope).
That's about it. I just figured I'd share a few more things (as if it hasn't been said enough) about my particular experience. I'll keep brewing and eventually get everything dialed in, and in the mean time, I'll RDWHAHB!
1. I need a new thermometer. Turns out my digital thermo breaks when subjected to higher temps of strike water. I can't shell out the money for a thermapen, but I was thinking about buying this one instead:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GE2XF8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
2. Sparge water volumes are tricky. I say this because after all the research and calculations I had done, I thought I had it down. I doughed in with 5 gallons (15.5 lbs of grain, roughly 1.5 q/lb), then sparged with three gallons. I ended up with 5 gallons in the kettle. I did another sparge with 1 gallon, and that got me closer to my pre-boil volume.
3. Dialing in my system is going to take a while! I think it could possibly be because I didn't have a reliable way to measure temps, but my mash efficiency was down. Luckily, I was originally shooting for a beer that was going to be pretty high abv, so I'll still end up with a good balance in the end (I hope).
That's about it. I just figured I'd share a few more things (as if it hasn't been said enough) about my particular experience. I'll keep brewing and eventually get everything dialed in, and in the mean time, I'll RDWHAHB!
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