First All-Grain Today - July 20th

Hi All-

Frist thing is first... Thank you everyone. I have been reading a variety of posts for the last week trying to get prepared for my fist all-grain, and nearly every thread has some useful information.

I believe i have all the major steps covered and even some of the minor details.

I am brewing the all to common fat tire clone...go ahead...say it.. I know, I know, everyone and their brother has or is brewing the Fat tire clone but I figured 1) there is a ton of info on that recipe on this forum and 2) I like the American Ale style.

My setup is a 10G Mega Pot Mash/Lauter Tun, a 14G Mega Pot brew kettle, and a 10G Igloo Cooler HLT for sparge water. I have 2 propane burners to heat the mash and the sparge water, ill use the brew pot to heat the sparge water and empty it into the cooler then sparge the mash into it.

I have a bazooka T in my MLT. 1st question - The T ftting just slides on the straight adapter but the clamp really doesnt hold it on tight. I am worried that while stirring the mash, the bazooka screen might slide off the adapter. How do i get the bazooka tighter on the adapter ?

I am going to mash with a 1.25q/lb ratio and heat 7.5 gallons of sparge water. I know that is more than enough sparge water, but i am going to use a gallon or so to run through my CFC to clean it a little. I am going to sparge until I get 6.5 gallons of wort to being the brew boil. My brew kettle doesnt have marks as to how full it is. Its a 14G mega pot. 2nd Question Any tips as to how to know when i have 6.5 G of wort from the sparge ?

I intend on taking many pictures of my day. Ill post my experience and pictures later. Thank again to this wonderful forum and resource. It has been invaluable.

MNBugeater

All I did with my kettle is fill it with water and take notes. The bottom handle weld is 6 gallons, top one 7. Tried etching marks, but the only thing I have that is hard enough to mark the SS leaves a very fine line I can't see through the steam.

Lots of equipment, got makings?

david_42 said:

All I did with my kettle is fill it with water and take notes. The bottom handle weld is 6 gallons, top one 7. Tried etching marks, but the only thing I have that is hard enough to mark the SS leaves a very fine line I can't see through the steam.

Lots of equipment, got makings?

Click to expand...

Do you have the same 14G mega pot for a brew kettle that i mentioned in my post? If so, then half way between the handle bracket should be 6.5G according to your findings, correct ?

MNBugeater

No, I have a different pot. Just saying the simplest method is to use features in the pot as marks.

1) I'd be afraid of it coming off as well. Is you're standard looking worm gear type clamp? You should be able to find a size that will work at any hardware store.

2) Only way I can figure is to fill it with something you know the volume of. Have any empty milk jugs, pots that are marked, etc?

And finally... Welcome to the Dark Side!

I poured one gallon of water in at a time into my converted keg/brew pot. After each gallon, I put my big stainless steel spoon into the pot until it just touched the water and etched the spoon where it touched the lip of the kettle. I marked the number of gallons next to the scribe marks.
To measure the wort in the kettle I put the spoon in until it just touches the wort and place my thumb on the lip of the kettle. I can then take it out and look at where my thumb is and determine the level. I can do this away from the steam and it works pretty good.

I went to my local kitchen shop and picket up a clear plastic picher that is labled with measurments $10.00 I use a converted keg for all my kettles i.e liquor, mash, boil. Fill and measure make a note where each gallon is in your note book. Also if your system isent ridged you can vraulof into a 7 gal TRUE BREW bucket its labled with measurments
JJ

Well no matter how much you read, the actual experience is the true education.

However, all in all, my first all-grain went well. I had to stir quite a bit and add 8 cups of water to get my mash down to the desired temp. But that wasnt too alarming...

One thing I didnt know, was how much temperature raise I would get with the burner on to control mash temp. So my first time I turned the burner back on for 1-2 minutes, it spiked to 168-170 and took me 10-12 minutes to get it back down into the 150s.

Other than that the mashing, lautering, sparging all went well. I ended up with 6.5 gallons in the kettle at 1.051 SG.

The other issue I had was getting a good gravity flow from the kettle through the CFC to the fermenter. I think is was mostly due to the whole hops I used and they clogged the valve on my kettle. I also had some short hose and clamp [or lack of] issues and I lost a lot more than I should have going to the fermenter. I think ill either install some type of screen in the kettle or use pellets next time.

The 6.5G collected boiled down to just shy of 5G and I probably lost nearly a gallon in the cooling process. I ended up using a strainer to scoop the hops out of the wort, but in the process lost alot of wort, plus what was lost in the CFC. SO I think i might have only ended up with 3.5-4G in the fermenter.

I pitched a good 125ml smack pack that was very viable, however 12 hours after pitching there is no activity. Im thinking i didnt oxygenate my wort very well and hope it kicks in this morning yet.

Well that pretty much sums it up....Had a fun time and I look forward to doing it again SOON !!!

Here is a brief summary of my day with pictures.



MNBugeater