First all grain brew (with amazing brew sculpture pic)

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alpo

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Location
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Ok, so it is my first all grain brew, give me a break.

I was having some leakage on the mash tun, so I stuck a small pipe wrench on there to tug on the ball valve a bit to make a better seal, which you can see in the picture. It did the trick well enough. I ordered some of those 5/8" ID washers over a week ago to perform that function, but they haven't come in yet.

Mashing went ok, for my first time, I suppose. Having never used this mash tun before, it took several tries to stabilize the temperature and it dipped below 150 a couple times. I had to add 3 quarts of hot water to get the temperature up. Less than ideal, but oh well. I already know how I can do better next time. I did the iodine trick and it seemed ok after about 75 minutes.

After that, lautering went fine. I used the stainless supply hose and no stuck sparges or anything like that, though it did slow down substantially towards the end. The refractometer gave me 1.08 SG out of the MLT right as I was hitting 6.25 gallons, so I guess everything worked out.

I am currently boiling with about 30 min to go. I was a bit worried about boiling 6.25 gal in a 32 qt kettle, but the hot break wasn't so bad, at least with this recipe (brown ale).

Thanks to everyone on this site for getting me to this point.
 
Looks like fun :) I have to go shopping for a 10-gallon cooler this week so I can get my tun built. I haven't found one at Wal-mart or Lowes Hardware yet. I need to try Home Depot and Dick's Sporting Goods. I hate to have to order a cooler and pay shipping...
 
That's pretty much what my setup looks like. Fancy systems are not required to make good beer. :mug:
 
Looks like fun :) I have to go shopping for a 10-gallon cooler this week so I can get my tun built. I haven't found one at Wal-mart or Lowes Hardware yet. I need to try Home Depot and Dick's Sporting Goods. I hate to have to order a cooler and pay shipping...

:off:

I had no luck with any of the retail stores. Lowe's had a 5gal but that was about it. Everyone said they got their's via Ace hardware, and they ship free to your local store, so that's what I ended up doing.

:off:
 
You might consider pre-heating your cooler tun with some hot water to be sure you can minimize that heat loss.
 
"Looks like fun I have to go shopping for a 10-gallon cooler this week so I can get my tun built. I haven't found one at Wal-mart or Lowes Hardware yet. I need to try Home Depot and Dick's Sporting Goods. I hate to have to order a cooler and pay shipping..."

I just stopped by Home Depot on my way home from work and they had 10 gallon orange rubbermaid coolers on sale for $35. Hickory is a good ways away but they might be the same there.

P.S. I dont know how to quote people, basic computer operation is actually a challenge for me!
 
i wants a fancy one.. until now I rely on whats around as well.

Still makes beer. :)

EDIT: Yikes.. donno how i ended up on such an old post.

P1060014.jpg


P1060010.jpg
 
jmp138 said:
"Looks like fun I have to go shopping for a 10-gallon cooler this week so I can get my tun built. I haven't found one at Wal-mart or Lowes Hardware yet. I need to try Home Depot and Dick's Sporting Goods. I hate to have to order a cooler and pay shipping..."

I just stopped by Home Depot on my way home from work and they had 10 gallon orange rubbermaid coolers on sale for $35. Hickory is a good ways away but they might be the same there.

P.S. I dont know how to quote people, basic computer operation is actually a challenge for me!

If you use walmart ship to store option it's free shipping
 
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