Milled Grains-Arggh

Well, here it is.. my first 2nd step in brewing. Today I'm attempting my first Extract kit with steeping grains. 1# Crystal 60L.. whatever that is.. guess I'll have to research that.

Getting my grain bag ready I find that much of the grain is not cracked. I think that's important? Or am I wrong. Bought the kit from MoreBeer.. seemed like a good kit.. but.. milled it wasn't. So, here I am letting off steam while the tea water is coming up to temp. Had to crush all the grains with a rolling pin.. Surely hadn't planned that extra time into the day.. but, heck.. an extra 20 minutes.

I thought about putting them into the Vita-Mix or the food processor.. but, I think that would have made flour.

Crystal 60 is a mid-dark colored caramel flavored malted barley that has been kilned to develop that color and flavor. Yes, to get the color and flavor out the grain must be crushed. I think that the Vita-mix would have made it pretty fine and some of the particles would have gone through the grain bag but they most likely would have settled out in the fermenter with the yeast and hops and wouldn't have hurt your brew enough to notice.

Thanks.. Beautiful sight going on right now.. the tea has been added to the kettle as well as the extract. The kettle is boiling/simmering away with the 1 oz of Magnum just added. Next is 1 oz of Willamette in 55 minutes and finally 1 oz of Willamette at 59 minutes.

This is exciting for a newbie.. Yee haw.

The chiller has been slightly modified to fit the bottom of my tall kettle.. I'm thinking I'll bring it in and put it on the kitchen counter and maybe use the hot water for a load of laundry.. no sense in wasting it.

Maybe some photos to follow.. unexciting to you experienced guys.. I know.

yes, the grain needs to be crushed. you were very wise to use a rolling pin.

Yeee Hawww... the yeast is now pitched... temp currently at 22C or 71.6F.

Interesting (to me) is that the kit instructions say I should have an OG of 1.051-1.054... I got 1.057 which is probably not unusual.. the big but here is that my wort didn't boil off as much as I had expected. I started out with the right amount of liquid with an expected evaporation greater than I got. So.. I'm at 5.3gallons vs 5 with a higher OG. What will that likely get me.. good or bad??? Sounds like it'll be stronger than I expected.. but not by much.. and the volume will be.. MORE.

I'm using Safale 05. The house generally.. during the day is about 64* and goes down to about 56-58* at night before the heater comes on in the morning.

From what I've read.. it sounds like the yeast gobbling sugar and pissing alcohol will raise the temp a bit.. I'm thinking of inverting a plastic garbage can over the FV to help retain the heat.. If it starts getting to cold.. I guess I can put a couple of 7w night lights under the garbage can with some alum foil wrapped around them to block the light from the brew.

I'm excited.....