Passow's First All Grain Brewing Day - new System!!

Well, after a four month building period, my All Grain Set Up got the the opperational stage and I brewed my beer on Sunday. It's my own recipe (Passow's Senatorial Brunette) and had some glitched that need to be ironed out (of which was I aimed for 5.5 gallons and got 7 gallons...oops! Need to cut down on the sparge water ammount). So here are th pics for the event:

The Set Up (from left to right: Hot Water Tank, Mash-tun, me with mash paddle, Wort Boil Tank on turkey fryer stand with propain tank):


Can you tell I'm happy to be brewing again?


The Bottom of my Mash-tun:


Sparging!!!

My buddy Matt came over and took a leak:


Watering the plants with the chiller water run-off:

That's one big ass mash paddle!!

Deuce said:

That's one big ass mash paddle!!

Click to expand...

Thank you! It works wonders!

Nice job...good looking set up, one exception though...that mash tun looks a bit unstable sitting on that stepladder.

A true fly sparge set up...seems like were seeing less of those these days...looks good though.

That is a kickin paddle...a bit over the top for five gal. for me.

Good work!

wilserbrewer said:

Nice job...good looking set up, one exception though...that mash tun looks a bit unstable sitting on that stepladder.

Click to expand...

Ya, I'm going to build a more stable set up out of wood before the next brew session (making a Hefe...need to find a good recipy, or formulate one) which is not this Sunday but next Sunday.

wilserbrewer said:

That is a kickin paddle...a bit over the top for five gal. for me.

Good work!

Click to expand...

Thanks. It is over the top, but that's half the fun.

How is your mash tun in holding rest temps? I have the same cooler and initially had trouble holding my rest temp for an hour. I then realized the lid is hollow, so I sprayed some foam insulation into the top. It works better now but not as good as I would like. I probably lose a couple degrees over an hour.

PGHBrew said:

How is your mash tun in holding rest temps? I have the same cooler and initially had trouble holding my rest temp for an hour. I then realized the lid is hollow, so I sprayed some foam insulation into the top. It works better now but not as good as I would like. I probably lose a couple degrees over an hour.

Click to expand...

It held it pritty good. Only lost 1 degree in the hour and 11 min it was in there. I'll have to see if mine is hollow. Thanks for the heads up on a future problem, I'll pay more attention to that for the next brew.

All that comes to mind is "GEICO is missing a caveman".

Sorry... I guess I'm just jealous, since three weeks into a 'beard' my face looks dirty.

Nice brewing set-up you have there.

jpc said:

All that comes to mind is "GEICO is missing a caveman".

Sorry... I guess I'm just jealous, since three weeks into a 'beard' my face looks dirty.

Click to expand...

I auditioned for the TV show when I was living in La actually This is the shortest my beard's ever been, you should have seen it when it was long.