Finally did my first AG!

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bradsul

Flyfisherman/brewer
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After a long time acquiring equipment I finally did my first all grain brew last night (in the bitter cold!). I'm happy to say my propane burner worked amazingly well in the windy, -13C temperatures. I got my full wort boil going in about 15 minutes. I also managed to get 73% efficiency (according to promash) with my first full size batch sparge.

Here is my recipe, I'm not really sure what it is but it was a monster grain bill compared to what I usually use. I figured go for it on the first time and see what happens. It definitely maxed out my 45L cooler with the sparge water! The lid was floating for the 15 minute rest.

Est OG: 1.079
Est IBU: 25

4.77KG 2-Row
2.00KG Munich
0.45KG Wheat
0.45KG Belgian Biscuit
0.27KG Chocolate

50G Hallertauer @ 60min

WYeast 1388 Belgium Strong Ale

Mash in: 15L @ 74C (166F), rest @ 66C (152F) 60min
Batch Sparge: 23L @ 76C (170F), 15min

I punched this into promash as a Dubbel but I wasn't really following a recipe, just going through my in stock ingredients; if anyone has any idea what kind of beer this actually is feel free to let me know :D. The wort was tasty though! My measured OG was 1.072 so I was very happy with the result of my first large-scale mash.

Brad
 
Well done.:ban:

That's a big beer for a first AG. I don't think I'd be willing to wait for it to mature. At least you have reason to get a session beer on the go.
 
Congrats, Brad. -13 still up there? Brrr...I thought it was starting to warm up for the weekend. At that temp, I'll brew in my shed, as small as it is.

If you are using your burner in the wind like that it is nice to make a sheild to go around it like I did.
 
I was thinking all day yesterday that I should go to the lumber yard and pickup a couple small sheets of plywood to make a wind deflector. I wish I had somewhere I could brew AG indoors, but at least I'm lucky enough to live on the ground floor of my apartment building. My stove is completely incapable of boiling more than 12L (~3 gallons) so I've been stuck on extracts for a long while.

Now that I've got all the equipment I need it would have to be a pretty miserably cold day to keep me from brewing. :D
 
That is a big brew to do your first time. Great efficiency for a first AG. I still do not get that on smaller beers and I have 4 under my belt.
You are more dedicate then me. I thought it was cold when we hit 40f here in AZ.
 
bradsul said:
I was thinking all day yesterday that I should go to the lumber yard and pickup a couple small sheets of plywood to make a wind deflector. I wish I had somewhere I could brew AG indoors, but at least I'm lucky enough to live on the ground floor of my apartment building. My stove is completely incapable of boiling more than 12L (~3 gallons) so I've been stuck on extracts for a long while.
. :D

I would try to make one out of non-combustable material if I were you.
I made mine with 28ga sheet metal. Light and effective.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a357/nflder/morepics005.jpg
 
boo boo said:
I would try to make one out of non-combustable material if I were you.
I made mine with 28ga sheet metal. Light and effective.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a357/nflder/morepics005.jpg

That's actually the identical burner that I have. Given the performance I had in terms of time-to-boil I'm not sure that I'll even bother with it now. That burner seems to have an excellent design in that regard. I think I probably had more heat loss due to the wind on the pot than with problems with flame contact.

With the plywood I wasn't going to make a surround for the burner itself. Just a folding wedge to put to the windward side (maybe a meter away) to break up any direct gusts. Not to eliminate the wind so much as to lessen it enough that it's not a problem. We used to do this all the time when we needed to boil 45 gallon drums of water with a tiger torch for mixing cement in the winter, worked great.

Brad
 
azmtnbiker said:
That is a big brew to do your first time. Great efficiency for a first AG. I still do not get that on smaller beers and I have 4 under my belt.

This is actually one of the reasons I decided on a big beer for my first one. If I had terrible efficiency I'd still have an average beer when I was done. Time will tell of course if it was technique or luck, my next batch is an oatmeal stout; it may end up in the 1.030 range. :D

Brad
 
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