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- Apr 25, 2009
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Well I just did it today for the first time. I milled my grains the night before. As some may have read before I attempted with a different mill with many problems. Last night I used the Barley Crusher, which worked perfect.
I started brewing around 3. Used a propane burner. Heated the HLT to 170. Then I put the grains in the MLT. It has a false bottom. I then mashed for an hour. Stirred every 15 minutes. My temp was right at 150. The recipe sheet called for the temp. After mashing. I had my MLT on the ground. Didn't even think about vorlauf. So I had to lift it onto a chair to drain into a pitcher. So I did that. More than I wanted to, maybe 2 gallons. Poured the vorlauf back into the MLT.
Already I had The HLT filled with 5 gallons of 180 degree water. I ran into trouble here. I could not get the pump to work right. So I had to lift the HLT higher. So at this point I have a three tiered system going. I used the Brew Magic techniques with a hose to sparge. I shook the MLT quite a bit trying to get everything in place. So this caused some grains to get in the BK. So I proceeded to drain the MLT to the BK. While I was sparging. I need to get this technique down better next time. I was going too fast. But other than that It went smoothly.
I then thought I had 6.5 gallons in the BK. I used the pitcher to measure 6.5 gallons in the BK earlier. I then boiled hops for an hour. I have a Mash Master heat exchanger. I hooked the BK to the exchanger in wort in. Then I hooked a hose to the wort out into a pump, then into the BK. I had a hose in the water in, then a hose from the water out into buckets for laundry. Everything went well, then a couple times Nothing was flowing out of the BK.
I realized the hop bags for getting stuck in the valve. Doh! So next time I will take the bags out right away. After fiddling with that, I was amazed how quickly the water came from boiling to 70 degrees. I used a copper wort chiller before. I then drained the cooled wort from the BK to glass fermenter. I noticed I was about .25-.50 gallons short. Its either from a lot of evaporation, or I need a better measuring device for gallons. I am thinking a measuring device. I was 10 points off the gravity reading.
So next time I need to figure out the pump better, Or somehow get a three tiered system going right away. Other than that, I like doing all-grain much better. I think its is more fun. Extract was also a lot of fun, All-grain is just more. I finished around 7. So about 4 hours it took me with clean up. Oh, the recipe I did was a Dead Guy Ale Clone.
Any advice for measuring gallons correctly?
I started brewing around 3. Used a propane burner. Heated the HLT to 170. Then I put the grains in the MLT. It has a false bottom. I then mashed for an hour. Stirred every 15 minutes. My temp was right at 150. The recipe sheet called for the temp. After mashing. I had my MLT on the ground. Didn't even think about vorlauf. So I had to lift it onto a chair to drain into a pitcher. So I did that. More than I wanted to, maybe 2 gallons. Poured the vorlauf back into the MLT.
Already I had The HLT filled with 5 gallons of 180 degree water. I ran into trouble here. I could not get the pump to work right. So I had to lift the HLT higher. So at this point I have a three tiered system going. I used the Brew Magic techniques with a hose to sparge. I shook the MLT quite a bit trying to get everything in place. So this caused some grains to get in the BK. So I proceeded to drain the MLT to the BK. While I was sparging. I need to get this technique down better next time. I was going too fast. But other than that It went smoothly.
I then thought I had 6.5 gallons in the BK. I used the pitcher to measure 6.5 gallons in the BK earlier. I then boiled hops for an hour. I have a Mash Master heat exchanger. I hooked the BK to the exchanger in wort in. Then I hooked a hose to the wort out into a pump, then into the BK. I had a hose in the water in, then a hose from the water out into buckets for laundry. Everything went well, then a couple times Nothing was flowing out of the BK.
I realized the hop bags for getting stuck in the valve. Doh! So next time I will take the bags out right away. After fiddling with that, I was amazed how quickly the water came from boiling to 70 degrees. I used a copper wort chiller before. I then drained the cooled wort from the BK to glass fermenter. I noticed I was about .25-.50 gallons short. Its either from a lot of evaporation, or I need a better measuring device for gallons. I am thinking a measuring device. I was 10 points off the gravity reading.
So next time I need to figure out the pump better, Or somehow get a three tiered system going right away. Other than that, I like doing all-grain much better. I think its is more fun. Extract was also a lot of fun, All-grain is just more. I finished around 7. So about 4 hours it took me with clean up. Oh, the recipe I did was a Dead Guy Ale Clone.
Any advice for measuring gallons correctly?