first AG a success! (i think)

well yesterday i completed my first AG, which happened to be a SMaSH with marris otter and challenger.
14 lb MO
1 oz @ 60
.5 oz @ 20
.5 oz @ 3
heres a quick shot of my rigged set up, with the all important homebrew already opened up-
here's a shot on the mash. i heated 4.5 gallons to approx 185, dumped into the cooler, and let it drop to 168. it dropped to 172 in a few min, but took about another 7 to drop to 168-then i doughed in. once it was thoroughly mixed, it got a temp of 154-i was shooting for 153. after an hr of mashing, it dropped to 152. nice.

heres a shot of the first runnings. i vorlaufed almost a full gallon. i use a s.s. braid in the cooler. i ended up getting a little over 2.5 gallons.
then i did 2 batch sparges w/2.5 gal. each. the first sparge i used 180 degree water, which only got the grain bed to 160. i got 2.5 gallons of wort. next sparge i used 185 degree water, got the grain bed up to 169. i vorlaufed each time. i forgot to check how much wort i got from the 2nd sparge, but im thinking around 2.5 again so approx 7.5 went into the kettle. now at this point it was dark out so my cellphone couldn't handle the pictures, so i apologize for the crappiness.
once i got it to a hard boil i started the clock and added the first hops. this is the first time i used my burner (well everything actually)and i love how hard of a boil i could get. the picture doesnt do it justice-i'll start brewing earlier next time.

for cooling, i filled a bucket with water and ice, dropped in my sub pump, and circulated the water through. it dropped the temp to 100 in between 5 and ten min, but at that point i ran out of ice and i switched to well water (constant 50 degrees) which took it to 78 in another 5.

next i poured off most of the wort of my starter, swirled, and pitched.


now, my mistakes. i forgot to add whirloc (doh!) i didnt have my coil properly set up for the keggle, so i drained the wort into a fermentation bucket, and cooled it there. and the king of all mistakes, i was about to get a gravity reading, and i was holding the hydrometer in my mouth and it shattered! so i was not able to calculate my effeciency. i ended up with 5.5 gallon in the bucket, and its fermenting very hard 12 hrs after and i had activity within 2 hrs- so all in all im happy.

no response? my feelings are hurt, im going to go cry and drink beer

nice to see a 1st time all grain attempt! i am thinking about making the move from partial to all grain once i get a few more brews under my belt. i hope your beer turns out well and thanks for the pics!

I say to you Good Job. I have only done a few AG batches but they get eaiser each time. so well done my friend.



SD

BlackCoffeeandBourbon said:

nice to see a 1st time all grain attempt! i am thinking about making the move from partial to all grain once i get a few more brews under my belt. i hope your beer turns out well and thanks for the pics!

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dont hesitate to make the jump-its not hard at all...well to atleast make beer. making good beer and getting a good technique down is another thing...

sdhucks7 said:

I say to you Good Job. I have only done a few AG batches but they get easier each time. so well done my friend.



SD

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yeah i have to say it wasnt hard at all, and im sure it will be way easier even the second time around

Looks to me like you have to stop brewing and start raking.

Good job, I think. I haven't made the move yet. When I do, there WON'T be pictures.

No comment. You did it all wrong.










I'm keeeeeding! good work. Oh, you'll do yourself a favor if you put some tubing on the output of your mash tun for draining. It will pull a strong siphon to get more of the wort out. It will also reduce the rare chance of hot side aeration. Try not to splash hot wort too much.

Bobby_M said:

No comment. You did it all wrong.










I'm keeeeeding! good work. Oh, you'll do yourself a favor if you put some tubing on the output of your mash tun for draining. It will pull a strong siphon to get more of the wort out. It will also reduce the rare chance of hot side aeration. Try not to splash hot wort too much.

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yeah, i realized that the first time i used a tube on the outlet of the when i drained the wort, it pulled almost 2 inches more liquid out- i have a lot of extra length in the tubing on my chiller so i'll cut some pieces off...or maybe i'll pick up some high temp stuff instead. im still very frustrated that i broke my hydrometer but im in the process of making up a winter ale recipe (which i'll post up in a few min in another thread) and im going to be a little more exact this time.
p.s. your AG primer was a godsend haha

I really like how your photos take us from day into night

Do you have a garage or shed - how will you brew in the dead of winter?

giligson said:

I really like how your photos take us from day into night

Do you have a garage or shed - how will you brew in the dead of winter?

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yeah it got a little chilly, dropped to about 38 i believe. a few beers kept me warm
i'll probably just end up brewing outside and tough it out. i currently live with my parents while i am saving for a house (im a young buck) and i have to convince them to let me brew in the garage(they are nervous about the propane) so the next couple months should be interesting...
having a nice warming fire next to the brew area in the yard sounds kind of like a good idea...