Did my first all grain brew last night...a summer wheat ale. It was a trip. I did a double decoction mash and used a zapap with insulation. It actually held the heat very very well, and the only real mishap I had was that my protein rest was way high. I added 136 degree water to the grain and it only lost a couple of degrees, so I was at ~133 degrees. I had to add almost a gallon of cool water to get it in the 125 range. This increased my boil volume significantly and kept me up wayyy later than expected (was up until 1 am, had to be up at 5:45, ouch). However, I had no other issues to speak of. Mash temps held strong, and the decoction went perfect. Ended up with a 8 gallon boil and boiled it down to ~6 gallons. So here is the "luck" part. I used 5lbs 2-row, 3lbs Wheat Malt, 1 lb Munich and my post boil gravity was 1.044. According to Tastybrew's calculator, that puts me at an efficiency of 78.8%!! Oh, and also, that reading hasn't been adjusted for temp, which was about 80. All in all I am pretty happy with this brew. With that grain bill, I bittered with 1oz Mt. Hood, and added 1oz Tettnang, and the zest of one lemon and one orange at flame out. Used WLP300 hefe yeast, and I have it sitting at ~67 degrees with a blowff tube. No action this morning, but it had only been about 5 hours.
