First AG....I think I won....kinda...

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DizzyPants

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First of all, thx to everyone here that is seemingly on call (for their calling) 247. Without everyone's help I wouldn't have even attempted todays first AG.

I have been brewing extract w/ steeping grains for about a year. Had some great brews but have always wanted to take it to the AG level.

After thinking that PM would be a logical step, I noticed it was glorified steeping with a back up plan.

I bought 50ft of 3/8 copper from Amazon for about $38 for an immersion. Hit Home Depot for some fittings and I was off and running.

I followed this thread to a tee and it turned out great.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/cheap-easy-10-gallon-rubbermaid-mlt-conversion-23008/

I got the 10 gallon cooler just in case would like to do 10 gallon batches in the future.

I bought a Banjo burner and a larger pot.

Today was a Platinum Bavarian Weizen from AHS.

5 1/2 lbs German Pils
4lb Red Wheat
1/2 Cara Pils
3/4 Saaz 60 min
1/4 Saaz 15 min
White Labs Platinum Bavarian Weizen

My strike temp was set by Beersmith at 162F.
The desired mash temp was 150.
I came in at 152-3 in the round Rubbermaid cooler.

There wasn't any temp loss during the mash.

I then mashed out until the grain bed was dry and the first runnings came in at 1.060.

Then I batch sparged and got my needed 6.25 for my boil.

Cooled her down and the OG came in at 1.044, which is the lowest number in beersmith for the style.

I have no idea how to calculate efficiency and would like some help on that.

It smelt like beer, it looked like beer, and well...I think I just did my first AG.

Thanks everyone,
~Diz
 
Way to go, dude! It took me 3 AG batches to have an low maintenance mashing day (which was today, coincidentally).

I usually tool around with BeerSmith to estimate my efficiency. If you click on the "Brewhouse Efficiency" button, there's a calculator that can help. I take a pre-boil sample because I'm impatient.
 
I have an AG Kolsch on tap (wishful thinking) for this Friday. Should be the start of a good weekend.

~Diz
 
It looks like I was at 61%.......I didn't have a bunch of patience during the sparge.

Will go slower next time.

It will still be beer though right?

~Diz
 
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