Preparing 1st All-Grain

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Adam78K

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Soaked wort chiller in vinegar for 30 mins, heated up keggle and made sure no leaks, star saned keggle and mash tun, think I'm ready for tomorrow to do my first all-grain wish me luck.:fro:
 
Good luck! And try to relax. You don't need to sanitize the keggle or the mashtun, so just make sure they are clean and you're all set.

Anything post-boil will have to be sanitized, of course. Relax and have fun!
 
Agreed, just place the chiller in the boiling wort for the last 15 - 20 minutes and you'll have killed anything growing on or in it.
 
Well good luck, hope everything goes well. I agree with Yooper, just have fun!
 
Wooohooooo!!!!!

Yooper's spot on, of course she's been doing it a while too. Relax, you've planned your work, no go work your plan. Besides, the yeast make beer in spite of our involvement.

Enjoy your brewday!
 
Well cool after a long day of brewing, successfully created my first all grain. Did a 5.5 gallon batch of Denny Conn RyePA and the starting gravity was 1.060, not bad. Tasted the beer and it almost seemed a little light, but still good. Going to dry hop it in about a week or two with an oz of willamette and .5 oz of Galena hops so maybe that will help it out. But overall I'm super happy of the end result and it is so much nicer brewing outside rather than inside. Ohh yea can someone calculate my efficiency for the grain bill of

11lbs 2 row
3lbs rye malt
1.25 crystal 60l
8oz carapils
8oz wheat malt

5.5 gallon batch, 1.060 starting gravity, thanks guys don't own Beersmith and have a mac so...
 
Ouch 58 not so well hehe maybe a little better next time

I was in the 50's the first time I did AG too. Don't sweat it. There are all kinds of threads about what you can do, but mine improved with a good long stir at mash in. Several minutes mixing made a big difference for me. Up to 75% on most brews now.
 
also as far as beersmith on a mac goes, just use Crossover. it allows you to run windows programs without having to start up a full virtual machine. it works perfectly for me.
 
Yeah don't worry about the efficiency. My second AG batch was 45% and it has slowly improved since then.

Just remember that to calculate the efficiency you really need to be using accurate measurements of volume, specific gravity and grain weight. Don't use the volume markings on a plastic bucket fermentor, figure out what your hydrometer correction is at it's calibrated temperature and make sure your grain bill weight is accurate. Checking these three things helped me to realize that my previously quoted efficiencies were wildly inaccurate.
 
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