mlyday
Well-Known Member
My First All Grain recap
Overall things went really well ,and there were some good lessons learned.
Day started at about 5:30 am. I woke up with a really bad headache and felt like total crap, not what I wanted.
I thought about delaying the brew day till sunday, but decided I would push through. I down a couple of exederin migrane and washed them down with
a couple cups of coffee and by 7:30am Im lighting the burner for my mash water.
Lesson #1 Learned - Make sure you have matches. Looked for about half an hour before I finally found some.
While the mash water was heating up I went inside and filled the mash tun with the hottest water I could get from the tap, to pre heat it.
Got the water to about 166 and poured it into the mash tun and added some 5.2, and started pouring in the grains.
Lesson #2 - Get a helper to stir while you pour. Pouring from a bag while stiring isnt the easiest thing to do.
Got it mixed well and took some temps to make sure I was at mash temp. Temp was good as far as I can tell.
Lesson #3 - My thermometer sucks. The scale is way too small for exact measurements.
This recipe called for a 90 minute mash so on the top went and the whole thing got covered with a blanket.
The one thing I really liked about doing the all grain was that the pace seemed alot more relaxed than the extract batches I did, took alot
longer, but less stress.
I checked the temps at about 45 minutes and it hadnt lost really any temp. So back on went the top and blanket.
With about 10 minutes left in the mash I started the sparge water. Then did my vorlouf and started draining the mash tun.
I had added a couple of handfulls of rice hulls into the mash so things were running really nice. I got about 3 gallons of wort, added 4 gallons of
sparge water and let it sit for a few minutes will I started the burner going on the inital runnings. when I was draining the mash tun again I was adding a gallon at a time to the boil kettle. By time I was done draining the wort was almost to a boil.
Lesson #4 - 6.5 gallons in a 7.5 gallon pot is too much. I pulled some back out and added it after I had some boil off.
I had one minor boilover.
Rest of the 90 minute boil went well no real issues. I end up with about 5.5 gallons.
Hooked the hose up to the wort chiller and realized the hose had a leak right up by the clamp. Fixed that and within 20 minutes or so my wort was at about 50 degrees.
pitched my crapload of yeast down to the ferm chamber it went. It was bubbling away about 4 hours later.
I had one more Ooops before the day was over. I was washing out the starter jar and dumped my stirbar in the garbage disposal. A pair of tongs and a earth magnet and I was
able to retrieve it.
I dont know what my efficency was because I didnt take the gravity pre-boil. The recipe said it should be 1.055, and I hit 1.053, so I think it was fairly decent.
I think my biggest mistake while doing my first all grain was doing a lager. The wait is going to kill me.
Overall things went really well ,and there were some good lessons learned.
Day started at about 5:30 am. I woke up with a really bad headache and felt like total crap, not what I wanted.
I thought about delaying the brew day till sunday, but decided I would push through. I down a couple of exederin migrane and washed them down with
a couple cups of coffee and by 7:30am Im lighting the burner for my mash water.
Lesson #1 Learned - Make sure you have matches. Looked for about half an hour before I finally found some.
While the mash water was heating up I went inside and filled the mash tun with the hottest water I could get from the tap, to pre heat it.
Got the water to about 166 and poured it into the mash tun and added some 5.2, and started pouring in the grains.
Lesson #2 - Get a helper to stir while you pour. Pouring from a bag while stiring isnt the easiest thing to do.
Got it mixed well and took some temps to make sure I was at mash temp. Temp was good as far as I can tell.
Lesson #3 - My thermometer sucks. The scale is way too small for exact measurements.
This recipe called for a 90 minute mash so on the top went and the whole thing got covered with a blanket.
The one thing I really liked about doing the all grain was that the pace seemed alot more relaxed than the extract batches I did, took alot
longer, but less stress.
I checked the temps at about 45 minutes and it hadnt lost really any temp. So back on went the top and blanket.
With about 10 minutes left in the mash I started the sparge water. Then did my vorlouf and started draining the mash tun.
I had added a couple of handfulls of rice hulls into the mash so things were running really nice. I got about 3 gallons of wort, added 4 gallons of
sparge water and let it sit for a few minutes will I started the burner going on the inital runnings. when I was draining the mash tun again I was adding a gallon at a time to the boil kettle. By time I was done draining the wort was almost to a boil.
Lesson #4 - 6.5 gallons in a 7.5 gallon pot is too much. I pulled some back out and added it after I had some boil off.
I had one minor boilover.
Rest of the 90 minute boil went well no real issues. I end up with about 5.5 gallons.
Hooked the hose up to the wort chiller and realized the hose had a leak right up by the clamp. Fixed that and within 20 minutes or so my wort was at about 50 degrees.
pitched my crapload of yeast down to the ferm chamber it went. It was bubbling away about 4 hours later.
I had one more Ooops before the day was over. I was washing out the starter jar and dumped my stirbar in the garbage disposal. A pair of tongs and a earth magnet and I was
able to retrieve it.
I dont know what my efficency was because I didnt take the gravity pre-boil. The recipe said it should be 1.055, and I hit 1.053, so I think it was fairly decent.
I think my biggest mistake while doing my first all grain was doing a lager. The wait is going to kill me.
Good job.
