Right now I am an extract brewer because of my limited equipment and my knowledge. But in the past few weeks I have been reading and researching like crazy to build up the courage for an AG brew. I am getting very close and I think this will be my first AG attempt.
For starters, my equipment is a 7.5 gallon brew pot, and a 10 gallon mlt. I just downloaded the demo for beersmith and have been playing around with this recipe. I would just like you guys to review my plans before I begin.
I am going to use basically the same recipe, except without the black patent because my lhbs doesn't carry it. And I plan to use 1 extra lb of 2 row just to make up for my assumed lower efficiency. My big questions are involving the mash since I have never done one before.
So, here is what I got out of beersmith.
Add 18.14 qt water at 165.9
-hold mash at 154 for 60mins.(just to make sure I don't drop bellow 150)
batch sparge round 1: Sparge with .83 gal of 168 water
batch sparge round 2: Sparge with 3.63 gal of 168 water
Just to make sure I'm reading this right, I add 18.14 qts to the empty mlt, then add the grains, let it sit covered for 1 hour, then drain .83 gal out, and put it back in the mlt, and then drain out all of the liquid out, and add the 3.63, and drain that back out?
I have tried to read as much stuff as I can, and watch as many picture and video tutorials as I can but I just want to make sure that all my mash steps, amounts, and temps are right.
Thank you very much for any help.