I have been slowly putting together an All Grain System over the last two months. With the local weather predicting a nice partly sunny and 50 degree day in the Midwest I figured the moment of truth was here. I quickly ordered ingredients with the goal of breaking in the system Sunday morning. I ended up having a little to much fun at a birthday party Saturday night, so rolling out of bed to brew beer was exactly easy. To top it off the rain that was predicted for Saturday decided to show up Sunday Morning. I very nearly threw in the towel, but I waited an hour and it looked like it was going to clear off, so I went for it. I got outside and realized I forgot to shovel off my back yard where I intended to brew, lol. Oh well after running 2 burners there isn't much snow left now.
Things I learned, I have 2 burners, one from a turkey fryer and one banjo burner, they are much slower than I ever would have guessed, I don't think it will be big deal in the future, but I should have set up my HLT and started heating immediately before getting everything else set up. I also realized that In the future I should utilize both burners in heating up the sparge water as I was cutting close between having the sparge water up to temp in time to use it.
I was very happy I hit my mash temp exactly with my strike temp and the temp seemed to hold very well in my Coleman Extreme. The March Pump worked great for sparging and running the chiller, couldn't have been happier.
Just wanted to throw a big thanks to all the helpful info I have gotten off this forum and also the great supplies I have gotten from many of the sponsors.
Northern Brewer - 20 gallon and 15 gallon mega pots, these look like they are going to serve me very well for many many years.
Austin Home Brew Supply - Got a march pump and a counterflow chiller, and both worked incredibly well.
Bargainfittings - very helpful with getting my cooler mash tun converted.
Rebelbrewing - Great Ingredients, fast shipping, and those stainless steal quick release valves work very nicely.
All these guys have done right by me and will all get future business from me.
Here is the recipe if anyone has managed to read this far.
11lbs of 2 row Rhar
2lbs of 120 Caramel
3 oz of Chinook
1.25 90min
1.00 30min
.75 at the end.
Gravity was 1.071
All in all I think it went well and I can't wait to do another batch.
Here is a pic of my set up out in the snow
10 gallon setup
Things I learned, I have 2 burners, one from a turkey fryer and one banjo burner, they are much slower than I ever would have guessed, I don't think it will be big deal in the future, but I should have set up my HLT and started heating immediately before getting everything else set up. I also realized that In the future I should utilize both burners in heating up the sparge water as I was cutting close between having the sparge water up to temp in time to use it.
I was very happy I hit my mash temp exactly with my strike temp and the temp seemed to hold very well in my Coleman Extreme. The March Pump worked great for sparging and running the chiller, couldn't have been happier.
Just wanted to throw a big thanks to all the helpful info I have gotten off this forum and also the great supplies I have gotten from many of the sponsors.
Northern Brewer - 20 gallon and 15 gallon mega pots, these look like they are going to serve me very well for many many years.
Austin Home Brew Supply - Got a march pump and a counterflow chiller, and both worked incredibly well.
Bargainfittings - very helpful with getting my cooler mash tun converted.
Rebelbrewing - Great Ingredients, fast shipping, and those stainless steal quick release valves work very nicely.
All these guys have done right by me and will all get future business from me.
Here is the recipe if anyone has managed to read this far.
11lbs of 2 row Rhar
2lbs of 120 Caramel
3 oz of Chinook
1.25 90min
1.00 30min
.75 at the end.
Gravity was 1.071
All in all I think it went well and I can't wait to do another batch.
Here is a pic of my set up out in the snow
10 gallon setup
