First All-Grain - Shouldn't have cut corners...

On Friday I brewed my first all-grain batch: a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone. The Recipe: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Recipe ::: Brew365 - Homebrewing Recipes and Articles

10 lb 2-row pale malt
1.25 lb crystal 60L

1/3 oz. – Magnum – 60 min.
1/2 oz. – Perle – 30 min.
1 oz. – Cascade – 10 min.
2 oz. – Cascade – at flameout

White Labs California Ale Yeast (WLP001)

Est. OG 1.052

I subbed the Magnum hops for Columbus, and the yeast for Safale US-04, based on what was available at the store.

As a college student (read: broke) I thought I could avoid the extra cost of converting the cooler to a mash tun by using the strainer that came with my brew pot combined with a five-gallon mesh paint strainer bag. The idea was to line the strainer with the bag, and place the grains in that, inside of the cooler. This ended up being a big mistake; the grain was just slightly more than could fit in my strainer (should have checked that…). In order to cover the grains with water, I had to put the water level above that of the walls of the strainer. This, combined with the fact that there was dead space between the strainer and the cooler wall, resulted in a far-too-high water to grain ratio, but a thick mash. I managed to hit the right temperature, however, even with the extra water additions. Of course, when the hour was up, I couldn’t drain the wort from the cooler through the spout, because the overflowed grains clogged it. I “sparged” by adding a couple gallons of 170F water (my volumes were way off at this point). Then I lined a five-gallon bucket with another paint strainer bag and poured as much wort as would fit into it, pulling the grains out in the bag, and repeated with another bucket. I took a gravity reading around 1.030.

I boiled for a long time in multiple pots to compensate, and ended with about 2.5 gal of 1.056 wort. I think it'll turn out fine, but I'm a little frustrated at the low yield. At least I know what went wrong, though. I had a very thick mash but with too much water and essentially no sparge. Obviously, I'll be converting my cooler before the next batch.

 

for what you are spending on grain bags and strainers...you likely could shove some tubing through the cooler wall / hole and attach a braid. KISS

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/ten-minute-cooler-mash-tun-conversion-125108/

 

Wow... I hadn't seen that version. Definitely going to make yet another trip to home depot. I like the idea of having the valve so that I could drain the wort without having to babysit it.

 

for an extra $10 or so you can have a ball valve too.My AG equipment(MLT,kettle,and burner) cost me $50