Another "Completed First All grain batch" thread!

[Germelli1]

Did my first all grain batch this morning! It is now sitting in the fermenter cooling while I am at work so I can pitch when I get home.

I did Yoopers Dead Guy clone and the 13 pounds of grain were just about all my tun could handle!

My efficiency was just shy of 70% which I attribute to a mash tun that is leaking extremely slowly but constantly. The damn coller wall is at an angle at the bulkhead so I need to figure out a way to seal the bottom half of the fitting!

Wound up with a preboil OG of 1.050 which is a little thin but I will take it!

 

[Palefire]

congratulations and welcome to AG. 70% efficiency seems pretty good to me, especially for your first AG!

 

[Germelli1]

Thanks! I'm not completely satisfied with it since I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these things. But its nice I still got beer!

 

[snevey]

In order to compensate for the warped wall, you will need some sort of "soft" food grade washer. I had to put 3 silicone or rubber (i forget now) on the inside of mine, with the SS washer pushing the rubber/silicone against the cooler wall. Works well for me, and I was able to get them at Lowe's in the specialty fasteners section...

 

[jmf143]

My brother is a machinist in his spare time. He built a die that had the same radius as my 5 gallon tun, then pressed my SS washer against it. The washer cinches up tight to the bulkhead now without a gap.

 

[Germelli1]

In order to compensate for the warped wall, you will need some sort of "soft" food grade washer. I had to put 3 silicone or rubber (i forget now) on the inside of mine, with the SS washer pushing the rubber/silicone against the cooler wall. Works well for me, and I was able to get them at Lowe's in the specialty fasteners section...

Good idea. I was excited about using a high temp hydrolics O ring from my family's tractor shop/dealership. I'll give those a whirl!

The lowes here doen't carry SS washers big enough for our purposes though

My brother is a machinist in his spare time. He built a die that had the same radius as my 5 gallon tun, then pressed my SS washer against it. The washer cinches up tight to the bulkhead now without a gap.

Just to be clear my cooler is a rectangular igloo island breeze:

My problem is that the walls are tapered so there is a larger gap between the hose fitting and the wall when you compare the top and bottom

 

[dzlater]

Thanks! I'm not completely satisfied with it since I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these things. But its nice I still got beer!

Some people would say 70% is perfect

 

[Germelli1]

Some people would say 70% is perfect

Haha thanks! I would be completely satisfied with my system getting 70% IF I didn't know I was loosing points due to a poor design flaw haha

 

[koomber]

Haha thanks! I would be completely satisfied with my system getting 70% IF I didn't know I was loosing points due to a poor design flaw haha

Man, I'd love to get 70% On my third batch and still getting some flaws out of the system (need to redesign the hop filter). But I think my lost points are going because I'm using too much water in the sparge.

Part of the problem of trying to combine US and metric units I guess. (I work in metric but I design in US units, even though I live in the UK!)

Anyhow, back from my tangent. Congrats on the AG brew and welcome to the club (from one noob to another:fro

 

[Germelli1]

Man, I'd love to get 70% On my third batch and still getting some flaws out of the system (need to redesign the hop filter). But I think my lost points are going because I'm using too much water in the sparge.

Part of the problem of trying to combine US and metric units I guess. (I work in metric but I design in US units, even though I live in the UK!)

Anyhow, back from my tangent. Congrats on the AG brew and welcome to the club (from one noob to another:fro

Haha Thank you! I was expecting higher efficiency based on the hours I spent researching, designing, and researching some more. But this just gives me more motivation to improve my equiptment and brew again!