basically, Murphy's Law was in full swing.
1) added 3.25g of 175F water to MLT, preheated for 5 min, added grain, and it settled at 140F!! added another quart at 175F and got 143. added another quart at 185F and got 148F (was looking for 150F). i said **** it and let it ride.
2) prepared water for first sparge and checked temp (looking for 180 figuring the MLT and grain would not absorb too much heat now). dropped the ******* digital thermometer in the ******* water. just brought it to a boil and let it cool about 15 minutes figuring it would be close. added to grain and it settled at 150F. added another quart of near boiling water and got 154F. again, i said **** it and let it ride.
3) sent my wife to my dad's to get a meat thermometer. she came back with a dial thermo that read from 50F to 550F (WTF??). it was pretty much worthless. used it anyway, prepared another 2.2g at what i believed to be 190F. grain settled at 152F. added another quart and got 155F.
4) at this point, i had damn nead 8 gallons of runnings for a 5gallon batch. once again, i said **** it. took my pre-boil gravity and got 1.037 when it was supposed to be 1.054.
5) brought my wort to a boil, added hops, and let it go for 1hr. only had .5lbs of DME, so i added all of it. added brewvint 1% boost and finished boil. flamed out and started the water to my CFC. opened ball valve on keggle.......and NOTHING. at this point, i'm seriously considering dumping it and trying another day. finally got the damn SS scrubby out of the pick up tube, but it still wouldn't drain worth a ****. after about 30min, i had about 5.15 gallons in the fermenter.
so, there are 2 things that amazed me. 1) 185F water + 10lb grain = 140F. 2) 7.75g boils down to 5.15g after only 60min of boiling and cooling through CFC.
plus, my hop strainer is apparently half worthless as my wort looked like a brown lava lamp with all the hops and hot break (best guess) floating around in it. so, i put the lid on and stuck air lock on and figure i'll let it sit overnight and let all the **** settle out, transfer off of said **** and pitch yeast.
1) added 3.25g of 175F water to MLT, preheated for 5 min, added grain, and it settled at 140F!! added another quart at 175F and got 143. added another quart at 185F and got 148F (was looking for 150F). i said **** it and let it ride.
2) prepared water for first sparge and checked temp (looking for 180 figuring the MLT and grain would not absorb too much heat now). dropped the ******* digital thermometer in the ******* water. just brought it to a boil and let it cool about 15 minutes figuring it would be close. added to grain and it settled at 150F. added another quart of near boiling water and got 154F. again, i said **** it and let it ride.
3) sent my wife to my dad's to get a meat thermometer. she came back with a dial thermo that read from 50F to 550F (WTF??). it was pretty much worthless. used it anyway, prepared another 2.2g at what i believed to be 190F. grain settled at 152F. added another quart and got 155F.
4) at this point, i had damn nead 8 gallons of runnings for a 5gallon batch. once again, i said **** it. took my pre-boil gravity and got 1.037 when it was supposed to be 1.054.
5) brought my wort to a boil, added hops, and let it go for 1hr. only had .5lbs of DME, so i added all of it. added brewvint 1% boost and finished boil. flamed out and started the water to my CFC. opened ball valve on keggle.......and NOTHING. at this point, i'm seriously considering dumping it and trying another day. finally got the damn SS scrubby out of the pick up tube, but it still wouldn't drain worth a ****. after about 30min, i had about 5.15 gallons in the fermenter.
so, there are 2 things that amazed me. 1) 185F water + 10lb grain = 140F. 2) 7.75g boils down to 5.15g after only 60min of boiling and cooling through CFC.
plus, my hop strainer is apparently half worthless as my wort looked like a brown lava lamp with all the hops and hot break (best guess) floating around in it. so, i put the lid on and stuck air lock on and figure i'll let it sit overnight and let all the **** settle out, transfer off of said **** and pitch yeast.