First AG done!

[iamopie2]

Well all my reading and preparation paid off. Did my first AG today and got it into my carboy. For my first AG brew i decided on the red hook clone https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f64/captain-hooked-bitters-red-hook-clone-award-winner-29740/

I used beersmith to scale it down for a 5 gallon batch and i substituted Victory malt for the toasted malt. I used the 48qt coleman cooler with steel braid.
I used a double batch sparge and ended up with 6 gallons instead of 6.3 like i wanted. I am going to up the absorption rate of the grain next time and that should fix that. Well even with that I ended up with 77% efficiency and hit my 1.055 OG right on. I used the OG from beer smith.

All in all a successful brew day i think.

 

[JMSetzler]

Undershooting a volume isn't usually a problem. If you check that volume and come up short, it's easy enough to do a quick heating on a gallon of water, dump it in the MLT, stir it up, and take a little more run off. I use beersmith also and have never had to tweak the absorption rate. The only numbers I have tweaked is the mash tun dead space.

 

[iamopie2]

that makes sense. I will try that if i come up a bit short again

 

[ghack]

It's a lot easier to top off after undershooting, than to wait through the extended boil from overshooting.

And congratulations!