first all grain batch

[sheephrdr]

Hey after over 10 years of brewing I did my first all grain batch. I had done lots of partial mashes and thought why am I doing partial mash, I might aswell do all grain.

anyways I built a mashtun out of a picnic cooler (which worked great and never dropped a degree in 60 mins)

I don't have any ph strips but have an aquarium test kit wich I was able to determine the water I used was around 7.2.. I mixed spring water with distilled water ( no mash ph test) just used brewers friend

my only mistake was I for some reason thought ( I don't have a very accurate scale apearantly) 1 litre of grain was = to 1 lb so I had 11.25 lbs of grain instead of 9 which the recipe called for (later research)

and hense I didn't have enough sparge water heated so I dropped a few litres of cold on top to rinse grain. in the end I ended up with higher OG because of the extra grain

im just happy it worked, the wort tasted great and I think I got around75% efficiency I think it will be a great beer here is what I made

11.25lb 2 row
1.5 lb caramel 60
.2 lb chocolate
.25 beech smoked

.5 centennial 60 min
1 oz harletouh 10 min
.5 centennial 5 min

mashed at 151 f

 

[soccerdad]

sounds like you took good notes !! good !

 

[rlmiller10]

Could you taste the smoked malt in the wort? I have to get about 50% of the grain bill to be smoked malt to really get any smoke flavor. Although it does depend on the malt as smoked malt seems to lose the smoke flavor rather rapidly if it is not fresh.

 

[sheephrdr]

ya I could taste it just slightly which is what I was going for. but who knows if I will in the beer..

also the wort tasted like. you know when you were a kid and you finished your cereal and all that was left was sweet sugary milk, so you tipp it back and drink it.. the sweetness reminded me of that.. different to any extract ive done..

 

[sheephrdr]

wow turned out great after 3 weeks its kegged and force carbed and taste great, not sure if its a wee heavy or red ale, og 1.063 fg 1.011 sweet malty character some bitterness, chocolate malt and caramel come through nice and mellow, not sure bout the smoke yet. got what I was looking for though a little high gravety for session.