First all-grain BIAB, think I did ok!

[rgebo]

Hey guys,

Just completed my first all-grain brew day and 2nd brew day total.

I made a belgian witbier using this recipe:

3lb belgian pilsner 2.1 lb flaked wheat 0.6lb flaked oat
0.4 oz Saaz 0.45 oz tettnag
at 5 minutes: 0.45 oz coriander 0.45 oz bitter orange 2 packs chamomile tea
Wyeast Blegian wheat 3944
Boil: 3.9 gallons, ferment: 3 gallons.


Maintaining mash temp was pretty tough. I had an analog thermometer and a new digital one in the wort. The new digital one was pretty bad. I ended up keeping low heat on and that seemed to be fine.

heres what my wort looked like: https://imgur.com/a/LcGdB

Lots of trub, I decided to throw it all in the primary based on some "studies" I saw.

OG came out to 1.052, on the button with my calculations for 75% efficiency. I'm pretty happy with the result! Hopefully sanitation was ok.

 

[Rhaop]

Looks good, as time goes on you will worry less about your mash temp loss as long as it isn't an extreme drop like 10-20* F, I generally lose 5* F over an hour and that's with wrapping my kettle in an old heavy sleeping blanket, if i hit my desired initial temp say 148-150 or if i am aiming higher 154-156 i am pretty happy

And yeah i'm sure you know but don't direct fire the kettle or mash tun with a sleeping blanket on it lol [emoji91]

 

[rgebo]

Looks good, as time goes on you will worry less about your mash temp loss as long as it isn't an extreme drop like 10-20* F, I generally lose 5* F over an hour and that's with wrapping my kettle in an old heavy sleeping blanket, if i hit my desired initial temp say 148-150 or if i am aiming higher 154-156 i am pretty happy

And yeah i'm sure you know but don't direct fire the kettle or mash tun with a sleeping blanket on it lol [emoji91]

Ok thanks for the tips. I wasn't sure if you needed to hit as direct as possible or not. I was aiming for 152 and got 149-153 for most of it so I should be fine.