Did first all grain yesterday and asking for thoughts on a couple things. Very glad to have the first one under my belt. Hit my mash temperature and lost about a degree over the hour. Hit correct gravity after boil. I haven't tried to figure out the efficiency yet as I was just focussing on the process.
One "issue" was that I couldn't get the vorlauf to clear on the first or second runnings. It cleared a little but still had grains in it. I have a 10 gallon Igloo cooler with a false bottom. I think some of the grain was just getting through the holes in the false bottom.
Also seemingly used too much sparge water as I ended up with around 3 litres more in the kettle than I was supposed to. Using BeerSmith. Before I started my main boil I ended up boiling the wort for 1 hour to reduce the wort. I think this saved my butt. I read that after first runnings you should use the amount of sparge water that will get you your final volume.
My other main concern was that I was short in my fermenter. Before I hit the deadspace in the kettle it started draining full on trub and I didn't want that in my fermenter. I am using for the first time a SS brew bucket and didn't want the bottom full of trub... as I want to make sure I don't plug the valve and render it useless. My understanding is that there is about 0.7 gallons of deadspace. I probably left about 2 or so litres in my kettle due to this. Anyway, was hoping for 5ish gallons and got just under 4.5. Once I keg I will probably be lucky to get 4 gallons. I should get a better sense after this batch of what the fermenter can tolerate.
I also had issues with my grain mill and screwed up some of the crush and then didn't have quite enough in the end to do batch so had to make some minor substitutions or use less. Basically was 2 or so ounces shy of carafoam so just threw in that much extra 2 grain. Also substituted a couple of ounces of crystal 60 for 40. So all in all probably no big deal.
I have never seen break like in this batch and after this batch probably should look into how to whirlpool given what I felt I needed to leave in the kettle.
Anyway, overall I probably can't complain for the first all grain. Super happy to have it done. Big confidence builder and looking forward to the next one.
So that was a bit of the summary of the things I thought could be better. If anyone has any thoughts it would be appreciated. Sorry this is so long.
One "issue" was that I couldn't get the vorlauf to clear on the first or second runnings. It cleared a little but still had grains in it. I have a 10 gallon Igloo cooler with a false bottom. I think some of the grain was just getting through the holes in the false bottom.
Also seemingly used too much sparge water as I ended up with around 3 litres more in the kettle than I was supposed to. Using BeerSmith. Before I started my main boil I ended up boiling the wort for 1 hour to reduce the wort. I think this saved my butt. I read that after first runnings you should use the amount of sparge water that will get you your final volume.
My other main concern was that I was short in my fermenter. Before I hit the deadspace in the kettle it started draining full on trub and I didn't want that in my fermenter. I am using for the first time a SS brew bucket and didn't want the bottom full of trub... as I want to make sure I don't plug the valve and render it useless. My understanding is that there is about 0.7 gallons of deadspace. I probably left about 2 or so litres in my kettle due to this. Anyway, was hoping for 5ish gallons and got just under 4.5. Once I keg I will probably be lucky to get 4 gallons. I should get a better sense after this batch of what the fermenter can tolerate.
I also had issues with my grain mill and screwed up some of the crush and then didn't have quite enough in the end to do batch so had to make some minor substitutions or use less. Basically was 2 or so ounces shy of carafoam so just threw in that much extra 2 grain. Also substituted a couple of ounces of crystal 60 for 40. So all in all probably no big deal.
I have never seen break like in this batch and after this batch probably should look into how to whirlpool given what I felt I needed to leave in the kettle.
Anyway, overall I probably can't complain for the first all grain. Super happy to have it done. Big confidence builder and looking forward to the next one.
So that was a bit of the summary of the things I thought could be better. If anyone has any thoughts it would be appreciated. Sorry this is so long.