First Partial Mash

[CBBaron]

First partial mash today, testing out my equipment for an all-grain up next.
I used my cooler MLT with SS braid and a turkey fryer for the first time.
I learned a couple of things:

1. You have to keep an eye on the pot when it is starting to boil.
The pot was in a detached garage but I did my mash in the kitchen so I was trying to clean up while the wort heated. Ofcourse it boiled over.

2. Make sure you have the turkey fryer turned up high enough.
After the boil over I added an extra gallon of water (to bring the total up to about 5.5gal) and my extract. I didn't get the flame adjusted correctly and it took nearly 45min to bring it back to a boil. 30 degree outside temps didn't help anything.

3. The biggest thing I learned is I need a wort chiller. It took over 45min to bring the temps down to pitching temps with a water bath, and our tap water is under 50F this time of year.

The beer is in the fermenter and the wort chiller is on order.

Craig

 

[FlyGuy]

It sounds like a big success. Some minor problems, perhaps -- but it also sounds like you learned something from every one of them. Well done! Let us know how the beer turns out in month or so.

 

[Willsellout]

The one thing I had problems with was my strike temps, other than that, everything went perfect. Although I did have a wort chiller which chilled my wort down to pitching within 5 minutes which helped. I found my SS braid setup worked perfectly, and it was cheap and easy to put together.


DAn

 

[CBBaron]

After about 30 hours my fermenter is bubbling away nicely. I was a little concerned as I used WhiteLabs liquid yeast this time for the first time vs dry yeast and I pitched it directly. The dry yeast started up within 12 hours so the delay was a little concerning even if I was anticipating it.
So far everything is looking good.
I already have everything for my all grain batch which I hope to go onto this yeast cake. Now I'm thinking about what I want to do next. Lots of ideas and things I want to try.
Craig