I'm going in! And Thank You!

[golphur]

I've done all of the reading that I can stand. I've seen too many YouTube videos to count. I'm going all grain this weekend, not once, but twice and my biggest fear isn't about my grain thickness. It isn't about my strike temp. It isn't about my Sparge. I don't know what to do with all of the spent grain I'm going to have laying around!

All kidding aside, just wanted to say thanks for all of the contributors on this forum. I've read it all. I've put it all together in my head and have a good idea of what I am trying to do this weekend. There's a lot of differing opinions and different processes. You have to jump in and make your own. What works best for you and your equipment. Here we go...cheers!

P.S. The spent grain is going to either horses, deer, dogs, gardens, or bread!!!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Spent grain bread, dog biscuits, or garden compost for me.

 

[bigljd]

Cool - good luck to you. I'm just down the road in Indian Trail - if you have any questions or problems just PM me and I'll send you my cell number. I'll be brewing on Friday in my brew shed.

And I've been making some spent grain bread from an English brown porter grain bill for the last couple weeks now and it's fantastic. With all the horse stables in Waxhaw you should have no trouble finding a use for the spent grain.

 

[golphur]

Awesome! Glad to have brewers nearby! Nice website you have. Checked out your recipes. I dropped a centennial blonde into my program today but the wife wanted the to try brewing an Alagash White clone instead.

Will be in Indian Trail tomorrow picking up my hard-to-find 5/8 stainless fender washers at Fastenal for my new mash tun. HBT is a fantastic resource for brewing. Can't wait til Friday to try all grain.

 

[edmanster]

i give mine to a friend for his horses.. he mixes in only 10% to his normal feed.. most mine does end up in the lawn unless its a sour mash, that smell took a week and a mulching later to dissapate..lol.. i know my neighbors loved me for that

 

[bigljd]

Awesome! Glad to have brewers nearby! Nice website you have. Checked out your recipes. I dropped a centennial blonde into my program today but the wife wanted the to try brewing an Alagash White clone instead.

Will be in Indian Trail tomorrow picking up my hard-to-find 5/8 stainless fender washers at Fastenal for my new mash tun. HBT is a fantastic resource for brewing. Can't wait til Friday to try all grain.

You'll be driving about 2 blocks from my house on the way to Fastenal. It's funny I didn't even know there was any place to by stainless parts locally - I got all mine from BargainFittings.com (they've got pretty good prices ship in just a couple days from Texas). I just Googled the Fastenal and it's about 1/2 mile from my house - I drive past it every day on my way to work, but didn't know it was there. I'll have to stop in there some time and see what they have.

I need to update my website - it's kind of out of date. I've been too busy lately upgrading my brewery to electric.

Have fun!

 

[bighorn_brew]

I have to be amongst the most popular with the birds, just toss in alley and the word is out amongst them, pretty soon they have it picked clean, and when I see them back their looking for more it almost makes me feel guilty that I haven't brewed recently...

 

[edmanster]

I have to be amongst the most popular with the birds, just toss in alley and the word is out amongst them, pretty soon they have it picked clean, and when I see them back their looking for more it almost makes me feel guilty that I haven't brewed recently...

Never tried with the birds... With my regular feeder and seed they seem to only pick out what they want and everything else ends up on the patio and even the ants won't touch it..lol

 

[golphur]

Just finished mashing and sparging my first all-grain brew. It is boiling as we speak. Looks like I pulled off a 75% efficiency. I think I'm pretty happy about that for my first mash.

Cheers!

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

I remember the day I converted. Me and my friend kept running back and forth checking a brewing book to make sure we were doing it correctly. After your completly done you just want to slap your self for worrying about how hard you thought it was. AG is ultra easy. Congrats on your first AG.

 

[sweet_corn]

I remember the day I converted. Me and my friend kept running back and forth checking a brewing book to make sure we were doing it correctly. After your completly done you just want to slap your self for worrying about how hard you thought it was. AG is ultra easy. Congrats on your first AG.

I also remember my first few being nerve wracking. Now I sometimes forget what volumes etc I need to hit. I think the hardest part is getting down how YOUR equipment works, what temps etc....

Good luck. You will never look back. I used to be bored during a 3 hour extract session, but now enjoy each AG session....

 

[golphur]

The smell of the grains was fantastic. I don't know what it was when I was doing extract and steeping but it had a smell that the wife and family really didn't like. No complaints today. So that's a plus.