So I've been making beer from extract for about 13 years now. I've been wanting to go all-grain for most of that time. Being apprehensive and other hobbies taking up my money to buy equipment prevented me from doing so.
So I finally decided it was time to get the equipment. Slowly buying the pieces needed. I have the basic set-up and after reading and watching videos it's time to make my first all grain brew. :rockin:
My friend wanted to be apart of this, so I brewed a few days earlier than expected. I had planned on adding some structure to my pump cart, but since I was brewing that day. We had to make do with what I had.
After making this batch I realized I need a bigger burner and hot Liquor tank. It worked out ok though.
I'm still learning terms so bear with me.
Heating up water for mash in
All mashed in.
We did over heat the water to begin with, and the cooler warped.
At first I was a bit freaked out. Did a google search, seems pretty common. The mash tun did leak around the valve. I have a washer on the inside and out. My plan is to use 100% silicone so seal it up. From my understanding it won't be and issue for the mash once cured.
Time to heat up more water and wait.
I had planned on fly sparging. I purchased a Fermenters favorite jet sparge nozzle. It was do to arrive that day, but wasn't here yet. My friend suggested using a bucket. I happened to have a small bucket with handle. He drilled some small holes in, and it work great. Depending on head pressure, It flows 1 pint to over 1 quart per minute. It seemed to work well.
This is where I realized I need a bigger hot liquor tank. It's my old boil kettle from extract brewing. I thought It would work fine for heating up the water needed. It's a 5 gallon kettle. But it did work out ok.
The power did go out for a few hours. So mashing and sparging by lantern light it was.
Things got busy and no more pics were takin'. The power came on in time to use the pump to cool the wort. I used an immersion cooler and pumped cold water though it to cool the wort.
I used BeerSmith 2 to convert my extract recipe to all grain. I did add 1 1/2 pounds of 2 row malt from the conversion. I hit est. O.G. @ 1.062. But I did take a gravity reading from the grains after sparge and was a 1.018 seemed a bit high from all I've read. But since I hit est. O.G. for my first batch I felt pretty good about it.
A day and a half later and fermentation is progressing nicely.
So what I made was a smoked beer. I wanted to compare it to the last one I made in extract. I still have some left in the keg I brewed last April. It will be about a percent higher in alcohol and I changed up one of the hops. I did notice as the extract brew got older the more I could taste the smoke, from when it was first kegged. Same with the extract brew while tasting the wort from the all grain batch, I didn't notice any smoke. I hope this will change too.
Over the years of extract brewing, I've noticed I always have this kinda "funk" to it. After talking to some people. They say it's from brewing with extract. That was one of the reasons I want to switch to all grain too. I'm hoping that will be one of the tasting differences between the to beers.
Thanks for reading my thread. I know I need to fine tune my set-up and technique a bit. But all comments welcome, that's how I'll learn. Oh, I didn't test mash Ph, in the future I'll get some testing strips.
So I finally decided it was time to get the equipment. Slowly buying the pieces needed. I have the basic set-up and after reading and watching videos it's time to make my first all grain brew. :rockin:
My friend wanted to be apart of this, so I brewed a few days earlier than expected. I had planned on adding some structure to my pump cart, but since I was brewing that day. We had to make do with what I had.
After making this batch I realized I need a bigger burner and hot Liquor tank. It worked out ok though.
I'm still learning terms so bear with me.
Heating up water for mash in
All mashed in.
We did over heat the water to begin with, and the cooler warped.
At first I was a bit freaked out. Did a google search, seems pretty common. The mash tun did leak around the valve. I have a washer on the inside and out. My plan is to use 100% silicone so seal it up. From my understanding it won't be and issue for the mash once cured.Time to heat up more water and wait.
I had planned on fly sparging. I purchased a Fermenters favorite jet sparge nozzle. It was do to arrive that day, but wasn't here yet. My friend suggested using a bucket. I happened to have a small bucket with handle. He drilled some small holes in, and it work great. Depending on head pressure, It flows 1 pint to over 1 quart per minute. It seemed to work well.
This is where I realized I need a bigger hot liquor tank. It's my old boil kettle from extract brewing. I thought It would work fine for heating up the water needed. It's a 5 gallon kettle. But it did work out ok.
The power did go out for a few hours. So mashing and sparging by lantern light it was.
Things got busy and no more pics were takin'. The power came on in time to use the pump to cool the wort. I used an immersion cooler and pumped cold water though it to cool the wort.
I used BeerSmith 2 to convert my extract recipe to all grain. I did add 1 1/2 pounds of 2 row malt from the conversion. I hit est. O.G. @ 1.062. But I did take a gravity reading from the grains after sparge and was a 1.018 seemed a bit high from all I've read. But since I hit est. O.G. for my first batch I felt pretty good about it.
A day and a half later and fermentation is progressing nicely.
So what I made was a smoked beer. I wanted to compare it to the last one I made in extract. I still have some left in the keg I brewed last April. It will be about a percent higher in alcohol and I changed up one of the hops. I did notice as the extract brew got older the more I could taste the smoke, from when it was first kegged. Same with the extract brew while tasting the wort from the all grain batch, I didn't notice any smoke. I hope this will change too.
Over the years of extract brewing, I've noticed I always have this kinda "funk" to it. After talking to some people. They say it's from brewing with extract. That was one of the reasons I want to switch to all grain too. I'm hoping that will be one of the tasting differences between the to beers.
Thanks for reading my thread. I know I need to fine tune my set-up and technique a bit. But all comments welcome, that's how I'll learn. Oh, I didn't test mash Ph, in the future I'll get some testing strips.
Had to put some in the 3 quart boot (DAS BOOT!) 
