My first all-grain brew.

[jphalabuk]

So I finally did it!

After brewing with extract for 2 years+, I decided to go all-grain. Here is how my first brew went:

I mashed at 150 degrees for one hour, then fly sparged using 170 degree water.I ended up with almost exactly 6 1/2 gallons after my sparge, so my preboil gravity (for 6 1/5 gallons) was 1.024. I had to add hot water to my mash, because the temp got a little low.

I was looking for 1.044, so that seemed a little low to me.

After my 60 minute boil, my gravity was 1.042, which is very close to what I wanted.

According to Beersmith, my efficiency was 72%.

The brew took me 6 hours, start to finish, but I am sure I can get that down as I get more comfortable. I was working from a script this day, and I think the more times I do it the more of a routine I can develop.

A little overwhelming, but I got it done. We will see how it turns out.

 

[corn]

In considering going all grain myself, glad to hear your first one went well. Did you build or buy your mash tun?

 

[jphalabuk]

I bought it. I bought a 10 gallon cooler setup and used that. I lost some temperature at the beginning of my mash, but once I got it back up to temp it held for over an hour.

 

[corn]

Good deal. Which one did you purchase and were you satisfied with it?

 

[jphalabuk]

Well, I am sure there are many setups that would work, but I have been very satisfied over the years with Northern Brewer. So I bought their Essential All-Grain 10 gallon kit. Easy to assemble, and worked great the first time.

 

[corn]

That is the very one I have been considering. Good to hear that people use it with success. Helps to make the decision.

 

[RoKozak]

These guys right here helped me to build my mash tun. Works fantastically. And note: I am not a handy person and a noob to building anything. This excited me when I built it and it worked.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59JoCBDRjwM[/ame]

Enjoy! All Grain is fantastic!

 

[Rev2010]

Congrats man, isn't AG sooo easy?? It's just adding hot water to grains really, I find it way less hassle than dealing with the super fine powered extract which gets everywhere and makes everything sticky. More cleaning hassle IMO with extract.

That said, your temp loss... did you preheat your mash tun? If not, be sure to in the future. I fill my mash tun up about 1/3rd with the hottest water from my faucet, take a temp reading, then adjust with boiling water from a tea kettle to reach my mash temp. Seal it up and let it sit while your strike water is heating or whatnot. When ready, dump out the preheat water and add your strike water then mash in. This way the tun will be preheated to the mash temp and hold your temps much better.

Oh, and I'm around 5-6 hours too from the very second I start till all cleaning is completely finished. Probably could make that faster too but I'm not in a race so I do things more relaxed and am fine with that. I also clean and rinse ridiculously well. I'm sure if I weren't so crazy meticulous with cleaning, probably a bit overboard, I could shave off some extra time there, but oh well. Better to be safe than sorry.


Rev.

 

[jphalabuk]

I did try to pre-warm my mash tun, but I did not really do a good job of it. I have to remember, it's a 10 gallon cooler (even if I am only doing 5 gallon batches for now), so there is a lot of space to heat up. I think next time will go better.

Regarding the 6 hours...I guess I made it sound like I was in a hurry. On the contrary, I rather enjoyed taking my time and making a day of it. I would like to be a little more organized next time, but it was a nice day and I liked being outside.