Thanks to all, finally got the time and freedom to do my first all grain batch. I went with a smoked porter recipe from my LHBS. When I made it from their extract with grains kit, my girlfriend loved it. This made it easier to brew today, knowing she wanted more of that brew. As a first attempt at all grain, I think it went very well. I would think twice about brewing when its this cold again though, heating strike water and getting wort to a boil was rough when it was only high 20's outside today. I mashed in in the kitchen, and it went well. Many thanks to the folks at brewersfriend.com for their spread sheets, calculators, and checklist. All kept me on track and I did not leave anything out. With cold grains(forgot to take out of freezer!), their strike water calc said to heat to 168 for my 150 mash. It settled at 151 and only dropped to 148 by the end of the hour(cant believe that old cooler held temp that well!) As I mention that, also many thnaks go out to Denny and his batch sparge info. I think my tun was a bit of a task, but it worked like a charm. The only real issue I had was my BK, had to collect only 6 gallons to boil. I mashed with 5 gal and sparged with 5. May not have been the best efficiency, but my pre boil OG was 1.06 and brewersfriend calc estimated 1.068. After the boil, my gravity was 1.072, their calc estimated 1.074: I am very happy with those results. Now I just need to get a bigger BK! If anyone s interested, I can post the recipe, if its cool to post someone else's recipe: trade mark/secret? When I did the extract version, it finished overly sweet, with only pack of Muntons Gold ale yeast. Brewersfriend.com calc said this batch needed at least 2.5 packs of same dry yeast but I went with 2 because I bought before going through their calc. Hope this batch comes out a little drier. Again thanks to all who made suggestions and helpful hints. Now I have to just sit back and wait for this batch to do its thing!
Topic: 1st all grain attempt (Read 4267 times)
