Finished the first all-grain batch on the weekend and thought I'd give everyone a rundown of how it went and what worked, and what didn't, so that others can learn from my stuffups ! Sorry if I'm rambling but maybe someone will get something useful out of it.
It was my first all-grain batch and I've never seen anyone else do an all-grain batch so was flying blind. Anyway , onto the brewday...
Dragged the brewstand out at around 8am and hooked everything up.
What worked: Brewstand didn't fall apart even with my crappy welding.
What didn't: Missing 1 fitting for the mash tun. (trip to hardware store fixed that). Shitty commercial beer the night before doesn't make for a happy mexican.
Filled the kettle and heated water for dough in at around 9.30am. Hit strike temp of 75degC by 10am and doughed in. Preheated mash tun and mash was spot on after adding strike water.
What worked: Pump worked a treat. Preheating mash tun. Calculator worked ! Adding grain to tun then underletting water mean no dough balls. Measuring stick for water volume was a godsend. Electrically fired kettle works great.
What didn't: Mash temperature dropped markedly after around 5 minutes in tun. Dunno why yet. Plastic spoons can go soft in hot water. Try stirring hot water with wobbly spoon.
I mashed for around an hour and stirred every 1/2 hour just to make sure everything was going well. After the hour or so I pumped the preheated sparge water from the kettle to the HLT and drained the tun into the kettle and refilled tun from HLT for second runnings. Smells great ! Once the first runnings were in the kettle I fired up one electric element to get it boiling. Couldn't start second element because it wasn't submerged by first runnings.
What worked: Lost less than 1/2degC over the hour mash. Refractometer is the fastest way to check gravities. Well worth it and so easy.
What didn't:Stainless braid lifted off the bottom of the tun as I was stirring the mash. Didn't seem to affect the volume I got though. Need to heat sparge water to higher temp due to losses in HLT. THe HLT isn't heated. Need to add dip tube to HLT to ensure I get all water from HLT.
I got the second runnings and brought the wort up to boil for the 40 minute boil. Yes I was doing a short boil. This was for an all late hopped American pale ale I've done as an extract batch previously. Why is it that you always get distracted just as the pot comes to a boil ? Nearly had a major boil over with only 25 litres in a 50 litre kettle when I got distracted. I caught it just as it reached the top of the kettle. Another few seconds and I would have had a bloody awful mess to sort out.
From this point on everything went the same way my previous extract batches have gone. Added piles of hops, chilled and drained the wort to my fermenter at around 1pm and finally pitched the yeast at around 3pm once the wort had cooled enough. I managed to get exactly the right amount of wort from the mash I'd calculated and the gravity was pretty damn close. I was out by just under 1/2 a point so was really pleased at that.
The things I was most pleased about were the electrically fired 2 element kettle, the pump, refractometer and the insulated cooler mash tun. The kettle worked a treat and I don't need to worry about running out of gas. I do need to insulate it as the heat losses are a little too much to maintain a good rolling boil with just the smaller element running. The pump makes it so easy to transfer the hot water through the system. I was a little concerned about how much the refractometer cost but it was so easy and convenient to that measurements whenever I felt like it. Very cool! Once the temperature was stable in the mash tun it was rock solid. Nothing to worry about there.
I also know what I've got to change for next time. The mash tun could slide around on the brew stand a little. Wouldn't be good to have the whole thing slide off.
I need a couple of longer hoses for transferring water and wort around. I also need to add a pickup tube to the HLT so I can get the water out of it a little more effectively. The kettle needs to be insulated to reduce heat losses during the boil. I might also prefill the kettle the night before and put it on a timer so that I can get up to preheated water in the morning.
I had great fun doing it and actually found it a relaxing way to spend a day. I've already learnt a lot from the experience and have found have found some things that did work and some things that didn't. Its nice to see that there are only a few small things to change for next time though I spent quite a while planning everything out in my head.
Down the slippery slope I go, another all-grain batch this coming weekend. Damn, I'm hooked
mexican
