Finally got my cooler/tun to stop leaking, so I jumped into it... 1st all-grain brew today. Had grains crushed a week ago (before i found the leak in the tun) based on a JZ APA recipe (10.5# 2-row, half pounds each of c15, c40, victory, and munich malt). Amazingly hit my mash temp on the nose: 170° strike water, 68° grain, no pre-heating of the cooler, leveled out at 152°. Used 4.5 gal of strike water, and got under 3 gal out of it in first runnings. Added to the amount I was already heating for my (batch) sparge water to make up for it, looking to collect 6.5 total, expecting to boil off 1 gal and trasfer about 5.25. I think I boiled off more than the one.

Magnum for bittering, Centennial and Cascade both at 10 and at flameout.

Took a pre-boil sample, put it in the freezer, and started heating the kettle. Got the sample down to 90, and the adjusted pre-boil gravity reading seemed to be right on what Beer Alchemy had projected.

The converted cooler seemed to work perfectly. I didn't see much of anything when I did my vorlof. Did a couple quarts and that seemed like more than enough. Using the SS braid and following Denny Conn's batch sparging method, I'm sold!

Immersion cooler got it down to about 78 before I poured it into the bucket fermenter and into a cold water bath. Waiting to get it down to low-mid 60s before pitched the Wyeast 1056.

*Edited: just took the OG: 1.057 @ 75. Adjusted is 1.058. Exactly on the f'ing dot! Just waiting for the mid 60s temp to pitch.

Fingers crossed... seems to have gone right though!

Congrats! It's hard to screw up using the Denny method. I've been using it for the last 9 years or so. Be sure to keep us updated on the progress.

Wayne

Funny you say that Bug. I used the same cooler setup with similar Zymico screens and did 2 years of flawless AG batches. I just moved to a RIMS system with a Minibrew MLT. Been having some 'stuck sparge' issues. I am working on redesigning their false bottom. Seals poorly when under load.

First AG batch is a great thing!

as of about 15 hrs in, the airlock is bubbling like crazy at about 67°.

I was really worried about "the big move" to all grain, but thankfully, I have spent the past 7 months listening to lots of the podcasts and working on my process with extract brews. The "big" move wasn't so big. And granted, I have no idea what this brew is going to taste like, but as of right now, it was that much more rewarding a brew day to go from a bag full of grain to a fermenter bubbling away at this APA. Started around 4 PM (I typically try to brew in the morning, but life isn't always accommodating to that schedule!) and thought it could go late into the night, but really, I was pretty much done by a bout 8:30. Bucket was in the water bath trying to get down from high 70s to mid 60s, and at that point, I had already washed out the cooler/tun, and was washing the brew pot in the sink.

happy happy joy joy!

Ahhhh, your first all-grain pale ale....It will be incredibly delicious! Congrats on making the switch and you will now never go back. You truly will see how much better your beer can really be with fresh grains! Way to go! Now, hurry up and brew another batch!

Cheers-
Brewinhard

I don't think I've had a batch yet that constantly bubbles in the airlock quite like this one. Does AG vs extract have anything to do with fermentation activity? I would imagine no, assuming similar OG, etc.

Holding steady around 66-67° in the basement (bucket in a larger plastic tub of water).

Considering possibly dry hopping with some amarillo.
Recipe is supposedly one of JZ's:
10.5 2-row
half pound each of : c15 (they didn't have c20); c40; victory; and munich
Magnum @ 60 (about .7oz)
Cent and Cascade (.5 oz each) at 10 minutes and again at flame out.

Using Wyeast 1056 (didn't get to make a starter, just the 100 bill cell smack pack which blew up like a balloon before pitching)

You can have more fementable wort, you mashed at 152 who knows what your extract provider mashed at. You can assume they probably mashed high to get as much as possible out of the grains which can lead to a more unfermentables.

While it perhaps made the brew day longer than doing extract/steeping, it likely didn't add that much time. And it really was an easier process overall, considering that dumping in DME and mixing well to avoid clumps is no longer part of it, and there's no need to remove the kettle from the heat to do the late addition of DME. No additional process to steep specialty grains either. The liquid from the tun is pretty hot, so getting it up the boil was no big deal, and the long stretches (the like 60 minute mash) allows plenty of "down time" to get things prepared, sanitized, cleaned up, etc.

Granted, everything seemed to go off w/o a hitch, and that won't always be the case I'm sure!

Looks like I might need to get a second fermenter. Just got the one bucket right now. Maybe time for a carboy or better bottle