First All Grain on the go!

[tomU]

Got my delivery from Barley Bottom this afternoon, and like an excited little kid I've opened it all and started playing with it without really thinking anything through...
In my coolbox mash tun I've got 3kg MO + 150g torrefied wheat in 10L water. Temp at start of mash was 66C - a degree under what I'd hoped for but didnt bother topping up with boiling water - I like dryish beers anyway.
I have no idea what my efficiency's going to be like, dont know how much wort I'll extract through sparging, dont know what my final volume will therefore be so cant work out my hop quantities . Ah well...

I think I'll just work it out to 3 gallons and settle for whatever SG it gives me - all I want from this brew is a drinkable beer and to familiarise myself with the process.

Might take some piccies throughout the day depending on how stressed I get...

[Bionicmunky]

Good luck mate, hope it goes well for you

[Matt]

Hows it going tomU?

[stevezx7r]

Nice one tomU, welcome to the dark side.

BTW, what hops and yeast are you using?

[delboy]

Good man

[russt1969]

Hope all is going to plan......

[Iank]

Good stuff! What did you decide with the hops in the end?

[tomU]

Hope all is going to plan......

Its really not....

It was all going swimmingly - I mashed for 90mins in the end - in that time it dropped from 66C to 65.5C .

Then came the transfer from the coolbox to the bucket in bucket lauter tun - got most of it in although the floor got a good splashing too... only to find that the holes I'd drilled into the top bucket were too small - when I'd tested it with water it flowed very well but with grain in it got completely blocked. I then had to empty my grains back into my mash tun, clean the lauter tun, dig out a hand drill and a bigger drill bit and set about enlarging the holes. It is now draining through (extremely slowly) I've just passed the 2 gallon mark after about an hour of slow sparging. The wort looks and smells amazing though - far better than with extract.

Steve - I'm using WGV for bittering then a mix of WGV and Cascade for flavour with Cascade and Styrians at switch off for aroma
Yeast will be S-O4

[prolix]

Tom set backs are the name of the game it just makes the end product that much more satisfying and just think a nice slow sparge will up your efficency and make up for the spillage

[Vossy1]

Hope all's still going well tU

[tomU]

Hope all's still going well tU

much better now thanks. Got a good vigourous boil going on at the moment.

I think this is going to be about a 9hr brewday.... It'l be better next time anyway. A few pics later

[russt1969]

Look forward to the pics.
You'll get there in the end. It'll all be worth it.
:):)

[tomU]

Cheers for the support throughout the day Gents

Pitched my yeast at about 11:30 having started the mash at 3. Been on my feet most of that time and I'm feeling it! Pretty pleased with my day really - 1 major hiccup - other than that its been excellent.

A few pics:

The 3 tier sparging set up:



1st hop addition (20g WGV for 30 IBUs):



3 Gallons of beer in the fermenter at SG 1044:

[roger the dog]

Great work Tom, welcome to the dark side

[booldawg]

Congrats on your first AG!

Its a full day on your feet and you certainly feel it at the end.

Sparging seems to be the area where a first AG is most likely to get problematic. The sparging action doesnt always work as you think it should! I'd batch sparge until you get your gear working 100% the way you want it too.