My first batch, very nice!

[hicks107]

I did my first all-grain batch and I think I did OK.

The grain bill was:

9.5lbs 2 row pale malt
.5lb crystal malt 40
.5lb pilsner malt

I mashed with about 13 quarts of water at 154F. Batch Sparged with about 4 gallons of water. I heated it up to 175F and dumped it in, but when I went to go check it 15 minutes later, it was down to 155F. Should I get my sparge water hotter next time??

I mashed this all in a 5 gallon rubbermaid water cooler. and built a copper manifold with Palmer's directions (www.howtobrew.com) BTW, Now I see what everyone talks about them being too small, I barely made it with my sparge water and that much grain in the cooler. If I get a square cooler, I could use this as a HLT?

Anyway, after I collected my 6.5g of wort, the gravity was 1.050. Is this pretty good??

I boiled for 90 minutes and was left with 5.5g of 1.060. I cooled and siphoned it to a yeast cake that I just racked from (WLP810) and it was fermenting pretty quick with significant airlock activity after 5 hours. (when I woke up)

Thanks for your previous help, and please feel free to comment!!

-Mike

BTW, all-grain was VERY time consuming, but worth it I suppose.

[Carl762]

Wait til you taste it.

Sounds to me like your batch came out quite well. For 5 gallon batches I usually use 4 gallons to mash and sparge with 3. I usually sparge at 170 deg, and actually use the same temp for strike water, which usually gives me a 153ish deg mash temp. In fact, I regularly make a beer using your same ingredients, with a couple more pounds of the base grain. I'm experimenting with different hops now. This beer is one of my keepers, or regulars.

I have a 68 qt rectangular cooler with a ball valve and copper manifold setup. One day I might do a 10 gallon batch. I use a 60 qt brewpot.

Now, it's my town to welcome you to the board. I'm fairly new at this myself, about 1.7 years now, the .7 part being all grain.

Sure, some more time required, but he end result is priceless. Doing a 10 gallon batch will certainly save much time. I'm going to have to do one next week.

Chow!!

[corkybstewart]

After you get the routine down the time gets shorter, though there are some parts that can't be hurried. But I hope your beer turns out well, it's a really great feeling.

[Mad Scientist]

Time consuming or not, I find the process more rewarding

[hicks107]

With those calculations, what would be my efficiency?

If its low, say under 70%, how could I improve it?

Thanks

[dparsons]

In ProMash I got 88% efficiency for a gravity of 1.050 in 6.5 gallons. That is VERY high.

In a 5 gallon cooler I was NEVER able to get mashout temps above 162 or 3 unless I decocted part of the liquid. I have a bigger stainless mash tun now and don't have that problem.