I've Gone All Grain

I've decided that it's time to move to all-grain. I've decided to do this for two reasons. First, I got really tired of the "extract twang" that can come with brewing extract batches. It doesn't necessarily occur in every extract batch (I've read that the best way to avoid it is to use the freshest LME possibe, or switch to DME) and have certainly made extract batches without it, such as the Houblimonstre Tripel IPA, but the best way to avoid "extract twang" is to remove extract altogether. Second, I've been intrigued by all-grain for a long time and have been reading as much as I can on the subject. With some encouragement from my buddy Nathan, I decided it was time to move into all-grain.

I've already done a post on my mash tun and I will do another on the IPA recipe I decided to use as my first all-grain. This post is really just to document the first effort and highlight all of the equipment that I used.

This first batch took me 9 hours from start to finish. That sounds insane (and is) and was mostly because I wasn't totally familiar with what I was doing. Another big factor was my apartment's limitations. I have a regular Chicago apartment with a regular stove. It's difficult to heat up the volumes of water and wort that I need to heat very fast. I've since done a second batch and finished in 5 hours based on the learning from the first time. I think that given the limitations of my current setup, I'm not likely to get a lot more efficiency than that.

On to the pictures of the brew day!

Most important equipment in this picture - iPhone (to look up things on the fly) and the homebrew (Cherry Wheat Ale):


More equipment, including my new mash tun:


The electronic scale is one that I "borrowed" from my chef-in-training wife, and has been indispensable when brewing:


Another very useful thing to have around on brew day - The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. It's an excellent reference.


My bags of grain, which I ground at my LHBS, as well as a thermometer to give me an idea of ambient temperature for use in some calculations:


My thermometer for taking the temperature of water, mash, and whatever else, as well as the spray bottle of water to keep foam down (which I didn't really need):


I don't have a pot large enough to boil all of the water I need, so I used my 5 gallon pot (from extract brewing) and two of my wife's 2 gallon stainless steel pots. The biggest problem is that the 2 gallon pots come up to temperature much faster than the larger one, requiring a bit of time/temperature management.


I wrapped the mash tun in blankets after dough in to help insulate. I wasn't sure it was going to be necessary, but on the second batch I did I lost significantly more heat, so I think I'll keep this practice up on future batches.


Running the wort off of the grains:


Measuring out hop additions to spint between the three pots I have to use.


Again, don't have enough space to boil all of the wort, so the three pots are sill necessary.