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Today is the first all grain I have ever made. With my 6.5 gallon brew kettle I am now I easily able to do all grain batches of beer. The other thing I am now able to do is full boils which I have only ever done once before. The results of that full boil brew was singularly the best beer I have ever made. Sadly I was only able to get 2 gallons of beer so it was short lived.

Let me start by saying all grain brewing is a lot of work and takes a lot more time. Whether the juice is worth the squeeze will not be known for another 4-6 weeks.

Anyways, time to detail the ingredients and procedure for myself so next time I know whether or not I should repear this adventure.

Bradinator’s Honey Oat Pale Ale

Ingredients –

Grains —

• 5lbs Pale Malt 2-Row
• 1.8lbs Rolled Oats

Extracts —

• 1.0lbs Honey @ 20 min
• 0.5lbs Dextrose @ 45 min*

Hops —

• 1oz Cluster @ 60 min

Yeast —

• 11g Windsor Ale Year, rehydrated

Equipment

• 6.5 gallon Aluminum pot, with insulation blanket
• 2 gallon steel pot
• 5 gallon plastic bucket (for both wort holding after mash out and fermentation)
• Large plastic bowl, measuring cups
• Stir spoon, grain bag, hydrometer

Procedure -

1. Sanitize EVERYTHING
2. Place the grain into the grain bag.
3. In the 6.5 gallon pot bring 2 gallons of water to 171F (strike temperature), kill heat

1. Add grain in the grain bag, this should reduce the heat to about 155-160c. Stir (dough-in) the grain with the water until it is all soaked.
2. Cover with a lid and allow to sit for 60 minutes while the grain converts to sugars, stir every 15-20 minutes. Note: It is critical to keep the temperature constant. If it drops to far or goes to high it will greatly affect your totally mash efficiency.
3. While the mash is converting, in the 2 gallon pot bring 2 gallons of water to 175c. This will be used for sparging.
4. After the mash is done, lift the grain bag from the water and allow the wort to drain from the bag for several minutes. Place the grain bag into the plastic bowl once done.
5. Pour the wort from the 6.5 gallon pot into the 5 gallon bucket. Place the grain bag back into the now empty 6.5 gallon pot
6. Using the sparge water in the 2 gallon pot slowly over the grain sitting in the larger pot. This will rinse the sugars out from the grain. I did this at 500ml at a time. Once done lift the grain bag out of the water again and allow to drain. Place back into the bowl once done. You can toss the grains at this point (but keep the wort that drains from this)
7. Add all the wort back into the 6.5 gallon pot from the bucket and the left overs from the bowl.

1. Raise the temperature and start to bring to the wort to a rolling boil. Add the hops.
2. Monitor the boil for the next 60 minutes to prevent a boil over (should not be an issue because there is only 4 gallons of liquid in a 6.5 gallon pot).
3. At 45 minutes add the dextrose and stir. * I did this because I thought my mash efficiency was very low and I needed to raise the body of the beer… I was wrong.
4. At 20 minutes add the honey. Stir.
5. Rehydrate your yeast!
6. At flame out, add the yeast nutrient (which I forgot). Remove the insulation blanket and place the pot into the an ice bath. I change the water at least 5 times adding ice and stirring constantly. I brought the temperature down quite quickly, only taking 30 minutes to reach 27C
7. Move the wort back into the 5 gallon bucket, pitch the yeast and close it up.

Tons of work. Hopefully it will be worth it. OG was 1.054, much higher then I was shooting for (1.040). Had I dropped the dextrose and used a larger boil volume I would have hit the correct gravity. Oh well, next time. Predicted final ABV is 5.5%.

Total bill was around $25.00. All grain is a bit cheaper then extract brewing.

Tomorrow I will awaken to a vigorous fermentation or a disastrous waste of time.