Sunday, March 21, 2010

First All-Grain

Finished building all the equipment I'll need:

  • Coleman 70 quart MLT

  • Copper Immersion Chiller

  • High Pressure Propane Burner

  • 52 quart Boil Kettle

I went with an easy recipe that I can taste test against a commercial brew: a Fat Tire clone.  I made a ton of mistakes, but learned so much.  Missed my strike water volume, overshot my temps, draining the MLT took longer than I thought it would, almost had a 5 gallon boilover, and my immersion chiller blew up.  It was exhausting and after it was all done had a huge mess on my hands, but I loved it.  This is what brewing is all about.  

The beer came out great.  It was spot on, and other than the head retention, was exactly the same as its commercial inspiration.