First All-Grain Brewday a Success!

I got the two all-grain experiments brewed today.  They both turned out to be pretty easy to do, other than the fact that they each took over an hour to cool enough to pitch the yeast.  I'm going to have to figure out  a better way to cool the brew before next time.

I went with a base of Briess Pale Malt (2lbs), and added 0.2lbs of specialty.  I decided that, in order to keep things simple, it is best to start with the Crystal malts, since there are so many of them to get through.  Today I used 40L and 60L.  Next time (2 weeks) I'm doing 80L and 120 (not sure why 100 is skipped, but I've never seen it in stock at my local store).  After that, I'm moving to Special-B (a very dark Crystal), Vienna, Victory and Munich.  These are all used in pale ales on  a regular basis (not so much Vienna), and relatively easy to find.  All of them will be added at a ratio of 10:1 against the base Pale malt.

Not sure how to proceed after that...Mix a few together?  That might be the smartest way to go.  I should probably save at least one of each to mix at the end of this cycle of experiments so I can mix a few and see if I can come up with a good grain bill.  Then again, it may be more "scientific" to choose one of the 8, and then start adding to that recipe...hmmm.

Anyway, enough rambling.  Here's how these next few experiments will go:

• 26 cups of water heated to 155 degrees F
• Nylon grain bag filled with 2lbs Briess 2-Row Pale malt, and 0.2lbs specialty grain and lowered into water
• Bag "massaged" with large spoon to ensure equal wetting of grains
• Sheet of foil draped over pot. (Temperature is checked regularly to make sure it stays between 150 and 152 degrees F while starches from grain are converted to sugars
• After 60 mins, bag is removed and placed in strainer over pot
• 4 Cups 170 degree water poured slowly over bags to rinse or "sparge" the grains
• When grains have drained, wort brought to boil; Boil is 60 mins in duration
• .2oz Centennial hops added at 60 mins left in boil
• .2oz Cascade hops added at 15 mins left in boil
• .2oz Columbus hops added at 5 mins left in boil
• At end of boil, pot is removed from heat, cooled to 80 degrees F and transferred to fermenter
• 5.75g Safale US-05 dry yeast added, fermenter closed, left for a few moments to allow yeast to rehydrate some, and shaken for one minute

That's the formula for the next 8 batches.  I'm going to check the specific gravity in 10 days to see where we're at. and bottle if its ready.