This was the first brew session with the new equipment, so I thought I would document some of the issues that came up.  Here are my brew notes.

11/23: First run with the 1 gallon immersion “mash tun”.
Added 1/4 tsp gypsum to 2 gallons of Bend, OR tap water
Mashed in, and think I hit target 152 degree mash temp deep in the mash, not sure about the top though … 147 with digi. therm.

When I pulled the mash out, the floating thermometer was around 146, so it would appear there’s a problem with holding temperatures.

Recirculated the wort over the mash, and the gravity was way low (around a 54% efficiency). Adjusted the recipe, and
Put mash in the kettle (kept it in a grain bag), and added rest of water. Still low gravity.
Added DME to hit target grav.

New kettle: boil-off rate significantly higher than expected. Added somewhere around 1.5 quarts extra water throughout the boil.

Didn’t take OG measurement (way too tired) to get out sample for hydrometer … yeah … that lame.

12/7: No visible activity. Then I swirled the bucket like I used to when I’d make a starter in a belgian bottle … percolation nation!!!

12/8: Nasty top of the bucket from lots of activity … awesome to see this thing cranking.

12/15: Added dry hops

12/22: Bottling day.  Added half a pack of dry yeast … way too much … and calculated amount of corn sugar to add to hit around 2.4 volumes of CO2. FG was measured at 9.1 brix … don’t think it was complete in retrospect. Taste: clean bitter, peach, slight grapefruit. Light caramel malt. Very very pleasant.

Takeaways … I didn’t follow any of my own advice on this brew day … so lessons learned:

• Overheat your strike water so you hit your target infusion mash temperature.  Think that it was way too low.
• Take a gravity reading
• Know your equipment.  This initial brew is going a long way to try and do so, but I need to really measure my boil off rate.

Hopefully I’ll have a better run next time when I formulate the adjustments to the recipe.

Cheers.