It's almost 11:00 now. I'm collecting the second runnings. Everything's going well. I did have to add some cool water to my mash. It was about 5 degrees high. I added something like 3/4 quart (3 cups) of tap water and that brought it down to 152 degrees...
I'm bringing my wort to boil now. I've collected more than I anticipated. Something like 1/3 gallon more than I need. I'll try to fix this by boiling for 15 or 20 minutes before I add my hops and start the one hour timer.
The seemingly never-ending propane tank is running out, I think. This will be a good opportunity to see how many brews I can get out of a tank.
Fast forward to the next day: the entire brew day took me about 6 hours and some change. I wasted some time here and there. Plus, I boiled for an extra 25 minutes... All things considered, I think I could do an all grain brew day in 5 hours, plus cleanup.
Overall, this brew was a success. I did end up boiling too long and got about 4 and a quarter gallons. So, my target gravity was off, too. I got an OG of 1.067. The target was 1.64 for 5 gallons. So if my iBrewmaster app (and hydrometer) is correct, my efficiency was about 62%.
In other news, I filtered the hops with a (sanitized) grain bag in a colander situated in the top of an ale pail. I just poured my chilled wort into the grain bag. Most of the trub fell to the bottom of the brewpot, so I stopped pouring at the really thick sludge (see pictures). Then, I racked into my 6.5 gallon carboy. This turned out to be a really good method. In fact, I plan to buy a funnel with a screen so I can pour my chilled wort directly into my carboy. I'll still probably use the whirlpool and siphon method on beers that have only an ounce or two. But this beer had 4 oz of hops, I knew I would have to try something else.
But, that's about it. I checked on my fermenter this morning, and it bubbling away. About 64 or 65 degrees.
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