I brewed my first all-grain beer this past weekend, it's a longer
process but very interesting to do because I used just grain instead
of extract!
I setup the propane burner in the garage and did everything outside
since it wasn't too cold or rainy. I love the new keg vessel I'm using
for mashing/boiling.. I can now do 10-Gallon batches and/or heavy
beers (i.e. belgians, imperials etc). However it is somewhat more
bulky to clean (since it holds 15Gallons) so the cleaning takes
longer. I also used the new mash-paddle which Rebecca & Jeff gave me
for Christmas, it really helps to have a long-handled stirring device
for the large volume!
Things in the first batch went well and the total time was somewhere
around 6 hours, I did have a boil-over when I went inside for a few
minutes. I probably lost a gallon or so on the floor of the garage,
but at least it didn't get all over the stove this time! The resulting
beer had a somewhat lower specific gravity than I expected, but
perhaps that was the boil-over lowering it. I'll brew the same one
next time and measure the efficiency. Now I just get to wait and see
how it turns out.