My first all grain! Quite a story...

[NuclearRich]

Well, I am a relative newbie, started doing extract batches with some specialty grains at my start in July'09. Just last week I ventured forth into uncharted territory (for me): the full mash all grain super mega awesome brew day!

Got a 45ish quart cooler with a SS braid and read up a bit (mostly here, you guys are great) prior to my adventure. After a week straight of staying up too late with my studies, I finally felt confident.
Long Peaks Raspberry Wheat, here I come!

One thing I forgot in all of my excitement was that I broke my floating thermometer last brewday, and never got another one.... whoops... hope that trusty meat thermometer will work! It did, actually, it isnt easy to read exact temps, but I mashed in 170*F-ish strike with a preheated MLT, mixed 'er up a bit, and voila: 152*F-ish. Checked temp 30mins later: maybe a degree of loss! Awesome! Starch test at 60mins is negative for starch! Awesome!
I decided to keep it pretty simple this time around and batch sparge. Drained 1.5gals of first runnings... gotta add 5 more... lets do 3gals then 2gals. 3gals 180*F for a decent mashout, blah blah, drained all my second and third runnings. Preboil gravity was 13 points off. I figured I would be off on my first day, so I had some extra light DME in case of emergency. Threw a lb in.
Lets get to the boil!
INCREDIBLE hot break! I've never been so close to overflowing my keggle! And when the hops join, oh MAN was it impressive. hmmm... sure seems like I have a high volume... whatev... lets keep brewing, its just paranoia.
Everything goes according to plan... except when I get to the point of filling my 6.5gal primary bucket. I dump from the keggle (with my amazing brute strength lifting the whole thing high enough to get a great aeration), but have to stop the dump because I am running out of room! WTF??
Yep.
It probably should have hit me a lot sooner that I had over sparged. Like I should have noticed that I was using 3gal batches both times, instead of what I wanted (3,2). DOH!
So I filled to 6gals, and fretted having to fashion a blowoff tube. Ended up dumping at least 2 quarts of good wort.

Good things: I seem to have nailed my gravity (back calculated gravity and volumes, I would have been spot-on if I had a gallon less). The primary was fast and furious, and had enough room to spare the blowoff (amazingly enough). I loved it.
Bad things: As it is just about to finish in the primary, I sniffed the airlock... a little too banana-y for my liking... I am hoping I didn't let the ferm temps get too out of control. Also hoping that the raspberries that I am adding in the secondary will mute the banana.

Congrats to me for finishing the brew day.
Congrats to you for reading my novel describing it.

 

[NuclearRich]

lol... looking back... I should have made my first all grain beer a CHERRY wheat instead.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Curious about the size of your keggle if 6-7 gallons was close to overflowing it...

And broken cherry wheat would seem like a more appropriate name...

 

[BadgerBrewer]

What yeast did you use? And what were the fermentation temps running at? Probably the biggest factors in the banana scent

 

[Bach7210]

Next time (if it happens again) save that extra 2 qts of good wort and split it into (2) 1 gal freezer bags. Instant wort for your starter the next time you brew.

(I also enjoyed reading through your story. Well done)

 

[artyboy]

2 extra quarts of wort? That's why you need to keep some growlers/gallon jugs handy for small batches.

 

[NuclearRich]

Curious about the size of your keggle if 6-7 gallons was close to overflowing it...

And broken cherry wheat would seem like a more appropriate name...

Well, the keggle is prolly capable of holding 10-11 gallons, but I wouldnt boil more than 8 I dont think. I bought it from a guy who used it to cook lobster, so the top was cut all the way off, past the dome; where I think a lot of people cut through the dome.

The keggle was filled with ~7.5gals, and then the hot break came-a surging and was probably a good 5 inches thick. It was awesome.

Also: Wyeast London Ale 1028 as recommended by the recipe. listed range is 60-72*F. I fermented in my front hall, which usually stays pretty cool and was great for the last two batches, but last week was unseasonably hot. I was very closely monitoring temps and airlock just because I didn't want a clogger (or the follow-up mess), and it started about 66F, highest I noticed was prolly 75F, but only there for a short period... maybe 2 hrs... the majority of the ferment was prolly within range, but right on the high limit. I only noticed the smell at the end. ... please hold...

*elevator music plays*

I see you tapping your foot to the muzak

*hold music cuts*

Ok, just gave another sniff... smells better than I remember. Actually... I am pretty excited. I want one now! Wooo! So maybe I just had eaten a banana last time and shoulda RDWHAHB.

In any case, I will be putting the rasberry mush into the secondary(-ies, guess I should have gotten that big glass carboy... or do you think I could use another big bucket?) tomorrow or the day after.