Thanks everyone for the bits of advice. I went ahead and got beersmith and working my way through the learning curve. Seems easiest way to do this will be to use less grains. Which means a little more money for me!
Quick dirty, with my set up I get effiency in the 80's. While this seemed awesome at first manyofmy beers are coming in at very high ABVs. Other than adding water after the boil is there a way to bring down effiency closer to what seems the standard of 75%?
Where I go they do all the measuring and milling. I give them my list, pour a drink off their kegerator, and chat while the get my stuff together. Great guys.
Jay,
Stay away! Sent the guy $60 for the chiller and never received it. Won't reply to email or PM. $60 down the drain. Lesson learned, first and last time I try to buy from here.
If I were doing it again i would have bought the biggest kettle i could first. instead i bought multiple kettles as i progressed from extract to all grain 5 gallon now to all grain 10 gallon.
Let's see...
- A propane tank
- A bigger CO2 tank
- Another 5g sanke keg
- Shirts with my brewery label on them for friends (already give out stickers)