All Grain Brew Prep

I recently picked up an 8 gallon brewing pot and was interested in finding faster ways to bring water and the wort up to temperature. Since we have an all grain brew coming up this week, I thought it'd be a good idea to try out some of the new planned equipment.

We're going to try to do all of the brewing out back this week, using a turkey fryer burner (15psi high pressure propane burner). I was able to take 5 gallons of water from 77 degrees F to boiling in a little over 35 minutes. I've never tried this volume of water on my kitchen stove, but I can guarantee it wouldn't be done so quickly. Due to the success of the burner, I decided to pick up a Bayou burner on Amazon that had great reviews (20psi high pressure propane burner). The turkey fryer burner was borrowed from a buddy who will be joining us for the next brew.

This experiment also included the use of the immersion cooler with the garden hose, demonstrating how much easier this backyard setup will be than the typical kitchen environment.

Finally, I was able to test out the mash tun to see how much the temperature would drop over an hour. I was a bit disappointed to watch the temperature go from 155 degrees F to about 150 degrees F over the hour. I'm hoping that with the inclusion of the grain, the temperature may drop a big slower. I also intend to wrap the mash tun in insulation and a sleeping bag when we try it out this week.