After a long layoff, I finally got back into brewing with a first solo all-grain attempt in the house sunroom.

I expected a bit of a disaster, but given the not unexpected time overrun and one managed crisis, it went pretty well. The beer is currently fermenting nicely in the temp control environment (fridge + brewbelt + STC-1000).

Equipment: BIAB, PECO boiler, hop bags, Maris Otter / Crystal, Nugget / Chinook / Cascade, US-05.

I overdid it a bit on the steeping volume from the start - expecting that the sparge volume would be tough to get up to 80C in time, I used a bigger 'cuppa' for the 'teabag' at the start - 20L. One hour at 67C, then a 6L topup at 80C for 15mins. This was poured out to a bucket, and then I sparged/rinsed for another 15mins with the full 13L at 80C (managed with three 1.7L kettle boil 100C additions topping up the 8L at 50C to hit the overall 80C).

Ended up with well over the expected 27L of wort - I thought I'd lose a lot more to soakage/ineptitude. Never mind, but a pity from an efficiency point of view. It hurt chucking a few litres of tasty-smelling (albeit thin) wort onto the grass.

Next, another victory for pessimism. Taking a hydrometer reading on my remaining 28L, I got a 1.03-1032, which I wasn't surprised by given that it was my first go at the business. This was at 70-75C odd, though, so of course this would have to be adjusted for temperature. Trouble was, I figured the difference was tiny, whereas it was actually an effective 1.045 or thereabouts. 1kg of DME went in, which was overkill in hindsight. Probably got the OG up towards 1.06 in reality. Of course, muggins forgot to take a proper OG just before pitching.

Boiler comfortably handled a rolling boil for the hour. The issue was the chiller. You might already have noticed the problem in the picture above...

I should have had male connectors on the copper ends. So I was, shall we say, 'hosed'. Had to sanitise a lid and just leave it be overnight, and hope for the best.

Still warm in the morning, surprisingly, so left it another two hours before the nerves couldn't take it any more, and I aerated by pouring back and forth at 30C. By this stage I was convinced it would be a sure-fire infection, but it was worth ploughing on with the process to get the muscle memory back.

Decanted the trub roughly by hand, so lost another few litres. Ended up with 23L or so of viable wort to ferment. Great head of foam on it. Should've taken an OG at this point.

Pitched at 28-29C with dry US-05 on the foam, and in it went to the fridge. Took six hours to get down to the desired 20C. Not the quickest chill around, but I Star-Sanned everything to give it its best shot.

Next issue was a leaky tap on the fermenter bucket - it was dripping steadily inside the fridge. No choice but to transfer to another sanitised bucket. I just poured - couldn't be arsed siphoning at this stage. In fact, I think this helped - extra aeration early enough in the process, and a good mix of the yeast through the volume.

Currently smells delish and foam is perfect. Fingers crossed...