This thread will probably not interest you. Cheers.

Rain f'd me over last weekend, so my first AG brew moved to tonight. I went for a 100% Munich brew since I couldn't do that with my old PM system. Plus, Munich is awesome. The potential downside is that I might really expose any flaws in the maiden voyage of my new system.

Notes:
* 5 hours 45 mins from "Let's brew" to "Clean and drying". Not awful for my first round.
* Also the maiden voyage of my larger, 10G Denny's Cheap and Easy Batch Sparge system. Complete with Pyrex / No ball valve on my HLT.
* I've not yet built a 3 tier system, so there was way too much lifting of heavy stuff so that it could flow into the next vessel. Big mistake.
* Strike water too hot, glad to have a lot of ice at the ready.
* I need a mash paddle. Big spoons are not good enough for stirring this much grain.
* I bought some long 'ove glove' knock offs. GREAT for brewing and handling hot stuff. Beware of hot liquid in the ove glove. The gloves are unbelievably awesome for handling hot solids. Hot liquid soaks in fast and burns the fk out of your hands.
* I was expecting 11G of finished wort, ended up with 8.5. Could be because of my boil vigor (burner runs HIGH or not at all for some reason) or I f'd up my water volumes.
* Otherwise, the number seem to have come out as expected. Some algebra will be required to see if the boil was the culprit or something else.
* Sober for this first run.
* AG uses way more damn propane that partial mash. Not happy. Yes, Electric is better. I wish I could make it happen, but I can't in this house.
* I sorta wish I had gone up to a 15G system. This is a lot of damn work for only 10G (well... 8) of finished beer.
* The wort chiller I borrow from my fellow brewer fit perfectly in my 7G kettle. In my 15G it's like Psycho Mike humping Pam Anderson. Chilling took forever. Whirlpool here I come. The most potential time savings is here.

* THIS IS REAL BREWING. What I was doing before was pretend brewing; I realize that now. Mashing with 26lbs of malted barley is really gratifying. If this beer tastes like crap, it's 100% my fault. If it's awesome, it's 100% on me. PM was really convenient, but this is the way to go.

* Sadly, this makes me want to open a brewery even more.

I'm not ordering supplies to brew next weekend as well. LOVE this.

Congrats simpledad!!! I'm only a few AG batches ahead of you and still trying to get efficiency higher. Yesterday I did a 5.5 gal IIPA that is a hop monster. I was shooting for a 1.100 OG but hit 1.092. having trouble figuring out why, but either way it's still going to be a great beer - way better than PM, imho.

That's good information.
I was planning on moving up to 12-gal batches over the next few months, but I hadn't thought of all the heavy lifting, or considered the need for a brew paddle.
I love those ove gloves.

As for the efficiency, it seems to me (pure opinion here) that certain grains can throw that off. The Vienna I get seems to have an extract potential a few points higher than what the references would suggest, and I'm thinking the Munich might be a bit lower. Maybe the enzyme profile in the Vienna just reacts to my step mash really well. I don't know.
Your efficiency might well have been higher were it not 100% Munich.
Minding the acidity more assiduously throughout the process kicked my efficiency up quite a bit. The real jump came when I stopped concerning myself with the efficiency so much and just focused on each step of the process. Not sure how much larger batches would affect my efficiency.
In my experience, you're better off adding a bit of water to adjust the volume than trying to add more hops after the boil to bring the beer back into balance.

Not bad for a first run.
I would be interested in seeing how the efficiency is with something 70 to 80% two-row.
I'm thinking it would probably be about 3% higher right off the bat.

I hadn't checked pH for this one. I've tried other things that help - longer mash time to account for a not so great crush, extra water to allow for more sugars to dissolve. This last batch I really tried to hit a mashout temp of 165-170 but couldn't get the cooler temp up to that before it was full. I think next time I'll have to vorlauf (sort of), heat the wort, add it back to the mash tun at or near boiling to get the mash up to that 165-170 range.

It's more of a principle thing for me - my efficiencies have been consistently between 65-77% and I want to get them higher. The chemistry of it is simple (theoretically) so it's a challenge. All of the all grain batches I've made have tasted great - no complaints there - even missing the OG by a bit. The IIPA at an og of 1.092 is still going to be a big beer - I've just left some of the sugar behind - so it's wasted - which is unfortunate.

I keep tweaking, taking notes - got the mashin temp down now working on the next step in the process. pH is on the list

My gravities were actually correct at 70% efficiency, but it's the volumes that concern me most. I was expecting my pre-boil SG to be 1.050 and it was. Starting gravity (post boil) was 1.063 which is higher than expected, but I'm attributing that to a higher concentration of wort from the overly vigorous boil.

I wish I was getting higher than 70%, but it'll get better as my temps get better. I don't worry about crush as I order it crushed from NB, and my buddy does the same, and he is in the 75+ range usually.

simpledad - congrats on the batch! Like Marco I'm only a few batches ahead of you. IMHO your 70% is pretty darn good, considering the diastic (sp?) power of the munich grain. I bet, if you replicate that process with a 2 row base recipe, you'd be in the mid 70s at least. The crush is usually one of the root causes for low efficiency - in my experience. I went from around 68% to 75-77% when I started running the grains through my mill twice. Like Marco, I have no complaints going to AG, for the cost alone. I also second the part about taking notes; I think it's crucial to get your process down. It's amazing how much the outside temp, grain temp, etc. can affect your brewing timing, process, etc.

Congrats again!