So this kit came to me from the Homebrew Happy Hour podcast. I’m part of their Patreon monthly kit. Collected all the water the night before and also had to input all the data into Brewer’s Friend. Added in my brewing salts and setup the Anvil to start the next morning

Once the water was up to temperature, I added in the grains and started the 60 minute mash. about 30 minutes into the mash I stopped the pump and gave about 2/3 of the grain bed a stir. This this helps and makes sure we get full conversion yet keeps the wort running clean because I’m not disturbing the bottom 1/3. As always about 10 minutes before the end of the mash I crank the temp up to 168 degrees F to perform my mash out.

After letting the grains drain, I cranked the Anvil up to 212 Degrees F and 100%. After it stops dripping I pull the ring and put the basket in at an angle. Be careful of the feet on the basket as you don’t want to break them off. After that stopped draining I would give the bad a good twist and hold a few times before pulling the grain basket and put in a bucket and then took the basket to the sink for a good cleaning. Once the grains would cool down ill flip them back in the bucket and clean the bag. This is just a really good hot rinse to get everything off the bag and let it hang dry. As wort moved to a boil I pulled the hot break, the typical 2 cups and started in the hop schedule as per the recipe.

With about 12 minutes left I added in 1/2 tsp of Irish Moss and also 1tsp of yeast nutrient as that wasn’t called out in the recipe but I did add it. Grabbed my sample a few minutes before the end of the boil and was right on my expected OG of 1.045. Chilled down wort to the low 70’s and transferred over to my Anvil bucket fermentor and pitched A10 Imperial Darkness. Never tried this strain before and can’t wait to see what it brings to the table. This brew will just sit on my table and ill try to maintain it around 68 to ferment. Its cool in my basement so shouldn’t be a problem doing that. Also going to use my other Cold Crash Guardian to help keep the O2 out of the beer. 8)