Today I got back to brewing beer again, using grain even! To mark the start of the summer the plan was to brew a nice summer Kolsch. Here are the ingredients (more details here):

• 0.5 lbs of Organic light Munich malt.
• 0.5 lbs of Cara Pils.
• 9 lbs of Organic German Pils.
• 2 oz Hallertauer, 60 minutes.
• 1 oz Saaz, 20 minutes.
• 1 oz U.K. Kent Golding, 5 minutes.
• 26 liters of filtered tap water.
• Original Gravity 1.050.

It turned out that this was probably my most efficient and cleanest all-grain brewing day ever. I typically spend about 5 hours total, today it was four. Cleanup took less than 10 minutes. Not sure exactly what the trick was, but the following lists the major events in rough order:

1. Heat 10 liters to 170 F.
2. Add milled grains, temp drops to 160 F
3. After 5 minutes add another 3 liters, temp drops to 155 F
4. At 30 minutes into the mash, start heat on high for the 16 liters of sparge water.
5. After 50 minutes the mash is at 145 F.
6. Begin mash-out at full heat.
7. After 60 minutes the sparge water is at 170 F and so is the mash.
8. Fill zapap with 8 liters of sparge water.
9. Pour in the mash.
10. Sparge slowly fulling two 5 gallon brew pots, each about half full.
11. Fill 6.5 gallon carboy with sanitizer.
12. Start the boil.
13. Add 2 oz of Hallertauer.
14. At 40 minutes in add 1 oz Saaz.
15. At 55 minutes in add 1 oz of Kent Goldings.
16. Transfer the non-hopped wort to the hopped brewpot.
17. Remove from heat and chill for 5 minutes with chiller.
18. Rinse carboy and fill with wort.
19. Shake the carboy a lot.
20. Check gravity at 1.050.
21. Pitch yeast and add airlock.

That was more or less it, but here are a few pictures to show the steps: