this is exactly the technique I'm currently trying with my pumpkin beer, so the pumpkin pie spice and other stuff isn't at the bottom of the collection ball.

Hi All, prior to 2018 I'd been extract brewing with a buddy. But last christmas Santa brought me some all-grain equipment so this year I've been learning to brew all-grain. I brewed my 4th batch, a pumpkin beer, this past weekend. Can't wait for it! -marc

So when I invested in the gear necessary for brewing all-grain (5 gal batch sizes), I got an 8 gal conical fermenter from FastFerment (http://www.fastbrewing.com/products/fastferment). And I've been very happy with it thus far. However earlier this year, when I did a chocolate-cherry stout...

Thanks everyone. If I had a second fermenter I'd brew another batch of something this weekend!

After 4 all-grain sessions under my belt, I'm still having issues getting my predicted water volumes out of the mash and into my kettle. Clearly user-error somewhere... On the pumpkin beer I did a couple of days ago, the water calcs gave me: 9.79 gal total, 7.41 strike vol, 2.41 sparge vol...