1/1/2008 - This is my first all-grain batch, and unfortunately before I could measure the OG of the wort, I broke my hydrometer (yet again!).

I didnt hit my mash temperature right away, my mash water strike temp was 165 and I could ony get up to 148. I added some boiling water to get up to 150. 

The thermometer I used to measure the mash temp is not the fastest thermometer to react to temps so I may have overshot my mash temp by a few degrees. 

Mashed at 150 for 60 minutes.  Sparged with 5 gallons of 170 degree water.  Sparging seemed to go well, although the runoff toward the latter half of the sparge looked very weak.  I would feel better if I was able to measure the OG of the wort before pitching the yeast, I'm thinking that the first runnings were much higher than my target gravity, and the weak second runnings even it out to hit the target OG.

I read in a BYO article that you can use pellet hops directly in the kettle w/o using a straining bag as I have been.  So I tried it on this batch, I had so much hop trub at the bottom of the fermenter, I was a bit worried about the beer sitting on all that trub.

I also chilled a bit differently on this batch, I modified my chiller to hook up to a fountain pump that I got from Home Depot.  My thought was that I could fill up a 5 gallon cooler with ice water and pump it through the chiller (rather than use the tap water which is much warmer).  This seemed to work well, although I started pouring the hot water coming out of the chiller back in the ice bucket which melted the ice pretty quickly.  The tap water this time of year was pretty cold so I started refilling the ice bucket with water from the hose and I was able to chill down to 68 degrees before pitching my yeast starter.

1/10/08 - Transfered to the secondary, took a gravity reading and taste test. The primary fermentation was completed by day 5 or 6 but I decided to wait before transferring to let the yeast clean up.  This batch was the best tasting going into the secondary that I've made so far, even at 68 degrees and not carbonated.  It turned out great, I can't wait until it goes on tap.

I'll cold condition for about a week and then transfer to the keg.

1/19/08 - Replaced all seals on keg and transfered.  Tastes very good, even for being so 'green'.