First AG..80% efficiency...Great Success!

Brewed my first all grain yesterday and it's bubbling away as we speak. It was the Northern Brewer Caribou Slobber (Moose Drool clone).

I used my 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler with stainless braid and got 6.5 gallons of 1.047 wort preboil...meaning 80% efficiency! Post boil gravity per recipe was 1.052 and mine was 1.055.

My cooler kept my mash at 153 the enitire hour. Then did two batch sparges.
The only place where it didn't go well was the mashout. I tried to get the mash up to 170 with 1 gallon of boiling water, but it only brought it up to about 158! Does anyone know of a reliable calculator for a mashout step?

All grain is really not that complicated, and I learned everything from reading this board..thanks for sharing all your experience

IMO the mash out is overrated. It can increase unwanted tannin extraction and I really don't see it as necessary considering that the boil will certainly stop all enzymatic activity. I mean, who cares if the enzymes are still working in the kettle pre-boil?

for some reason, when beersmith calculates mashout infusion temp in the actual recipe mash schedule area, it always falls short.

if you go to the "Adjust Mash" tool and put in your parameters it's more accurate.

I did my first all-grain batch over the weekend as well, but I didn't do as well on my efficiency as you did; only 67%. I also missed my final volume a bit and had to top off. In hindsight, I probably should have done two batch sparges and that would have help both issues I think. But overall, I agree, all-grain isn't that complicated and, for me, feels much more satisfying than scraping some sugary goo out of a plastic tub.

IMO the mash out is overrated. It can increase unwanted tannin extraction and I really don't see it as necessary considering that the boil will certainly stop all enzymatic activity. I mean, who cares if the enzymes are still working in the kettle pre-boil?

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I think it is more of an issue the longer you sparge. I do a single batch sparge and I'm done in 20 minutes from original vorlauf to end. 20 extra minutes sitting in the kettle (actually more like 10-15 min for most of the first runnings) is not going to change the fermentability profile of my wort much. But I could see a fly sparger or a multiple batch sparger, who are spending 30-60 min. sparging, wanting to stop the beta from breaking up the longer chain sugars.

Beta-A is actually deactivated over 160, not 170. 170 has nothing to do with enzyme denaturing or deactivation. That is some urban brewing myth. 170 is the limit over which tannin extraction becomes possible; that is why sources say to stay under it. Your 158 is pretty close to 160, so you are probably fine.