First Brew in Primary.........

So as the title says I did my first brew today and put it in the primary at 12:00 central time. I did an American Wheat and here's the ingredients and what I did.

2 cans of LME-Wheat (Muntons)
1 oz of U.K. 1st Gold Hop pellets (7.3% Alpha)
1 Package of Muntons yeast rehydrated

1. Boiled 6 gallons of water in new Boyou Classic 36 qt. pot and burner.
2. Boiled another gallon on my stovetop, just in case I'd need it.
3. Took two cups of boiled water and set aside to rehydrate yeast in santized measuring glass with themometer, rehydrated at around 100 degrees or high 90's per John Palmer's book. Left 15 minutes covered, stirred and left until temp of wort was down to pitching level.
4. Once water was boiling I removed from heat and put the two cans of LME, that were sitting in hot water to help with the pouring, while stirring to prevent scorching.
5. Then put in the hops directly after and returned to boil.
6. Had a slight boilover, but not much because I turned my back for about 30 seconds to throw some things away. Just kept removing from heat, about 6 times, and eventually it stopped wanting to boil over.
7. Boiled about 25 minutes as directions said between 20 and 30 minutes.
8. Cooled in bathtub with cold water and ice to 79 degrees.
9. Took hydrometer reading of 1.050 (OG supposed to be 1.049 to 1.051)
10. Pitched rehydrated yeast at about 79 degrees after shaking up wort. Strained wort before putting in primary.
11. Put top on primary and filled airlock with purified water and put that in the top of the lid.
12. Put primary inside cooler, just in case of spillage, and covered with a blanket to protect from light.

My biggest concern was making sure I had everything sanitized. I was constantly spraying things, rinsing, spraying, rinsing, etc. My other concern was the time from when I rehydrated my yeast to the time I finally pitched it as the temp took awhile to get down. It took about 45 minutes, is this a concern as far as the yeast is concerned? I'm not gonna lie, the wheat smelled pretty funky as I was brewing it so I hope it smells better than that! lol If anyone has issues with anything I did please point it out so I can do a better job next time. I'm pretty pleased with how things went as I made sure to write out a cheat sheet for myself the night before so I wouldn't miss anything.

What kind of sanitizer are you using? If you switch to (or are already using StarSan, or a similar no-rinse sanitizer) there is no need to do all that rinsing. Should save you a little time.

As for the yeast, next time just boil up a cup of water separately (in the microwave) towards the end of the boil. That way you don't have the yeast sitting there for that long. In the end though, it shouldn't matter.

Congrats on your first brew!

Yeah, I'm using StarSan. Quick question though, in Palmer's book it says to sanitize your primary then put the lid on and set it aside so nothing contaminates it. I did that, but had an almost rotten egg smell inside the primary once I opened it up? I rinsed it out well just be safe, but I'm just curious if StarSan smells like that in an enclosed bucket?

Thanks for making me feel better about the yeast, that was my biggest worry about the entire day considering they are so darn important.

Yeah with me, I wait to open the yeast until the last moment. I add the wort the the fermenter and let it cool and aerate, then I get the yeast going to avoid letting the yeasties sit out.

Although to tell you the truth, I think yeast is pretty resiliant. I'm sure my beer could be improved, but I usually just add the semi-cooled wort (still around 180F) to my fermentor with the room temperature water in it, then heat the yeast and pitch at temps around 90F. The yeasties still seem to do their job, although like I said, I could probably do myself a favor to really cool it down to the proper temp.

you shouldn't rinse after you apply the StarSan, even if it has foam on it

The foam wasn't my concern, just the smell in my primary. I just wanted to be sure that nothing was screwed up. I did sanitize everything over night in my primary as well so I don't think there was any issue with anything being sanitized. Just newbie worries is all.

I had that smell before in my bucket. Then I realized it was the rubber o-ring in my lid. I gently pried it out and cleaned it with oxyclean. But everytime I spray it with starsan it smells like rotten eggs or sulphur. I know its clean I just don't understand why starsan makes it smell so bad.

Well I must've done something right my airlock is now bubbling. Woohoo