First Bottling, Second Brew

I bottled my first batch today and brewed my second. They're both extract with grains recipe kits. I thought it might save some effort to brew the second batch since I was bottling anyways, no point in dumping all the sanitizer down the drain when my primary is empty.

With this second batch I did a few things differently; steeping the grains, I dropped my grain bag into the cool water (4 gallons) then brought the temp up to 71-73c (160-163) for 25 minutes. pulled the grains out and brought it to boil and added the LME and DME. I let it go through the hot break, before I added the hops I took a cup of this wort for starting my yeast. When the boil was almost finished I put my packet of yeast into the cup of cooled wort. I cooled the 4 gallons of wort with two half gallon ice cubes (took about 10-15 minutes). Pitched the yeast and had activity within the hour. 5 hours later I'm getting a bubble every 2 seconds or so.

My problems: I started with 4 gallons in the pot, ended with 3. Should have started with 5 to allow for evaporation durring the boil. The ice over cooled the wort and I had to add hot water to get the temp up (worked out since I was down to 4 and a quarter gallons). Broke my hydrometer, no gravity for me.

Sounds like you might be a little high on the ABV when done, that probably isn't a problem. I keep breaking my finish hydrometers. So I get along without one until I make some cider, then I have to buy a new one.