First 5 gal All-Grain Brew Day w/pics!

I've been doing 1 gallon batches - 5 so far - since January, and finally got enough equipment together to do a 5 gallon batch this past Sunday. I decided on EdWort's Haus APA, due to its simplicity and glowing reviews.

I'm using a turkey fryer burner w/7gal pot that I got an Menard's. The pot has a spigot, which I view as a bonus, but the burner has a 12-minute auto-shutoff timer.

For my MLT I converted a 10gal Home Depot cooler.
All my hoses are supply-line hoses from Home Depot. They seemed to handle the temperature very well, but I'll admit I didn't do the research to see if they were the best option. My logic was that they could handle hot tap water, so they should be good.

I undershot mash temp by 2ºF, but by that time I didn't have any hot water left to try and correct it, so I let it ride. Over 60 minutes I lost about 3º, finishing the mash at ~147º. Next time I should be able to hit the right temps better, but I'm not super-concerned about the ones I got.
Vorlauf, first runnings, and batch sparge all went as planned (although I vorlaufed probably way more than I needed to), and I ended up with ~6.25 gal in the boil kettle at an SG of 1.043.

Instead of the 60 min. hop additions, I added them as First Wort Hops. This was the only change I made to the recipe, and everything went perfectly until chill time. I grossly underestimated how much ice it would take to cool down 5 gallons of boiling liquid, and it ended up taking a nice 60 minute cold water bath in my laundry sink. As much as I feel like immersion chillers might waste water, I sure I ended up using even more with that bath.

Other than that I was very happy with the day, ending up with an OG of 1.055. Thanks to everyone who has contributed their knowledge and support on this forum. Never would have had the courage or knowledge to do this without this place.

 

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Congrats on the step-up. Nice Pic's looks like you are off to a good start :rockin:
But I would look into fixing (getting rid of) the Auto shut-off on the burner if it can be done safely. having to restart the burner every 12 min. on a long boil would be a pain.

 

Congrats! I too just did my first AG 5 gallon batch yesterday after 4 Mr Beer batches. My efficiency was a little lower that I was hoping for based on the recipe I used, but at 70.5% I'm happy. It was a great feeling when the beer was in the fermenter with the yeast pitched, like climbing Everest. If I thought I had the bug when I started with small extract batches, it was nothing compared to what I have now.