Just Finished First All-Grain

I was aiming for a mash temp of 150 and was at 148. I added more hot water but never got it above 148. I mashed for 75 min. I then drained and added 177 degree sparge water and it only raised temp to 159. I drained and put in another round of sparge at 190 degrees this brought the temp up to 168. I drained that and took a sample and cooled. I measured the gravity at 1.038 and my target was 1.036. I did my boil, cooled and pulled my sample. Then my thermapen went on the fritz and couldn't get accurate temp readings. I was messing with it and spilled my sample so I never got an OG reading. It's in the bucket so I guess we will see how I end up. The samples all tasted good.

 

Sounds like it went relatively ok for a first attempt. I have always found that I need to add super hot water to try to get to 168 for my sparge. I typically do a double batch sparge and the first sparge I add 212 water or there about. The second sparge I typically add 185-190 degree water.

 

It looks like it is fermenting well now.