woohoo...first all grain in the fermenter!!!

[whitehause]

After a while away from it, I did a mostly extract, partial steep winter ale a couple weeks ago. After reading a bunch of all grain posts I decided to give it a try. I found a LHBS that has a ton of ingredients on hand. 40 or 50 types of grain, 25 or 30 strains of yeast and just as many hops. They grind for free, vacuum seal all the grains, and are very helpful if you want a different crush than their standard settings. (The name of the store is Weak Knee Homebrew in Pottstown PA just to give them a plug)
I decided on Edworts haus ale for the first attempt using BIAB with a 15 min dunk sparge in a separate pot of strike water, then a full volume boil. Everything went great, and I hit the OG almost spot on at 151 (recipe says 152) I pitched the notty, and I'm getting airlock activity after only 4 hours in the fermenter. Not real vigorous yet, but there none the less. Now I just need to work on my patience, and let the yeast do their job and avoid the temptation to pop the lid and take a look.
I think I can say that I'm an all grain convert, and will never touch a can or bag of instant wort again.

 

[RM-MN]

I've done BIAB with and without sparging and find very little difference in the outcome if I squeeze all the wort out of the bag. If your kettle is large enough to do a full volume mash, you can skip this one step. I mash in a 7 gallon turkey fryer and find that there is a limit to how much water and grain will fit, so the last brew I kept back about 1 1/2 gallons of water and heated it in a separate pot to sparge.

 

[DanaDana]

Sounds awesome, I'm new to AG myself and do a half ass version between BIAB and sparging. (just because my equipment isn't up to snuff.) keep it up!