BrewDay: First All Grain Batch

Just for the record, my first assault on All Grain Brewing...

Recipe derived from BierMuncher's recipe on Home Brew Talk, adjusted for a 5 gallon batch:

As far as a recipe:
(For 11 gallons)
8# 2-row
9# Flaked Wheat
2# White Wheat Malt

1.25 ounces of Sterlnig Hops at 60 minutes (I just use whatever clean bittering hop I can find since it plays such a minimal role)

6-7 ounces fresh orange zest - 10 minutes
2 ounces of freshly crushed (pulverized) coriander - 10 minutes
1-2 Tbsp of crushed black pepper - 10 minutes
4 chamomile tea bags - 10 minutes

Now I halfed that to get to a five gallon batch, and for the most part it went okay. Although while we are on the subject of batch size, my biggest complain was probably that I didn't actually get five gallons of beer.

Oh, and the extras:

Orange zest, chamomile, coriander seeds and a very small amount of pepper.

Mashing the grains is actually the most fun, and although it takes a lot of extra time I think it's worth it. It wasn't until the guy at the local home brew shop told me the shelf life on dry extract is, his words, "forever", that I realized how much room their is to grow in freshness. Besides, most of my extra batches were beginning to taste the same.

I didn't start the batch until 9pm on a Monday night, which was a very poor move. The problem was that I was just so damn excited to use the lauter tun I had just run all over town for and built that I couldn't help myself. I didn't finish until close to three in the morning, which was followed by four agonizing days of work. Such is the life, I guess.

Some other mistakes:

• I didn't think at all about using a protein rest, my mash was almost all wheat and anything over 30-50% really begs for one. My efficiency suffered as a result, but I still made beer.
• I don't have a scale. This has never been a problem, but the guy at the local home brew shop talked me into buying a ten pound bag of pre-crushed grains. I think I was able to get close by using the volume from the wheat and then adjusting accordingly.
• I didn't have a way of determining how much wort I got out of the first sparge batch, and therefore wasn't able to make an adjustment for the second one to get my target of 5.5-6 gallons of pre-boil wort. I ended up with 4 gallons of beer, about a gallon less than I should have had.
• I didn't realize my stove can't handle 5-6 gallons of water at a full boil, but did get lucky with the pot and was able to saddle it over two burners. Sometimes a lack of a plan works out.
• I didn't crush the coriander seeds, why didn't anyone tell me I had to?
  

The beer is still three weeks away from being ready. The nice thing about your first batch is you aren't worried if it doesn't turn out that great, although my hopes for a highly drinkable beer are still probably unreasonable high.