After studying and accumulating gear since June, I finally brewed a 5 gallon batch yesterday.
What went wrong:
1. Got to enjoying the event so much at the store, I misread the grain bill and added ~twice as much Roasted Barley as the recipe called for. The beer will be darker than intended.
2. I didn't preheat the mash tun adequately and had to add more water to the mash to keep the temp up.
3. My Vorloff (sp?) sucked. I disturbed the grain bed way too much.
4. First runnings on the batch sparge went well, but stuck the second runnings. This turned out to be caused by my dip-tube being too close to the bottom of the keggle (legally obtained).
5. WAY too much grain getting by the grain bed/false bottom. I had to filter the wort through a strainer.
What went right: pretty much everything else. The estimated OG was 1.053 and I hit 1.051.
It is in the kegerator designated as the fermentation chamber and bubbling away. We'll see...
Steve