If my first couple of brew days went as bad as today, I never would have kept at it. Heated my strike water to 168* and doe in. Put my thermometer to check it, 113*. Apparently, my PID's weren't calibrated properly. So, I add almost 3 gallons of boiling water to bring it up. The best I got was 140* so I let it ride. While doing the sac rest I decide to recalibrate the PID on my boil kettle so I out my thermometer down in it. At this point I have three thermometer all showing different temps. Finally get it failed in. I proceed to run my wort off, no sparge water due to an already thin mash. At about 180* I realize my thermometer is still in the bottom of the kettle. I finally get a decent boil. At 203°. So much for calibration. Finally congress time to chill, and I realize I have no where for my run off water to go. Had to put the end out the house in a bucket and dump it five gallons at a time. I ended up with 4.5 gallons of 1034 wort. Not the be I wanted to brew. Guess I need to do A LOT more experimenting and calibration the system before next brew day.
Oh well. I still made beer. And that's a lot more then my lazy a$$ neighbors did today!!!