Ingredients
| 17 lbs. Pale Malt |
| .75 lbs. Crystal 60°L |
| .5 lbs. Roasted Barley |
| .75 lbs. Black Patent |
| .75 lbs. Chocolate Malt |
| 6oz Fuggles (5.5%AA) |
| 2 x WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast |
Mash Method
July 6, 2008
Pre-heated the mash tun and put our grain in once it looked like our strike water was getting up to temperature. Unfortunately, that took longer than expected, so we had to raise the strike water temperature even higher (175°F) to accommodate any heat loss.
After mash-in, our temperature was 142°F. Not too great. Throughout the course of the mash we constantly raised the temperature so that our final temp at the end was 155°F.
Lautering proved difficult as a fair bit of air got into our lines (at the cooler spigot) and made our pump work harder than it should have needed to. And as it turns out, we didn't get all of our wort out after sparging. After the day was done, we found there was still plenty that had fallen out of the grain to the area under the false bottom that we could have added to the boil. Instead, we ended up adding 2 gallons of water to the boil to bring us to the proper volume.
(Also we need to fix the spigot on the mash tun as it leaks A LOT. This was a big problem throughout the day that caused a bit of a commotion)
Brew Method
July 6, 2008
After we finally got everything in the boil pot, we were able to quickly bring it to a boil and get our hot break. Foam blew up, turned down the heat and it subsided. Turned the heat back up, got foam, turned the heat down and it subsided. Turned the heat back up a little and got ourselves a nice rolling boil.
Time for hop additions.
T=60min
Added 2oz Fuggles (5.5%AA)
T=45min
Added 1oz Fuggles (5.5%AA)
T=30min
Added 1oz Fuggles (5.5%AA)
T=15min
Added 1oz Fuggles (5.5%AA)
Added 2 tspn Irish Moss
T=5min
Added 1oz Fuggles (5.5%AA)
Following the boil, we gave it a good stir, whirlpooled it to allow everything to settled conically in the center of the boilpot. After twenty minutes went by, we hooked up the chiller and let the wort flow.
Except it didn't. The line got clogged. We tried blowing back through a couple times to unclog it (hell, Eric even went home and got his air compressor), and while it did indeed unclog every time, within seconds it was clogged again.
The difference between the previous two uses of the HERMS and this time? Hops. Previously we used pellet hops, and this time we used whole hops. A LOT. So there was no way around it, we could not drain through the boil pot.
After about a half hour and a VERY heated argument (putting it lightly), the wort had cooled to the point where we could use the auto-siphon and hook that up to the chiller. While the autosiphon got clogged a couple times, it was not nearly to the degree that the boil pot did. We were able to rack out and properly chill our full ten gallons into two 6.5gal carboys.
Our OG was 1.050. That was including the two gallons of plain water added to the boil. This recipe was deduced using a 70% mash efficiency, and was supposed to be 1.055. If we had taken full runnings out of the lauter (another two gallons) instead of using plain water, our OG would have been around 1.062 - a 79% efficiency.
SO. GET ALL THE RUNNINGS. This will boost our efficiency WAY up and help us lower grain bills (and thus cost). Something to strive for.
Fermentation
July 6, 2008
Pitched our yeast (one vial to each carboy) and put in the basement to begin fermenting.
July 7, 2008
Bubbling away, very rapidly.
July 19, 2008
Racked to secondary. Lots of beer here. Hooray!
Kegging
August 2, 2008
Well today was kegging day! Got two full corny kegs of our oatmeal stout. Our FG was 1.014, which, with our OG of 1.055, gives us an ABV of 5.3%. Alright!
On first taste, something tastes way off. We'll have to test as time goes on.
Tasting
August 29, 2008
Yes, it's been a long time since this was kegged, and we're only getting around to it now. Why, you ask? Well, because, in hooking up the CO2 tank, one of the lines was not fastened properly and it all leaked out overnight. And then it took this long to get a replacement tank.
But on today's trip to the brewstore to get our ingredients for the Split Wheat #1, we grabbed a replacement. The beer is good. There is an odd aroma/aftertaste that neither of us can quite put our finger on, but it's not supposed to be there. It's not nearly as good as our extract-based oatmeal stout, but that's fine. Something definitely changed, but that's ok. It's still yum.
Notes
- Fix the spigot on the mash tun. Rubber O-ring?
- Take the extra time to allow all wort to fall through the grain bed for better lautering.
- When using whole hops, add them in mueslin bags to completely avoid any clogging.
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