Maine Brews

Today I did my first recipe with oatmeal, and a significant amount of oatmeal as well, 3# in the grist. I used 8 cups of rice hulls, but the sparge was still very sticky. Thankfully I had an assistant today, or it would have been very slow work.

I used my small pot to move the mash over after an hour, and that went very well. It seemed to be draining very well, until I got to the second batch sparge. Then the mash became like paste.

We got through it with a lot of stirring, I have to be honest and say that the sactity of the mash bed was not respected at all in this session, and suction was the #1 enemy. The sparge took at least an hour, which allowed for plenty of time to enjoy a homebrew.

When the sparge was finished, or abandoned, I had about 9 gallons of wort. Then we began a very careful boildown, as the boil vessel was pretty much at capacity.

Once we got to the transfer, it was smooth siphoning. A beautiful chocolate colored wort ran through the tubing, and I ended up with a lot of wort at the end of the boil.

I transferred about 6 gallons of wort into my 6.5 Gal carboy. I’m trying some fermcap in this batch to see if I can avoid a blowoff, I’d really like to keep as much of this brew as possible.

Recipe below:

Boil Duration: 90.0 mins

Fermentables
UK Pale Ale Malt 16lb 0oz
US Flaked Oats 3lb 0oz
UK Chocolate Malt 1lb
German CaraRed 8.00 oz
UK Roasted Barley 4.00 oz
UK Black Malt 4.00 oz

Hops
US Centennial (8.5 % alpha) 0.25 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 90 Min From End
US Cascade (4.5 % alpha) 1.20 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
German Tettnang (4.5 % alpha) 0.40 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End
US Amarillo (5.0 % alpha) 0.40 oz Loose Pellet Hops used 60 Min From End

Yeast: Danstar-Nottingham (2 packets)
Schedule Name:Single Step Infusion (66C/151F) w/Mash Out

Recipe Notes
3.25 oz cocoa at 15 minutes