AG#6 - Otter Dark Stout mkII

[WishboneBrewery]

*Bit of a copy paste from the recipe forum, sorry for the repeat*
Otter Dark Stout MKII - This is basically my first Extract own recipe which I'm now going to do as an All Grain It tasted bloody fantastic as an extract brewed with Safale s-04, but this time I'm thinking of using Whitelabs Irish Ale yeast WLP004 http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp004.html
This is MKII because I'm rationalising my hops a bit instead of using a combination of EKG's / Fuggles as my bittering additions I'm going to use Admiral and save grams on the Flavour/Aroma additions.
For Water Treatment I'm thinking I'll follow the Stout profile in the GW Calc, though wondering if I should add some Gypsum to the Mash and the Boil anyway??
Will a stout mash be naturally more or less acidic??? (90min mash)

Fermentables:
Maris Otter 3800g
Roasted Barley 355g
Chocolate Malt, Pale 355g (Thanks to Paul @ http://www.barleybottom.com for the excellent service, You'll be getting some of this when its ready)
Crystal Malt 355g
Crystal Wheat Malt 190g

Hops:
Admiral 20g (FWH) 60mins
Fuggle 20g @ 15mins
East Kent Golding 20g @ 15mins

Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.016
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 33.4 Litres
Mash Liquor: 12.6 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 36 EBU
Colour: 232 EBC

Here's the pictures so far.....
The Grain bill, Maris otter, roasted barley, pale chocolate malt, crystal wheat malt, crystal malt:

Mash Temp, near as damn it 66 C, finished at 64 C Hmm!:

Mash pH, think this looks about right, I ended up adding a Teaspoon of Gypsum with my other water treatments:

First run off, tastes pretty damn good:

Mash Tun and first batch sparge, its proceeded to stick after a good start, had to re-suspend and blow up the pipe, I wonder if it is the Crystal Wheat malt thats causing this as my last 23L batch in this tun worked perfectly with no sticking:

I managed to not prepare quite enough water this time too, nice! So I'm generally arsing about boiling kettles full of bottled water to top up my second batch sparge, I'm not far short but enough to be annoying
The Mash is doing a slow trickle! How can it work perfectly one time and then be a b'stard the next?! *Bigger saw cuts maybe, they are all Junior Hacksaw cuts at present*
More to follow... S L O W L Y !
Admiral FWH going in with first batch spargings to warm up, the second batch sparge is running off better than the first, thankfully!!!:

Cooler in and 15 minute hops (Fuggles and EKGs):

I had 10g of Fuggles scraps left in the bag so these have gone in as a Zero minutes 10 min steep:

Cold Break and (Floaters) Hop seeds:

Hit my Target OG of 1048, happy happy joy joy:

I've decided I'm going to split this batch and use the Whitelabs Irish & s-04 yeasts.
Hop seed catcher and aeration:

Much needed refreshment, 'Fuggles Bitter':

Pitched Vial @ 22 C Whitelabs Irish Ale yeast WLP004 in FV1:

Dry Sprinkled @ 22 C Safale s-04 in FV3:


All done, Just a bit of tiding up to do Net curtain material ordered on ebay!

[Cheshire-cheese]

What's a brewday without the odd oh-f### moment

[WishboneBrewery]

Second sparge is doing better I might invest in a net curtain!

[Cheshire-cheese]

On that subject: I'm thinking of doing an experimental stout this weekend in a small batch. I've got cheese cloth and butter muslin in the cupboard, one of them should do the trick shouldn't it?

[WishboneBrewery]

Not sure, I presume they'd both do the job, Nylon may be better for cleanliness???

The Cooler is in doing its job as i type

[WishboneBrewery]

Update:
S-04 has started doing its stuff but I think I'll be waiting at least 12 more hours for the Whitelabs to get going.
I'm going to do a little manifold slot widening today, see if I can't sort the slow-to-stuck mash thing.

[WishboneBrewery]

As of about now, we have fermentation with both batches
Whitelabs WLP004 Irish Ale:

Safale s-04:

[WishboneBrewery]

Fermentation has pretty much finished, yeast has settled, FG 1012-ish which is a couple of points better than predicted.
Samples from the test jar were drunk...
S-04 = Pretty different tasting to the Extract brew of the same beer
WLP004 = " D I T T O " - Has a much more rounded flavour

I'd be tempted to blend these come bottling time, would that be good or bad... sensibility would say to bottle separate.

[Cheshire-cheese]

It would be more interesting to bottle separately, to carry on the comparison to the very end.

[WishboneBrewery]

yeah... its the best idea.
I'm a little worried that it doesn't taste like the Extract recipe, as that recipe was brilliant

[WishboneBrewery]

Just tried a bottle... (a bit soon!)

But bloody hell!! Smooth malty creamy roasted and interesting!!!!

[Cheshire-cheese]

Better than the extract?

[WishboneBrewery]

probably, it was the Irish Ale yeast one... I'll have to do a side by side comparrison when they are actually ready