Spring Cleaning: Dark

Modern Art: Malt-Oat-Barley

This brew is my dark complement to last week's 'Spring Cleaning: Light'. I accumulated all the Chocolate, Black Patent, and Black Barley in the house and threw in a pound of flaked oats for good measure (and smoothness.) Last year I had accidentally purchased the wrong hops for a brew so I had 1 oz. each of Fuggles and Styrian Golding with happens to be just perfect for bittering up a dark and dirty monster.

An explanation on the yeast. The wife is a 1 gal. brewer and only needs 1/2 package of dry yeast for a healthy fermentation. Thus we had a couple 1/2 packs of yeast hanging out in the fridge with nothing to do. I decided to put 'em to work for this brew. Typically I'd use an Irish Ale yeast or S-04 or something for this dark ale. Instead we're experimenting with half American ale yeast and half Bavarian wheat ale yeast. These house cleaning recipes are really igniting my child-like curiosity. Why can't I justify a whipping up a crazy recipe unless I "have" to. Me sees more wacky brews in the future.

Recipe Notes
Style: Black Half-Heffe?

Batch Volume: 5 gal.
Color: 48 SRM
Target Bitterness: 32 IBU
Target OG: 1.040

Grist
5 lb. 8 oz. 2-Row
1 lb. 1.2 oz. Chocolate Malt
1 lb. Flaked Oats
7.1 oz. Black Patent Malt
5.7 oz. Black Barley

1 oz. UK Fuggle 5.3% (FWH)
1 oz. Styrian Golding 3.2% (FWH)

1/2 Pkg. Safale US-05
1/2 Pkg. Safbrew WB-06

Brew Notes
Brew Date: 2/15/15
Mash Temp: 149F
Mash Time: 80 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.25 gal
Measured OG: 1.040
Brewhouse Efficiency: 73%

Brew day went very smooth. Raised water to 160 to dough in. Mashed at 153 (149 after correcting for uncalibrated thermometer.) Collected 5 gal. of wort even and boiled for a solid 60 min. Chilled to 70F and poured through brew bag and colander to filter out hop crap. Collected 4.5 gal from boil kettle at a gravity of 1.048, so had some room to top up. Added 0.75 gal. of cold tap water to hit 1.040 in the fermenter.

Update 2/21/15 - Racked to secondary to make room in the fermenter bucket. Gravity is 1.012. Tastes and smells veeery roasty. Almost getting an astringency out of the roast. Lots of chocolate and toasted flavors.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.011
Attenuation: 73%
ABV: 3.8%
Calories:132 per 12oz.
Carbonation: 2.5 volumes

Update 2/25/15 - Kegged 10 days after brew date. Gravity is 1.011. Tastes pretty good. Wife says it tastes 'smooth.' I'll take it. Purged CO2, pressurized, and shook keg back and forth horizontally 100 times to try carbonating faster. Will try doing this once per day and compare to the previous brew to see if it speeds things up. All done under serving pressure of 12 psi.