Brewing Method: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 1056
Yeast Starter:
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.108
Final Gravity: 1.026
Alcohol Content: %
Total Grains: 21.5 lbs
Color:
Extract Efficiency: %
Hop IBU's:
Boiling Time: 90 minutes
Primary Fermentation: 12 days
Secondary Fermentation: 8+ months
Additional Fermentation:

Grain Bill:

10 lbs pale malt
.5 lb special B
2 lbs Aromatic
2 lbs brown sugar
1 lb German carafaII dehusked chocolate
1 lb crystal 60L
1 lb crystal 80L
3 lbs flaked barley - toasted brown in the oven
1 lb roast barley

Hop Bill:

1 oz Galena 13.4% 60 mins
2 oz Centennial 9.7% 60 mins
.5 EKG's - 10 mins
.5 EKG's - 10 mins
.5 EKG's - 0 mins
.5 EKG's - 0 mins
1 oz Columbus dry hop 2 weeks before bottling.

Mash Schedule:

1.25 gallons to the pound
missed 150 target gravity and ended up at 141 for 30 minutes. oops.
bumped up to 150 for 60 more minutes

Brewers Notes:

This was my brewday from hell. The sparge stuck twice and I ended up putting 1 lb of whole grain in the bottom of the mash tun with hot water and then put the mash on top of that. By this time the mash temp was so low I got ticked and pulled 2 gallons of the mash and boiled it and returned to the mash for mashout.

Boiled first 2 gallons down to 1 gallon and added back to the boil. This ended up giving me molasses/licorice and some complex flavors I never expected. Awesome! I'll definitely do this again!

In planning to rebrew this beer I don't even know what I would do differently to improve it. Given my ultimate goal of a knife and fork fall/winter beer I may add some carapils to make this even thicker. Just be prepared for a final gravity at or above 1.030.

While I received a lot of advice against dry hopping, I'm glad I did it as it seemed to add a twist to the final product that is very appealing.