Dark stouty Graff

Bryan asked if anyone wanted a yeast cake from a Brit beer he just kegged. Of course I won’t be home and have zero time to brew. 

But screw that, we can still use it. 
I have been meaning to get a cider going anyways and already have the ingredients sitting here. 
But I also wanted to make another Graff. The last one was so good. But wanted a different one. I have in my head that a darker roaster taste with maybe a bit more hop would go with cider. So I had this idea. Why not make a dry stout, but use apple juice instead of the water. (Pretty much what a Graff is anyway)
Two things. I don’t have any time. And I don’t wanna boil the juice. No problem. I went and got a prehopped stout extract kit. 
I just opened the can mixed it in about 3/4 gallon of water and dumped in the fermenter.  There was of course a layer of extract at the bottom of bowl, so kept pourin some of the juice in and kept stirring and dumping until it was all mixed in. 
Poured in the rest of the 4 gallons of juice along with the very active yeast cake
The Graff/stout stats:
5 gallons 
OG- 1.065
IBU- can says 37-51
Not sure what the estimated final would be but like most English ale yeast in this range I’m guessing we will be in the 1.012 range. That puts us in the 7%. 
(On a side note. This extract stout kit smells and tastes like hopped molasses. And I usually put molasses in my ciders any way)

Brit IPA 2015 hops

Not as good as last years, but this years hops were ready to go.

I was going to brewing anyway so why do a wet hop IPA. 
11 lbs- 2 row
1 lb- Victory Malt
3/4 lb- 80L
1 oz Galena @60
1 oz Cascade @10
Fresh picked Mt Hoods steeped 10 min at flame out. About 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket. 
Mashed at 154 and used 04 yeast 
I have used my own hops before. But they were dried. These were right off the vine. 
I made a slight miscalculation and did not factor that in. The dried ones soak up tons of water. These do not. In fact they lowered my OG. I was sitting at 16.5 brix, but ended up at 15 after steeping. 

I did learn one thing. I was planning on sun drying the hops as much as I could before I had to use them. But everytime I walked by them while the sun was baking the water out, I could smell them getting stronger.

Since I am using them for aroma, so why bake those smells out of them. I brought them in out of the sun to try and preserve as much of that as I could. 
I think it turned out pretty good. We will see in a few short weeks

The Storm Hammer Stout Mystery

After a slight break in the action, I was able to get a batch brewed yesterday. 

Storm Hammer Stout
11 lbs 2 row
1 lb roast barley
1/2 lb black patent
3/4 lb 40L
1 oz magnum 60
1 oz chinook 15
1 oz centennial 0
Notty yeast mashed at 153
Petty much maxed out the 5 gallon tun. But everything must have been working as I some how managed to get a preboil of 1.070. (Yes I checked that about 10 times)
As I was skeptical of the reading I was really watching the boil off. Everything seemed to be exactly where they needed to be. 
I ended up just slightly over the predicted OG, and right on the nuts volume. So I cannot figure where the +.020 preboil came from. 
Tried a few changes in procedure to get the chaos of brewing outside back under control. Definately need to tighten up the process out here. It’s utter confusion out here. 
I need to get back to the basement where everything is where I need it