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Dark stouty Graff

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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)

The Storm Hammer Stout Mystery

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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

Return of the Dry Stout

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The first batch of the full sized 5 gallon biab was the Fogger dry stout.

Fairly close to the original, but used Magnum hops and the BRY-97 yeast. Mostly because I like the subtle aroma that magnum gives plus I think the Magnum has a different sharpness to its bitter, and I think that might play a little better with the amount of the buffering flaked barley in here.
And the BRY is just trying to find a suitable replacement for the ever problematic US-05.
6lbs- 2row
1lb- roast barley 
2lbs- flaked barley
5oz- chocolate malt
.70 oz- magnum @60
Bry-97 yeast- mashed 154

As this was the first Biab in the propane fired bigger kettle I was expecting a few hiccups. Not much went “wrong” but I think I did learn a few things.
– don’t need the false bottom. I think that hindered heat transfer from bottom of mash to top
– the recirc pump works great, but maybe consider an inlet in the lid in order to keep lid on tight.

I did lose about 3 degrees of heat over the mash, but Had the lid cracked open about an inch because of the recirc hose. You could feel the heat just pouring out of there. 
With nearly 8 gallons of water and 10 lbs of grain, that huge thermal mass isn’t going to lose hardly any heat at all with a tight lid. I doubt I would even need reflectix.
Next up,, oatmeal stout.