Ruin(ed?)ation

Updated 7/31/08 - Well, it's not Ruination. But it's pretty good anyway.
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Five gallon mash tuns are a funny thing. They work great. They really do. So long as you're mashing less than about 14 pounds of grain. But when you want to mash 15.6 pounds for an OG of 1.075, your water to grain ratio quickly falls to almost one quart to a pound. The first lauter had a great SG of about 1.08, but I had to batch sparge twice to get the seven gallons needed for a 90 minute boil. My initial boil gravity came out to about 1.052. I added some corn sugar and DME to boost it a little bit and wound up with an OG of 1.065 after the boil. Even with the target FG of 1.010, this is going to be a little weaker in alcohol than we were shooting for. Between all of that mess and some hop substitutions, well, we'll see...

Batch #17
Stone Ruination Clone - "Rumination" (so Brad can say it right). Recipe from BYO's 150 Clones special issue.
--14.6 lbs 2-row
--1 lb Crystal 15L
*--8 oz Corn Sugar
*--1 cup Light DME
--36 AAU Magnum (60min); *I used 4 oz of 9.3% Newport
--15.7 AAU Centennial (Steep 5min at flame out); *2oz 6% Cascade pellets + 1oz 7.4% Cascade whole
--2 oz Centennial (Secondary 3-5 days); *2 oz Cascade
--Whirlfloc (20min)
OG: 1.065 [1.075 target]
FG: 1.008 [1.010 target]
ABV: 7.1% [7.7% target]
IBU: ~120 [100+ target]

*My subs and fixes

Mash grains at 149°F for 60 minutes, 90 minute boil. My mash was funky because of the capacity of my mash tun. I extracted 1 gallon after an hour, and pulled out 6 more over the next hour. I had lots of temperature fluxuation due to heat loss out the top (no tight seal when it's that full) and hot water additions combined with difficulty stirring such a thick mash. Moral of the story: 10 gallon mash tun for OGs over about 1.065. Racked to secondary after 8 days. Cascade added. Kegged after 5 days.