Oatmeal Brown Ale

The Plan:

When I was visiting Minneapolis in June this past summer, I snagged a can of Surly Bender and Coffee Bender to bring back to VT.  It wasn't until November that I opened the Bender at a beer tasting.  I honestly didn't even look to see what the style was.  I think I must have looked at some point, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was an oatmeal brown ale.  It... was... amazing.  The aroma alone was enough to make my eyes roll into my head.  Extremely tasty.  Since I don't have access to it, I am going to try to make something similar.  This my take the place of the Third Stone Brown I do each year, which is a clone of Empyrean Ales' beer.

THE RECIPE:
SG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.24%
IBU: 56.3 (this is a little higher than what they say on the surly website, but I'm ok with that)
srm: 22.6
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7# pale malt
1# aromatic
2# flaked oats - kind of high on the oats, but whatever :-\
3/4# crystal 60L
3/4# crystal 90L
1/2# chocolate
1 oz zeus 14% (60)
1 oz willamette 5.5% (5)
Wyeast 1028 London ale (going to pitch an imperial stout on this yeast cake next batch)
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mash @ 152
90 minute boil
ferment @ 67

I've been wanting to brew this for a month now, but this is the first real time I've had to get it done.  Was trying to rock this out Friday night (12/3) or Saturday AM, but it didn't happen... and then was shooting for Sat. night/Sunday AM... but our little dude puked a few times, so my focus was diverted.  Then I started getting sick, so it's been pushed back again. 

1/7 BREWDAY: (first batch of 2011!)
Single infusion mash, batch sparge:
Estimates:
15.2 qts @ 172 --> 167 (when added to cooler) --> 152 (after dough in) for 60 minutes
Actual:
15.2 qts @ 176 added to cooler (preheated with kettle of boiling water) --> 168.5 (after 10 minutes)
After dough in --> 149-153, mostly around 152.
After an hour, temps still between 148-152, most around 150.
Added 8.7 quarts boiling water for mashout --> temp up to 172, added tray of ice, temp now at 161 :-( (should have just added a couple ice cubes, not a full tray)
First runnings - Brix 14.2, collected 4 gallons.
Added 2.5 gallons sparge water @ 175.
Second runnings - Brix 7.4
Pre-boil gravity: 10.8/1.043
Decided to do a 90 minutes boil, hop addtions at 60 and flame out.
Collected 4.75 gallons, starting gravity: 13.6/1.055

1/10 FERMENTATION CONTROL:
I had made a starter about a month ago... kept it in the fridge, decanted it, and let it warm up to room temp before pitching in this.  A day went by and nothing happened, so I decided to get an Activator pack of the same yeast and add that.  The next morning, it was bubblin away.  I'm pretty sure that the original yeast would have kicked in at some point, but I didn't really feel like waiting to see.  Initial starting fermentation temp was around 64, which is a little low.  I checked it last night (1/10) after roughly 36 hours and it was 70.  I wrapped in a towel soaked in cold water, and it brought it back down to about 66.  My target was 67.  I think the fact that it got a little hotter than I wanted will probably just give it a few more fruity esters... not a big deal.  Now we wait for it to finish fermentation, go for a week of secondary, and then this puppy will get kegged.

1/17 SECONDARY:
Decided to brew today... got the whole way to the last 15 minutes of the boil and realized I didn't have my main carboy empty.  Time to rack this thing to 2nd to make room for the patersbier.  One somewhat tricky thing I have to do is sterlize some equipment to collect the yeast from this batch.  I'm intending on using it on an imperial stout I plan to make next.

I ended up collecting about 4.5 gallons... pretty cloudy still, very dark... smells of coffee and chocolate, tastes the same with some bitter from the choc malt.  Hopefully I can clear it up a bit, but this will definitely be a good one.

As far as the yeast... I left a little beer in the bottom to swish up the yeast with.  Seems like I didn't leave quite enough... but I did manage to get about a growler's worth, maybe a little less.  I'll put this in the fridge for now and kick it in a starter a few days before the imperial stout is brewed. 

1/30 CHECK IN:
I really wanted to keg this beast this weekend, but just didn't get around to it.   I did manage to pull a sample to add to the line up of beers I had that night - Smuttynose Old Brown Dog and Wolavers Oatmeal Stout.  I was a little disappointed in what I found... more hop aroma than I would like, and more roasty/bitter notes from the dark malts.  Damn.  Hardly any oat aroma or flavor.  Double damn.  And when compared to the Wolavers, it was very close to the same color.  Triple damn.  I could live with it being darker than I projected, especially since Bender is on the dark side... but I really wanted the oat aromatics to be overwhelminly great.  

Next up... bottling/kegging