Prince of Darkness Batch #2

We had a bit of a brew party. Alex brought over his nice SS 10 gallon pot. Nicky, Eric and Kerry came over too. I had bought a 160,000 BTU propane burner.

I modified the original PoB recipe slightly:

9lbs pale 2row Maris Otter (increased from 8lbs)
1lbs crystal malt, 60 deg Lovibond
1.5lbs quick oatmeal (increased from 18oz)
0.5lbs chocolate malt
0.5lbs roasted barley
2 oz Fuggles leaf hops
1 pack Wyeast 1084, Irish Ale yeast

I attempted to make a yeast starter from yeast slurry that I had harvested from the original PoB. I had stored this in a bottle at the back of the fridge for several months. I pitched this into a mini DME wort, but there were no signs of life after 24hrs. Fortunately I bought a smack-pack as backup.

I decided to attempt a protein rest at 122 degF. We started with a stiff mash of ~2gallons strike water. We held the protein rest for 30mins, then added 1.25 quarts boiling water, which nicely incresed the temp to 154 degF, which we held for 1 hour.

We sparged with the remaining 6 or so gallons. The sparge rate was very slow, probably taking about an hour. I don't think I'd want it any slower, but this was a nice rate. I assume the slowness is due to the protein rest and the extra oatmeal thickening up the wort.

Hop/boil schedule was simple: We added all hops 15 minutes into the 1hour boil.

Again, the leaf hops caused some grief when it came to syphoning into the fermenter. We got about 3/4 of the way with the syphon, then the syphon got so plugged, we ended up straining the rest through the sieve/funnel.

OG was 1064.

The propane burner and big pot is *WAY* quicker than the two smaller pots on the stove.