Dry Irish Stout Brewday

One of the clubs of which I am a member is doing a club experiment where a bunch of brewers will brew nearly the same recipe but vary one ingredient - in this case the roast malt. I decided to use Carafa I in this recipe to see how that grain tastes in comparison to Black Patent, Roast Barley, Chocolate Malt, etc...

Cooling the wort. 

Recipe: Irish Stout
Style: Dry Stout
TYPE: All Grain
Note: 1/2 g Cal. Chloride and 1/2g Gypsum, per gallon of brewing water.
Ferment at 68F for 6 days, 70F for 2 days, crash cool to 35F.

Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 6.88 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.88 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.5 gal  
Bottling Volume: 5 gal
Estimated OG: 1.057 SG
Estimated Color: 41.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 39.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU        
5.25 gal              Boston, MA                               Water         1        -            
7 lbs                 Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         4        57.1 %        2 lbs                 Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM)                 Grain         5        16.3 %       
2 lbs                 Carafa I (337.0 SRM)                     Grain         6        16.3 %       
1 lbs                 White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM)               Grain         7        8.2 %        
4.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)   Grain         8        2.0 %        
0.95 oz               Magnum [12.00 %] - Boil 65.0 min         Hop           9        39.9 IBUs    
1.0 pkg               Irish Ale Yeast (White Labs #WLP004)     Yeast         10       -            

Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 12 lbs 4.0 oz
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Name                    Description                                          Step Temperat Step Time    
Mash In                 Add 19.31 qt of water at 161.2 F                     152.0 F       60 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 4.52gal) of 168.0 F water


Made starter on 3/23/16 since I was planning to brew that week. Brewday was delayed... After starter fermented, cooled, allowed yeast to completely settle, then put yeast in mason jar with boiled H20.

4/3/16. Brewed. Brew day went well. Hit my mash temp of 152F. Mashed for 1 hour, drained, then sparged. Probably oversparged a little.

Pre-boil OG was ~1.046 / 11.4B. Post-boil OG was 1.054 / 13.4B, slightly under. Overvolume.

Cooled to 90F, then placed into fermentation chamber for final cooling to 68F.  Got 5.75 gallon into fermenter pre-pitching.

After wort reached 67F, oxygenated 1 min and pitched yeast directly from Mason jar. At around 9 pm.

By 5pm on 4/4/16 the beer was actively fermenting. I am afraid some foam may blow out of the airlock when high krausen hits. The temperature probe taped to the side of the carboy read 67.7F. Of course the middle of the beer is likely at a higher temp due to the heat of fermentation.

4/5/16, 5pm. Quite some foam blew through the S-type airlock during high krausen. I removed the beer / krausen soaked airlock and bung, and replaced them with a clean one. High krausen has passed but the new airlock was bubbling at a moderate pace.

I would like to have a stainless kettle with internal volume etchings for better control over my final batch volume.