Brew Day: None More Buzzed Coffee Stout

So today we did our first all-grain brew, a 5-gallon batch of sweet stout that will be aged over home-roasted espresso beans (courtesy of our friends Jamie and Christine). I mashed in (1 qt./lb.) at 167° F with a target mash temp of 156°F. Unfortunately, after fifteen minutes I checked on the mash at it was only at 151°F, so I added 3 cups boiling water to raise the temp to 154°F. I later found this online tool that calculates strike water temperature, and it correctly predicted a 151°F mash temp, so from now on I'm using the tool instead of simply adding 11°F to my target temp.

After an hour, the temp had again dropped to 151°F, so hopefully it won't be too dry/thin, but I guess we'll see. At that point I mashed out with roughly four quarts of boiling water to get up to around 168°F, and then sparged with 5 gallons of 170°F water. In the end I collected 6.6 gallons of wort. I boiled for 90 minutes (getting down to 5.5 gallons), with hop additions at 60 and 15 minutes. I cooled with my immersion chiller and pitched at around 75°F (no starter). I came in at 1053 for my O.G., and while it's slightly below my target of 1056, I noticed I made the recipe for 5 gallons instead of the usual 5.5. Had I calculated for 5.5, it appears the gravity would have been dead-on.

The plan is to rack into a keg after a week and add a half pound of whole espresso beans. Everything seemed to go well... here's hoping there aren't any surprises when I tap the keg!