2/22/09 - Made a 2.5 L yeast starter @ OG 1.053.

2/27/09 - Decanted starter wort and added 2L of new wort and put it on a stir plate.

2/28/09 - Brewed main wort w/ few problems for the most part.  I mashed in a 13 gal converted keg, and insulated it with a sleeping back around the sides and a lid and towel over the top.  Mashed in a bit high (about 158) but I dont imagine that will be noticable with all the other flavors added post boil.

Lautering was a pain about 5 gallons in, I dont know if it was due to a large amount of flaked oats in the grain bill or the overall large amount of grains in the mash; eventually however, I managed to get 12 gallons out of it.

This was the first time I have used leaf hops as well.  I knew that draining the kettle would be a little more difficult due to the leaf hops, however I had a screen that hooks to the inside of the ball valve bulkhead that I thought would help a bit.  Towards the last 2 gallons the screen got clogged and I could only drain by scraping the junk away from the screen with a spoon.  Next time I use leaf hops I'll keep them in a bag.

I also used a counter-flow wort chiller I made for the first time along with a fountain pump I already had.  I used the pump to circulate ice water through the 20 ft. length of hose but the water pumped much too quickly and the wort was close to 90 degrees afterwards.  I am going to need to find a way to slow down the water pump so I use less water.

I pitched a 2 L yeast starter (decanted) about 14 hours later when it had cooled to 65.

Airlock activity was ovserved within 12 hours.

3/10/09 - Transferred to secondary, the gravity was still very high 1.030 so I added 2.5 tablets of ground beano to each carboy and it seemed to activate some additional fermentation.  I also put in 2 oz of ground Kona coffee to each carboy at this time.  Took a taste test, the bitterness of the coffee and chocolate came through quite a bit (more than I would like), but we'll see if the Kona adds some sweetness that balances it out. The high gravity couldnt have helped either.