Brewing Notes, Oatmeal Stout (Sun 29 jun)

I plan to brew an oatmeal stout tomorrow. I am going to make an ~ 1 liter starter of Wyeast Irish Ale 1084 using 1/2 cup pilsen DME tonight to be ready for tomorrow evening when I brew.

Starter made Sat 28jun: Package was slow to swell, but had swoll some within 5 hours before pitched to starter. It was coming up on 5 months from born on date. I forgot (i think, came back from a cookout a bit buzzed) to aerate the starter wort very vigorously, but I know I did shake it up a little bit once the yeast were in, swirled it a few times later on, and it probably got aerated some while being poured into the growler.

The partial mash process I plan to use is listed in the previous post titled "partial mash ideas for oatmeal stout". Basically going to mash for an hour and then do 1 batch sparge of ~ equal volume to reach my boil volume of ~ 3 gallons. Then just add the extract and boil as normal.

The recipe is as follows:

PM:
1.5 lbs. Maris Otter
1.0 lbs. Flaked Oats
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Roasted Barley
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs. Simpson's Dark Crystal Malt

Additional Fermentables:
3.15 lbs. Munich LME
1.0 lbs. Golden Light DME

Hops:
1.0 oz Glacier (60 min)

So, the process went fairly smoothly, mashed in at 169-170, temp was read at 154 1 hour later.  I used a down comforter, and some wool blankets to insulate my "mash tun".  A couple of things to note for the future learned during this process:

1. During the mash, the cephalon pot with false bottom was able to hold the 4 lbs. of grain plus 1.5 gallons of water almost exactly.  However, when sparging, because the grains had absorbed so much water, I had to actually do two seperate batch sparges of approximately .75 gallons each because that it all there was room for in the pot due to grain expansion.

2. Estimating based on how much the grains absorbed, I probably lost approximately .75 gallons that was stuck within the grain, leaving my boil volume at approximately 2.5 gallons, a little smaller than normal (3 gallons for mash / sparge + 1/4 gallons volume of extract - 3/4 gallons absorbed in the grain).

3. Don't skim the hop or oat oils to maximize hop flavor/aroma and body given by oats.

OG was measured at ~ 1.044

1 liter starter pitched at 9:30 PM into 68F wort.