Baltic Bastogne Porter Brew Session

Started mash @ 13:00 Clean Up finish at 21:00 Added pH stabilizer during warm up. Initial short mash of 1.6 kg of the grains: 20 min protein @50C 30 min beta @60C. Sparged 2 L cold tap water. Temp went to 55C. Ran the pump with the grains in and it went to 50. Second sparge with 3L. Yeast activator package started leaking during activation. Hope it's still usefull and not infected. Started Fermenting @ 21C 29-07-2015: Fermentation fluctuated between 19 and 23 C. Gravity of 1022 was reached in 4 full days. Taste is good at this point, but there's little body in the texture. More oats or a different mash schedule? 10-8-2015: moved to secondary. Smell is awesome. Taste is quite bitter with some fusel alcohol. Lacks some sweetness to offset grains / hops. Added 100 ml malibu from medium toast french oak chips, 50 ml cinnamon syrup, 50 ml almond syrup. 16-8-2015: taster is quite smooth now, with fusel alcohol mostly gone, and everything else coming through. Bit heavy on the cinnamon. 30-8-205: Bottled with lactose and brown sugar as planned. Sample is smooth and pretty well balanced. Oak is coming through.