Yet another AG GF success - Scottish 80 Shilling

Today I brewed another AG GF brew using the same basic strategy as my GF Raspberry Blonde. I found some chocolate buckwheat malt I had made (about 3.5 oz) and half a pound of my crystal buckwheat malt (which doesn't really taste like much, but maybe it will help with body/mouthfeel).

My grainbill:

5lb Millet malt
2 lb buckwheat malt
.5 lb crystal buckwheat
3.5 oz choc buckwheat
1 lb oatmeal

This was supposed to be a 4 gallon batch (3 into fermenter), since all my 6.5 gallon carboys are full. Last time around I got about 21 ppg from a similar grainbill, and I was assuming I'd get about the same.

I used my Blendtec to grind all the malts into flour (the buckwheat I tried to leave somewhat intact, in the hope that they could act like hulls and filter the mash).

I used the same basic mash procedure, which takes FOREVER, but seems to give good results for me - multi-infusion reverse decoction (?).
15 minute rest at 104
30 minute rest at 131
Remove the liquid part, 20 minute rest of the remaining mash at 158.
Bring to boiling, cool to 158 and add back liquid for 1 hour rest at 149.

I hit the temperatures spot on. I decided to decoct in the oven at 300 for about an hour and a half - I'm not sure it hit a full boil. I missed the "cool to 158" step, so I had to add a bunch of extra cold water to get to the 149 temperature.

My initial runoff was 14 brix - I was NOT expecting that. My sparge (using cooler/toilet braid) stuck so hard it was laughable. After an hour of trying everything I could think of, I decided to switch to my paint strainer bag and use that to lauter. Next time I'll definitely add rice hulls - I decided to do this brew spur-of-the-moment, and the LHBS was closed at that point.

I somehow managed to get 7.5 gallons of 9 Brix wort. Unless my calculations are several off, this comes to 31 PPG extraction, which I didn't even know was possible with these grains.

I boiled 3 quarts of the first runnings down to 1.5 quarts, to attempt to get some Scottish Ale-style kettle caramelization, since I haven't managed to get much flavor out of my GF crystal malts.

I really am a bit puzzled as to how I managed to hit these numbers.

I'm going split this batch into 2 3-gallon carboys, and maybe add some type of flavoring or fruit to one of them. Any suggestions? My wife (who I do these GF brews for) suggested maybe coconut...

Oatmeal has a pretty high extract. Buckwheat can supposedly get around 85% extraction with a proper decoction mash. It will be interesting to see how fermentable the wort is. What kind of millet was it? Red or white?

I personally would not add fruit to anything Scottish. It would be a good time to experiment with different yeast strains. Some smokiness from tea might be good.

Good to see the success. Keep this updated.

I used CMC white millet.

I would have split it between two different yeasts, but sadly I had just pitched my last WLP005 slurry into a (gluten-containing) milk stout, and only had US-05 left.

I'm not sure how "scottish" this will necessarily be, i'll have to see once it ferments out. Tea is an interesting idea. Coffee might also be nice... Or maybe some cocoa nibs. If I were making this for my own consumption (as opposed to SWMBO), I'd probably toss in some chipotle peppers...

So this batch doesn't seem to be fermenting like I would expect... on Monday I was getting some bubbles from my blowoff tube (I put an airlock on one, blowoff tube on the other), but no visible krausen in either carboy. I'm going to do a gravity check this evening, and maybe add some amylase if it doesn't seem to be doing anything. It's also possible I underpitched....

I've had great beer that had no krausen whatsoever, don't be nervous

Thanks. I don't usually ferment in glass, so I'm not use to this kind of voyeurism. There are bubbles on the surface, so I think they're working. I scooped some high krausen out of my Russian Imperial a few days ago and put it into one of the carboys, and it didn't seem to cause any noticeable change. There have been bubbles coming off the blowoff, so I'm guessing it's working, just looks weird compared to what I'm used to with barley-based beers. I think I did my last GF AG brew in plastic, so I didn't have as many opportunities to spy on it.