I did a 2gallon pilot batch last night, a tweak from this recipe. I didnt have the same hops on hand, so just subbed what I had (Sorachi & tett for FWH, willamette for 30min, cent for 15). The interesting tweak was to make 25% of the grain bill wild rice. I pre-gelatinized it and then crushed it up a little, added to the mash and tried to mash as normal. Since this was a pilot batch, it wouldn't work on my normal setup (MLT is 72qt coleman xtrreme, so a small grainbill barely covers the floor)... well I suppose it could have worked, but the setup and cleaning wasnt worth it, so I did the batch in the kitchen. After 4years of brewing, I've done my first batch ever in the kitchen! I used a pasta boiler/colander combo as a MLT and it worked pretty nicely. I had some difficulty maintaining the mash temps, but I was between 140 and 160 lol. The efficiency definitely took a hit, but it is hard to say if my low OG was due entirely from that or partially from unconverted rice (no iodine test). OG was 1.042. Pitched onto bottle dregs from 2 big bottles of my last saison (no saison yeast at LHBS...).
All in all, certainly a cottage house example... whatever I had on hand basically! I am very interested in the flavor the rice will impart, and I will update when I can! Cheers