[all malt was ground to near flour for efficiency]

February 27, 2016:

S.G. 1.038

-Added 150g wheat DME prior to boil because I had it on hand and wanted to get rid of it.

Yeast: 15g Safale S-05 (2/2014) for approx. 138B cells, rehydrated.

-Yeast pitched at approx 16-17C at 8:30AM. Aerated vigorously be rolling carboy on floor for 5 minutes both before and after pitch.

-February 28 (morning): Very strange "start" to fermentation. Long lag time and zero airlock activity for 24 hours. However, yeast 'rafts' are visibly forming at 24 hours. Still no airlock activity. Possible leak somewhere in carboy/stopper? Very little experience with US-05 but I've been considerable concerned. Long lag times could be from low pitching/holding temp, but still it seems strange. Will keep an eye on this throughout the day.

February 28 (afternoon): Steady, but slow, airlock activity at nearly 30 hours. Low krausen forming. No distinguishable smell from airlock at this point.

February 29 (afternoon): Strong, steady airlock activity but strangely there is very little, if any krausen.

March 1: (morning) Strong, steady airlock activity continues. Still a strange lack of krausen, although I here this is not unheard of with US-05. Airlock smells of slightly plummy, yeasty, rising bread.

March 2 (afternoon): What little krausen was there has fallen. Airlock activity significantly slowed. Temperature raised to approx 17-18C. Will continue to slowly raise the temp over the course of the next few days to approx 20C.

March 3 (afternoon): Temp raised to 19C.

March 4 (afternoon): Temp raised to 20C.

March 8 (evening): Took gravity reading and a taste. Surprisingly, it currently sits at 1.015 - and I think it's finished. I'm glad, though very surprised, that it left so much body despite using US-05. It appears that mashing at 160F worked pretty well. Very full in the mouth, though NOT sweet, for a beer of such a low SG and alcohol content. Very malty, in almost a strange way, at the moment - though this could well be because there is a lot of yeast currently in suspension. Not as much roast character as I was hoping, but there beer is still young. I will remove from temp control tomorrow and allow to 'cold crash' for a few days prior to bottling.

March 9 (evening): Removed from temp control to 'cold crash' prior to bottling, hopefully on Sunday.