Apartment brew series - Stormy Night English Dark Mild

I brewed an English Dark Mild last week in my apartment. It's something I've wanted to do for awhile, but kept putting off for brewing on my big boy system. I'd like to have a series of 5 gallon batches bottled on hand at the apartment. Basically, I want to relax, brew, bottle, and be able to watch my beer through the whole process, rather than stress about it being 30 minutes away. There was something truly nice about being done with a brew in 3.5 hours and on the couch relaxing.

 I haven't done this in awhile...

 Thanks to Gregg at the Pumphouse for this sample of Mangrove Jack yeast. Rehydrated according to online instructions.

 Added the DME right before the boil.

 I think I'll have to stick with 3-4 gallon boils. My electric range stove was just about perfect for this volume. Boiled for 60 minutes with three additions of Fuggles.

 I like to think Ben would be happy with the brew. He had an affinity for English Ales.

After 5 minutes of manual aeration/workout.

 Collected a little more wort than I wanted, but no big deal. 1.052 @ 6 gallons.

A giant igloo cooler, check. Frozen jugs, check. Kickass consistent ale ferment temperature, check. Fermented at 65 degrees for 3 days, then let it sit in our ambient apartment ~70 degrees.

Update: 8/22/2013 - Two weeks ago I set myself up to bottle until I realized that my fermentation got stuck around 1.020. I pitched a full sachet of Danstar Windsor Ale yeast and gave it another two weeks. I didn't see any fermentation activity in my bubbler, so I assumed it was just stuck and I'd bottle it despite its high FG. Well, last night I realized that the bucket lid wasn't on all the way... It tasted more mature, but I didn't sense oxidation, so I bottled it with Muntons carbonation tabs @ 1.012 FG.

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com

Recipe: Stormy Night English Dark Brown

Brewer: Adam Keck

Asst Brewer: 

Style: Northern English Brown Ale

TYPE: Extract

Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications

--------------------------

Boil Size: 3

Post Boil Volume: 5.73 gal

Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal   

Bottling Volume: 4.78 gal

Estimated OG: 1.053 SG

Estimated Color: 21.5 SRM

Estimated IBU: 27.3 IBUs

Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %

Est Mash Efficiency: 0.0 %

Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

------------

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         

8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)    Grain         1        7.1 %         

8.0 oz                Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM)               Grain         2        7.1 %         

6 lbs                 Amber Dry Extract (12.5 SRM)             Dry Extract   3        85.7 %        

1.00 oz               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min         Hop           4        16.1 IBUs     

1.00 oz               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           5        8.0 IBUs      

1.00 oz               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           6        3.2 IBUs      

1.0 pkg               Newcastle Dark Ale (Mangrove Jack #MO3)  Yeast         7        -