So about to brew my Black IPA on Sunday, these tips will help out. I'm debating using a ratio of 1.5 or 1.75 qt/pd for initial mash-in. Will mash for 75 to be safe in my 10 gallon round rubbermaid mash tun. Will stir only at beginning and once 20 minutes before I mash out when I have to add my Midnight Wheat. I also was wondering if perhaps I should slow my vorlauf to a trickle to increase efficiency? I thought I did it slow in past but that meant getting wort out in 10-15 minutes, perhaps extend to 45 minutes.
Guy at my LHBS told me one trick could be to collect first runnings, raise to 168 in kettle, recirculate those, then batch sparge one final time with sparge water to get final volume up to 6.7 gallons to get efficiency up better. Does that sound like a useful exercise as well?
Lastly, using Denny's favorite as my yeast as a new experience.