Life begins at 60....

1.060 that is....
Maple Ale
This is my second attempt at a batch sparge, my first with a higher gravity beer
Grain bill:
9 lbs rahr 2 row pale
.75 lbs briess caramel 60l
.5 lbs briess caramel 80l
.25 lbs fawcett pale chocolate
.125 lbs UK black malt
Hops/ adjuncts:
.75 oz US Goldings 60 min
.75 oz Liberty 30 min
1 oz Willamette 15 minutes
16-24 oz organic grade b maple syrup, I'm just going to pour liberally until I decide to stop

Wyeast Northwest Ale is the yeast I chose and I made a starter yesterday to account for the higher gravity I'm expecting from the syrup.

Heat 3.5 gal strike water to 162
Mash in 7:29pm 150.9
Temp check 7:36 154 plastic, 151.9 digital 
Good temps, mash for 60 min
Heat 5.5 gal to 190
Add 2 gall to tun to raise temps to 168-170
Vorluf out slowly to set your grain bed 8:35- temp check only gave me 158, use closer to boiling next time, this is ok, I sometimes mash for 75 min anyway
Empty your first runnings into the kettle
Check your kettle level and add remaining hot water  up to 3 megal maybe less, Depending in kettle level. I left about 1/2 gallon in the cooler. 
Vorluf to set grain bed 8:42pm temp check 169.6, booyah! 
Drain 2nd runnings into kettle
One drawback I notice with batch sparing is a lot more grain pieces in kettle, even after vorluf. I attribute this to a slow drain when fly sparging versus opening the valve and draining as quick as possible with batch sparging I'll just skim the surface with a strainer in an effort to pick some of this out

Bring to boil- hot break9:09pm
Add your goldings once boil settles to rolling 
Add your liberty 30 minutes into the boil
Add your Willamette 45 minutes into the boil, also add the wort chiller to the kettle
Add yeast nutrients at 10 minutes
Oops, boil over, stupid mistake that is a bitch to clean up, think carmelized sugar all over your equipment. You also lose precious beer! 
Add maple syrup as close to flame out as possble to sanitize, without risking burning 10:10pm
Chill wort to 80 degrees 10:30 pm
75 degrees, 10:31pm, I love brewing in fall, super fast cooling 
Whirlpool and Let settle 1/2 hour
Take a hydrometer reading
My OG without the syrup addition should be 1.052 with syrup, who knows, since I'm not actually sure how much syrup I dumped in, but it's coming in at 1.060 Glad I made a starter
Aerated and pitched yeast at 11:50 pm