The Bar Towel

brewed a massive barley wine today while drinking some belgian brews with jessem:

2 row
pale chocolate
crystal 120L
rye malt
light DME

2 oz chinook @ 60min

OG: 1.108

matt7215 wrote:brewed a massive barley wine today while drinking some belgian brews with jessem:

2 row
pale chocolate
crystal 120L
rye malt
light DME

2 oz chinook @ 60min

OG: 1.108

i still don't understand the addition of DME to big beer.
can't you get away with upping grains to get the same OG?

Made a Vanilla Oatmeal Stout, first time adding vanilla. Used an entire bean, scrapped the inner seeds with a knife. Sanitized the scrapped bean, and the seeds in a shot of spiced rum before adding them to the primary fermenter. Bottled it and then aged the bottles for a month now; tried a bottle the other day, and I can't taste the vanilla. So I'm thinking I need to add more vanilla. But I don't know how much, I think I'll try 3 vanilla beans next time.

Any one have experience brewing with vanilla beans, and know how much a 5 Gallon batch can take before the vanilla shows through? Just looking for a nice vanilla flavour or finish. Do you think 3 is the right amount?

It depends on the quality, freshness and variety of the beans.

Guybrush wrote:Made a Vanilla Oatmeal Stout, first time adding vanilla. Used an entire bean, scrapped the inner seeds with a knife. Sanitized the scrapped bean, and the seeds in a shot of spiced rum before adding them to the primary fermenter. Bottled it and then aged the bottles for a month now; tried a bottle the other day, and I can't taste the vanilla. So I'm thinking I need to add more vanilla. But I don't know how much, I think I'll try 3 vanilla beans next time.

Any one have experience brewing with vanilla beans, and know how much a 5 Gallon batch can take before the vanilla shows through? Just looking for a nice vanilla flavour or finish. Do you think 3 is the right amount?

vanilla in primary is the wrong way to go, 1 bean in secondary for a month and you would have been fine

atomeyes wrote:i still don't understand the addition of DME to big beer.
can't you get away with upping grains to get the same OG?

generally, yes, but with big beers you're often limited by the size of your mash tun. you also generally get worse efficiency with big beers, so sometimes a little something extra to bump it up to your target gravity is necessary.

big beers are why I have more tuns than I need - double them up for big brews. though once I finish the manifold for my new 120qt monster, I'll be able to stick to a single lauter tun at least...

grub wrote:

atomeyes wrote:i still don't understand the addition of DME to big beer.
can't you get away with upping grains to get the same OG?

generally, yes, but with big beers you're often limited by the size of your mash tun. you also generally get worse efficiency with big beers, so sometimes a little something extra to bump it up to your target gravity is necessary.

big beers are why I have more tuns than I need - double them up for big brews. though once I finish the manifold for my new 120qt monster, I'll be able to stick to a single lauter tun at least...

didn't think of mash tun size. whoops.
brewing a barley wine in august for the first time, so it was good to see that little attention to detail.

atomeyes wrote:

grub wrote:

atomeyes wrote:i still don't understand the addition of DME to big beer.
can't you get away with upping grains to get the same OG?

generally, yes, but with big beers you're often limited by the size of your mash tun. you also generally get worse efficiency with big beers, so sometimes a little something extra to bump it up to your target gravity is necessary.

big beers are why I have more tuns than I need - double them up for big brews. though once I finish the manifold for my new 120qt monster, I'll be able to stick to a single lauter tun at least...

didn't think of mash tun size. whoops.
brewing a barley wine in august for the first time, so it was good to see that little attention to detail.

if my recipe had been all grain it would have been 21lbs of grain

Brewed 10 gallons of "dark lager" yesterday... We'll see how the finished product tastes, but my process and ingredients are not authentic enough to call it a Munich Dunkel at this point.

Split it with 34/70 and S-23. Both were given to me by other homebrewers. Jared Carlberg (far and away the most successful homebrewer in Canada the last few years) has made award winning lagers with the poorly reviewed S-23, so figured I'd see for myself.

This is only the second lager I have ever brewed, and the last one was 5 years ago (a tasty 100% munich malt Vienna/Marzen).

Brewed up an Alt last night,

American - Pilsner 58.5%
American - Munich - 60L 29.3%
American - Caramel / Crystal 80L 4.9%
American - Wheat 4.9%
German - Melanoidin 2.4%

Hit all my numbers on the dot, OG 1.061. Using Wyeast 1007 to ferment, first time doing a German ale so excited to see how it turns out.

ritzkiss wrote:Brewed up an Alt last night,

American - Pilsner 58.5%
American - Munich - 60L 29.3%
American - Caramel / Crystal 80L 4.9%
American - Wheat 4.9%
German - Melanoidin 2.4%

Hit all my numbers on the dot, OG 1.061. Using Wyeast 1007 to ferment, first time doing a German ale so excited to see how it turns out.

Is the 60L munich a typo?

markaberrant wrote:

ritzkiss wrote:Brewed up an Alt last night,

American - Pilsner 58.5%
American - Munich - 60L 29.3%
American - Caramel / Crystal 80L 4.9%
American - Wheat 4.9%
German - Melanoidin 2.4%

Hit all my numbers on the dot, OG 1.061. Using Wyeast 1007 to ferment, first time doing a German ale so excited to see how it turns out.

Is the 60L munich a typo?

Haha, yep. Just regular ol' 9L Munich Malt.

brewed a sour stout.
2-3 weeks of fermenting in primary, then 6 months in secondary. 8.1% abv if the yeast cake of bugs i re-pitched is still healthy and fun.

atomeyes wrote:brewed a sour stout.
2-3 weeks of fermenting in primary, then 6 months in secondary. 8.1% abv if the yeast cake of bugs i re-pitched is still healthy and fun.

What are you using for critters?

markaberrant wrote:

atomeyes wrote:brewed a sour stout.
2-3 weeks of fermenting in primary, then 6 months in secondary. 8.1% abv if the yeast cake of bugs i re-pitched is still healthy and fun.

What are you using for critters?

6 months ago, i managed to get my paws on some East Coast Yeast Flemish Ale. made a Flemish red with it with, i believe, your recipe you sent to me (with a few tweaks) and the sour stout.

sour stout had some wood chips soaked in Wild Turkey 81 added to it. tasted it a month ago and it was absolutely incredible. like, you'd go nuts if you could buy this commercially. and i give all the credit to the bug mix. it is spectacular.

i took the yeast cake from secondary, added a starter of WLP's abbey yeast to get the high attenuation and let it ride.
fermentation was nuts after 1 day in my basement.
if you want to risk it, i'll send you some of the primary yeast cake. but the amount of sacc versus bugs means that you'd have to build a starter and be patient for it to balance out.
if you want it, let me know.