Hey Everybody…I’m fairly new to home brewing and new to the forumn. I’ve done a few extract kits and just brewed the caribou slobber on Sunday afternoon. I want to add something to it in secondary fermentation, any suggestions? I thought about adding some vanilla beans to it for a vanilla taste but then I was looking at some spices, etc that NB offers and they have their woodchips that seem interesting. Any ideas/suggestions? Thanks!
That beer is pretty darn good as is. But if you are determined to tweak it with additional flavors, vanilla is not a bad one to start with (though I would personally not love it with the hop character of that beer). You may also consider dry hopping it with an ounce each of columbus, amarillo and simcoe. If you are determined to add ‘weird’ ingredients, I would also think about raspberry or apricot (there are lots of threads on here about how best to add fruit).
If you are are interested in brainstorming creative ideas to add other flavors to beers, I would check out Experimental Homebrewing by Denny Conn/Drew Beechum, and/or Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher. Both great resources.
If you are new to brewing, I would highly encourage you to really nail your process down and make great beer before you start adding crazy ingredients, but I do get that the creativity is a big part of the fun of the hobby (especially initially). I will say though then when I stopped trying to do non-traditional stuff and made the decision to make ‘boring’ beer REALLY well, my product went from ‘homebrew’ to ‘beer’.
I like rye in brown beers. Is that appropriate P? I also would dry hop it with amerillo. I wouldn’t spice that beer.
If you like it, it is definitely appropriate!
I would actually say that I think rye does do well in ambers/browns by and large-
I absolutely agree that the Slobber is great as it is. This past spring I tried to match it with a recipe that I designed. It was a fine brown ale, but not as good as the C.S. recipe. Next time I’m craving the Slobber, I’ll just order the kit. Now having said that, a little coffee essence, or perhaps increasing the chocolate character might go real well.
Thanks guys…hope I’m not being a pain with the questions. If I wanted to go with the rye or chocolate option, would that occur in the secondary fermentation process or during the boil? I’m guessing the rye could be done in the form of a dry hop, is that right? Honestly, I’m not sure how to add those.
Thanks
Scott
The chocolate might be a good choice. Adding at flameout or to secondary would work( or both). The Caribou slobber has some chocolate notes already. Not so sure about rye.[quote=“Pietro”]That beer is pretty darn good as is.
If you are new to brewing, I would highly encourage you to really nail your process down and make great beer before you start adding crazy ingredients, but I do get that the creativity is a big part of the fun of the hobby (especially initially). I will say though then when I stopped trying to do non-traditional stuff and made the decision to make ‘boring’ beer REALLY well, my product went from ‘homebrew’ to ‘beer’.[/quote]
Cautionary tale: one of my employees who was starting out homebrewing chose as one of his first attempts an uber complicated self designed huge OG bourbon barrel wood chip addition vanilla bean extract ale…it was a colossal Undrinkable mess. I did give him credit for swinging for the fences!
There are two ways to get rye into the beer:
1.) Our host makes a rye LME. Replace maybe 1-2lbs of the pale malt extract or whatever ‘base’ extract (pale malt extract?) they include with the caribou slobber kit with rye extract
2.) Mash it. Get a paint strainer bag, add 1-2lbs of crushed malted rye with 2 lbs of crushed 2-row malt in the bag to 165* water, stir, leave for an hour, pull the bag out. This is what is known as ‘partial mash’ brewing where you will make wort from grains, then supplement that wort with additional extract.
Chocolate I agree, can be added at flameout, after primary fermentation, or at packaging via chocolate extract.
I think you need to decide what flavor you want in the beer, then we can help you with process. Before we do that though, can you describe your fermentation process (adding yeast, where the fermenter is while it is working, etc.)?
Lets go with some Chocolate. I followed the CS directions as is and used an Ice bath to cool, luckily, cooling occurred very fast compared to my other boils. It might’ve been because I was quickly trying to get the yeast working. I used the dry yeast that came with it, a British dry that required me to heat up some water to 105 degrees F and then add and stir and then pitch after 15 minutes. I aerated the wort, pitched the yeast and it’s now into roughly 60 hours since that time. It’s fermenting in a 6.5 gal glass carboy and for the first 24hrs, it was pretty aggressive (almost had to get a blowoff hose) but has since dropped off to a bubble or so every so often. The beers I’ve brewed so far I’ve been trying to nail down my process and I have been worried about the specific gravity so I don’t have a starting point for that. After I get some more experience under my belt, I’ll start taking a measurement. I’m planning on going a full 2 weeks in Primary and then likely a full 2 weeks in Secondary. Anything else I should include? Thanks again for your help! This is a great resource.
Forgot to add that it’s fermenting in a closet that’s dark with an indoor temp of 69-71 degress.
Probably the best thing you can do now is get your fermentation temps down. Google swamp cooler. Ambient of 70 degrees is a bit too warm for most ales; ale yeast usually works best in the low to mid 60’s, and that’s beer temp, not ambient. Fermenting beer creates heat, so your CS probably fermented at somewhere around mid 70’s during the very active phase. This can cause off flavors and fusel alcohol (pronounced alcohol taste and headaches), although my first attempt at CS was similar to yours and it came out fine.
I know it’s tempting to experiment, but I would second the motion of getting your system tweaked and making the best “boring” beer you can before going too crazy. It will help you understand the process better, and maybe help you avoid mistakes in the future . Best of luck.
:cheers:
Ron
You all have convinced me to stick to the basics for now, but given me some great ideas for future experiments. I’ll check out Swamp Cooler and see how it can help me. I appreciate everyone’s help and knowledge, this has turned out to be a pretty awesome hobby so far. Brew on!
Scott
I am sorry to bump this old thread, but nobody mentioned the best additive to this beer yet. I put aside one gallon of slobber and added a cup of hazelnut coffee to it. It was incredible! So, brew like the directions say, just add one cup of fresh brewed hazelnut coffee when bottling/kegging. For me one cup worked great in a gallon, not sure if it scales up 1:1. I doubt you’d use five full cups in a five gallon recipe. I made this recipe a few times, never again without the coffee addition.
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Thanks for posting this. For me anything hazelnut but the raw nut is terrible indigestion. Can’t find a new recipe without a little experimentation though.
