Easter brew day
My next brew day is easter weekend I’m brewing a breakfast stout and an IPA.
any criticism or help would be most welcome its my 5 or 6 brew and after messing with some kits it my 1st recipes I mixed up.
names are working progress too. feel free to chime in with better “Eastery” names
Empty Tomb Breakfast Stout
steep-
160 F 30min
160 F sparge
8 oz English roasted barley
8oz Chocolate Malt
8oz English Black Malt
4 oz Carafa III
4oz Caramel 120
Boil-
malts/adjuncts
3.15 Dark LME 60min
5oz bakers bittersweet chocolate 60min
6 Dark LME 15min
8oz malto dex 15min
.5 whilfloc tab
hops-
1oz nugget 60
1oz willemette 30
1 oz willemette 0
yeast
S-04 x2
3.5 primary
3 day cold crash at 32 — 2 day gelatin
prime with table sugar
at bottling ill split batch with cold brew coffee at a 2oz per 16oz water rate
bottle condition
Bunny hopped ipa
steep 165 20 min
12oz caramel 40
8oz honey malt
boil-
malts/adjuncts
6lb of Gold malt 60min
1lb of gold DME 60min
1lb of honey 5min
.5 whilfloc tab
Yeast- S-05
hops
.5oz cascade 60min
1oz cascade 15min
1oz cascade 5min
1oz cascade 0 (hopstand 10min)
2oz citra 0 (hopstand 10min)
3week primary
5 day DH 1oz citra, 2 oz cascade
3 day cold crash at 32 — 2 day gelatin
primed with table sugar to bottles
No thoughts? Only crickets?
I’ll give some comments on the stout; I’ll let others who are more focused on hoppy beers comment on the IPA.
I’d start by replacing all the DME with LME. The only reason to use extract which is darker than the “light” is if you don’t want to use steeping grains. If steeping doesn’t bother you, just use the LME. It gives you better control over what is in your beer.
But even with LME, there is an awful lot of roast malts in that beer, much more than I’m used to seeing in a stout. You could cut all the quantities in half and still get a very roasty brew. Also, the black malt and the carafe III are pretty much the same thing, just one has British origins and the other is the German version. You will have a hard time telling the difference if you used 4 oz of each or 8 oz of just one.
The maltodextrin will give you a sweeter beer with a heavy body. Extract brews tend to be that way to start with, and this will make it more so. Not overwhelmingly so, but certainly not dry. I’m assuming you put it in for that reason.
The hopping seems fine.
Ferment in the mid 60s until the beer drops clear (however long that takes, probably about 3 weeks). Cold crash is good, no need for gelatin.
Thanks. I’ll play with the specialty malts see if I can work some different angles. Would hold malt do the trick or lighter than that?
If one could go which one carats 3 or black malt?
Use one of those chocolate rabbits instead of the bakers chocolate. And prime with jelly beans if you want to be traditional
[quote=“Hatchet Jackson”]Thanks. I’ll play with the specialty malts see if I can work some different angles. Would hold malt do the trick or lighter than that?
If one could go which one carats 3 or black malt?[/quote]
When I used to use extract, I simply used the lightest LME that the store had. Some companies label the same thing differently. For the Carafa 3 or the Black, whichever you grab first will work fine.
And definitely go with Brew Cat’s suggestions. That will work fine. Provided the bunnies are dark and not milk chocolate.
Actually, why not prime with peeps? Just shove one in each bottle and you can track the conditioning process as they dissolve.
For the ipa I would drop the honey malt. I have never used it before but I have heard that it is very strong and a little goes a long way. If you want to use it maybe cut it to 4oz. Again I have never used it but if your already using crystal 40 I don’t see the need for the honey malt.
Actually, why not prime with peeps? Just shove one in each bottle and you can track the conditioning process as they dissolve.[/quote]
Yes! The Chocolate Bunny Peep Stout.
Actually, why not prime with peeps? Just shove one in each bottle and you can track the conditioning process as they dissolve.[/quote]
This sounds like a great idea for a novelty beer. I looked up the ingredients for Peeps. Obviously almost entirely sugar. But there is also a small amount of potassium sorbate, I wonder if that would be enough to inhibit yeast???
Only way to know is to try it and see. The thing I’d be most concerned about is that the non-sugar components might inhibit foam. I’ve used candy as priming sugar before, and as you’d expect it works fine. You need about 3 g per 12 oz bottle. I don’t know what peeps weigh, but I suspect it might be more than that. Perhaps you’ll need to decapitate them first. Then you can have Chocolate Bunny Headless Peep Stout.
Save the heads to prime the IPA and call it Heady Peeper.
