Experiment time!

Ok guys my wife accidentally bought me two of the same recipe kits so it's experimenting time! It's a Chinook pale ale dry hopped with citra. I brewed the first one as is now I want to brew the second one with something wild. I'm thinking either lime and fresh mint or lemon and fresh mint or lemon and rosemary. Any help on how to add these flavors and ingredients is really appreciated! here is a link to the recipe. Thanks! http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...ro-series-extract-kit-w-specialty-grains.html

That recipe looks pretty good on it's own. For spices where you want some flavor, you can add very late in the boil. For the most aroma, do that AND dry hop with them, or if you just want aroma, dry hop with them.

I have no idea how much to use. You may be on your own for that. Or, if you contact Randy Mosher, he might have an idea. He's done a lot of unusual beers and has extensive knowledge of spices and flavorings.

Honestly, just go play.
If it turns out awesome, it will encourage you to play more.
If it's mediocre, then you get the benefit of learning how to tweak and do incremental approaches.
If it is just abysmally bad, still a learning experience about what not to do when you go play again.

How do you contact Randy Mosher? ?? That would be really cool.
Anyway I went ahead and brewed by the seat of my pants. I brewed it as per the original recipe but added 0.37 oz of fresh mint leaves and the zest of 3 limes. Both added at 6 minutes left in the boil. I racked the first batch that's the same recipe into secondary and poured the new wort right into the same fermenter right on the yeast cake. Added 1 tsp of yeast energizer and 3tsp of yeast nutrient.... Woke up to this today

The lid blew off! The second pic is my paper towel glass improvising until I installed a blow off tube

Beautiful. I do have to ask, was the bucket in the tub to begin with or is that damage control?

In there to begin with just in case lol. Just worried about infection. Hope it's all good. Bubbling like mad!

As long as you sanitized the top of the bucket you shouldn't be too bad and even then as long as it was clean still might not have much to worry. Keep it clean and sealed as much as you can, it should die down if it it hasn't already.

i like the additions to the second batch. Hope it turns out great. I'd be curious if the oils from the zest have any effect on head retention. Or the mint oil, it'll be an interesting experiment.

I rarely pitch on the entire yeast cake, unless its a really big beer. I think you can get away w/ two-thirds to half (at least I have). May help with the explosion in the tub.

Cheers!

Yeah it's my first experiment batch and the first time I've pitched straight on top of a cake. Now I got an extra smack pack of yeast😁🍺

I only used fresh mint leaves not extract btw. And I'll keep you guys posted on the results too

So I bought some kaffir lime leaves (frozen) and I'm thinking of adding a couple to my priming sugar solution as I boil it right before bottling. I want to make sure the lime comes through. You guys think this is a good idea or leave it alone?