JBZSTL

Recipes 

I will soon be brewing a Porter from a Brewer's Best kit. I would like to flavor this particular batch. To date I have not deviated from the few kits I have brewed and am an intermediate brewer at best. Any suggestions for spicing up my brew a bit?

wcarter1227

Recipes 

add some vanilla beans soaked in bourbon. ive brewed that kit before, its an ok kit but lacks body. but good luck

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primary:15 minute Cascade Pale Ale
Primary 2: Cream of 3 crops
Primary 3: Sam Adams Holiday Porter Clone
bottled:BM's Blue Balls Belgian Wit
15 Minute Cascade Pale Ale
DryHopped Cream of 3 Crops
http://hopville.com/brewer/wcarter1227

FreeM80s

Recipes 

most kits I have gotten I have bumped up the malt extract/hops ratio. this is merely a personal preference thing, so if you have gotten brew kits from them before and enjoyed them I would not advise tweaking the recipe. IF you are talking about like a flavor addition, then either vanilla beans(like the above post states^) or coffee. vanilla is a nice contrast, but coffee blends very well, especially if you use good coffee. Again, this is a personal preference of mine, so you might not like/enjoy as much as I do. But these are the ways I have used to spice up kits before I started putting my own recipes together

Olddog

Recipes 

I like this idea! When would be a good time to add the vanilla beans?

wcarter1227

Recipes 

ferment the beer out like normal, in a small jar add enough bourbon and scrape 2 beans out and add them to the bourbon. this will sanitize them as well as extract the vanilla flavor. if you do a secondary add this to the secondary, but if your lazy like i am and do really long primaries, add it to the primary once the majority of fermentation is done.

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primary:15 minute Cascade Pale Ale
Primary 2: Cream of 3 crops
Primary 3: Sam Adams Holiday Porter Clone
bottled:BM's Blue Balls Belgian Wit
15 Minute Cascade Pale Ale
DryHopped Cream of 3 Crops
http://hopville.com/brewer/wcarter1227

JBZSTL

Recipes 

Thank you. I had read the vanilla / bourbon idea earlier and this confirms that it will be a good choice. How much bourbon should I use? It is important to note that a good bourbon is second to a good beer in my book (the ol' lady does not let me keep it around the house much any more though ).

Any thoughts on a good hop to use for dry hopping an american pale ale (cascade bittering / willamette aroma)?

SevenFields

Recipes 

Toast 1-2lbs of unsweetend coconut and add it in secondary for about 5-7 days.
Makes a great Toasted Coconut Porter

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Tap 1: Imperial Stout
Tap 2: Milk Stout
Primary 1: Irish Stout
Primary 2:
Secondary:
Bottled: American Barleywine
On Deck:

PinkyOFloyd

Recipes 

Adding some smoked malt (not peated malt) for a smoked porter is nice!!!

Hugh_Jass

Recipes 

+1 for smoke malt. It must be converted though.

soak oak chips in bourbon and add to the secondary....

oak, bourbon smoked porter FTW

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Pigs are fantastic creatures. They convert vegetables into bacon.

FreeM80s

Recipes 

centennial