jschweiss

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JSomps6

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I was planning on using 001, but when I went to my LHBS, they now carry Wyeast. Looking at the date on the wyeast 1056 package, it was packaged January 23rd, 2011. And the WL had an expiration date of April 10th. I decided to go with the wyeast because it was a lot fresher. I pitched two smack packs into ha 2000 mL starter about an hour ago and will be bring tomorrow morning.

I'm wondering how long I should leave the oak chips in secondary. The package of oak cubes I bought said a minimum time of 8 weeks. And that is what the guy at the LHBS told me too. From BYO's Website:

"John told me that Dragon’s Milk is one of their best selling big beers and has been in their lineup for several years. One half batch of this beer is aged in bourbon barrels for 90 days and then blended with the other half, which is aged in stainless. He feels that it combines the best attributes of a sweet stout and an old ale."

So they do half their beer in oak for 3 months. Maybe I'll do all my beer on oak for 45 days.... But I'll give it a taste test after 2 weeks and make my decision. I'm excited for this one.

jschweiss

Recipes 

I used oak chips (medium French oak) but only left the beer on it for two weeks. I really only pulled the beer because I wanted to give it time in bottles to get nice and ready for Christmas. From what I've read since brewing my batch is that oak chips will give up most of their flavor in two weeks, and quantity has more to do with overall imparted flavor than time. I would imagine that oak cubes would require more time in contact with the beer because of the higher mass to surface area ratio, so you might need to go the full 8 weeks. In any case, it's going to be awesome.

JSomps6

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Well - it wasn't a good brew day for me. Mashed in, but due to a faulty thermometer, it equalized at 140. Then I had some issues with my pump and took me about 45 minutes to get the temp from 140 to 156. So I left at it 156 for 30 min, then mashed out about 165. I oversparged by about half a gallon and ended up with a OG of 1079 instead of the planned 1090. (I bumped up my 2 row to hit 1090 as new holland's website says it starts at 23* Plato.) I pitched yeast about 4 pm and when I want to bed at 11 pm, it was bubbling, and this morning I was happy I had fashioned the blow off tube into a big bucket! Even though I missed my gravity, it's going to be a long 3 months til I try this beer.... can't wait

JonK331

Recipes 

FYI there is a "Dragon's Milk" recipe in Radical Brewing by Mosher. It is not smoked and contains only MO for malt.

JSomps6

Recipes 

Update: I started off with 5.5 gallons in a 6 gal carboy. With the amount of blow off I'm down to 5 gallons in the carboy... It's still bubbling, but not as vigorous... should I worry I blew off too much yeast at high krausen?

Doddykins

Recipes 

I was considering doing a parti-gyle of this recipe with the following:

19 lbs American 2-row
2.5 lbs Munich
1 lb Chocolate Malt
12 oz Flaked Oats
12 oz Crystal 80L
12 oz Crystal 120L
8 oz Wheat Malt

it would be a 1/2 1/2 split, and the first of course would be dragon's milk, but i'm not sure how to hop the second. Any suggestions?

Rochefort10

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So? How did it turn out, JSomps6?

JSomps6

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It was a good beer, but not a clone. I left it 9 weeks in the secondary with the oak... But it definitely needed more oak character and more bourbon. I would like to try it again, have a better brew days, add more bourbon, and give it longer on the oak.....

Doddykins

Recipes 

Will do with more oak. Is there enough present vanilla flavor, or should we be putting vanilla beans in the bourbon/oak mix?