Recent content by Herman558

I believe the cocoa powder is to blame, I observed a lot of things as my beer was progressing. This was my first all grain effort as well. I wish I had made just a normal porter rather than dealing with the cocoa powder and vanilla, but it is all part of the learning curve I suppose. I wonder...

Some of mine hold head well, and others fizz like a soda, seems odd, from the same batch too.

After a week and three days in the fermenter I am still getting a bubble out of the airlock about once a minute. Still deciding whether I should drop the vanilla bean (soaked in vodka) in the primary, or rack it into a secondary on top of the vanilla beans at two weeks. I've heard the secondary...

I brewed this on Sunday, it's bubbling away right now, but seems a little odd. Very little krausen on top, maybe half inch, with rather small bubbles. Vigorous fermentation going on below though. Almost seems like the cocoa is sitting on top in the krausen. This is my first all grain, everything...

I found my answer buried in the post at some point, the missing oz are of rice hulls. Do people that have made this recipe use rice hulls in their mash or are they not necessary? Also I was wondering about the strike water and sparge water amounts. If you use the 1.5qt/lb of grain for mash...

I have looked this over numerous times and I keep getting 12lbs 13oz. 9lbs pale 1lbs 8oz oats 12oz caramel 80 11oz chocolate 8oz pale chocolate 6oz black Not sure what I am missing/calculating incorrectly.

The original recipe list 9 pounds of pale malt, maris otter as grain 2. Am I missing what grain 1 is? Also when I add the grain together I don't get 13.5lbs. This will be my first all grain and I want to make sure I am seeing this correctly.