Recent content by ircmaxell

Ok, so we cracked the first bottle today. All I can say is WOW. Not super chocolaty, but with a nice roasty and creamy taste. Actually, the best I can describe it is to say it tastes like a good piece of dark chocolate. Keep in mind, it's a bit young in the bottles (only 2 weeks, but was...

Well, we just bottled it last night. It spent 3 months in the secondary bulk-aging. The only thing I can say is WOW! If you don't remember, I accidentally put 8 oz by weight instead of volume. Well, we lost about 2 gallons due to the chocolate settling out. We skipped the coffee and...

Thanks for the quick reply! So if I drop the roasted barley, and bring back the chocolate to 1/2 lbs (8 oz), that brings be down to 25* SRM (which I'd like a touch higher, but that's still good) and 82.7 IBU (which may be a bit too bitter). What do think think should be added to...

I've been wanting to try building up a dark IPA recipe. And I don't mean dark as in a regular IPA that's just darker. I want to notice the roasted and caramel flavors under the aggressive hop profile. So basically a beer that hits you like an IPA but has the complexity and body of a strong...

Well, we're still going to let it age quite a while before we really have at it, but we did try one last week. It's getting quite drinkable. The blueberry flavor has mellowed quite well. The only complaint is that it's still a bit too tart. If the tartness mellows, it'll be quite good. The...

Alright. So I brewed this a few weeks ago. I realized shortly after we added it to the primary fermenter that I screwed up. Instead of adding 8 oz (1 cup) of chocolate, I added 8 oz (1 / 2 lbs, or about 3.5 cups) of chocolate (Ghirardelli powdered lite cocoa)... Man was the wort RIDICULOUSLY...

I've ordered 3 barrels through http://barrels-kegs.com/ (it's cheap), and I've gotta say, I'm never going to use chips again. It's so easy to use a barrel, and the result is astounding. I just racked 2.5 gallons of double IPA into a fresh barrel tonight (it'll probably be ready next week)...

Well, we just racked off of the blueberries tonight (it only spent 1 week on the berries). We racked a double IPA tonight, so we decided to try the blueberry ale. And it seemed ready to come off the berries (so we racked that as well)... So we went with the recipe as posted. The berries were...

I personally use a muslin bag to hold the fruit during fermentation (cherries on the last fruit brew, blueberries on the next). Then, I simply slide the racking cane next to the fruit. I had little to no particulates come into contact with the cane since they were all still in the bag. I lost...

Now that's interesting... So, based on those charts, with 100% extraction I can estimate around 4.5 grams of Sucrose, 79 grams of Glucose and 79 grams of Fructose. I only found conversion factors for Sucrose, and that 4.5 grams will yield 0.02* Brix or about 0.0005 rise in SG. (Estimated at...

Fermentables: 6 lbs Wheat LME 3 lbs Light DME Hops: German Tettnag 1.0 oz - 60 minutes Yeast: Weihenstephan Weizen Activator ACT3068 Other: 4.5 Lbs Fresh Sweet Cherries Process: Boil 3 gallons of water. Add malt extract, and bring back to a boil. At first bubble, add Tettnag...

Perfect. Thanks! Well, I've seen both sides. Some people say they've used 6+ lbs with a very subtle flavor, and others who say they've used 2 lbs and had your experience. I have a feeling it comes down to how it was added. Did you crush or juice them at all? Did you pasteurize first, or...

Hello all. I'm relatively new to brewing (5th batch is in the fermenter now), and sticking to extract brewing for now (Going to make the switch to AG later on in the year). We've done a few kits and one recipe that I put together myself so far (a cherry-wheat, that came out AMAZING). Since a...