Experimental Beer Slim's Graham Cracker Ale 2.0

Thu said:

How much priming sugar should i use for bottling 5 gallons?

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I'd go with the standard 4oz corn sugar in 2 cups of water -

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

Thu said:

How much priming sugar should i use for bottling 5 gallons?

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3/4 cup dissolved in to 1 cup of hot water.

SD-SLIM said:

I have to be honest...I only take gravity readings during the first couple of brews in an experimental beer...after that, my equipment and eyes know what we are doing, so I don't bother until I want to confirm its beer, so beer smith could be wright!

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Cool. I'll pick up an extra pack of S-04 just in case it's way over the beersmith estimate.

Cheers

Brewed something really close to this last week, 7 days old today. Tasted it, and wow nothing like I had imagined. All I taste is bitterness and alcohol. Does it mellow out with the next two weeks of aging? Has anyone else brewed this and sneaked a taste?

jrodder said:

Brewed something really close to this last week, 7 days old today. Tasted it, and wow nothing like I had imagined. All I taste is bitterness and alcohol. Does it mellow out with the next two weeks of aging? Has anyone else brewed this and sneaked a taste?

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I just racked mine to the secondary and I snuck a little taste and mine tastes the same way. My plan is to let it sit another week or so then bottle and let it age till christmas. I really hope things turn around on this beer. Just know you're not alone on this one.

demons210 said:

I just racked mine to the secondary and I snuck a little taste and mine tastes the same way. My plan is to let it sit another week or so then bottle and let it age till christmas. I really hope things turn around on this beer. Just know you're not alone on this one.

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Thanks a lot. If we are in the same boat, then I suppose we can assume this gets tasty with the aging. I am already headed to the LHBS to pick up stuff for a quicker ale. I think because of the ABV on this guy, as well as the color and use of chocolate malt, it needs to age out a bit.

jrodder said:

Thanks a lot. If we are in the same boat, then I suppose we can assume this gets tasty with the aging. I am already headed to the LHBS to pick up stuff for a quicker ale. I think because of the ABV on this guy, as well as the color and use of chocolate malt, it needs to age out a bit.

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x3 - This is a big beer...after 3 weeks in the dark in bottles and one in the cold fridge I opened a couple up. Nice carbonation, not much head though, and its all vanilla and alcohol so far. Chocolate in the aroma but not much flavor. The smoked malt I substituted comes through...so mine is more akin to a smoked vanilla porter but at such a high ABV it is strong. Should age well is what I am thinking but rough around the edges right now.

just an update to mine - ( for a refresh I mistakenly did not boil the crackers in, and added them to the primary at the beginning of fermentation.) \

after 7 days in the primary I took a grav. reading, and it was down to 1.005, OG was 1.065. I added the vanilla/vodka mixture to the primary, gave it a gentle mix , and left it until yesterday, I took another reading still at 1.005 ( no surprise there) and racked it into a secondary.

I took a small taste, and it was pretty alcoholy and bitter right now, which I hope will mellow out in the secondary?

I have not added the gram. cracker extract, mainly because I never ordered it online ( couldnt find it anywhere locally).

I figure I will let it mellow out for a few more days, take another taste and see where it stands. Worse case I maybe end up with choc type ale, instead of gram.cracker? ... we shall see...

Mine is at two weeks, I added 2 vanilla beans soaked in about an oz. of whisky. Hey, it's what I had laying around.

Taste is already way mellowed out, didn't taste any graham cracker but I assume it would be subtle anyway. (I only used one box in the boil) I didn't take another gravity reading, but my OG was high, like a 1.09, and FG was around 1.018. I am going to let it sit a full three weeks in primary and take a taste test then. Tempted to only keg half of it, bottle the other half and let them sit for months and revisit.

Not really all that worried about it, as my other primary is full of Zombie Dust. That one is smelling heavenly.

I'll report back when I keg/bottle and let you guys know.

so another update - I was working on some other brews and ciders so I figured I would take a taste and peak at how this was doing in the secondary...

as a refresher I messed up the grams and didnt put them in the boil, but primary ferm, so since I was already on a different path I figured change it up some more... when I added the vanilla beans to vodka, I actually used a marshmallow vodka my wife had laying around..

so the taste now was 100% better than just 5 days ago! no more intense alch. taste, has a mellow choc/marshmallow sort of taste to it, but not in a sweet over powering way, but in a nice tasting way... its turning into a nice darker type ale, and sitting at about 8%abv. Figure I will give it another week or so, because I wanted to get it carbed by xmas ( i force carb in a keg in a fridge, so I only need 3-4 days to get it carbed up)... if it doesnt taste ready yet i will of course wait it out longer.

Just an update to mine. I'm at 4 weeks now, 2 primary and 2 secondary, and the alcohol taste has gone down a little bit but it still over takes the beer. I'm going to let it go another 2 weeks then bottle for at least another 2 weeks. Ill update when I bottle this one. Hopefully it mellows out and turns out good.

I kegged mine at 3 weeks. I only used one box of graham crackers, but holy trub batman! Over a gallon or so leftover. If I do this again, I would add enough water for 6 gallons in the fermenter. I'll probably be pulling off a pint on Sunday for the Browns game, I'll let you know how mine turned out. Also if I do it again, I'll probably just bottle it all and let it sit for a few months and visit it then.

I brewed this up last Friday with the original recipe, plus a 1/4 pound of honey malt that I had. I hit 1.071 going into the fermenter. Very good beer when I tasted it and the graham crackers really came through. I hope the vanilla adds flavor without becoming too much, we will see!

djevans3 said:

I brewed this up last Friday with the original recipe, plus a 1/4 pound of honey malt that I had. I hit 1.071 going into the fermenter. Very good beer when I tasted it and the graham crackers really came through. I hope the vanilla adds flavor without becoming too much, we will see!

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If the vanilla is too strong at first...then allow the beer to condition longer and the flavors won't be as dominant!

I am still in the dark on the addition of the crackers. I have seen in the mash and the boil in this thread. Where do they go? My gut and everything I have ever learned says mash. Going to brew a variation of thus soon.

Gotta make this one

madcowbrewing said:

I am still in the dark on the addition of the crackers. I have seen in the mash and the boil in this thread. Where do they go? My gut and everything I have ever learned says mash. Going to brew a variation of thus soon.

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You should use them in the mash.

I brewed this for my 1st 10 gallon batch in my new home about 4 weeks ago. All went well considering it was a new setup that was untested and a fairly complicated brew with all the graham cracker goo to deal with. But it went fairly smooth except for one thing. I disassembled all my equipment, cleaned and sanitized and then put everything back together and forgot to put my bazooka screen back in the keggle! Luckily I only dumped the rice hulls and about 3-4 pounds or grain when I realized my mistake. So I drained some water and put on my high temperature gloves and dove in!

I got the screen on and everything going after about 15 minutes in which I lost a few degrees but I just added some boiling water to get it back to temp and it was good from there. I was actually surprised how well the keggle drained with all the graham crackers. The wort though did look like mud even after primary was complete and I had to pressurize my conical to get it flowing when I racked it. Since I was short on time and wanted some ready by Christmas I added the vanilla to 5 gallons and cold crashed it for the past 2.5 weeks.

Last night’s sample was surprisingly clear with just a hint of vanilla but lots of alcohol. Which is just due to it being so young. I am still going to force carb the 1st 5 gallons so we have something to sip on and I will continue to age the rest until I need to rack it off the vanilla. But so far so good. I can’t wait to try this one again once I get my system dialed back in.

Thanks for the recipe!

Cheers

I hate to ask, mainly because i probably know the answer already. When calculating how much mash water to use, did you just factor in the weight of the graham crackers or did you just mash with the weight of the grain only?

MedicMang said:

I hate to ask, mainly because i probably know the answer already. When calculating how much mash water to use, did you just factor in the weight of the graham crackers or did you just mash with the weight of the grain only?

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Weigh including graham crackers.

Just wanted to say this beer is delicious. I made this around November and I can't get enough of it. Thanks!

Those that have done this recipe what was your OG and/or Pre Boil Gravity? I got nothing close to the 1.097 listed on the first post.

I brewed up a batch yesterday. When plugged into beersmith the estimated OG not counting the unknown of the added Graham Crackers is 1.061. I actually hit an OG of 1.072 showing that the crackers added somewhere around 10 points if my efficiencies and volumes were all correct.

I may have mashed a little on the low side but the sparge/lauter went well and I seemed to have good extraction. I added my brown sugar with a few minutes left in the boil rather than after the wort was cooled and in the carboy. I put just over 7 gallons into the boil kettle and ended up with just at 5 gallons in the carboy after chilling. It is currently sitting on some US-04 at 66 degrees in the ferm chamber.

When I brewed this a couple months bag, I used the exact grain bill posted and got an OG of 1.071 with estimated 78% efficiency.

I brewed this early last month doing a partial mash. It came out delicious and around 5-something%. Downsized to 3lbs marris otter and 3lbs extract. Even my f-i-l appreciated it despite the fact that "it's not real beer".
Disappearing quickly!
Next time I'll definitely add more extract though...

SupervisingChildren said:

I brewed this early last month doing a partial mash. It came out delicious and around 5-something%. Downsized to 3lbs marris otter and 3lbs extract. Even my f-i-l appreciated it despite the fact that "it's not real beer".
Disappearing quickly!
Next time I'll definitely add more extract though...

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Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the picture...we love that stuff around here!

Has anyone tried this recipe subbing the bakers chocolate for Hershey's unsweetened dark powered cocoa in the boil? I've got a little over 4 oz of that sitting around and wondering if there's a reason not to use this? Thanks for sharing this recipe, ill be doing this brew over the weekend.

C

You should be fine with that cocoa. I used it in mine that is primary right now

bojacked said:

Has anyone tried this recipe subbing the bakers chocolate for Hershey's unsweetened dark powered cocoa in the boil? I've got a little over 4 oz of that sitting around and wondering if there's a reason not to use this? Thanks for sharing this recipe, ill be doing this brew over the weekend.

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That will work just fine....the key is unsweetened, the brand is irrelevant.

Just pitched the yeast. Very excited about this brew. So is everyone else.

Just checked on this one and it's still got a good third of an inch of krausen hanging at the top after almost 20 days. I think the graham crackers might of had something to do with that, has anyone else had this happen? Im going to give it 2 or 3 more days and then throw in the vanilla beans. It's smelling great so far.

Slim, thanks for the great recipes. I have both this and your Lemon Lime hefe fermenting right now. I'm looking really forward to drinking both.

Do you think if/when you brew this again, could you please take an OG reading and update the recipe? I, like many others here got 1.072, but I had read prior to brewing that your OG may not be correct, so I didn't do any adjustments. It just helps to have a target. I also accidentally put all 8 oz of baker's chocolate I had in. That's what happens when people stop over while I'm brewing. I'm hoping it will just turn out more S'moresey.

I haven't brewed this one in awhile, because I have been working on other recipes...so give me a few months and I will revisit this one!

Just bottled this beer. Tasted a sample. Rules hard. Graham cracker scent came through very well. Vanilla flavor awesome. Super excited. Wife gave 2 thumbs up. Thanks for the recipe!

kidshowbiz said:

Just bottled this beer. Tasted a sample. Rules hard. Graham cracker scent came through very well. Vanilla flavor awesome. Super excited. Wife gave 2 thumbs up. Thanks for the recipe!

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Glad you liked it...this beer will age really nice in the bottle, I had one that had been bottled for over 6 months and it was amazing!

jrodder said:

Brewed something really close to this last week, 7 days old today. Tasted it, and wow nothing like I had imagined. All I taste is bitterness and alcohol. Does it mellow out with the next two weeks of aging? Has anyone else brewed this and sneaked a taste?

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did your brew ever mellow out? mine is the same way. all bitterness and alcohol, guess ill let it age out.

Maybe a dumb question but do i crush up the graham crackers and add them to the mash or boil? Can wait to get started on a batch recipe sounds awesome.

MASHturbator said:

Maybe a dumb question but do i crush up the graham crackers and add them to the mash or boil? Can wait to get started on a batch recipe sounds awesome.

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Just figured it out thanks

Brewed this one tonight. Best smelling mash I've had in the tun so far, by far! Only doing a 2 gallon batch, my OG came in at 1.064. Taste.....amazing, and will only get better with fermentation and conditioning.

Thanks for this one, SD!

Three weeks in bottle. A little high alcohol flavor. Will let condition a while longer. Graham cracker flavor and vanilla present but not overbearing. Minimal head but nice lacing. Mouth feel fantastic, great body. 7.5 abv a few of these will make your babies born naked! Thanks again for the recipe slim!