Experimental Batches

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I didn't really follow the directions but my cheese was too dense in the end. The kit I have is an extra and I don't need it. All the ingredients you need and two pots- all unopened.

If you don't want it, I'll give it a go. By the way, your bucket lid is the hardest lid to remove I have ever seen.
 
If you don't want it, I'll give it a go. By the way, your bucket lid is the hardest lid to remove I have ever seen.

There is a nice bucket lid opener for sale at home depot, I dont think my fingers would still have skin without it. Like $2 or so.
 
I know it's jumping around a bit BUT, I saw a post earlier this morning that got my attention for some reason. A guy is brewing a watermelon beer using flavorings and they seem to work pretty good. They are all gluten free and water soluble so....

Im going to do a 1 gallon pumpkin with this. I'll probably do this twice. One with just the flavoring and another with the flavoring and spices. That said, I think I'll do 100% BRS with these so I don't have to order any sorghum syrup.

Im also going to do another double chocolate oatmeal stout but I'm going to tweak my original recipe and substitute this in place of the wonder cocoa.

Any thoughts?

Bottled these 2 weeks back and just cracked one open tonight (I couldn't resist :D). WOW does the pumpkin come through, in the aroma and in the taste. I don't really know exactly how much I put in, but maybe next time around I'll make a 5 gallon batch and use a dram. I think I went a little over board on the test batches.

I added it to the primary and siphoned the wort onto it. I was worried that the fermentation might scrub out some of the flavor/aroma but it didn't. Oh- this was 100% BRS too and it's probably one of the clearest beers I've ever made.
 
Tasted the 100% BRS batch last night. Nothing special for sure, but I wasn't really trying to make beer per say, as much as flavor identification. The Saaz came through quite strong on the aroma side, not so much bitterness wise. The hops hid the BRS flavors mostly(that's assuming they had much) and made it quite lemony(for lack of a better description). All in all I could see making an acceptable lawnmower beer with adding more BRS to get a higher OG and more bittering hops. It seems like BRS is shaping up to be a decent base material for most recipes. Now if only I can find it affordable in 3 and 6 lbs containers.

Next week I'll be trying the Dark Agave Nectar SMaSH, hopefully I'll like it better than I did going into the bottle :)
 
Tasted the 100% BRS batch last night. Nothing special for sure, but I wasn't really trying to make beer per say, as much as flavor identification. The Saaz came through quite strong on the aroma side, not so much bitterness wise. The hops hid the BRS flavors mostly(that's assuming they had much) and made it quite lemony(for lack of a better description). All in all I could see making an acceptable lawnmower beer with adding more BRS to get a higher OG and more bittering hops. It seems like BRS is shaping up to be a decent base material for most recipes. Now if only I can find it affordable in 3 and 6 lbs containers.

Next week I'll be trying the Dark Agave Nectar SMaSH, hopefully I'll like it better than I did going into the bottle :)

I've mentioned it before but Brewbrothers.biz is a place in Portland and sells BRS very cheaply and does ship. It is not on their website, just send em an email.
 
1) For this one, I was thinking of trying out a Bob's GF Rolled Oats beer with some amylase enzyme and seeing what happens. Just a simple blonde with 100% oats.
2) Open.
3) Open.

This has been a really interesting and educational thread. I have followed it off and on and learned a lot, so thanks.

I have been wondering if anyone ever tried the 100% oats. That one looked like something I wanted to try, but I missed seeing any results on that.

Thanks,
Jerry
 
So, my co-worker was gracious enough to give me some of his old fermenters, some 1gal jugs. I was looking at how best to use these and thought of you guys.

What I need from you:
Ideas that you have had of the fairly experimental variety that for whatever reason you didn't feel like your brewery or budget could support.

I have 3 fermenters to try things out in, so that will be the limit for now on how many experiments we have going. I do have a bag of amylase enzyme I picked up awhile ago and have not used. I also have a PID hooked to a big rice cooker for any crazy mash ideas you guys can come up with.
No grain roasting or malting for now. I don't want to mess with the smell in my house on 100F days and I don't have any more room to grow things at the moment either.

1) For this one, I was thinking of trying out a Bob's GF Rolled Oats beer with some amylase enzyme and seeing what happens. Just a simple blonde with 100% oats.
2) Open.
3) Open.

Take those oats and roast them in a glass cake pan until they start to brown and continue until you get desired roast. You'll be suprised

leeinwa
 
Trying the American Brown Ale that I racked over coffee. I really like this one. It has a pleasant nose and I can faintly smell the coffee, there are hints of vanilla and it has a slight roastiness to it. It has a roasty finish to it and is similar to the original brown, but different enough. Upon smelling the beer you might not exactly know that it was "aged"? over coffee but upon tasting it you would. The aftertaste is similar to the one I get when drinking coffee.

Aside from being a little undercarbonated (which actually doesn't seem to hurt this one) I'd like to see how this ages.
 
i have brewed a 100% rice beer with BRS. i did add 1 lb of Dark roasted Quinoa grain & 1 cup molasses.
I dry hopped as well. it was awesome beer. Very clear post ferm.
 
The dark Agave SMaSH came out way sweet. I may have underpitched. The aroma is quite fruity reminds me faintly of apples. The initial flavor mild again perhaps a hint of granny smith, but the finish leaves something to be desired. Borders on cloying even though the sweetness isn't overpowering by itself. Not sure how I'll use it in a brew. Seems like it might work as an adjunct in a belgian or something along those lines.
 
The dark Agave SMaSH came out way sweet. I may have underpitched. The aroma is quite fruity reminds me faintly of apples. The initial flavor mild again perhaps a hint of granny smith, but the finish leaves something to be desired. Borders on cloying even though the sweetness isn't overpowering by itself. Not sure how I'll use it in a brew. Seems like it might work as an adjunct in a belgian or something along those lines.

Dark agave might just not be very fermentable.
 
Dark agave might just not be very fermentable.

Maybe it's like blackstrap molasses and only 50% fermentable. BBBF did a batch of "mead", if you can call it that, with some agave nectar- I don't think it was dark though. We'll have to check with him to see how the fermentation is going and what the gravity is...
 
I used a bottle of the raw agava and a bottle of the lighter agava syrup. I haven't taken a gravity reading in quite a while. I'll try to take one tomorrow and comment.
 
I took a sample last night and the SG is only 1.02. I suspect that the batch isn't done fermenting. It is only a 1.5 gallon batch, which isn't much thermal mass. So it might have stalled from the temperature changes. I'll let it warm up and let everyone know what it drops down to.
 
The grade b maple syrup batch is done and I have to say is the best tasting of the bunch so far. It carbed up the best. Unfortunately very little maple flavor is detectable. Hop bitterness was slight but well balanced. Very floral aroma(from the Saaz I suspect) and flavor was quite fruity on the finish, a bit citrusy maybe(possibly also due to using Saaz). All in all an adjunct that is definitely getting added to my "will use" list.
 
I made a mead with maple syrup and I couldn't taste it at first. The flavor came back after some time.
 
I mentioned this in another thread, but here is the experimental Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. The beer turned out great and the chocolate comes through nicely. It's dark but not stout dark, if you know what I mean. This is only for a 1 gallon batch and it's pretty involved.

Grains:
4 oz Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats, roasted (1 SRM)
3.4 oz Buckwheat, roasted (45 SRM)

1 lbs 5 oz. Brown Rice Syrup (60 min)
3.5 oz Dark Candi Syrup (60 min)
2.6 oz Blackstrap Molasses (60 min)
.1 oz Chinook, pellet 11.4% (60 min)
.02 oz Chinook, pellet 11.4% (30 min)
.04 oz Fuggles, pellet 4.8% (15 min)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (15 min)
1.25 oz Maltodextrin (5 min)
S-04 SafAle Yeast

Chocolate Flavor Extract*** Primary
1 Vanilla Beans, split, chopped (Secondary, 7 days)

***I kinda guessed how much of this I used. I was trying to use 1/5th of a dram but who knows how much went into it. If you were to do a 5 gallon batch, a full dram would work. Some posts earlier in the thread I mentioned these extracts and you'll find some links to the site...I think
 
tried the blackstrap molasses SMaSH tonight. It's interesting to say the least. Actually not as terrible as I imagined it would be. Surprisingly stout like. Looks like mud, doesn't have much of a head. Molasses is understandably a very present flavor, but is unexpectedly not overpowering. Quite chocolaty. Definitely will is on the will use list.
 
I agree, the american brown ale I did with 1 lb of blackstrap molasses had a slightly chocolaty taste to it- one that I would say the blackstrap lended. And boy was that beer a lot darker than the original! I'll keep using this stuff though, I like what it lends.
 
Good stuff guys, I am going to have to get my hands on some next time I do a stout. Sounds like a very small amount of coffee mixed with blackstrap and dark candi may give us something like what we want to achieve.
 
Good stuff guys, I am going to have to get my hands on some next time I do a stout. Sounds like a very small amount of coffee mixed with blackstrap and dark candi may give us something like what we want to achieve.

I have exactly that. I'll try to get you my series of Brown Ales, they are growing on me.
 
Where did you procure your Brown Rice Syrup? I've been looking online, and can't seem to find anything in bulk, or local.
 
Where did you procure your Brown Rice Syrup? I've been looking online, and can't seem to find anything in bulk, or local.

Rice syrup solids (basic the 'dme' version of brs) are available from Northern Brewer and other homebrew supplies.

I was able to get brown rice syrup in my grocery store. It was in the whole foods/organic section. I guess some people use it as a sweetener...

If it helps any, the brand I get is Lundberg Farms (and it is tagged as gluten free).
 
I mentioned this in another thread, but here is the experimental Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. The beer turned out great and the chocolate comes through nicely. It's dark but not stout dark, if you know what I mean. This is only for a 1 gallon batch and it's pretty involved.

Grains:
4 oz Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Rolled Oats, roasted (1 SRM)
3.4 oz Buckwheat, roasted (45 SRM)

1 lbs 5 oz. Brown Rice Syrup (60 min)
3.5 oz Dark Candi Syrup (60 min)
2.6 oz Blackstrap Molasses (60 min)
.1 oz Chinook, pellet 11.4% (60 min)
.02 oz Chinook, pellet 11.4% (30 min)
.04 oz Fuggles, pellet 4.8% (15 min)
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient (15 min)
1.25 oz Maltodextrin (5 min)
S-04 SafAle Yeast

Chocolate Flavor Extract*** Primary
1 Vanilla Beans, split, chopped (Secondary, 7 days)

***I kinda guessed how much of this I used. I was trying to use 1/5th of a dram but who knows how much went into it. If you were to do a 5 gallon batch, a full dram would work. Some posts earlier in the thread I mentioned these extracts and you'll find some links to the site...I think

THe only time I have come close to a stout color is when I added 4 oz of coffee, unsweetend dark cocoa powder, and pretty much burned a few oz of buckwheat and seeped that before the boil. No sorghum tho which is pretty cool!!
 
Rice syrup solids (basic the 'dme' version of brs) are available from Northern Brewer and other homebrew supplies.

I was able to get brown rice syrup in my grocery store. It was in the whole foods/organic section. I guess some people use it as a sweetener...

If it helps any, the brand I get is Lundberg Farms (and it is tagged as gluten free).

There is a store online that sells 3 lbs of brown rice syrups... austinbrew maybe?
 
Interesting. Here's some quotes taken from that site:

BriesSweet™ Brown Rice 45 High Maltose can be used for 100% extract brewing to produce rice beer (sake) or use it with concentrated worts to produce almost any beer style.


As a grain-based syrup, it provides proteins and amino acids necessary for yeast nutrition, head retention and body along with color and flavor
Gluten free, hypo allergenic, non-GMO


BriesSweet™ Brown Rice Syrup 45DE High Maltose can be used for 100% extract brewing to produce rice beer
Use it with concentrated worts to produce almost any beer style.

And at 3 bucks a pound, that isn't all that bad. It makes me wonder what the difference between this and the brown rice syrup I can get at the grocery store is.

I may have to try to make sake...
 

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