Experimental Beer Slim's Graham Cracker Ale 2.0

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So I brewed this 2 weeks ago, was on my to-do list for almost a year now. The brew process went smoothly, everything to recipes but subbed brewers best cacao nibs instead of bakers chocolate. Wondering if the substitute was the culprit...

When I racked to bottle half and keg other half, I thought i saw the usual small amount of trub was on top edges (didnt cold crash), greenish brown fermented hops and debris (didnt appear mold like). Funny thing was it felt extremely oily, literally like grease, water beading in my hand.

I doubt it was the recipe see so many other successes, but does anyone have a tip as to what would cause this?

Tasting: Not so good, expectedly still sweet (almost too much though), uknown off flavors, and a good bit of DMS :( ....

Can infections cause oil? (or vice versa)
 
mystikhybrid said:
So I brewed this 2 weeks ago, was on my to-do list for almost a year now. The brew process went smoothly, everything to recipes but subbed brewers best cacao nibs instead of bakers chocolate. Wondering if the substitute was the culprit...

When I racked to bottle half and keg other half, I thought i saw the usual small amount of trub was on top edges (didnt cold crash), greenish brown fermented hops and debris (didnt appear mold like). Funny thing was it felt extremely oily, literally like grease, water beading in my hand.

I doubt it was the recipe see so many other successes, but does anyone have a tip as to what would cause this?

Tasting: Not so good, expectedly still sweet (almost too much though), uknown off flavors, and a good bit of DMS :( ....

Can infections cause oil? (or vice versa)

What brand of graham crackers did you use?
 
Did a 10 gallon batch this morning. Stuck to the original recipe. Mine came in at 1.078. Guess my effenciency was pretty good. I expected a small jump from the crackers, but wow. Wort smelled amazing, if not scary looking. :D Thick, very thick. Should be interesting, thanks Slim.
 
The red box has preservatives in it. The honey maid ones do not. That could be a part of the issue.

I would also like to thank Slim for this recipe. Brewed this over the weekend and my ferm closet smells boner inducing. Hope it comes out as well as it is smelling.
 
Hmm...now that may explain part of my problems with this brew.

I was using Food Lion Honey Graham Crackers both times I brewed it, and both times, it has some weird, off flavors to it.
 
I have brewed this with 2 boxes of Honey Maid and mine still has an off taste. The best way I can describe it is that it tastes watered down.
 
maturemutation said:
I have brewed this with 2 boxes of Honey Maid and mine still has an off taste. The best way I can describe it is that it tastes watered down.

That's odd....let it bottle/keg condition for 3 weeks and taste it again. Did you take reading to see if it had finished fermenting and turned in to beer?
 
Making batch #2 now. Doing another PM for this as my equipment is only capable of it. This stuff is delcious! Can't wait for it to be ready!
 
Made a 5 gallon batch of this on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. I collected too much wort by about 1 gallon and didn't bother boiling longer so my FG was 1.063 instead of the predicted 1078. If the flavor and aroma of the wort is anything to go by it won't matter one lick. This is the best smelling and tasting wort I have ever tried. If I had any vanilla ice cream I would have tried drizzling some over it. My head was in the mash tun every chance I got during this batch.

I modified the recipe a lot:

no rice hulls, put crushed crackers on top of grain bed after recirculating for a couple of minutes and then mashed for 1 hour.
10lbs base malt (really glad I did this after collecting 1 gallon too much in sparge)
2lbs turbinado
1lb oats
I normally skim but never do when there is coco in the recipe since it seems to hang out in the crema
EKG for all of the hops since I had a pound of them

I pitched 6 ounces of US-05 slurry into the fermentor and it was obviously too much as there was krausen and churning 6 hours later. So, I made a lot of mistakes on this one but if it turns out I'll be doing it again. I'll let you guys know how it turns out either way. Oh, all I had on hand was cheap airlock grade vodka so I'm going to pick up a bottle of the good stuff tonight and start my beans a steepin.
 
That's odd....let it bottle/keg condition for 3 weeks and taste it again. Did you take reading to see if it had finished fermenting and turned in to beer?

I must admit I always skip this step because I don't really care if I know the exact ABV. So I couldn't honestly say what my starting gravity or ending gravity ended up being.

I currently have it sitting outside the Keezer cause I am out of space in the Keezer. I took the CO2 off it cause I had a party coming up and needed to carbonate up something I knew would be well received. It had CO2 on it for a day or so before I yanked it so its probably about flat (not that it got carbonated much to begin with). I had debated with actually bottling this since I am out of space and I fear I screwed it up.
 
Hmm think i'm going to take a crack at this one. Do you guys think that 2 weeks primary, 3 weeks bottle will be enough time for this to taste right at xmas? I would be brewing it this weekend
 
Hmm think i'm going to take a crack at this one. Do you guys think that 2 weeks primary, 3 weeks bottle will be enough time for this to taste right at xmas? I would be brewing it this weekend

Depends a lot on your OG, how much yeast you pitch, and your fermentation temperature control, but I would say it's doable as long as your OG is on the lower side. Most fermentation activity was done within 5 days on mine. Yeast was S-05. It's been two weeks and there are a few yeast rafts left but it's mostly settled. I fermented at 65 and raised the temp 1 degree a day after high krausen until I hit 68. I'll leave it for another week then keg it. I'll bottle strait from the keg for gifts if it's any good. I also want to keg it so I can get the vanilla just right. I've found adding things warm and still just doesn't give me the right idea of what it will end up tasting like.
 
Depends a lot on your OG, how much yeast you pitch, and your fermentation temperature control, but I would say it's doable as long as your OG is on the lower side. Most fermentation activity was done within 5 days on mine. Yeast was S-05. It's been two weeks and there are a few yeast rafts left but it's mostly settled. I fermented at 65 and raised the temp 1 degree a day after high krausen until I hit 68. I'll leave it for another week then keg it. I'll bottle strait from the keg for gifts if it's any good. I also want to keg it so I can get the vanilla just right. I've found adding things warm and still just doesn't give me the right idea of what it will end up tasting like.

well damn, i'm going for a 7.5 % beer at 3.5 gallons going into the fermenter. Currently its the same recipe but instead of 1 pound brown sugar its 1/2 a pound. Giving me an OG (from BrewersFriend) of 1.077 and I'm hoping the graham crackers bump me up another 5 points to 1.082

So maybe shoot for new years beer instead?

EDIT: Two fresh Wyeast activators and ferm temp under control, no worries there
 
well damn, i'm going for a 7.5 % beer at 3.5 gallons going into the fermenter. Currently its the same recipe but instead of 1 pound brown sugar its 1/2 a pound. Giving me an OG (from BrewersFriend) of 1.077 and I'm hoping the graham crackers bump me up another 5 points to 1.082

So maybe shoot for new years beer instead?

EDIT: Two fresh Wyeast activators and ferm temp under control, no worries there

It might work out fine, but I find anything over 1055 or so takes a little while to come together. Not a long time, mind, but it seems to increase with the ABV. Keeping them warm will help them condition faster too. It's going to depend on the beer as well, and I have no experience with this one. I'm getting ready to go take a hydrometer sample of mine now, pretty exited to see how it tastes. I always chill it down in the freezer before actually tasting to get a better idea of how it will end up.
 
It might work out fine, but I find anything over 1055 or so takes a little while to come together. Not a long time, mind, but it seems to increase with the ABV. Keeping them warm will help them condition faster too. It's going to depend on the beer as well, and I have no experience with this one. I'm getting ready to go take a hydrometer sample of mine now, pretty exited to see how it tastes. I always chill it down in the freezer before actually tasting to get a better idea of how it will end up.

Sweet, hope yours is a delicious!
 
Well, I just tasted the hydrometer sample both warm and cold, with and without vanilla extract and it is one of the worst hydro samples I have ever tasted. There aren't any off flavors I can pinpoint, but the hops are running all over the graham cracker flavor. This will probably change after it is crashed, carbed, and aged. It would have also been much been better If I had hit my OG, as the extra sweetness would have required some hop balance. Here's hoping time treats it well....
 
Setesh said:
Well, I just tasted the hydrometer sample both warm and cold, with and without vanilla extract and it is one of the worst hydro samples I have ever tasted. There aren't any off flavors I can pinpoint, but the hops are running all over the graham cracker flavor. This will probably change after it is crashed, carbed, and aged. It would have also been much been better If I had hit my OG, as the extra sweetness would have required some hop balance. Here's hoping time treats it well....

That's not good...most people love the smell of the wort, the sample and overall the beer....I hope time mellows this one for you!
 
That's not good...most people love the smell of the wort, the sample and overall the beer....I hope time mellows this one for you!

Yeah, I had noticed that, and wort was extremely tasty, I just mucked up the recipe by getting low efficiency and not thinking to reduce my bittering charge to match. Rookie mistake. Luckily (in this case) hops tend to age down pretty quickly. I'll keep you posted.
 
Brewed this yesterday. OG of 1.074, smelled great. Used dark brown sugar to get a darker beer.

I BIAB and the graham crackers had me stirring during the whole mash to keep my recirc pump from running dry. No real issues though. Got about 6 gallons in the fermentor, pitched onto a yeast cake of S-04 from a previous batch of ESB. Bubbling away like mad this morning!

I've got high hopes!
 
ulsh72 said:
Brewed this yesterday. OG of 1.074, smelled great. Used dark brown sugar to get a darker beer.

I BIAB and the graham crackers had me stirring during the whole mash to keep my recirc pump from running dry. No real issues though. Got about 6 gallons in the fermentor, pitched onto a yeast cake of S-04 from a previous batch of ESB. Bubbling away like mad this morning!

I've got high hopes!

I think you will like it!
 
I brewed this up on Saturday modified for a 4 gallon batch with increased ounces of chocolate malt, but no actual bakers chocolate. I did adjust some values, but I think I kept it true to this recipe. I fell a little short with the OG and added some light DME

OG 1.076
shot for 32 IBUS from EKG
Graham cracker taste was evident, pitched at 70

Can't wait to be drinking this one
 
Just put out in secondary last night. FG:1.019
There was a thick oily film on the top that left a greasy residue on everything, but the sample tasted pretty good, mostly of chocolate so definitely needs more time.

Brewed this yesterday. OG of 1.074, smelled great. Used dark brown sugar to get a darker beer.

I BIAB and the graham crackers had me stirring during the whole mash to keep my recirc pump from running dry. No real issues though. Got about 6 gallons in the fermentor, pitched onto a yeast cake of S-04 from a previous batch of ESB. Bubbling away like mad this morning!

I've got high hopes!
 
ulsh72 said:
Just put out in secondary last night. FG:1.019
There was a thick oily film on the top that left a greasy residue on everything, but the sample tasted pretty good, mostly of chocolate so definitely needs more time.

The oil on the top is from using graham crackers with by products that the yeast cannot eat....try to skim it off or leave it with the trub when you bottle/keg
 
I am brewing this on Wednesday. Sounds delicious.
One question - rice hulls. I've never used them. What are they for and when do I use them? I'm guessing it's to prevent a stuck sparge with all the graham cracker mush.
Vanilla beans soaking in vodka now!
 
dave2851 said:
I am brewing this on Wednesday. Sounds delicious. One question - rice hulls. I've never used them. What are they for and when do I use them? I'm guessing it's to prevent a stuck sparge with all the graham cracker mush. Vanilla beans soaking in vodka now!
Your correct, you use them to prevent a stuck sparge....I usually add the rice hulls before the grain
 
Garage smells SO good right now !

image-1382584239.jpg
 
Garage smells SO good right now !

I wanted to get a spoon and dig into the mash tun with this one. It is easily the best smelling recipe I've ever made. It's been in the keg for about a month now, I need to give it another try and see if the flavor improved. I'll do that tonight and report back.
 
I'm looking to brew this up this weekend, can't wait!

Has anyone had any trouble getting to 1.097? I'm still pretty new to all-grain (BIAB) and I have yet to get over 1.070.
 
Has anyone had any trouble getting to 1.097? I'm still pretty new to all-grain (BIAB) and I have yet to get over 1.070.

Yes, there just arent enough fermentables in the recipe to end up with that number. A more realistic number is ~ 1.060. When I brewed it I added 2 lbs of turbinado to the recipe and still only got 1.063 for 5.75 gallons of wort (based on a 5 gallon recipe so I over sparged).

Update on flavor:
I just tried some after a month in the keg. It still needs more time but it tastes much better than before and it sure does remind me of Graham crackers! I'm wishing I hadn't used Madagascar vanilla beans, but it's what I had. Really fun recipe!
 
Yes, there just arent enough fermentables in the recipe to end up with that number. A more realistic number is ~ 1.060. When I brewed it I added 2 lbs of turbinado to the recipe and still only got 1.063 for 5.75 gallons of wort (based on a 5 gallon recipe so I over sparged).

Update on flavor:
I just tried some after a month in the keg. It still needs more time but it tastes much better than before and it sure does remind me of Graham crackers! I'm wishing I hadn't used Madagascar vanilla beans, but it's what I had. Really fun recipe!

Ooops! I used Madagascar vanilla beans... what happened?
 
Yes, there just arent enough fermentables in the recipe to end up with that number. A more realistic number is ~ 1.060. When I brewed it I added 2 lbs of turbinado to the recipe and still only got 1.063 for 5.75 gallons of wort (based on a 5 gallon recipe so I over sparged).

Update on flavor:
I just tried some after a month in the keg. It still needs more time but it tastes much better than before and it sure does remind me of Graham crackers! I'm wishing I hadn't used Madagascar vanilla beans, but it's what I had. Really fun recipe!

Sounds like there's no issue with getting in that range then? I'm expecting to be 1.06 range
 
Sounds like there's no issue with getting in that range then? I'm expecting to be 1.06 range

There should't be. Beersmith gives an estimated OG of 1.057 with Graham crackers completely removed from the equation. There are some fermentables in the crackers, but I'm not sure how to compensate for that. So ~ 1.060 should be a good target.
 
Brewed this yesterday, fell an oz short on the Baker's chocolate. I thought I had more, but only had 4 oz on hand. I did hit 1.071 on the gravity though. This smelled and tasted great! I'm very excited to see how this one turns out.
 
Bottled on Saturday 12/14. I didn't use any bakers chocolate, but I did use a little more chocolate malt and its definitely there. I could taste the graham crackers as well. It did however have a taste that reminded me of salt? Perhaps it is too early to tell, can't wait to see what we got when its carbonated
 
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