Creme Brulee Stout

I will be brewing next week, and leaning towards making it a Crème Brûlée Java Stout.

Post Boil Volume: 5.46 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.080 SG
Estimated Color: 32.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 64.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type
10 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain
1 lbs 4.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain
1 lbs Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain
1 lbs Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain
1 lbs Milk Sugar (Lactose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar
1.00 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60. Hop
0.75 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop
0.25 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining
1.0 pkg London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318) [124. Yeast

My wife loves creme brulee and especially lavender flavored ones. Do you think I could throw some lavender extract or oil in this recipe or would that taste really weird?

worxman02 said:

My wife loves creme brulee and especially lavender flavored ones. Do you think I could throw some lavender extract or oil in this recipe or would that taste really weird?

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I would suggest that if you think your wife would like……. Brew it.

worxman02 said:

My wife loves creme brulee and especially lavender flavored ones. Do you think I could throw some lavender extract or oil in this recipe or would that taste really weird?

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Not weird but I would guess it would be tough to pick up in a beer like this with all the dark malt. Figure out a lavender Creme brûlée blonde ale recipe and your wife will probably buy you a conical.

Drinking a Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout right now.
Intrigued with lactose at the moment,
Decided German purity laws can interfere with creativity.

can't believe nobody reported back on the recipes results yet. To me that says people weren't thrilled. Too bad.

steelersrbrun said:

Not weird but I would guess it would be tough to pick up in a beer like this with all the dark malt. Figure out a lavender Creme brûlée blonde ale recipe and your wife will probably buy you a conical.

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Good point about the dark malt. Sounds like a plan. I'll have to make sure I have her sign an affidavit that says if she likes the beer I get a conical!

CidahMastah said:

can't believe nobody reported back on the recipes results yet. To me that says people weren't thrilled. Too bad.

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Well, ya don't know if ya don't go. I plan on brewing it this weekend and will keep you informed. I'm a member of a brew club that gives honest but constructive criticism. AHBA judges will give me the feedback... gulp!

You might want to try something like this, since the ST flavoring is artificial as well:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ZU7EU4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

or this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GJJR34/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Nemleu said:

Well, ya don't know if ya don't go. I plan on brewing it this weekend and will keep you informed. I'm a member of a brew club that gives honest but constructive criticism. AHBA judges will give me the feedback... gulp!

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True. In my case I was planning to brew this for a friend who loves the beer. If it ain't dead on, I am not gonna try it haha.

I think the key lies in the artificial flavoring. Not to say you won't get a good stout.

Man does this violently ferment! 5 1/2 gal in a 7 1/2 primary and it was spewing out the blow off tube. I lost maybe a 1/2 gal.

Ki-ri-n said:

Man does this violently ferment! 5 1/2 gal in a 7 1/2 primary and it was spewing out the blow off tube. I lost maybe a 1/2 gal.

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I brewed a week ago today. Within 3 hours I could tell I needed to get a big blow off tube ready. Like you said, it was pretty violent. Within 48 hours it settled down so I went to my normal setup and was getting activity about every 15 seconds. Within 4 days it picked up again, activity every 5 seconds..... I may name this "Strange Brew". Sure does smell good!

Any updates on the results for this one?

Nyrkki said:

Any updates on the results for this one?

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After 3 weeks I transferred to the secondary. I plan on bottling this weekend, and will add cold infused coffee and homemade vanilla extract.

Coffee sounds great. BTW did you use 3 vanilla beans? Did they not produce enough aroma as you are adding vanilla?

Nyrkki said:

Coffee sounds great. BTW did you use 3 vanilla beans? Did they not produce enough aroma as you are adding vanilla?

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I made a vanilla tincture several months ago, and prefer to use a homemade vanilla extract in my flavored beers. The logic being that I can control the flavor by adding a little at a time to the bottling bucket. After the beer is bottled I add more beans to the tincture and I’ll be ready for the next time I want to use vanilla.

Does this take a while to Carb? I've had it on gas for over 3 weeks and its still pretty flat.

Ki-ri-n said:

Does this take a while to Carb? I've had it on gas for over 3 weeks and its still pretty flat.

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Yes, imperial stouts can really take a long time to carb. I made a Southern Tier Mokah clone, and it probably took 3-4 weeks on gas. I was really confused as well. Have no worries! But don't be in any hurry; this beer will likely need some time to age anyways. Mine sure did.

I know I should wait, but I was hopping to have some by Xmas. Should I force it a little higher or actually buy some xmass gifts?

Anyone ever thought about adding fruit to this one? I bought a can of cherry puree while at the brew store and I am debating on whether to through it in the secondary.

Well folks, I just re-tapped this one from a January 2012 brew-day. It's been sitting in my garage fridge since around April or so. When I first tested the beer prior to kegging, for some reason I didn't get much vanilla at all. So what did I do? I added two vanilla beans to secodary for nearly two weeks. The initial vanilla flavor was way over-the-top for me, so I thought I'd let it sit for a while. I have to say, it's still a bit much. Definitely a good beer, but I'm not sure I'll be brewing it again. Wish I wouldn't have meddled with it!

Brewed this up today, didn't change much but man did I come out with a high gravity!

I was aiming for 10% ABV. with my recipe. I input the carmelized sugar incorrectly in BeerSmith, so it didn't give me gravity in the software. I also got significantly better efficiency than normal. I ended up with a 1.096 SG. Projected ABV. 10.9%

Anyways, I noticed that the wort retained more of the cardamom flavor than I expected for it only being one teaspoon. Anyone else notice this, and/or did it go away after fermentation?? I did grind my own, so it may have been more potent than if bought pre-powdered...

I'm hoping I didn't make a cardamom bomb. I will certainly report back with my results in a few weeks.

subscribed. Hopefully someone can actually give feedback on what the hell is going on with the taste of this thing. I already know that it likes to blow off...

Brickout said:

The exact ingredients were not in Beersmith, so I had to do some substitutions.

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I know it's quite late to be mentioning this, but... one of the things I found useful in BeerSmith is that it gives you the ability to add new ingredients to the list, and edit the information about the ingredients (this is particularly important with the prices, since the default prices are generally either very high or very low - I could only dream of finding malt at some of the default prices that are listed there!) If you go to Insert in the main menu, you will get the wizards for adding new ingredients.

So, I did this one again. And this beast just blows the blow off tube out of the carboy. I've got 5 gallons in a 6.5 gallon carboy and it still blows the blow tube out and with it a quart or so. Is there a good way to prevent this? I tried to ferment a little cooler but that didn't work either. Seams like Im losing quite a lot due to fermentation. Acceptable?

Obvious answers are - make a smaller batch or use a bigger fermentor.

Does fermcap help with that? I'm not sure, but I've been using it lately and haven't had a blowoff since.

Yeah so if you have a hop that is 5 AAU per ounce (% Alpha) and need 14.5 AAUs then just do the math 14.5/5 = about 3 which is your ounces.

The reason recipes come like this is to emphasize how much alpha acids you need. Reasons for that is you may have a batch of a certain hop that is lower or higher than it's usual alpha acid content. Or if you simply can't get the said hop and need to substitute at least you'll know where you're suppose to be. Hope this helps.

I'm doing the bourbon barrel thing with french oak spirals and jim beam.

Mine was a cardamom bomb as well.