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Tried a cucumber beer few days ago.... not my thing..Any one made the BBS pumpkin beer? or something similar? I want to brew it soon so it's ready by end of October.
 
I've brewed two recipes from the bbs book that call for a cinnamon stick; apple crisp and the pumpkin dubble. Both have come out with a strange plastick soap undertone and I believe it's from boiling the cinnamon stick for entire boil.
I've looked at several other recipes that call for cinnamon and it's usually added in last 15min or end of boil.
I've brewed another pumpkin beer with spice addition at last 15 min and I'm hoping that does the trick. The bbs pumpkin beer has a great flavor besides that strange undertone. With the apple crisp beer it did melow out after a couple months. I have read that it may have to do with the long boil causing certain tannins being released from the cinnamon stick (it is a piece of bark after all). Any others have had similar experiences?
Happy brewing
ps- brewed up the bbs winter wheat yesterday, smelled amazing!
 
MedBrewer said:
I've brewed two recipes from the bbs book that call for a cinnamon stick; apple crisp and the pumpkin dubble. Both have come out with a strange plastick soap undertone and I believe it's from boiling the cinnamon stick for entire boil.
I've looked at several other recipes that call for cinnamon and it's usually added in last 15min or end of boil.
I've brewed another pumpkin beer with spice addition at last 15 min and I'm hoping that does the trick. The bbs pumpkin beer has a great flavor besides that strange undertone. With the apple crisp beer it did melow out after a couple months. I have read that it may have to do with the long boil causing certain tannins being released from the cinnamon stick (it is a piece of bark after all). Any others have had similar experiences?
Happy brewing
ps- brewed up the bbs winter wheat yesterday, smelled amazing!
Click to expand...

MB - my instructions for BBS's Oatmeal Cookie Stout say to add the cinnamon stick at 30 minutes; it might be worth it to try a batch of some cinnamon-flavoured beer at 30 minutes and a second batch at 15 minutes (all else equal) and compare.

If you do, I'd be interested in the results....

Ron
 
I'm about to make the Hard Cider Kit and was wonder if I threw in an extra cup of RAW sugar what would that do other than maybe bump up the ABV? Or would you advise against it?
 
TasunkaWitko said:
MB - my instructions for BBS's Oatmeal Cookie Stout say to add the cinnamon stick at 30 minutes; it might be worth it to try a batch of some cinnamon-flavoured beer at 30 minutes and a second batch at 15 minutes (all else equal) and compare.

If you do, I'd be interested in the results....

Ron
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and idea! That does sound like a good idea, to run 2 test batches @15min and 30min. I will also contact them this week about the 60 min cinnamon boil time.
 
I think their recipes are a work in progress that change as they get feedback. They recommend one thing in the book, but a year later, they offer different advice. Try it multiple ways!
 
I haven't - yet. It was never really on my radar because it is described as hop-forward; having said that, I imagine I will eventually try it. :mug:
 
TahoeBBA said:
I'm about to make the Hard Cider Kit and was wonder if I threw in an extra cup of RAW sugar what would that do other than maybe bump up the ABV? Or would you advise against it?
Click to expand...

So I ended up adding a cup of light brown sugar and nutrient to my batch and it was fermenting in 30 mins! Hope this turns out good!
 
TahoeBBA said:
So I ended up adding a cup of light brown sugar and nutrient to my batch and it was fermenting in 30 mins! Hope this turns out good!
Click to expand...

Would love to know how that cider turns out when it's ready. What juice did you use?
 
Just bottled the BBS Winter Wheat. Primed with 2.5 tbs amber honey. Sample from fermentor tasted amazing! Can't wait to have one in a couple weeks!
 
Here's my first ever brew, a Chocolate Maple Porter from Brooklyn Brew Shop - cracked open yesterday....


ChocolateMaplePorter-5.jpg



Don't judge the A&W mug - it's all I have!


This turned out quite well, I think ~ full details here, including a plea for feedback at the end:


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/brooklyn-brew-shops-chocolate-maple-porter-tips-advice-492568/
 
Brewed the Coffee and Donut stout (from the recipe book) two weeks ago - grains purchased at LHBS.

The mash and initial fermentation smelled delicious but had a couple of issues:

OG was way too low to achieve the 6.5% ABV (resorted to adding sugar to get it up).

The S-33 yeast bummed out at 1.020 giving me 4% ABV - visible fermentation stopped entirely 10 days in. Tasted so-so at this point - obviously a little green and too sweet & lacking body.

Rousing the yeast + upping the temp didn't help (over 2 days) so pitched in a wee bit of S-04 and it's back to active fermentation.

Looking forward to a new gravity reading on Sunday to see where it's at.
 
HK823 said:
Brewed the Coffee and Donut stout (from the recipe book) two weeks ago - grains purchased at LHBS.

The mash and initial fermentation smelled delicious but had a couple of issues:

OG was way too low to achieve the 6.5% ABV (resorted to adding sugar to get it up).

The S-33 yeast bummed out at 1.020 giving me 4% ABV - visible fermentation stopped entirely 10 days in. Tasted so-so at this point - obviously a little green and too sweet & lacking body.

Rousing the yeast + upping the temp didn't help (over 2 days) so pitched in a wee bit of S-04 and it's back to active fermentation.

Looking forward to a new gravity reading on Sunday to see where it's at.
Click to expand...


S-33 can stall and wait a few days to start up. Better off adding the s-04 to get it done.
 
I'm curious about the addition of fruit. I liked the idea of the cranberry winter wheat recipe, but had a hefeweizen kit. So I made the hefeweizen but added cranberry to the last 10 minutes of the boil, 1 cup. The Winter Wheat recipe had the cranberry added at flame out. Any thoughts on what I'll get?
 
Tkeonce said:
I'm curious about the addition of fruit. I liked the idea of the cranberry winter wheat recipe, but had a hefeweizen kit. So I made the hefeweizen but added cranberry to the last 10 minutes of the boil, 1 cup. The Winter Wheat recipe had the cranberry added at flame out. Any thoughts on what I'll get?
Click to expand...


Did you add Cranberry juice or just cranberries?

If you just added cranberries, I doubt you'll get very much from them.... you might look at the Lemon Lime Hefeweizen recipe here in the recipe forum... with that you add limeaide from simply limeaide after fermentation has settled down... maybe adding pure cranberry juice... or something with just pure juice and sugar would give you more flavor... it would also change the color too.. You could also try adding cranberries in a hop bag into the fermenter for the last week or so... and seeing what happens... I think I might crush them a bit first... or maybe boil with a bit of sugar.. letting them cool and then adding in a bag to the fermenter....

These are just ideas... I've added blackberries this way to good effect.
 
Just the berries. They actually kind of explode when boiled, lol. I'll probably leave this batch alone to see what I get and modify on the next brewing.

bford said:
Did you add Cranberry juice or just cranberries?

If you just added cranberries, I doubt you'll get very much from them.... you might look at the Lemon Lime Hefeweizen recipe here in the recipe forum... with that you add limeaide from simply limeaide after fermentation has settled down... maybe adding pure cranberry juice... or something with just pure juice and sugar would give you more flavor... it would also change the color too.. You could also try adding cranberries in a hop bag into the fermenter for the last week or so... and seeing what happens... I think I might crush them a bit first... or maybe boil with a bit of sugar.. letting them cool and then adding in a bag to the fermenter....

These are just ideas... I've added blackberries this way to good effect.
Click to expand...
 
I brewed the Everyday IPA two weeks ago and bottled today. My ABV clocked in at 8.2% which seems to be very high for this beer.

Pre boil gravity was 1.043
post boil was 1.075

when it came out of the fermenter it was 1.036 or 9 brix on the refractometer, which when put through calculations comes to a 1.012 FG. I mashed in at 160 and it held at 145 for the hour long mash. everything was followed to the instructions for the kit.

Any idea why my ABV is so high? is it a fermentation thing? or a mash efficiency thing? Ive seen that people have gotten around 5-6% from this beer.

Anyone else have this issue or know why this is happening? This is my first ever brew and I've always been a little confused my gravities, so I'm racking my brain trying to figure out if I've done something wrong and what it might be

Please help!
 
I can only offer a couple thoughts: When you measured the OG was it thoroughly stirred? Any way you can do a hydrometer on the FG instead of refractometer?
 
I did a light stir of the wort after I cooled it to 70F and immediately took an OG reading.

Unfortunately I don't have a hydrometer. Since I'm only going to be brewing 1 gallon batches, I opted for the refractometer as to save as much beer as possible when taking measurements.

I use a pot that is a bit too large for 1 gallon batches so I was thinking the wort might have been more concentrated than it should have been since I had more than expected boil off. Do you think this had anything to do with my issue?
 
1.000 gal size means slight differences in volume are more noticeable than 5 gal batches. You take the gravity points times volume, your 1.075 has 75 points; and if you really had 7/8 gallon not 1, then if you'd stopped at 1, it would have been 1.066 (I think).

I'm still new at this (1 yr) but have found with 5 gallon batches, 3.5g boils, topping up with water, I have to be *SURE* to stir the dickens out of it to fully mix. Aerates well also. But I've had 10pt reading swings high and low if I am not careful to fully mix.
 
randallpink said:
I brewed the Everyday IPA two weeks ago and bottled today. My ABV clocked in at 8.2% which seems to be very high for this beer.

Pre boil gravity was 1.043
post boil was 1.075

when it came out of the fermenter it was 1.036 or 9 brix on the refractometer, which when put through calculations comes to a 1.012 FG. I mashed in at 160 and it held at 145 for the hour long mash. everything was followed to the instructions for the kit.

Any idea why my ABV is so high? is it a fermentation thing? or a mash efficiency thing? Ive seen that people have gotten around 5-6% from this beer.

Anyone else have this issue or know why this is happening? This is my first ever brew and I've always been a little confused my gravities, so I'm racking my brain trying to figure out if I've done something wrong and what it might be

Please help!
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the recipe is calculated for efficiency in the 60s, given the instructions (unless they changed, haven't used the kit in years) so if you hit 80% then that would easily explain what happened.

As posted above, this could also be a volume issue, or temp reading problem.
 
After doing a little extra research and re-doing my calculations I actually had an OG of 1.067 and a FG of 1.016 which would bring me to 6.5% ABV. This seems a little more reasonable given the brew. Thanks for the responses
 
I brewed a BBS Beyond Blonde, which is bottled for another week or so.

I also have a BBS Warrior Double IPA sitting in the primary.

they both smell wonderful, took a sample of the blonde at racking, and it tasted / looked good. The IPA looks good in the carboy.
 
fstfrd00 said:
I brewed a BBS Beyond Blonde, which is bottled for another week or so.



I also have a BBS Warrior Double IPA sitting in the primary.



they both smell wonderful, took a sample of the blonde at racking, and it tasted / looked good. The IPA looks good in the carboy.
Click to expand...


What's the BBS Beyond Blonde?
 
MedBrewer said:
I've brewed two recipes from the bbs book that call for a cinnamon stick; apple crisp and the pumpkin dubble. Both have come out with a strange plastick soap undertone and I believe it's from boiling the cinnamon stick for entire boil.
I've looked at several other recipes that call for cinnamon and it's usually added in last 15min or end of boil.
I've brewed another pumpkin beer with spice addition at last 15 min and I'm hoping that does the trick. The bbs pumpkin beer has a great flavor besides that strange undertone. With the apple crisp beer it did melow out after a couple months. I have read that it may have to do with the long boil causing certain tannins being released from the cinnamon stick (it is a piece of bark after all). Any others have had similar experiences?
Happy brewing
ps- brewed up the bbs winter wheat yesterday, smelled amazing!
Click to expand...

It's funny what you said about the Apple Crisp; my batch smells and tastes pretty funky too, though that may be I got some kind of infection (this white film grew on the surface of the beer while in primary). But if it's just the cinnamon then I need to watch out for that.
 
ericbw said:
I think their recipes are a work in progress that change as they get feedback. They recommend one thing in the book, but a year later, they offer different advice. Try it multiple ways!
Click to expand...

Yeah definitely. They're really great on responding to questions on their FB page, I found. While I love their recipes on the whole, here are my main tips:

- If you follow their instructions for mash, sparge and boil, you usually end up with less than a gallon of wort by the time it needs to go in the fermenter. Sometimes I've ended up with just a half gallon! Too little wort can mean too little fermentable sugars were extracted at the mash stage. I generally fix this by overshooting the measurements for the amount of mashing and sparging water.

- Almost always fermentation has not finished by the end of two weeks. They suggest waiting an extra day if that happens, but really it will take more like an extra week.

- You also want a bit more than a gallon of wort in the fermenter, since the bottom inch or so will consist of sediment by the end that you don't want in your bottles if you want to avoid overly yeasty flavors. Or else realize that you're not going to get 10 bottles of drinkable beer out of just a gallon of wort!

- Use a bottling bucket for bottling: heat the priming sugar and water (honey and maple syrup are too viscous on their own to mix properly with the beer), pour the sugar solution into the bucket and rack the beer from the jug into the bucket. I tried their suggestion of using a siphon to bottle but it was a disaster: the racking cane won't stay still without someone to hold it down, and you can't get the last bottle or two of beer from the pot and I ended up having to pour the last beer through a funnel into the bottle. You don't want to do this since it oxygenates the beer.

- Some of the recipes really don't work as written, e.g. the Citrus Gose has way too much salt (try 1 tablespoon rather than 3), or the Apple Crisp recipe gives an unpleasantly tannic result since the cinnamon stick was boiled in the wort for a whole hour. The Kolsch instructions forget to mention that standard minifridges are always too cold even at the warmest setting and you have to install a external thermostat to get it up to 54 degrees.
 
Hi all!

Great to see so many people enjoying BBS!

I'm in the fermentation stage of my first ever brew (Warroir IPA), but this morning I noticed that the plastic cap on the fermenter was all cracked around the top edges - I must have tightened it too much when I changed from the blow off tube to the airlock on Sunday (I didn't think it could be too tight in this case but I suppose it is soft plastic!).

Would anyone be able to advise the inner diameter of the lip on the BBS glass demijohn please so that I can try to get a suitable bung?

Quite worried/gutted that this has happened on my first ever brew! I bought the only bung available from my local homebrew shop but it's 30mm at the top so looks too small (the cap is currently taped up so I dared not take it off to measure the demijohn myself, hence the ask).

Thanks!
 
Number 6 bung but I found out the hard way that the 3/8 blow off tune will not fit inside the bung.
 
banks741938 said:
Number 6 bung but I found out the hard way that the 3/8 blow off tune will not fit inside the bung.
Click to expand...

Thanks banks741938 - I've had to order one online from overseas as unfortunately they seem difficult to find in metric UK! 9mm hole apparently so may be a little more forgiving with the blow off tubing...

May have to make do with tape around the cap for now... I really hope it hasn't had too much of an effect on the quality of the brew!
 
34.gif
I love BBS! I've done 6 batches of their stuff: Everyday IPA, Blueberry Red Ale, chocolate maple porter, simcoe IPA, rye pa, and their light American ale, which I added lime zest to.
29.gif
 
xcghgh said:
34.gif
I love BBS! I've done 6 batches of their stuff: Everyday IPA, Blueberry Red Ale, chocolate maple porter, simcoe IPA, rye pa, and their light American ale, which I added lime zest to.
29.gif
Click to expand...



Do you follow thier instructions on priming and use honey? I was thinking about trying them but was gonna use priming sugar. Don't want to fool with honey. Also so you use a strainer or a grain bag?
 
banks741938 said:
Do you follow thier instructions on priming and use honey? I was thinking about trying them but was gonna use priming sugar. Don't want to fool with honey. Also so you use a strainer or a grain bag?
Click to expand...

Their priming is based on 1g of beer collected - which you will not get from a one gallon carboy due to trub. I use about .8-.85 oz priming sugar with their batches.

I always use a grain bag. If your strainer mesh is to wide - you'll have a chunky boil. If the holes are too narrow - it'll take forever. I just use a grain bag. Also use a hop bag for hops, too.
 

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