DMBrew
Member
I brewed my own recipe that started with Northern Brewers Dragon's Silk extract kit as the base recipe. (See recipe here: https://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/DragonsSilk.pdf) My intention was to add lactose, bourbon soaked vanilla beans cocoa nibs and medium toast oak cubes to make it a little tastier. I bought everything from my LHBS. With 1lb lactose in boil, I ended up with an OG of 1.120 - needless to say, higher than expected. I pitched 2 smack packs of Wyeast American Ale, transferred to secondary after airlock stopped, added bourbon soaked nibs, beans, cubes. At 8 weeks out, I get consistent gravity readings of 1.030 - still a bit high? This is actually better than I thought with the yeast I used (tolerance of ~11%). Samples taste pretty good, and not too sweet nor boozy for my liking. I'd like to bottle, but can also keg.
My questions: Should I add yeast now, later? What type of yeast (high alc tolerant, champagne, etc.)? If bottling, is there any need for priming sugar if there are still fermentable sugars present? Should I let it age in secondary for a few months? If I do, should I transfer to remove additions? If samples taste good, should I just keg, carbonate and be done?
I'm leaning toward kegging soon to avoid screwing it up and/or bottle bombs. Sorry for the multifaceted questions, but any expertise helps!
My questions: Should I add yeast now, later? What type of yeast (high alc tolerant, champagne, etc.)? If bottling, is there any need for priming sugar if there are still fermentable sugars present? Should I let it age in secondary for a few months? If I do, should I transfer to remove additions? If samples taste good, should I just keg, carbonate and be done?
I'm leaning toward kegging soon to avoid screwing it up and/or bottle bombs. Sorry for the multifaceted questions, but any expertise helps!
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