buraglio
Well-Known Member
I had some free time yesterday so I decided that while I was moving my vanilla porter to secondary I would throw together my amateur attempt at a sweet milk stout. Anyway, I had been reading about using yeast cakes and thought I'd try and reuse the one from my porter.
Since it was kinda spur of the moment I used the old ingredients from my original equipment that my wife bought me (4 years ago!) that I couldn't bear to get rid of (they were all sealed, but they were 4 years old).
I was very surprised that the fermentation started within ~45 min and the airlock is going crazy! There are a lot of fermentable sugars in there but I didn't expect to see activity that soon.
Anyway, has anyone used ingredients that old? It smelled pretty good so I'm thinking it will probably be ok. My main concern was the grains being that old and that I was using a pretty old liquid extract. If it turns out to taste bad then I'm really just out my time since I had all the ingredients anyway, but I'd be happy with "tolerable".
Here is the recipe I cobbled together from reading others who had done the same and using what I already had:
1 can JB Dark Malt Extract
1 can JB Light Malt Extract
12oz crushed crystal malt
4oz crushed black patent
4oz crushed roasted barley
10oz oatmeal
8oz Malto Dextrin
8oz Lactose
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2oz Northern Hop Pellets (Bittering)
1/2oz Fuggle Hop Pellets (Finishing)
O.G. 1.061
Fermenting at ~70 Degrees F
Apparently I scorched something (either the malt extract or the brown sugar), I had no idea till I moved the wort into primary. It didn't smell scorched but there was a half-dollar sized black mark in my brew pot that I can't get off, which brings me to my next question. Will removing this with either vinegar or baking soda cause any potential issues with my next batch? I was planning to use baking soda but I've also heard of vinegar being used to clean scorched pans.
TIA,
nb
Since it was kinda spur of the moment I used the old ingredients from my original equipment that my wife bought me (4 years ago!) that I couldn't bear to get rid of (they were all sealed, but they were 4 years old).
I was very surprised that the fermentation started within ~45 min and the airlock is going crazy! There are a lot of fermentable sugars in there but I didn't expect to see activity that soon.
Anyway, has anyone used ingredients that old? It smelled pretty good so I'm thinking it will probably be ok. My main concern was the grains being that old and that I was using a pretty old liquid extract. If it turns out to taste bad then I'm really just out my time since I had all the ingredients anyway, but I'd be happy with "tolerable".
Here is the recipe I cobbled together from reading others who had done the same and using what I already had:
1 can JB Dark Malt Extract
1 can JB Light Malt Extract
12oz crushed crystal malt
4oz crushed black patent
4oz crushed roasted barley
10oz oatmeal
8oz Malto Dextrin
8oz Lactose
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2oz Northern Hop Pellets (Bittering)
1/2oz Fuggle Hop Pellets (Finishing)
O.G. 1.061
Fermenting at ~70 Degrees F
Apparently I scorched something (either the malt extract or the brown sugar), I had no idea till I moved the wort into primary. It didn't smell scorched but there was a half-dollar sized black mark in my brew pot that I can't get off, which brings me to my next question. Will removing this with either vinegar or baking soda cause any potential issues with my next batch? I was planning to use baking soda but I've also heard of vinegar being used to clean scorched pans.
TIA,
nb