Happy days happy days. It's a long ways from what I will be doing in a year but it's my first. But I can live with it and I'm pretty sure a little more time bottle aging is going to fix a lot.
Recipe:
6lbs DME
1LB Honey
Crystal malt and English Chocolate Malt
1 1/4 bittering hops
2 sticks cinnamon
1/4tsp Cloves
1/2tsp nutmeg
2 vanilla beans
1oz Cascade hops
Safale #US-05
Yes I know I probably should have went with something safer my first time out.
Pitched at 75F
Primary in a 6 gal bucket 8 days. 1 bubble/min for 24 hours was my trigger to got to 2ndary. Not doing this again.
Secondary in a 5 gal better bottle 7 days. Going to go long with the primary before I try using a 2ndary for the short term. A lot of reading here is why.
Bottled 9 days. 3/4 corn sugar. I need to do better here. I sanitized the bottling bucket and made a pile of the CS. I then sanitized the auto-siphon and directed the flow on top of my pile of CS. Pretty sure it got mixed "well", but I think adding it to water and pasteurizing will do better.
I'm not sure how long I should have let it set in the bottling bucket. I gave it 90 minutes.
Put a couple bottles in the fridge yesterday. I learned all about the very common chill haze. You guys are awesome. Thank you!
So, How is it you ask?????
Well it smells amazing. It had me drooling when I bottled it. I know its not ready but I had to try it after smelling it last week. The aroma only got better.
I could try and get fancy explaining the flavor and how it blended but that wont work. The ingredient list says it all. Right now its blending those flavors into something yummy and it doesn't taste like bubblegum, sour apples,dishrags or any other nasty thing you guys have told me about.
Isn't that all anyone really needs?
The biggest problem is lack of carbonation. I'm fairly confident that will fix itself if I leave them in the closet for a couple weeks, then give them a week in the fridge.
and the pics.
Recipe:
6lbs DME
1LB Honey
Crystal malt and English Chocolate Malt
1 1/4 bittering hops
2 sticks cinnamon
1/4tsp Cloves
1/2tsp nutmeg
2 vanilla beans
1oz Cascade hops
Safale #US-05
Yes I know I probably should have went with something safer my first time out.
Pitched at 75F
Primary in a 6 gal bucket 8 days. 1 bubble/min for 24 hours was my trigger to got to 2ndary. Not doing this again.
Secondary in a 5 gal better bottle 7 days. Going to go long with the primary before I try using a 2ndary for the short term. A lot of reading here is why.
Bottled 9 days. 3/4 corn sugar. I need to do better here. I sanitized the bottling bucket and made a pile of the CS. I then sanitized the auto-siphon and directed the flow on top of my pile of CS. Pretty sure it got mixed "well", but I think adding it to water and pasteurizing will do better.
I'm not sure how long I should have let it set in the bottling bucket. I gave it 90 minutes.
Put a couple bottles in the fridge yesterday. I learned all about the very common chill haze. You guys are awesome. Thank you!
So, How is it you ask?????
Well it smells amazing. It had me drooling when I bottled it. I know its not ready but I had to try it after smelling it last week. The aroma only got better.
I could try and get fancy explaining the flavor and how it blended but that wont work. The ingredient list says it all. Right now its blending those flavors into something yummy and it doesn't taste like bubblegum, sour apples,dishrags or any other nasty thing you guys have told me about.
Isn't that all anyone really needs?
The biggest problem is lack of carbonation. I'm fairly confident that will fix itself if I leave them in the closet for a couple weeks, then give them a week in the fridge.
and the pics.
Kyle
