Recent content by WhizardHat

It's been 437 days since I drank the first bottle from this batch. I have 9 left. I cracked one open tonight, and it is great. This beer did really well with some age. That's all I got. I haven't brewed anything since this batch. I have a baby that's just over 437 days old though. I'll get back...

whatever

Don't use Citra before 15 minutes, unless you want five gallons of cat pee. Use Magnum or something to bitter and use the Citra late. One of my favorites is Magnum at 60 (1 oz) and then a half oz of Citra at 15, 10, 5 & flameout, followed by a 1oz dry hop after fermentation has slowed. That will...

I thought you already had one going, Ooph! I think the general consensus here is that skibb's clone is probably closer to the real deal. But yeah, you gotta brew one of them for sure!

http://imgur.com/w08BLAk First sample from a Jolly Pumpkin snifter. Poured with one hand while my brewing partner was chugging similac from my other hand. Appearance: viscous, black as night, dark head. Darker than any other stout I've had. Looks like a lot of carbonation, but that's...

Yes please!

Anyone in bottles yet? I bottled up 2 days ago. Tasting notes on bottling day: a bit heavy on the cinnamon and cacao. Can barely detect vanilla/oak/chiles. The astringency from the 80 IBUs and 6# of roast/choco has really mellowed out. It's been so long since I've had MZ and/or Hunahpu, so who...

I hit about 157, if I recall correctly. Balls to the wall, mama always said.

Feels good, don't it? For future reference (and feel free to ignore this; it's your beer after all), Abita Amber is a Vienna lager, so something like this might be a more appropriate yeast choice.

I fear I may have overdone some things!

I don't know what a lot of your words mean, but you need a base grain. I think your efficiency would be maybe 30% without a base grain. Eitherway, you need a LOT less crystal malt, especially if you want this to taste remotely Belgian. I would use zero pounds of crystal malt, personally. Is...

I don't mind it at all! The more the merrier! As far as secondary additions, I'm just kind of winging it. I'll probably add an ounce or so of pasilla and ancho chiles. I picked those up at my grocery store. Maybe half a vanilla bean, split so the caviar spills out, and a stick of cinnamon...

I definitely agree with you! The sample I took as I racked to secondary was too astringent. 3 pounds of roasted barley and 80 IBUs worth of magnum will do that to a beer, though. Not to mention the heat from the alcohol. I think the vanilla and oak will go a long way in mellowing out those...

Which version of the recipe did you use? I never actually brewed the recipe in Post # 1 (although I'm sure it would be good). I used the recipe in Post # 31, substituting Maris Otter for Victory.

Round abouts 70%. I probably could have sparged more, but I was expecting crappy efficiency, compensated in my grain bill for it, and wanted to keep as close to Wayne's recommendation of using first runnings only as possible.