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I have made spice extracts from steeping allspice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, etc. in a mason jar with vodka. Initially, I tied all of the spices up in a coffee filter to eliminate most of the debris. I let this soak for several weeks, but I would sample it every now and again to make sure that...

Hello all! I will return home in a few weeks and am looking to brew my first beer of the summer! I have never brewed a SMaSH, but it seems as though a SMaSH IPA could be rather delicious . . . In regards to flavor profile, I'm looking for that piney/resinous flavor, as well as a 6.5-7% ABV...

I've only used coffee once thus far, but in terms of sanitation I boiled the water the grounds were to soak in. I then put ~4 oz of coffee and 8-12oz of water in the fridge for several days. I then strained this mixture (making sure everything was sanitized) and added the remaining concentrate...

Cocoa nibs may be a sound alternative to cocoa powder. I did my first breakfast stout several months ago and soaked several ounces of cocoa nibs in vodka (for 4 days or so) before adding them to the fermenter for about a week. There was noticeable chocolate flavor, but certainly not...

I cleaned the airlock rather quickly . . . and until I reinstalled the airlock, I placed a paper towel soaked in star san over the top. I also used this to clean off a bit of the gunk. However, it may have been entirely ineffective. Thank you guys for your reassurance! Hopefully this thing turns...

Hello all! Well, it happened . . . I had my first overly-violent fermentation. I found out about it via an early-morning phone call. Being a young brewer, I move between two homes on a weekly basis due to a somewhat complicated situation. I do all of my brewing and bottling on the weekends...

Thank you guys for the great advice! I had to buy my malts yesterday, so I went with the amended grain bill. As for the pecans, I'm either going to roast and mash 8oz or create an extract with vodka. I'll let you know how it turns out!:mug:

How about "Weinachtsbier?" :D (I know it may not be the poster child of the style, but it's in the spirit of the season) I also second the Simcoe.

I cut the Biscuit Malt and boosted the Victory. I was thinking maybe 2-4oz of Special B as I'll still have the Crystal 80 . . . ?

How much Special B do you guys think might be appropriate for an operation like this? I've put a potentially amended grain bill back in the original post. Thanks for the great feedback! :mug:

The addition of wheat malt seems very interesting to me . . . How do you think it affects the IPA? As for the hop additions, I recently brewed a IIPA and used 9 oz of hops . . . granted, 2 oz of those were for a dry hop. However, I used Pale Malt as the base with a bit of Biscuit and Crystal 60...

I was planning for all Marris Otter as the base, but the local brew shop only has a few pound bags on hand. However, I might swap a few pounds out for the Pale as per your suggestion. I'll have to see if they have any Special B. Also, I like your hop suggestion. My third beer was a double IPA ...

Thank you! I had similar thoughts. Maybe I'll cut the Biscuit and boost Victory to 12 oz? As for the nutty character - I'm aware that "nut brown" doesn't actually entail the use of nuts. However, something about actually incorporating nuts appeals to me . . . maybe it's my 'purist' streak . . ...

Hello all! I'll be attempting my first brown ale this weekend and would very much appreciate any feedback you might offer. Overall, I'm going for a drinkable beer that is somewhat sweet with a nice, full, nutty taste. Batch size: 5.5 gallons (I have poor efficiency) OG: 1.052 FG: 1.013...

This is the plan as of current. I'm planning on boiling the water that I'll use for steeping prior to brewing the coffee which may or may not have a negligible effect in terms of sanitation.

Of course - the pre-boil concentrate was certainly strong, but did not taste as acrid as the boiled concentrate.

Today's conclusion: with such a high ratio of coffee to water, it seems as though little to no reduction of the coffee concentrate will be needed. Each test jar issued in, after draining through a sieve and coffee filter, ~1-2 oz of liquid. It seems to me that 4oz of ground coffee to 16oz of...

While on the topic of flavor additions - what has been your guys' best methods with cocoa? Last night I mixed up a concoction of 4oz nibs and just enough vodka to cover. I was planning on letting the mixture steep for a week and then letting the beer sit on the nibs/vodka for an additional week...

As per the suggested video, I'm going to work with a 1:4 ratio for the concentrate. I currently have two glasses in the fridge - each with 1oz freshly-ground coffee and 4oz water. Tomorrow morning they will have steeped for 36 hours. I'll then sample them and run a test: briskly boil one sample...

Thank you all for your insight! I'm going to experiment and do a few attempts at a concentrate prior to flavoring the brew - I'll report back any interesting findings.