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It smelled like hops with sort of a chocolate / coffee aroma. It's more to enhance the original kit I think than to actually change the flavour. Would I actually just add bits of actual chocolate to the secondary fermenter if I wanted to enhance the flavour more? And how much?

No they were hops, they were labelled as "chocolate hops" at the brewing supply place I go to. I steeped them in hot but not boiling water, strained it and added it to the remaining batch. It wasn't actual chocolate if that's what you're asking, just a type of hop that gives off a bit of extra...

I started a Cooper's Irish Stout kit. It's a 23 litre batch all told. I boiled a couple cups of ground-up chocolate hops in two litres of water and added that to primary fermenting. Any other tips for how I can bring out the flavour or make the whole thing a bit richer during secondary fermentation?

First batch turned out way better than I expected. It needs another week or so in bottles but it'll do for now. Anyway, I said I'd post a picture a while back, so here it is. Cheers! :mug:

Well thank you everybody. I figured I was just worrying needlessly, just wanted to have that confirmed. This is my first batch, after all. I'm gonna start brewing again this Wednesday so there will be a whole lot of needless freaking out to come.

I wish you'd posted that before I killed my best three goats.

I didn't put in any additions, I made it standard from a kit so it's just the wort and dextrose. I would actually say it tastes more sour than bitter if you associate bitter with hops, but in any case it tastes off. It wouldn't be contaminated, would it? I've taken lots of precautions to prevent...

I just put my Canadian Draught in bottles to carbonate. I tasted a bit of it and it tasted fine at first, but has a very bitter, unpleasant aftertaste. I'm wondering if this will go away as it matures in bottles or if something just went wrong during fermentation. Could it have been the...

This is what happens to people who can say "I made kool aid booze" and mean it.

He can still rock, ok?! :rockin:

What kind of beer would he be? A friend and I are going to a Springsteen show at the end of summer and I was going to brew a beer to mark the occasion. The only trouble is I can't decide which one to brew. Thoughts?

I was expecting it to because the instructions said it would clear up a bit. Maybe I'm just fretting needlessly. That's good to know though, thanks.

My first brew is a draught, it's almost time to bottle but the beer itself still looks a little too dark. I was told it would clear up by this point. Does colour matter much? It doesn't look gross, but it hasn't changed colour since I racked to secondary.

I like the idea of a cranberry wheat. Would you say to just add a couple cans of cranberry to the secondary fermenter and that should add some flavour?

Say I'm doing a secondary of about 23 litres, how much of the ingredient would you put in? Like how much extract or honey or something so that it's not overpowering but still noticeable?

I know some people who buy a wheat beer home kit and then add stuff to make it a raspberry beer or something like that. If I'm brewing from a beer kit, at what stage would I add ingredients to customize the flavour?

Thanks for the heads up. Where would I go to get a decent bottle brush? Are there brushes made specifically for cleaning beer bottles or do you just use something from the hardware store?

Ah ok, thanks for the heads up. At this point I'm just taking what I can get. I've got a while before I need to start worrying about glass bottles.

Why's that?

This happened to me last night. I transferred to the carboy and sealed it up. Checked on it about six hours later and the airlock itself had filled with beer and it was running out over the top. I took the airlock off and covered it up to prevent anything from getting in while the pressure...