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*faint* I beg to differ. I have a batch of stout sitting behind me that was hopped with a healthy amount of Amarillo. It works just fine, with the fruity notes in the beer being fig, raisin, and prune rather than grapefruit and orange. I've done N.E. Browns in the past with more than a fair...

Not necessarily. Throw some table sugar in at the start of the boil and let the magic happen. Two hours in the kettle and you can be certain you're going to get some interesting notes from the sucrose inverting, and subsequently undergoing Maillard reactions in the wort. Just don't wait to the...

Amarillo and Saaz are delicious together, but keep in mind it's easy for the former to overpower the latter. Personally I would drop the second Chinook addition, and up the amount of Saaz you're using (maybe 1oz each at 5 and 10, and in the dry-hop). Maybe add a quarter of an ounce Amarillo...

Don't worry too much about getting the FG down; between the table sugar (yes, you can use table sugar instead of the syrup, in fact I would recommend it) and the malts you should be getting good attenuation (mash accordingly of course). Actually, I would suggest upping the sugar content to at...

You'd be surprised. Your analogy is a bit flawed as well, as we're not talking about flavours that clash. Ever had a mild/brown ale/porter/stout/whatever else that was well hopped with a hop like Bramling Cross or First Gold? While Amarillo is obviously more fruit, less earth/woods/spice, the...

Recipes aren't sacrosanct, whether they be from a kit, a commercial brewery, or another homebrewer. Kits in particular are great things to experiment with (when have you ever had a kit beer that you didn't think could be improved in some way?), and adding a small dry hop is hardly some big risk...

Throw .5-1oz of Amarillo in for a week, it'll work nicely. Citra may be a bit busy, but Amarillo will be fine. Especially for a kit beer you'll end up with a much better result, especially for the nose. Actually I find Amarillo in general works nicely as a dry-hop for dark beers, and has the...

Deadmau5 and Dogfish Head collaboration time? Dogfish Head's Deadmau5 Dead Mouse Ale? I like where this is going.

Eh, if you really want to use the "right" (read: authentic) sugar you should make friends with beet sugar fast, as that's what most (if not all) Belgian/Trappist breweries use for their "candi sugar". Slight difference in the level of quality between monks brewing Trappist ales, and kids making...

Someone should get Sam Calagione on the line ASAP.

If you want to lighten it up further I'd suggest dropping the chocolate malt, and perhaps even the special b. For how little is going in you're probably not going to miss either of those malts, especially with 2lbs of syrup providing the kinds of fruity and chocolatey flavours you'd associate...

SRM calculations with candi syrup are almost never right, so don't sweat it too much. Yes the syrup itself is dark as all hell, but the actual colour contribution to the beer is going to be significantly less. Treat the D180 as giving a color contribution of about 75 SRM instead of whatever...

Keep in mind, Vienna is a base malt, not a specialty grain. Actually, on that note I'd skip the Vienna entirely for how little you plan to use. Honestly, you won't notice that small an amount in a beer this big. If you want to keep it I'd up the % you're using in a big way. Perhaps consider...

Much appreciated. +1 on the wyeast 3522 might I add. I'm a big fan of that yeast in general (largely because of it's versatility), and really like it in the IPAs I've made with it.

I'd highly recommend simplifying the grain bill first and foremost. Pilsner malt with some Aromatic malt as you see fit (could potentially be none, which is just fine), and leave it at that. Maybe some Munich or Vienna instead of the Aromatic, but that's about all I would recommend. If you're...

Eh, wyeast have the AA listed as 67-71% (pretty low, even by English standards) for that yeast, while Othello is reporting AA of 80%+. Pretty big gap between the two there. Would be interesting to compare the two side by side either way mind you. Maybe split a batch 3 ways and compare it with...

Just curious about why you decided to keep the fermentation temperature on the 3522 so low for this beer? I find that strain can be pretty neutral to the point of defeating the purpose of using it without ramping up the temperature or at least under-pitching appropriately. Would have been...

I was thinking more 1 beer per person, 3 beers (or however many, again, arbitrary number) out total. So not everyone is going to get everyone's beers necessarily, but everyone can expect a healthy sampling of beers. Depends what everyone is comfortable doing as far as paying for shipping...

Hm, that's true. Depending on how many people are interested in doing a bottle swap maybe limit this to 3 (or whatever, arbitrary number) bottles from every individual person? Might require a little extra coordinating, but I think it would be worth it.

Someone else mentioned decanting their nibs and vodka, not OP. And yes, vodka is SUPPOSED to be a neutral spirit, but in reality that isn't always the case. Cheap vodka is frequently absolutely horrid with a strong, unpleasant taste. The fusels in poorly made vodkas in particular are definitely...