(2 lbs Crystal 60) != (1 lb Crystal 120)

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Vermicous

Vermicous

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Just a public service announcement. I am sure this is not a shock to most of you, but my imperial porter is now an imperial brown.

I have been disappointed with my local LHBS for some time and the last major buying run took me to a popular LHBS in Mass. I had a long list of ingredients to buy including Brown malt, Crystal 40, and Crystal 120. The brown they did not have, but when I inquired about the crystal I was told "I don't know where you are getting your information, but those simply do not exist". So I made do with what I could get and winged the recipe.

This was going out as christmas gifts, don't know if it's worth sending now.
 
Fingers said:
Crystal 40 should be more than dark enough for anyone!

Bill Gatez. (well, sorta)
Click to expand...
LOL. That might be the best post of the night! :D
 
were you aiming for a brown porter or a black/robust? did you use any chocolate, or black patent, or even roast barley?
 
It was supposed to be the Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter in the recipe database.

The recipe called for brown, crystal 120, crystal 40, and chocolate malt. The only crystal available at the LHBS was English crystal, which varies between 60-70 lovibond. Not being very bright, I tried to balance the recipe using the English crystal. The result is definitely not a porter, though I suppose any recipe program could have told me that if I had bothered to spend two minutes calculating it.
 
i didn't read the recipe, how much chocolate did you use? and porter used to be brown back in the day.
 
Vermicous said:
The brown they did not have, but when I inquired about the crystal I was told "I don't know where you are getting your information, but those simply do not exist". So I made do with what I could get and winged the recipe.

This was going out as christmas gifts, don't know if it's worth sending now.
Click to expand...

Maybe he meant that in the Decartes way ... like "I think I'm 120L, therefore I am":D

If you want more roasty, dark flavors don't give up. Cold steep some dark grains. A little chocolate, roasted barley and 120L crystal from ANY online brew store. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes and add to secondary.
 
All they carried for caramel malt was an american caramel (no idea what the lovibond is) and a wheat caramel.

The taste is very sweet. No roastiness to balance out the vanilla and bourbon. It's not bad, very clean, but definitely not what people will expect. This is probably my most popular beer and relatives have been waiting. There was severe disappointment when I didn't bring 10 gallons of this to a pig roast last october, but there was also considerable fewer people passing out this year.

I will probably leave it as is and chalk it up as a learning experience. Recipe formulation is still my weakest area of brewing and it's time I learned what malts do what.
 
Ok,
call me stupid if you want, but would you explain something to me...

You say that this is your most popular beer, so obviously you have brewed it at least once before. Assuming that you followed the recipe that time, then you KNOW that crystal/caramel 120L does exist, and you have somewhere that you were able to purchase it from. When this dumb a$$ at this LHBS told you that there was no such thing, why did you not turn your a$$ back around and head out the door, and go buy your ingredients for such an important batch from someone that you knew would have them in stock?
 
rabidgerbil said:
Ok,
call me stupid if you want, but would you explain something to me...

You say that this is your most popular beer, so obviously you have brewed it at least once before. Assuming that you followed the recipe that time, then you KNOW that crystal/caramel 120L does exist, and you have somewhere that you were able to purchase it from. When this dumb a$$ at this LHBS told you that there was no such thing, why did you not turn your a$$ back around and head out the door, and go buy your ingredients for such an important batch from someone that you knew would have them in stock?
Click to expand...


If you really want to know, I am an advocate of supporting your LHBS. There are some caveats to that, but in general I try to buy all my grain, hops, and yeast from local people. The store I have been going to for years is a sh!thole (Stout Billy's), but while disgusting has also carried most of the ingredient's I needed. Including Brown, Crystal 40, and Crystal 120. Over the past year the store has been pissing me off. They ran out of base malt, LME and DME in January and did not get any more till May. They haven't had a liquid yeast shipment for a year or two, but still convinced me to purchase a vial that expired in 2005. The last straw was last I went for some dried yeast, all they had is what they could pry from the shelving behind the hop bags.

All other stores are an hour+ drive. I took a gamble with Beer-Wine Hobby( about an hour fifteen from me), and until the "there is no such thing as Crystal 40,120" I have been very happy with them. I was purhasing supplies for the next 10 batches and I really didn't want to argue. By the time I was ready to make the porter, I had forgotten that I didn't get the crystal I wanted and winged the recipe at that point.

Never again though. As much as I would like to support my LHBS, Austin Homebrew Supply just delivered 8 lbs. of crystal 120 and 40. That should last me a little while.
 
Were you dealing with Karen or one of her employees? Although Karen can be a touch abrasive at times she's been doing it for 20 + years and I really dougt that she would say something dumb like that. For the past year or so there are always different people in the store when I go there (Which I don't do very often, but my folks live a few towns over and so every once in a while I stop in there. I've been an intermittant customer of hers for over 20 years.) I'm wondering if she's getting ready to retire or sell the business cause I don't remember the last time I saw her there. And I haven't been too impressed with the people she has there when she's out.

It's way out of your way but if you are ever in Foxboro go by the The Witches Brew. Open Thur and Fri eve's and Sat noon to 5. Steve has everything you want and is good guy. Plus he has two beers on tap at all times, occasionally one of mine.
 
It was a short, older lady with a faint accent I couldn't place. I'd dealt with her before, but never asked her name. I've been there twice and had no problems, though I've heard stories about the owner's abrasive nature from other sources.

Next time I am in Foxboro, I will have to swing by. Anyplace with beer on tap has to be good.
 
Steep a couple ounces of chocolate and it will bring it back. It will still be a bit sweet.

[Nothing wrong with a Sweet Brown Porter, though]
 

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