AHS Apocalypso Opinions

[rhamilton]

I racked it last night to secondary I do plan to clarify with gelatin before bottling. Stole a sample to test gravity and it was spot on to what the instructions said. Tasted it and I'm excited to see if it develops -- it was initially slightly malty/sweet but with a very very bitter aftertaste. Hopefully it'll blend and mellow in secondary/bottles.

As for the mini-mash -- the mini-mask works great for people who don't want to do a full boil. I use a ~1700 watt e-kettle and the mini-mashes work great since you only have to boil 2-3 gallons. I think my kettle would struggle to boil the full 5 gallons w. all grains.

 

[KubelkaMonk]

Just finished bottling mine. Kept it in the primary for 16 days, then into the bottle.

Mine is a little cloudy, but I goofed up going from the brew pot to the fermenter and failed to prevent any of the break from being transferred. To make it worse, I even stirred in chilled water to help bring the batch temperature down and put a bunch of stuff back into suspension. Oh well, I'll work on that next time.

I am really excited about how it tastes. Can't wait until it is carbonated and ready to go.

 

[cincybrewer]

Added chilled water after fermentation started or are you talking about before you pitched your yeast?

 

[rhamilton]

Just to add some pics to the thread -- here is my mini-mash batch. OG and FG were spot on. The first pic is right after entering the primary (stayed there for 7 days), the second pic is 20 hours after racking to secondary.

 

[Paulgs3]

All grain batch:

Just took readings and a sample, I did a side by side one with notty and one with 1272, and the AAII was way better. I'd love to try this with greenbelt.

I can definitely taste the "apple" taste with the AAII, the notty overwhelms the hop flavor IMO. Of course the bitter is there!!

Its gonna be good, needs at least another week of conditioning and then a week of coldcrash.

 

[KubelkaMonk]

Added chilled water after fermentation started or are you talking about before you pitched your yeast?

Before pitching yeast.

 

[cincybrewer]

Before pitching yeast.

Then that should be fine. You actually want to stir prior to pitching in order to aerate your wort. As long as you let the beer sit in primary long enough, it will settle.

 

[Elweydoloco]

And if you are really worried about clarity you can use gelatin. I've been using that on my last few brews and they have been crystal clear.

Yeah I'm old school I use Irish moss in all my lighter beers. I did rack to a secondary as well. This beer is very on the bitter side however it's expected the alpha acids in the hops used for this recipe were pretty up there.

I just did there blue moon clone for a friend and so far I don't know about it the OG was off a little which is odd for me I'm typically plus or minus .001. It was lower by the way not higher it wasn't too far off though. I did buy a fridge and have it set to about 60 for the ferm. I'm hoping it will give me a better FG I will see though.

 

[Paulgs3]

<deleted because I'm an idiot>

 

[CidCitrus]

just ordered two of these to beef up the pipeline, hope it goes well

 

[Paulgs3]

I deleted my last comment. The wife had a wonderful suggestions, and that was to carb it some more.

Completely different beer now that it is fully carbonated.

The 1272 really put emphasis on the apple flavor of the hops, and the notty, although much drier, actually has more body. I'm leaning towards the 1272 being the better yeast for this beer.

Not a bad beer when properly carbed!!

 

[rhamilton]

Just bottled last night. I'll pop a top on Oct 15th -- so I'll have my first homebrew on my bday

Took a final gravity reading before bottling and of course tried it -- it was pretty good so far.

 

[Elweydoloco]

Yeah I bottled mine last night as well. I cold crashed and used gelatin it came out crystal clear and had a great aroma.

I did drink about 6 oz or so uncarbed obviously and it wasn't bad at all.

 

[cincybrewer]

My version is a little too bitter and not enough hop flavor. But that is being picky. Overall it's a very good beer. I also did a full boil and cut the bittering additions in half so I'm not sure how that affected the overall bitterness (I know cutting it in half lowered it) and hop flavor. Still it is a very good beer for the price.

 

[Paulgs3]

My version is a little too bitter and not enough hop flavor. But that is being picky. Overall it's a very good beer. I also did a full boil and cut the bittering additions in half so I'm not sure how that affected the overall bitterness (I know cutting it in half lowered it) and hop flavor. Still it is a very good beer for the price.

I know this is the extract forum, I already made that mistake, but your beer looks nothing like the AG version. Out of curiosity, did that ship with DME and did you add it all at once?

Mine actually looks gold, like a corona. My recipe only had 10ish pounds of pale ale malt and 1 pounds of maltodextrine, there is no way mine could ever get that dark. Even beersmith puts my SRM obscenely low at like 3.

 

[cincybrewer]

I think it has more to do with the picture. Mine is much more golden looking in real life, though it still looks like it has body to it. I'll try to take a picture sometime with good lighting.

It was actually LME but I can't remember if I did a late addition or not.

 

[rhamilton]

Yea it is the lighting. It looks darker until you get some good lighting and it is actually paler. The mini-mash boil uses 2.75# 2-row and 5# Extra Pale Extract w. 0.5# malto

 

[Paulgs3]

Could be I'm slowing getting drunk off of it combined with feeling bad I bashed it a bit after fermentation, but I have to post and say my AG version is absolutely incredible now.

For $20, this beer is wonderful. I'm back down to my 40F serving temp, carbonation has finally balanced out, both strain of yeast are way different but both are great now.

I have to figure out Notty, sometimes it gets that english alcoholy ale taste (that I dislike), and sometimes it has a great dry taste with emphasis on the malt. Guess I'm gonna have to brew some more to figure out whats going on.

I would have to think my only complaint is I occasionally taste a sweetness I'm attributing to the maltodextrine. I've never used it before, don't know if I would ever use it again, but the head retention is incredible with it. But I'm actually pondering getting another 10gal AG batch.

 

[Zixxer10R]

Could be I'm slowing getting drunk off of it combined with feeling bad I bashed it a bit after fermentation, but I have to post and say my AG version is absolutely incredible now.

For $20, this beer is wonderful. I'm back down to my 40F serving temp, carbonation has finally balanced out, both strain of yeast are way different but both are great now.

I have to figure out Notty, sometimes it gets that english alcoholy ale taste (that I dislike), and sometimes it has a great dry taste with emphasis on the malt. Guess I'm gonna have to brew some more to figure out whats going on.

I would have to think my only complaint is I occasionally taste a sweetness I'm attributing to the maltodextrine. I've never used it before, don't know if I would ever use it again, but the head retention is incredible with it. But I'm actually pondering getting another 10gal AG batch.

The malto also gives you nearly a full coating of lacing on the glass as well. I've never used malto on any recipe before either but when i saw the lacing i was BLOWN AWAY. It literally covered my entire glass.

 

[rhamilton]

I brewed with Notty also -- I did notice a slight alcohol burn before bottling. Hopefully it'll mellow while conditioning. Can't wait to pop a top on the 15th

 

[Elweydoloco]

Yeah this bastard goes gang busters on the airlock no doubt! I didn't have a blowout with this one. However it was a hard fermentation.

 

[Elweydoloco]

Mine came out a golden as well. Here's a pic in some decent light in the bottling tube. It came out very clear I cold crashed and added gelatin.

 

[Elweydoloco]

Tried some last night. Guys this stuff Is damn good. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Zixxer10R]

It's a beautiful thing isn't it Elweydoloco?

 

[gleytch]

Yeah this bastard goes gang busters on the airlock no doubt! I didn't have a blowout with this one. However it was a hard fermentation.

I've brewed seven of these so far, six extract and an AG, all using Nottingham yeast, and they have all had massive blowoffs. I don't even use an airlock any more, just a hose stuck in the stopper running into a bottle of water.

 

[ScootersAle]

Just brewed this a few days ago. I did the mini-mash and over shot the OG a bit, 1.058. It is interesting to see so many using Notty. I myself, used the Wyeast Greenbelt, the AHS exclusive yeast

 

[Elweydoloco]

It's a beautiful thing isn't it Elweydoloco?

Surprisingly yes. It's a pretty amazing beer. I overshot my OG as well can't remember what it was but it was higher.

 

[jaynik]

I will brew this beer again. Still haven't kicked the keg that I brewed when this first came out. It's a very good beer!

 

[Elweydoloco]

Yeah I'm probably going to end up brewing it again in the future as well.

 

[Zixxer10R]

I wanna give the AG version a shot but add some crystal 60/80/90 to get a bit more body. That was my one glaring critique, and i'm assuming the reason why they included maltodextrine.