Brooklyn Brew Shop's Chocolate Maple Porter - Tips and Advice

[ericbw]

Not loosely covered with foil. Keep the airlock on or tightly cover with sanitized foil.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, Eric, and thanks for the quick reply.

I don't think that the fermenter will fit in the refrigerator with the airlock on; however, I do have a rubber stopper, if that would work better than the foil?

Thanks!

Ron

 

[2drunk2]

I haven't tried cold crashing yet. Just remember thermal expansion and contraction. If an airlock is used, the liquid will get sucked back into the fermenter. If you use a rubber stopper, it might get lodged.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Foil it shall be, then!

Thanks for the advice ~

Ron

 

[ericbw]

Since the airlock won't fit, go with a sanitized stopper. (If you were using the airlock, I would fill it with vodka rather than sanitizer, so that whatever gets sucked back in would simply be alcohol.)

If the beer releases CO2 (either because it is still fermenting or from the motion of moving it around), it will probably push the stopper out. So keep an eye on it.

Any amount of cold crashing will help with clarity (even a day). BUT MAKE SURE IT IS DONE FERMENTING before bottling. The cold will also slow/stop the yeast, and a lot will drop to the bottom, but there will be some still in suspension. If it has not eaten the sugar, then when it warms back up/wakes up in the bottle, you have the potential for explosions. So be sure it's done fermenting before crashing.

Also, be sure to sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. Bacteria or other wild yeasts can ferment more sugars than most ale yeast. If these get in the beer or bottles, they can also cause explosions. That's why you don't want to simply cover with foil - your fridge is probably full of all kinds of interesting stuff that would love to finish fermenting the beer.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

your fridge is probably full of all kinds of interesting stuff that would love to finish fermenting the beer.

This is especially true of our refrigerator - I have 4 boys.

Perhaps I can insert a stopper to a point where it will be snug enough not to pop out, but also where it won't be too difficult to extract if it is sucked in a little.

I am pretty sure that fermentation will be done by Sunday, which is when I will do this. The instructions say to ferment for two weeks, and I am letting it go for three; however, I'll keep an eye on it as it comes up to room temperature when I remove it from the refrigerator, and if I see any sign of fermentation activity, I will wait a few days.

If I would have been thinking, I would have set the fermenter at a slight angle immediately after pitching the yeast, so that the sediment could settle in a manner that would leave a trub-free area of the bottom of the fermenter, but I neglected to do this. Hopefully, I will remember next time.

In any case, I'll definitely be sanitising everything thoroughly - I've come too far to drop the ball, now!

Thank to all for the advice and assistance -

Ron

 

[ericbw]

Do you know what the yeast is with that kit? If it was s-04 or US-05, you're probably in good shape after 3 weeks.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

I don't recall seeing any specific yeast type on the packet that came with the kit, Eric, but I do have BBS's recipe for Chocolate Maple Porter in their book at home, and I'll check when I get off from work.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Eric - the recipe says to use English ale yeast, such as Nottingham or Wyeast London III

 

[ericbw]

Prob Nottingham in the kit? That should be done at 3 weeks from what I hear. Haven't used it much muskeg though.

 

[2drunk2]

I love nottingham. I was drinking my IPA at 3 weeks when using it.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Good morning, gents, and thanks for the feedback.

Your observations would dovetail with mine pretty well, I think. There was some very nice and highly-active fermentation for the first few days, and then it tapered off quite a bit to almost nothing that I could observe. I am sure that the fermentation was pretty much done at two weeks, but by all accounts an extra week won't hurt anything, so it seemed like a good idea in order to make sure, especially since my room temperatures were on the cooler end of the spectrum.

I may skip the cold-crashing, since my wife just filled our refrigerator pretty full in advance of a busy week and there probably won't be any room for the fermentor. I'll see how things are on Sunday, and decide then.

As for bottling, I've finished reading a very extensive thread on the experiences people have had with BBS kits, and it looks as though by nearly all accounts, the three tablespoons of honey used to prime to bottle fermentation might be just a little too much, resulting in over-carbonation and a little too much head, but no bottle bombs. Most people ended up settling on two tablespoons, with many using 2.5. Based on this, I'll try 2.5 tablespoons and see how it goes.

 

[ericbw]

No room in the fridge? Priorities.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Well, Eric ~ it looks like my choice was made for me!

When I got home from work, I saw that our cat, Dexter (who is extremely well-fed), had somehow actually broken the window of the room where my beer is fermenting. Don't ask me how or why, because I don't know, but we put him out this morning, and when I got home, he was napping in the closed room near the broken glass - happy as a pig in slop - and can be the only suspect.

Since we won't be able to get it fixed until Monday, and since no other room in the house has an area as dark and stable in temperature, I decided to cold crash the beer starting tonight. There was just enough room in the fridge, so I covered the top with sanitised foil and placed it there. It's a little shy of the three weeks of fermentation that I wanted, but well more than the two weeks that were most likely adequate; I predict that things will be fine.

This was the first time that I was able to closely inspect the beer, rather than quickly glancing at it. It was fairly clear and only slightly cloudy toward the bottom (which might have been because of my moving it). The trub was about an inch thick and was light-coloured on top, quite dark on the bottom. It smelled really good; I'm not sure how it should smell, of course, but it had a nice, earthy slightly-sweet aroma from the Fuggle hops, and I am quite sure I smelled alcohol, as well. Success, I think!

Bottling is set for Sunday, and I'll also probably begin my next brew then, as well. I had intended to do Grapefruit Honey Ale, but might do the Oatmeal Stout instead (with the oatmeal-raisin cookie variation), so that it can be ready in time for cold weather.

 

[ericbw]

I thought you were going to say the dog broke the fermenter!

Sounds like it's where it's supposed to be. It actually clears from the top down. You're probably in good shape.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Well, I bottled this brew today - my first home brew ever - and I think I've got a winner here. As far as I can tell, everything came together as well as anyone could expect or hope for.

Being my first time, the bottling probably took a little longer than it had to, but no worries - by the end, I had it figured out. I had been cold-crashing since Friday, so I took the fermenter out and let it sit at room temperature (covered so it would stay dark) to bring the chill off. Looking back, I probably could have given it another hour to warm up, but I'm sure everything will be fine.

After mixing the maple syup with some hot water and stirring to dissolve, I siphoned the beer from the fermenter to a pot; the mini auto-siphon was a godsend for this procedure, and I am convinced that this simple tool is probably the best 10$ that anyone could spend for home brewing.

Once this was done, I stirred it gently to make sure that the priming syrup was evenly distributed, then proceeded to bottle the sanitised bottles - again with the mini auto-siphon. There was a bit of a learning curve, but it wasn't long before we were moving quite efficiently.

By the time we were done, I had 10 bottles of beer that hopefully will carbonate with no issues. I plan to try to keep them in the 65-70-degree range as best as I can, and will allow 3 full weeks for conditioning before cracking open my first bottle of home-brewed beer ~ can't wait to try it!

Well, to be honest, I did get a sneak pre-view....

After bottling, there was about half a cup of beer left, so I was able to sample my work. It smelled great, just as I described above - but the taste was indeed as amazing as the aroma was. I don't know how they did it, but the deeply roasted malts and the maple syrup really do give an impression of having some really nice dark chocolate - the earthy Fuggle hops really set it off nicely, too - with the whole thing having a nice, warm glow from the alcohol. In my mind, the aroma and flavour worked together to produce something that is just right for the cold winter months; it's like the perfect late-fall/early-winter day in a bottle - all that was missing was a crackling fire, a good book, and gentle snow falling outside the window. Heck, I wanted to drink it all right there, but figure it will be even better after some carbonation and mellowing - we shall see!

 

[2drunk2]

Awesome! Time to brew the next.

 

[ericbw]

It's nearly impossible to get 10 bottles from a gallon. There's 128 oz in a gallon, and you had a half cup leftover. That's a very good yield!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Thanks, guys - I checked temperatures this morning and I was sitting just barely above 70 degrees for the room temperature, so it looks like things are on track for good carbonation.

Getting the 10 bottles seemed like a miracle, considering a lot of the posts I've read here. I am pretty sure that cold-crashing helped with this, as well as making sure I was just over the "one gallon" mark after the boil. The member named "Cobrem" recommended keeping track of the boil rate during a dry run (in order to get an idea of how much water to add at the beginning of the boil so that one would end up with a gallon at the end), and this advice was very valuable - thank you, Cobrem!

Now the wait begins - and the planning for the next project. As I mentioned before, I have all of the ingredients lined up for their Oatmeal Stout, including the "oatmeal raisin cookie" variation. If nothing's going on this evening, I may brew it tonight; however, it might have to wait until the weekend. I might also be able to start a cider project later this week, if my yeast arrives as I hope it will.

Barring any unforseen circumstance (such as bottle bombs or unusual developments), my next report will hopefully include some tasting notes!

 

[PitRow]

... then proceeded to bottle the sanitised bottles - again with the mini auto-siphon. There was a bit of a learning curve, but it wasn't long before we were moving quite efficiently.

Ron, look into getting a bottle wand (something like this http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E66A4U/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20) before your next bottling run. Makes it so much easier and less messy.

I had planned on starting my wife's first beer this past Sunday, but life gets in the way, you know. Hopefully this coming weekend will have a chunk of free time we can get it done in.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Howdy, Mike - great to see you here!

I am going to look into one of these - looks like it will definitely make bottling a breeze, at first glance. Once I got the system down, I was doing pretty well, but with one-gallon batches, every drop of beer is precious, so anything I can do to ensure the best yield possible is a good thing.

As for this Chocolate Maple Porter, if you like the darker beers (and I seem to remember that you do), this one is a real gem. I wasn't too much of a dark beer person before, but this beer is definitely changing my mind, as I found it to be wonderful when I sampled it at bottling ~ those Fuggle hops were especially impressive.... I'm expecting good things from the Oatmeal Cookie Stout, as well!

I definitely know about life getting in the way sometimes -let me know when you get it going! I found that - just as in cooking - if you take look after your mise en place, things go pretty well. Any question or issues, just get in touch ~

Ron

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Well, a few days after bottling, the question on my mind is: How can I tell if the beer is carbonating?

I've been keeping the bottles in a dark area where the ambient temperature is 68 to 72 degrees, which as far as I can tell from reading seems like an optimum temperature range.

I took a peek this morning, and it dawned on me that I really don't know any obvious signs that the beer is carbonating, other than perhaps shaking it up and potentially watching the cap blow off. There was some sediment on the bottom of the few random bottles I checked, and it seemed at first that this would be the most telling sign of carbonation - but what if that sediment is simply from the fermenter and got sucked up in the transfer from fermenter to pot, then to the bottle?

I'll wait the proscribed two weeks (perhaps three) before opening any bottles and finding out for sure, but in the meantime, I was wondering if there are any reliable, observable signs that I could be advised of.

Thanks in advance -

Ron

 

[2drunk2]

I typically use corn sugar, and just open one after a week. With only 10 bottles, I'd wait two weeks.

 

[ericbw]

Well, a few days after bottling, the question on my mind is: How can I tell if the beer is carbonating?

I've been keeping the bottles in a dark area where the ambient temperature is 68 to 72 degrees, which as far as I can tell from reading seems like an optimum temperature range.

I took a peek this morning, and it dawned on me that I really don't know any obvious signs that the beer is carbonating, other than perhaps shaking it up and potentially watching the cap blow off. There was some sediment on the bottom of the few random bottles I checked, and it seemed at first that this would be the most telling sign of carbonation - but what if that sediment is simply from the fermenter and got sucked up in the transfer from fermenter to pot, then to the bottle?

I'll wait the proscribed two weeks (perhaps three) before opening any bottles and finding out for sure, but in the meantime, I was wondering if there are any reliable, observable signs that I could be advised of.

Thanks in advance -

Ron

Sediment is a pretty good sign. If you were careful about siphoning*, there wouldn't be a lot of sediment that you got out of the fermenter, which means it's not much in each bottle. So if you're seeing a significant amount in each bottle, that's from the bottle fermentation.

Are you keeping it about 70 degrees? That's good for carbonation (2-3 weeks), then chill it down.

*you got a really high yield (10 bottles + ), so you might have sucked up more than some people do.

 

[ericbw]

Oh, but it is important to look at them every day so they don't think you've forgotten about them. It motivates them to try harder. Same as when it's fermenting, you have to "check on it" every day. Or is that just me?

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Oh, but it is important to look at them every day so they don't think you've forgotten about them. It motivates them to try harder. Same as when it's fermenting, you have to "check on it" every day. Or is that just me?

I get a peek each morning when I am grabbing a shirt for work, and while it was fermenting, it was easy to get a glimpse of things. The beer must have known I was checking on it, because it seems to have done it's job quite well!

Last night, I took a closer look at each of the 10 bottles; all seem to have exactly the same small amount of fine sediment on the bottom, so I am hoping that this is a sign that they have been carbonating. My theory is that if it were sediment that somehow made it into the pot, then into the bottles, there would be varying amounts of sediment. Not much of a theory, but it's all I have to keep me happy until I actually open one up, which will be 2 weeks from this coming Sunday. I also tilted/swirled them very gently, and noted rings of bubbles gathering at the top; once again, it probably doesn't mean much, but one can hope!

I have all the ingredients and equipment on hand to make the Oatmeal Cookie Stout this weekend; with luck I'll have time to do exactly that. Sunday is opening day of Deer season, so I might try to do it tomorrow.

 

[PitRow]

You should've thrown a couple raisins in each bottle!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

You know it, Mike - works great when I make sima!

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Alright, the 2-week "waiting period" following bottling has come and gone; due to being rather ill (flat-out SICK would be a better word) the past few days, I've decided to go ahead and give my first brew one more week in the bottle to condition before sampling.

I took a peek at the bottles this morning, and was pleased to see that no caps have blown and everything looks good (I assume). There is the same very-small amount of fine-looking sediment that I noticed before, about the same amount that I see in bottle-conditioned beer that I buy at the store. While looking them over, I accidentally dropped one bottle, but caught it before it hit the table. I noticed the same bubbling up at the neck that I would expect from a fully-carbonated beer, so it looks to me as though I've been successful in making beer.

Will it be good? That remains to be seen. I'll put a bottle in the refrigerator on Friday night, and then sample it on Sunday. I realise that I am placing the whole process on a pedastal that is higher than it probably deserves to be, but what the hell, it's my first!

In the meantime, @JINKS over in the labeling forum took some concepts and images that were rolling around in my mind and transformed them into a very nice label for my bottles:

He also came up with a design for neck labels as well:

I'm thinking that things are looking pretty good for this project!

Due to several factors, including work and my above-mentioned illness, I haven't yet been able to brew my second batch of beer (Oatmeal Cookie Stout), but plan on doing so this weekend.

@PitRow - Mike, I forgot about it at the time, but I do in fact have one of those bottle wands/fillers, exactly as you described! It came with the initial kit that my wife got for me for my birthday, and I had it packed away with all of my 5-gallon brewing equipment. I'll give it a try on my next project!

 

[PsyDanny]

Alright, the 2-week "waiting period" following bottling has come and gone; due to being rather ill (flat-out SICK would be a better word) the past few days, I've decided to go ahead and give my first brew one more week in the bottle to condition before sampling.

I took a peek at the bottles this morning, and was pleased to see that no caps have blown and everything looks good (I assume). There is the same very-small amount of fine-looking sediment that I noticed before, about the same amount that I see in bottle-conditioned beer that I buy at the store. While looking them over, I accidentally dropped one bottle, but caught it before it hit the table. I noticed the same bubbling up at the neck that I would expect from a fully-carbonated beer, so it looks to me as though I've been successful in making beer.

Will it be good? That remains to be seen. I'll put a bottle in the refrigerator on Friday night, and then sample it on Sunday. I realise that I am placing the whole process on a pedastal that is higher than it probably deserves to be, but what the hell, it's my first!

In the meantime, @JINKS over in the labeling forum took some concepts and images that were rolling around in my mind and transformed them into a very nice label for my bottles:

He also came up with a design for neck labels as well:

I'm thinking that things are looking pretty good for this project!

Due to several factors, including work and my above-mentioned illness, I haven't yet been able to brew my second batch of beer (Oatmeal Cookie Stout), but plan on doing so this weekend.

@PitRow - Mike, I forgot about it at the time, but I do in fact have one of those bottle wands/fillers, exactly as you described! It came with the initial kit that my wife got for me for my birthday, and I had it packed away with all of my 5-gallon brewing equipment. I'll give it a try on my next project!

I suspect you done darn good.

Chocolate Maple Porter was my first out-of-the-box recipe when my daughters got me a BBS 1-gallon kit a few years ago. I plan on doing a 2-gallon "scratch batch" with my BrewDemon real soon; hopefully Sunday since the Vikings are on a bye.

I am considering putting half and half into secondaries, with one having some peppers for a little spice.

Let us know how yours turn out!