Hardywood Park Gingerbread Stout help.

[eulipion2]

Definitely bring some to the meeting! Ask for Rick

For the vanilla next time, split the bean and scrape out the seeds, and add it all into the brew. Some people even chop up the pod as well. Cracking the cinnamon, or adding ground, will give it more surface area, possibly giving more flavor.

 

[BBFCreatureFM]

Definitely bring some to the meeting! Ask for Rick

For the vanilla next time, split the bean and scrape out the seeds, and add it all into the brew. Some people even chop up the pod as well. Cracking the cinnamon, or adding ground, will give it more surface area, possibly giving more flavor.

Eulipion, you wouldn't happen to be the Rick from Richmond that I know, are you? Spend a bit of your time following a band around the country? Big into screen printing? And the damn Jets?

 

[eulipion2]

Eulipion, you wouldn't happen to be the Rick from Richmond that I know, are you? Spend a bit of your time following a band around the country? Big into screen printing? And the damn Jets?

Apparently there are multiple Ricks in the club but unfortunately no, different Rick. He sounds far more exciting than me

 

[VaTechBrew]

CoopersGoose, when you get a chance could you please post that brewsmith recipe that you altered?

Thanks!

 

[CoopersGoose]

Let's try this one.

From Hardywoods website:
OG 1.100
ABV 9.2%
Color: 40L
Bitterness (IBU): 55

Here's what I've come up with in BeerSmith, and based on my previous results as a second batch. Based on BeerSmiths numbers and my estimates from losses

5.5 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3 SRM)
5.5 lbs Victory Malt (25 SRM)
1.5 lbs Biscuit Malt (23 SRM)
0.75 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120L
1 lb Chocolate Malt (350 SRM)
1 lb Oats, Flakes (1 SRM)
2.0 oz Black Barley (Stout) (500 SRM)
1.5 lbs Lactose
1.5 lbs Honey
0.5 lbs Malto-Dextrine - Boil 15 minutes
3 oz. Challenger (7.5% AA) - Boil 60 minutes
5 oz. Ginger - Boil 12 minutes
5 Sticks Cinnamon - Boil 5 minutes
5 Vanilla Beans - Boil 5 minutes


Mash 156F for 90 Minutes in 24.92 Qts water 166.7F
Batch Sparge with 2 steps (Drain Mash Tun, 4.03 gal) of 168F water
Estimated pre-boil gravity 1.075 SG

Estimated OG: 1.099
Bitterness (IBUs): 54
Color: 39.9 SRM
Est. ABV: 11.0%

I intend to use the same baby ginger and honey as indicated in previous threads. Tom Leonards has the honey, not sure yet where to acquire the ginger, but haven't really looked yet.

Added Malto-Dextrin to help add some body and sweetness, as well as upped the lactose a bit. Like the idea of adding honey into secondary, but will likely simply add to boil like before. Any thoughts on increasing final gravity without the alcohol. This is running a little high.

Let me know if anyone gives it a go. I'll do the same!

 

[VaTechBrew]

Thanks! I'm going to give this a whirl this weekend.

 

[CoopersGoose]

Any updates on the attempt? Last post was end of Jan. - just checking in. I've brewed a couple of other batches but haven't gone back and attempted to brew this again. I'll crack open a bottle of the original and give an update.

 

[VaTechBrew]

Ahh man, family events happened and I haven't attempted it yet. My cousin lives near the brewery and they get the same honey so I should be able to source that from richmond, just need to make the drive down soon. I will definitely let you know when I give this a go.

 

[eulipion2]

Any updates on the attempt? Last post was end of Jan. - just checking in. I've brewed a couple of other batches but haven't gone back and attempted to brew this again. I'll crack open a bottle of the original and give an update.

Hopefully I'll be brewing soon. This is my next brew, just need funding. And it occurs to me that I wasn't at the Feb meeting. If you still have any by the March meeting bring it. I have to be there for that one - I'm leading the presentation!

 

[CoopersGoose]

Had a glass tonight. Bottles overflow with foam. Disappointed in that for sure. Flavor doesn't seem affected. My guess is that I bottled too early. Thinking about dumping remaining into keg to see if I can correct. I've read some having bigger beers take longer to carb, but it's been a while now since I bottled, have to chek notes. This beer has good flavor, not totally off target. Will debate next steps.

 

[CoopersGoose]

What's up with the time stamp being off so much? Time is 9:20 pm.

 

[mardbrown]

i need to try an extract version of this. I will say it was mighty cool to stumble across this thread and see the JRHB shouted out in here. Been a member since December.

 

[eulipion2]

Had a glass tonight. Bottles overflow with foam. Disappointed in that for sure. Flavor doesn't seem affected. My guess is that I bottled too early. Thinking about dumping remaining into keg to see if I can correct. I've read some having bigger beers take longer to carb, but it's been a while now since I bottled, have to chek notes. This beer has good flavor, not totally off target. Will debate next steps.

I've had this problem with my last few batches of stout, including Rhoobarb's Damned Kids Oatmeal Stout, Ó Flannagáin Standard, and my own session milk stout. Oddly enough, they all seemed to have reached terminal gravity by the time I bottled, and I used a priming calculator that has otherwise never failed me.

Wondering if some kind of bug got into my system, but I'm glad to know it's not just me.

 

[MadGus]

cooper & eulipion - FWIW, I had beerstone in my stainless conical from probably over a year's worth of batches, which took HOURS to scrub off with BKF and a scrub pad. I then cleaned (PBW or equivalent) and sanitized (StarSan or equivalent) all of my cold/post-boil side equipment. I only, finally did this after four consecutive batches of gushers... they were all infected. I believe I had bugs living in the beerstone deposits that weren't getting cleaned between batches

Good news is that all four batches since then have been fantastic, so I'm confident I got the root cause. Now, I hit my conical with BKF after each batch (which takes five minutes). May be you have a different issue, but what you're describing are exactly the symptoms that had me start troubleshooting (I wasted a lot of time thinking my volumes of priming sugar were off at first).

This GBS recipe is next up in my brew schedule... thanks all for posting info on this extremely tasty beer!

 

[eulipion2]

I think if I have a problem, it's probably in the plastic transfer equipment. New bottling bucket, tubing, and bottling wand are probably in order. My Better Bottle is still fairly new and clean as a whistle. Steel conical would be nice. I find it curious that I only have this problem with stouts. IPA, Munich Dunkel, and a couple saisons came out great.

 

[CoopersGoose]

My final gravity reading was 1.024, so I think fermentation was pretty close to complete. This was my first batch in 7 years or so, so I admit I was a bit rusty. Sanitation is something I always take extra precautions with. Cleaned everything with one step - even pre-boil items. Fermenter was cleaned with one step and and sanitized with star sans. I'm confident up to fermentation I was good.

Bottling might have been problematic. Did clean equipment religiously. New tubing used, new bottling bucket, bottle filler was sanitized, following cleaning. That leaves bottles, and caps. Caps were unused but probably 8-9 years old. Sanitized in star sans. Likely not the issue, but worth noting. Bottles were recycled from empties. Definitely had some with mold in them due to them not initially being rinsed. Cleaned well and then sanitized.

If it were contamination in bottles, I'd expect some bottles to be fine, with others producing gushers. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. Seems like the issue is with all bottles. Batch of BierMunchers Centennial Blonde Ale that I made following this batch came out great, although I did keg that batch. If i picked something up, it was likely in the bottling step. I'm going to leave what I have left alone for another 6 weeks and see what happens. Read this issue can happen with bigger beers. Not sure why, but maybe it has to do with higher alcohol content delaying absorption of co2.

 

[eulipion2]

Well, finally pulled the trigger on this one yesterday. Wanted to chill it, but got a hole in my chiller tubing that was spraying into the wort, so I ended up pumping it into my no-chill container. Haven't transferred to primary yet, but the trub smelled amazing!!! Nice ginger and molasses character. I'll transfer and get stats on it and post tomorrow-ish.

 

[eulipion2]

Transferred to primary and took my hydro sample. OG came in a little low (1.095, 68%), which I should have taken into account. Brew-in-a-bag with a large grain bill usually hurts your efficiency.

That said, hydro sample smells like gingerbread with a molasses-forward bite, and hints of raisins, prunes, and other dried dark fruit. Four ounces of peeled, sliced ginger is very noticeable, but no vanilla (2 beans, split & scraped) or cinnamon (2 tsp ground). We'll see how it is after fermentation.

 

[eulipion2]

Recipe:
11 lb Maris Otter
1.5 lb Victory malt
1.25 lb Lactose
1.25 lb flaked oats
1.0 lb Extra Dark crystal
.75 lb Chocolate malt (UK)
3 oz Black Barley

3 oz Challenger (6.9% AA) 60 min
.5 oz EKG (5.9%AA) 60 min (ran out of Challenger, needed to make up the diff.)

4 oz Ginger, fresh, peeled, and sliced - 15 min
2 tsp Cinnamon, ground - 15 min
2 Vanilla beans, split & scraped - 15 min
2 lb Wildflower honey - 5 min

2 packs US-05

Mash: 156 for 60 min
Mash-out: 170 for 15 min
Boil: 60 min

 

[CoopersGoose]

Good luck! Didn't notice any lactose in your recipe. The one thing my initial attempt lacked was that thick full bodied richness and noticeable sweetness that the GBS has. I upped the recommended amount of lactose in the recipe to bring this out, hopefully. It will be interesting to see how it matures. I'm guessing this will be ready around the mid summer timeframe? Best of luck!

 

[eulipion2]

Oops, you're right. Edited. There was 1.25 lb of lactose.

 

[MadGus]

Any update on the second take of this fantastic beer?

 

[eulipion2]

Should be bottled this week.

 

[eulipion2]

Okay, just bottled, a little later than expected.

OG: 1.095
FG: 1.032
ABV: 8.27%

Didn't quite hit my target gravity, but the remains of the bottling bucket taste pretty good. Maybe a hint of plastic bucket, but it's hard to tell with everything else going on. Hopefully it'll get better with carbonation and conditioning. Anyone else brew/rebrew this yet?

 

[CoopersGoose]

Eupi keep us posted. I had to throw my batch out due to a nasty contamination that caused a few bottles to explode. Swear it had something to do with the lactose addition. Maybe I didn't boil long enough, 15 min, to kill all natural bacteria in it. It was funny watching me play EOD team leader.

 

[eulipion2]

Bummer! This is the first beer I've put in secondary in a long time, and I'm hoping I didn't contaminate it. I'll give it a few more days and check on it. Usually leave in in the bottle for three weeks before drinking, but I'm impatient...

15 minutes should have been enough time to kill anything. When my beer is over-carbed, I always wonder if it was an inaccurate calculator, or if I got an infection during racking. I've changed out my racking equipment fairly recently, so hopefully I'm good.

 

[MadGus]

Any updates, fellas?

 

[eulipion2]

Any updates, fellas?

I'll crack one open at lunch and let you know! I shared it with someone who had tried the original (I still haven't yet), and he said that, especially for someone who had never tried it, I came pretty close. Said there was something different about the ginger (I used organic grocery store ginger instead of baby ginger).

 

[eulipion2]

Aroma: Ginger is very strong, with a layer of molasses just underneath.

Appearance: Black, no haze, but nearly opaque with ruby highlights shining through. Low-lying tan head.

Flavor: Ginger and a ton of roast. Might need to cut back on roast a bit. Bitterness is smooth, with little-to-no hop flavor. Roast and slight plastic in the aftertaste, though I'm not sure if it's from too much roast or infection, or both. Also, I had some chiller water leak into the kettle which may have had chlorine/chloramine in it. No vanilla, honey or cinnamon. Fairly clean finish, aftertaste fades quickly.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium/medium-full body with slight roast-based astringency(?). Could use more carbonation.

Overall: Pretty tasty, but I might add honey and ginger to secondary, seek out baby ginger, and cut back on roast. Also, up the vanilla and cinnamon.

I still haven't tried the original yet, but I'll crack a bottle after my move in a couple weeks and adapt my recipe from there.

As a standalone beer (not a clone): while there was a bunch of Victory malt, it didn't taste particularly "malty," and wasn't particularly sweet. May add some lighter crystal malt, maybe some aromatic.

 

[ptownbmac]

Hey guys, been following this thread for a while and planning on taking a run at GBS on the 22nd with a buddy of mine. Here's the recipe we're planning.

OG - 1.112
FG - 1.033
ABV - 10.46%
IBU's - 55
SRM - 34

Chocolate malt - 12 oz
Roasted Barley - 12 oz
Victory - 12 oz
Carapils - 6 oz

Extra light DME - 12 lbs
Lactose - 1 lb

Warrior 2 oz at 60 min - 35 IBU
Nugget 2 oz at 20 min - 18 IBU
Challenger 1 oz at 5 min - 2 IBU

Wildflower honey - 2 lbs at 10 min
Fresh ginger root - 5 oz at 5 min
Vanilla beans - 5 beans split and scraped
Cinnamon sticks - 3 whole sticks at 5 min

Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale with 3L starter on stir plate
Safale US-05 - 1 sachet

I have been steeping the grains for 45 min recently and then washing them into the brewpot so it turns into more of a partial mash. May have gotten a little carried away with the OG so was going to throw in a sachet of US-05 just to be sure. We wanted the gingerbread flavor to come through but not for it to be "spicy" or overly sweet. Figured it would probably be ready around christmas time.

Would you guys change anything about the flavor additions? I've heard people putting the vanilla beans in vodka to bring out the flavor some.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.