help - breakfast stout

[bearohs]

So i had a kit i bought.. long story short i missed a bag of malt and added it boiled the day after.
this saturday makes three weeks in primary

My (crap) instructions say to add the vanilla three days before bottling. Add choc extract flavor immediately before bottling.

Do i need to need to siphon to a new bucket or to my bottling bucket?

So far im 3 weeks deep. Should i let this go a while longer?

Thanks

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

When you say you added the malt a day later, I assume you mean dry or liquid malt extract. That will be fine. Your IBUs will be a little off because your hop utilization will be different but not a big deal. Go ahead and add your vanilla and wait 3 days. No need for secondary. On bottling day, boil your priming sugar and pour it, along with the chocolate, into your bottling bucket. Siphon your beer onto it out of the fermenter and that will mix it all together. Then go ahead and bottle.

And good for you for leaving it for 3 weeks before bottling. I'm sure your kit told you to bottle it sooner. Sounds like you're in good shape.

 

[BrewHound]

When you say you added the malt a day later, I assume you mean dry or liquid malt extract. That will be fine. Your IBUs will be a little off because your hop utilization will be different but not a big deal. Go ahead and add your vanilla and wait 3 days. No need for secondary. On bottling day, boil your priming sugar and pour it, along with the chocolate, into your bottling bucket. Siphon your beer onto it out of the fermenter and that will mix it all together. Then go ahead and bottle.

And good for you for leaving it for 3 weeks before bottling. I'm sure your kit told you to bottle it sooner. Sounds like you're in good shape.

Right on!

 

[bearohs]

Would it be wise to let go to 4 weeks?

 

[bearohs]

Actually it says to steep the coffee beans 24-48 hours and add the vanilla vodka soaked split beans at bottling.. wth does this mean?

 

[BrewHound]

Sounds odd. It seems to me that you'd get better results by brewing the coffee and adding it with the split vanilla bean. Making what is basically a tincture of coffee with the vodka is not something I've heard of before. Can you post the full instructions that came with the kit? Maybe via a scan?

 

[altimate_one]

Actually it says to steep the coffee beans 24-48 hours and add the vanilla vodka soaked split beans at bottling.. wth does this mean?

If it was me I would coarsely grind the coffee and make a cold brew with it. Add the grounds to a mason jar, fill the rest with good bottled water, and toss it in the fridge over night. In the morning you need to filter the grounds from the water (cheese cloth works well). I haven't had "great" results from beans or coffee from the pot. Then, as the previous poster stated, you can add the vanilla beans and coffee to the primary at the same time. I wouldn't worry about contamination from the coffee either.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

+1 on cold brewing the coffee. Gets you the flavor without extracting the head-killing oils. For vanilla beans, I split them, scrape the innards, cut into 1" pieces, put them in a small jar and soak in just enough vodka to cover them. Soak for 3 days then pour the whole mess in the fermenter for the last 3 days. I just finished a vanilla porter this way. Used 4 beans and it was just right. I know some people add it to the bottling bucket which seems to work well, too.

 

[bearohs]

I can say the taste was great. A week in bottles and we are mega flat. Virtually no carbonation. Not sure why. I added my priming sugar via hot water with my choc addative and bottleD. Guessing need a couple more weeks before i sample again.

But tastes mega coffee. Apparently my high dollar grinder version of coarse is still pretty fine.

 

[bearohs]

Ok so these beers are still mega flat and sweet. Roughly 4 weeks in bottles. Any advice?

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

What temp are you conditioning at? If you are below mid-60's it will take longer to carb. Move the bottles to a place that's 70-75F and give them some more time. You might even give each bottle a gentle swirl or roll to stir the yeast up again. Give them 2 more weeks and then try one.

 

[bearohs]

Ive had them in my spare bathroom. 70ďeg or.so. i ordered some more yeast just in case.

 

[altimate_one]

The only reason that I've ever experienced this is when I filtered my brew, and that removed too much yeast to bottle carbonate.

 

[bearohs]

So should i add additional yeast and recap?

 

[altimate_one]

That's totally up to you. I would say that's the only way to truly get some carbonation in the bottles. But that's a lot of handling the beer, with more chances for contamination. Personally, I would chalk it up as a learning experience.