So I brewed a Milk Stout with Peanut Butter Chocolate Balls Cereal

[CascadesBrewer]

This thing actually has some potential. I figured I would give the spigot on my new Fermonster a try and grabbed a sample to see how fermentation was going. I expect the FG to be in the 1.025 to 1.030 range (the lactose adds about .008 of unfermentable points)...so probably about 70% through fermentation so far. It is very yeasty, but there is a distinct, and pleasant, graham cracker flavor. Not sure about any peanut butter. It is hard to say if I get much chocolate or if I am just drinking something that looks like chocolate milk and I know there should be chocolate there. The actual cereal is much less sweet with less pb/chocolate flavor vs actual Reese's cereal.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Fermentation has slowed down, but a bit higher than I had hoped (in the 1.036 range). I boosted the temps in the fermentation chamber a bit in hopes to keep it going. I learned that my small spacer heater might not be the best heat source for my chamber. By the time it is warm enough in the chamber to raise the temp of the beer 4F, the air is hot enough to trigger the heater's "overheat detection", which requires unplugging it for a few minutes to reset. It seems to work to boost temps 2F at a time though.

I am debating about pitching a pack of dried yeast though I suspect that will not really help anything. Around 1.030 would be in the 70% attenuation range (given the lactose add about 8 points), and 1.036 puts it in the only 61% range. I am not sure if the cereal adds any unfermentables. Lactose might have been a bad idea, but I liked the milk + cereal idea. It is very sweet right now.

The cereal "stuff" is starting to settle out...hopefully it will compact below the spigot.

 

[bradccook]

Fermentation has slowed down, but a bit higher than I had hoped (in the 1.036 range). I boosted the temps in the fermentation chamber a bit in hopes to keep it going. I learned that my small spacer heater might not be the best heat source for my chamber. By the time it is warm enough in the chamber to raise the temp of the beer 4F, the air is hot enough to trigger the heater's "overheat detection", which requires unplugging it for a few minutes to reset. It seems to work to boost temps 2F at a time though.

I am debating about pitching a pack of dried yeast though I suspect that will not really help anything. Around 1.030 would be in the 70% attenuation range (given the lactose add about 8 points), and 1.036 puts it in the only 61% range. I am not sure if the cereal adds any unfermentables. Lactose might have been a bad idea, but I liked the milk + cereal idea. It is very sweet right now.

View attachment 616414

The cereal "stuff" is starting to settle out...hopefully it will compact below the spigot.

View attachment 616415

Any thing new yet?

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Any thing new yet?

It went into bottles on Friday evening. I kept it warm for several days (74F range) and gave it a swirl to see if the yeast would drive the FG down but it seems to have settled around 1.035. I then cold crashed for a few days to help it clear. It might end up being a rather sweet dessert beer. I am still not sure how much of the cereal character made it through, but it should be easier to tell once it carbonates.

Hopefully I did not over prime the bottles. I have only bottle conditioned a handful of beers since I got my kegging system 20 years ago and only recently have had the ability to cold crash beers. 2 g of sugar per bottle worked well for the last beer I bottled, so that is what I did for this one. Afterward I looked at the Northern Brewer Priming Calculator and it says a beer at 40F only needs 1.2 g per bottle!

 

[Home_alone1]

It went into bottles on Friday evening. I kept it warm for several days (74F range) and gave it a swirl to see if the yeast would drive the FG down but it seems to have settled around 1.035. I then cold crashed for a few days to help it clear. It might end up being a rather sweet dessert beer. I am still not sure how much of the cereal character made it through, but it should be easier to tell once it carbonates.

Hopefully I did not over prime the bottles. I have only bottle conditioned a handful of beers since I got my kegging system 20 years ago and only recently have had the ability to cold crash beers. 2 g of sugar per bottle worked well for the last beer I bottled, so that is what I did for this one. Afterward I looked at the Northern Brewer Priming Calculator and it says a beer at 40F only needs 1.2 g per bottle!

You will be fine , don’t use the cold crash temp , use the hottest temp it fermented at . Also with a beer like that ( high abv ) you might add a little yeast at bottling as they are probably pretty tired at this point.

 

[odie]

You will be fine , don’t use the cold crash temp , use the hottest temp it fermented at . Also with a beer like that ( high abv ) you might add a little yeast at bottling as they are probably pretty tired at this point.

Explain the temps? I’m not following the reasoning.

 

[isomerization]

Explain the temps? I’m not following the reasoning.

As I recently learned, oxygen will come out of solution with increasing temperature, but will not go back into solution with decreasing temperature, unless pressure is applied.

 

[user 205607]

Go for it!!! I saw a article where a brewery did a lucky charms NEIPA.

Why not...lol

That was a brewery in Virginia Beach, Smartmouth. Actually there were some really upset people once they realized it didn’t taste like fruit loops. I imagine the Fruit Loops upped the ABV and died up the beer some.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

hmmm...hanging out at home on a Thursday drinking enough homebrew that opening a bottle after 6 days of conditioning seemed like a good idea (it was just that last partial fill bottle). I am not a huge "pastry stout" fan. I was worried this would just be way too sweet. Honestly, it is a solid beer. The head dissipated quickly and the beer is still rather flat. It has a nice "shortbread cookie" flavor with subtle chocolate and peanut butter notes, but it is not as sweet as I feared. I am really curious what somebody that does not know the ingredients will think. I have about 3 weeks until the competition that I brewed this for.

P.S. I am not sure if I have used WLP013 London Ale in the past. I really enjoy the NEIPA that I first pitched this into and I think it is a part of why I like this beer. I am planning to to use WLP013 in a porter I am brewing this weekend. I am feeling that WLP013 will replace S-04 as my standard Porter/Sweet Stout yeast.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

2 weeks in the bottle...tried a couple of them...

If the measure of success was the creation of a Chocolate Peanut Butter bomb stout, then it was a failure. I get no peanut butter character. Chocolate? There is sweetness and a roasty/chocolatey flavor but I don't detect actual chocolate character.

On the other hand, this is a damn good beer. It is hard to trust some random homebrewer, but I am pretty critical of my beers. There is a definite sweetness there. It is not cloying, but I am not sure I would drink multiple pints in a row. The cereal character is more of what I would expect from something like a Cap'n Crunch (the standard one). There is a bit of a sweet corn character. Clarity on the beer is excellent...it was very murky during fermentation.

The high OG and FG confuse me a bit (1.080 to 1.035). I am a little curious what types of unfermentables cereal would add. I feel like I managed the yeast pitch and fermentation well enough that it was not a "stuck" fermentation. I calculated that the lactose added about 8 points of unfermentables. The fact that an iodine test at 60 minutes showed purple might be a hint at something.

Would I brew this again? Probably not. There are likely much better ways to get chocolate, peanut butter and cracker flavors into a beer (and that is really not my style of beer anyway). The organic cereal I used really did not have much chocolate and peanut butter flavor to start with, but I am not sure I would be comfortable adding the ingredient list from other cereals into my beer. The base recipe is pretty good and I am digging WLP013.

Cheers...

 

[odie]

Maybe repeat but crush and add the cereal to the fermenter? You will still get the sugar but perhaps preserve the cereal flavor?

 

[bkboiler]

Looks delicious...
Pun intended, but perhaps a cereal mash would be required to gelatinize the starches in the grains in the cereal, since they got baked, but not malted...

 

[z-bob]

Looks delicious...
Pun intended, but perhaps a cereal mash would be required to gelatinize the starches in the grains in the cereal, since they got baked, but not malted...

Nope, the cereal is already cooked. I've done this before, using Corn Flakes instead of flaked corn. The cereal just dissolved in the mash, and it converted just fine.

 

[bkboiler]

Oh ok so u did a mash with just cornflakes and no other malt?
Did you calculate the fermentables and verify u got your expected OG?

 

[z-bob]

Oh ok so u did a mash with just cornflakes and no other malt?
Did you calculate the fermentables and verify u got your expected OG?

No, I had something like 85% pale malt and 15% cornflakes. The pale malt (I think it was Canadian 2-row) provided the enzymes.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Maybe repeat but crush and add the cereal to the fermenter? You will still get the sugar but perhaps preserve the cereal flavor?

I don't plan to repeat this beer myself (if I enjoyed Chocolate PB stouts there seem to be better ways) but, yeah, I think adding some to the fermenter (or maybe at flame out) would add more character. I was kind of worried that it might add starchy flavors and adding after fermentation seems like it would add a lot of oxygen.

Pun intended, but perhaps a cereal mash would be required to gelatinize the starches in the grains in the cereal, since they got baked, but not malted...

Based on the high OG and FG of my batch, I am not positive exactly what the cereal adds but it seemed to add some amount of unfermentables. The primary ingredients of the cereal are different flours.