Southern Tier Creme Brule stout Clone

[mtnagel]

I'm hoping this isn't supposed to smell anything like the real thing going into primary, right? Mine has no vanilla or sweet, caramelized sugar notes. I pretty much followed the BYO recipe above. I only made a 1.5 gal batch (was supposed to be 1.25, but didn't boil off as much since this was my first ~1 gal batch, so I was sort of winging it). The only real change was I added half the cardamom as butterpants said (can't believe I paid $9 (on sale) for an 1/8 tsp; guess I need to figure how how to cook with it). And I first cooled to 185F, then added the vanilla bean, then steeped for 20 mins. Might add some vanilla extract at bottling. Maybe another vanilla bean into primary after a couple weeks. Or do you think I should leave it alone and see what happens?

 

[ultravista]

Subscribing.

 

[danhercules]

My partner and I tried to make one from scratch, no clone recipe. I do have a connection at an extract company and he made us some creme brule extract.

We are trying again this weekend and adding lactose sugar. That is what our first attempt was lacking. Mouth feel sucked. But aroma and flavor was there.

Gonna add some vanilla bean as well. Suprizingly our grain bill was not that far off as some of the ones listed on here.

 

[mtnagel]

Did you add any vanilla beans and/or caramelized sugar to yours? Can you post your recipe?

I'm still holding on to some hope that my version of the BYO clone will some how magically come out like creme brulee stout, but I just can't see how it's all going to come together to become that amazing beer.

 

[JillBrew]

Made this last night...my OSG was 1.112! I boiled the entire volume less about a gallon for a 5 gallon batch. Used 1lb of lactose instead of 10oz. Excited to see where my ABV ends up.

 

[mtnagel]

Mine has been in primary for 12 days now. 2 separate gravity samples were both at 1.033, which is the target FG for the recipe, but mine started lower so it's a bit higher than I would have liked. But I do want it full bodied, thick and sweet, so we'll see.

I tried the gravity samples and I'm still not understanding how this will be anything like Creme Brulee stout. I halved the cardamom and all I'm really getting is the spiciness of (what I attribute to be) the cardamom. Part of me wants to throw some vanilla beans and extra lactose in to try to fix it, but part of me wants to see what it will end up like on it's own. I may split the batch and leave half as is and try to fix the other half. Any suggestions?

 

[JillBrew]

My second gravity reading after 1 week was 1.040. I too new to give anyone advice however my gut tells me to tell you to leave it alone.

 

[Hello]

Mine has been in primary for 12 days now. 2 separate gravity samples were both at 1.033, which is the target FG for the recipe, but mine started lower so it's a bit higher than I would have liked. But I do want it full bodied, thick and sweet, so we'll see.

I tried the gravity samples and I'm still not understanding how this will be anything like Creme Brulee stout. I halved the cardamom and all I'm really getting is the spiciness of (what I attribute to be) the cardamom. Part of me wants to throw some vanilla beans and extra lactose in to try to fix it, but part of me wants to see what it will end up like on it's own. I may split the batch and leave half as is and try to fix the other half. Any suggestions?

What was your recipe? There are a few floating around.

 

[mtnagel]

What was your recipe? There are a few floating around.

Sorry, the BYO one I posted above:

 

[Hello]

That is what I intend to use. So you're saying that you don't taste the creme brûlée using this recipe?

Creme brûlée itself is pretty much just the caramelized sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla, I think. I know the eggs add to the custard taste but I would have thought caramelizing sugar and adding vanilla would work. I hope this works out, its an expensive recipe to botch.

 

[mtnagel]

That is what I intend to use. So you're saying that you don't taste the creme brûlée using this recipe?

Creme brûlée itself is pretty much just the caramelized sugar, milk, eggs, and vanilla, I think. I know the eggs add to the custard taste but I would have thought caramelizing sugar and adding vanilla would work. I hope this works out, its an expensive recipe to botch.

I don't want to tell you not to do it, since I'm only tasting mine out of primary where it's been for a couple weeks. I can't really give it a good review until it's been in the bottle for awhile.

Having said that, I don't smell any vanilla or caramelized sugar in it right now. You can smell the spiciness of the cardamon and I cut the level in half from the BYO recipe. I only did a 1 gallon batch, so not a big deal for me.

 

[Hello]

I don't want to tell you not to do it, since I'm only tasting mine out of primary where it's been for a couple weeks. I can't really give it a good review until it's been in the bottle for awhile.

Having said that, I don't smell any vanilla or caramelized sugar in it right now. You can smell the spiciness of the cardamon and I cut the level in half from the BYO recipe. I only did a 1 gallon batch, so not a big deal for me.

I am with you. I carefully caramelized the sugar to a nice golden hue but I did forget to halve the cardamom so basically it is definitely a vanilla spice sweet stout. The bigger issue, if you can call it that, is this is nothing at all like creme brûlée unless you count the sweetness being close. The recipe continues to make me wonder how this would have been like creme brûlée but I went for it. I did toss 3 vanilla beans in vodka for 2 days then tossed them in the fermenter. I'll check this next week and see what happens.

I have a good beer that will be fine and I don't need to fix it, per se, but I would love to know if anyone managed to do this and get the creme brûlée taste. I'll also say that if it doesn't taste like creme brûlée before fermentation, I seriously doubt it will just happen.

Oh man its getting better.
Left one with the lady that runs a local bottle shop. Says she prefers it over the original southern tier brew and if she were judging it, it would get high marks. So I think I may save one or two for the Clark county fair. View attachment 189790

Can you reference your recipe? Was it the BYO one?

 

[mtnagel]

I don't know enough about recipe development to say for sure it wouldn't work, but I did have my doubts and that's why I only did a 1 gal batch.

And I did end up bottling about half as is and then the other half I back sweetened with lactose and extra vanilla extract at bottling. We'll see which is better. Unfortunately I just packed all the beer in my cellar as we are moving in a couple weeks, so it will be at least a few weeks before I try them.

 

[mtnagel]

So I got to taste one of the bottles where I followed the BYO recipe above (except I halved the cardamom). It is very thick and creamy like creme brulee stout, but that's where the similarities end. There is no vanilla or caramelized taste at all and still too much spicy taste. I still have to try one of the ones where I upped the vanilla and lactose at bottling. Maybe it's better.

I see that they make creme brulee flavored K cups and coffee grounds. Maybe using a french press to "randall" those will make this better.

 

[mplafleur]

So what was the result? It looked like there were a few small batches brewed, but no follow up as to the turnout.

I loved this beer. Only had one big bottle last week. Went back for more yesterday and they are out for the year. This is a limited brew.

I'll give this a shot, but it will be a month or so before I do.

 

[mtnagel]

Unfortunately I think this recipe needs some work, but I'm not sure I can help much. I did do some experimentation with some of it. I poured out small measured amounts of the beer and then added measured amounts of vanilla extract. This was just store bought vanilla extract, so we aren't talking anything special. I ended up coming up with needing an additional ~5.8% vanilla extract to get a big vanilla taste. So I took a few bottles I had, opened them up, removed about 0.7 oz of beer and replaced it with 0.7 oz of vanilla extract. I did this probably a year ago and I've probably had 1 or 2 since. I'm not going to lie and say it's a great beer or a clone, but it made it better as it covered up some of the spiciness from the cardamom and greatly boosted the vanilla flavor.

So, as for how I'd change the recipe, I would almost start with 1/10 the level of cardamom listed in the BYO recipe. You can always add more, but you can't take it away. Although I do remember it being pretty expensive as I had to buy a whole jar of it, so unless you already have it in your spice rack, I would just be tempted to remove it.

As for other changes, I would say you need to up the lactose and vanilla a lot. I'd be tempted to use some beans and some vanilla extract as it's going to get expensive quick if you use something like 10 vanilla beans. Up to you though.

It's been awhile since I had the real thing, but I also think it's super sweet. Mine did finish at 1.038, so it's sweet, but I almost feel like it should be sweeter. I've never tried it, but I thought I read that some people will back sweeten with splenda. Might be worth a shot.

So with all that said, I can't see myself trying to brew this beer. While I love this beer, I don't love drinking a lot of it and it seems like it will be tough to recreate what they've done. I assume they just load it up with some high quality flavor extracts that we don't have access to and that's why it doesn't taste artificial despite using flavor extracts. Good luck if you do try to clone it and let me know the results as you may make me change my mind about brewing it again.

 

[crusader1612]

Sounds like tasty stuff

 

[chichum]

Bump. anyone tried this lately and gotten close?