OP
OP
Congrats on brewing a beer that makes me wish I hadnt spent my money on plane tickets to cancun.
Now that is saying something
Thanks!!
Sweet Success!
- Thread starter Jester369
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Now that is saying something
Thanks!!
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Dusting off an old thread here..... Being a newbie to brewing I'm wondering which of the above ingredients is the sugar that will create the alcohol?
I had this beer at my cousin's wedding in August and thought it was the best beer I've ever had. Tried to get some on my way out of town to no avail. Disappointed I turned to the internet hoping at a long shot chance of finding the recipe online. And much to my surprise here it is!!!...
:rockin:
wyzazz
Well-Known Member
All the grain and Extract/LME adds sugars (unfermentable & fermentable) to the wort. In this case the fermentable sugars are coming from the Extract (amber & wheat).
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Thanks wyzazz and BTW, that sig is about as good as it gets...
Wow, +1 on reviving this thread. As everyone has else has said, got my mouth watering!
Looks like this one has had a lot of brewing success since the original post. . .how about some tasting notes from those who've brewed it?
Looks like this one has had a lot of brewing success since the original post. . .how about some tasting notes from those who've brewed it?
wyzazz
Well-Known Member
No worries my friend. As for the sig, I almost changed it yesterday, almost...
PirateBrewer
Well-Known Member
Hmmmm this beer looks and sounds awesome! I think I know what I'll be brewing for the winter time!
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
ILuvIPA said:
This is the BEST beer I've ever had and hopefully it'll turn out as good or better than the original. It's so good it's like drinking p*ssy...
wyzazz-I can see you have great sage wisdom in those sigs....
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
OK I've been waiting for a friend to show me the ropes, but it looks like he's just too busy to get this underway anytime soon.
So I have a few questions as I consider doing this on my own:
1. What is the grain portion of this recipe that I need to steep?
2. Do I leave it in the water throughout the entire steep/boil process?
3. I assume I steep the grain in a "tea bag?"
4. When adding the two extract ingredients I just pour them in the water and don't worry about putting them in a "tea bag?"
5. Adding the hops is pretty straight forward.
6. After the boil is complete do I need to aerate the wort after it's cooled?
7. After it's cooled, do I pour into a fermenting vessle (should it be in a glass carboy?) & pitch yeast, slap a lid & air lock on it and let it sit till it stops bubbling?
8. What happens next? Bottling?
1. What is the grain portion of this recipe that I need to steep?
8 oz Caramel Wheat
2 oz Chocolate
2 oz Black Patent
1 lb Crystal 32: Carastan
2. Do I leave it in the water throughout the entire steep/boil process?
No, see the last portion of the instructions.
Heat 6 qts to 160*, steep grain for 45 min
3. I assume I steep the grain in a "tea bag?"
Use something like this.
4. When adding the two extract ingredients I just pour them in the water and don't worry about putting them in a "tea bag?"
They don't go in the bag but you want to remove the pot from the heat before pouring them in.
6. After the boil is complete do I need to aerate the wort after it's cooled?
Popur it into the fermenter then top off to whatever volume the recipe calls for(probably 5 gallons).
7. After it's cooled, do I pour into a fermenting vessle (should it be in a glass carboy?) & pitch yeast, slap a lid & air lock on it and let it sit till it stops bubbling?
I think most people would recommend at least 2 weeks and closer to 3. You leave it in there until you get 3 consecutive days with the same gravity reading on your hydrometer. I personally put it into the fermenter and don't touch it until 2 weeks later. I take a hydrometer reading then leave it alone for another week. If you read around the forum you will probably run across Revvy's "don't use the airlock to gauge your fermentation use your hydrometer" post. It is very informative and I suspect he cuts and pastes it. I have come across it about every other day since I started to post here.
I would recommend reading How to Brew and around this forum a little more before starting. I would also recommend buying and brewing an extract kit before trying to do the recipe you posted. It isn't necessary but all of your questions would have been in the instructions included in an extract kit. It is a good way to get your process down.
8 oz Caramel Wheat
2 oz Chocolate
2 oz Black Patent
1 lb Crystal 32: Carastan
2. Do I leave it in the water throughout the entire steep/boil process?
No, see the last portion of the instructions.
Heat 6 qts to 160*, steep grain for 45 min
3. I assume I steep the grain in a "tea bag?"
Use something like this.
4. When adding the two extract ingredients I just pour them in the water and don't worry about putting them in a "tea bag?"
They don't go in the bag but you want to remove the pot from the heat before pouring them in.
6. After the boil is complete do I need to aerate the wort after it's cooled?
Popur it into the fermenter then top off to whatever volume the recipe calls for(probably 5 gallons).
7. After it's cooled, do I pour into a fermenting vessle (should it be in a glass carboy?) & pitch yeast, slap a lid & air lock on it and let it sit till it stops bubbling?
I think most people would recommend at least 2 weeks and closer to 3. You leave it in there until you get 3 consecutive days with the same gravity reading on your hydrometer. I personally put it into the fermenter and don't touch it until 2 weeks later. I take a hydrometer reading then leave it alone for another week. If you read around the forum you will probably run across Revvy's "don't use the airlock to gauge your fermentation use your hydrometer" post. It is very informative and I suspect he cuts and pastes it. I have come across it about every other day since I started to post here.
I would recommend reading How to Brew and around this forum a little more before starting. I would also recommend buying and brewing an extract kit before trying to do the recipe you posted. It isn't necessary but all of your questions would have been in the instructions included in an extract kit. It is a good way to get your process down.
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Points well taken and thanks for your input Logan. I'm off to the brew store to get this party started...
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Great, thanks. Off to Lowe's to get an oxygen tank & some tubing then to the pet store to do a return & pick up an aquarium bubbler. Then I light this candle and hope for the best...
For the chocolate grains would it be malt, rye, or wheat?
Also, does anyone else have reviews of this beer?
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
It's just regular chocolate. I used 1 oz of Dove chocolates & 1 oz of Hershey's Symphony with toffee bits.
It's still bubbling in the fermenter, albeit very very slowly now. I'll either bottle this Tues or this coming weekend. Then 6 weeks from then I'll let you know how it is!....
This looks fantastic. Are you just using Ale yeast? I have US-05 and Notty.
Also, I'd love to save a few bucks.. anyone have any luck with that AG recipe? I converted in Beersmith, and it looks different.
Also, I'd love to save a few bucks.. anyone have any luck with that AG recipe? I converted in Beersmith, and it looks different.
Did you steep the chocolate like grains or add it to the boil?It's just regular chocolate. I used 1 oz of Dove chocolates & 1 oz of Hershey's Symphony with toffee bits.
It's still bubbling in the fermenter, albeit very very slowly now. I'll either bottle this Tues or this coming weekend. Then 6 weeks from then I'll let you know how it is!....
OP
OP
Umm, no that is not chocolate - it is chocolate malt.
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Umm, no that is not chocolate - it is chocolate malt.
D'oh! I used chocolate. It's going in bottles today so I'll have to see what effects the difference are in 6 weeks. Damn I hope it didn't screw it up....
Really? This should be interesting!
OP
OP
I'm sure it will be fine - just different
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
I'm sure it will be fine - just different
Damn....Oh well.......
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
ok it's all bottled up now. Had half a bottle left at the end so instead of capping that one me and my buddy decided to sample it. It was so good we each opened a newly capped bottle and drank it! Looking forward to a fully carbonated taste.
I discovered that I lose about 1 1/2 gallons of water during the hour long boil. My plan for batch 2 is to cool the wort with approx 1 1/2 gallons worth of ice instead of using a wort chiller or simply waiting for it to cool. We used about 1/2 gallon worth of ice to speed up the cooling process in batch 1 with no apparent ill effects.
Don't know exactly how different it'll be from the original recipe with my mistake of using real chocolate instead of the chocolate malt, so far so good. I think in batch 2 I'm going to use less hops (about 1/2 as much) with the chocolate malt and real chocolate (hasn't hurt having it in there so far) and see how that pans out.
I discovered that I lose about 1 1/2 gallons of water during the hour long boil. My plan for batch 2 is to cool the wort with approx 1 1/2 gallons worth of ice instead of using a wort chiller or simply waiting for it to cool. We used about 1/2 gallon worth of ice to speed up the cooling process in batch 1 with no apparent ill effects.
Don't know exactly how different it'll be from the original recipe with my mistake of using real chocolate instead of the chocolate malt, so far so good. I think in batch 2 I'm going to use less hops (about 1/2 as much) with the chocolate malt and real chocolate (hasn't hurt having it in there so far) and see how that pans out.
Brewer_Bob
Well-Known Member
Man, that is making me thirsty.
That should be about 12lbs of ice... If you put in by volume, you will come out w/o enough water. Also, you can compute the temps with a bit of math: 3.5(212) + 1.5(32 deg) = 5 gal at 158 deg. You are going to need some more cooling...
Jonnio
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Also be very careful with ice -- commercial ice, especially, is pretty prone to being full of bacteria. Your safer to buy a couple gallon jugs of spring water, pour a little out, freeze them and then when your ready sanitize the outside and cut it off.
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
excellent ideas/input, thanks guys. Hadn't really given much thought to the math of the cooling but you're right ashort, it will need more cooling. I think what I'll wind up doing is using all ice to chill and top off at the end of the boil which will bring me to approx 3 1/2 gallons of spring water ice then I'll let it sit outside (it'll be in the low 40's by then) to finish chilling...
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Ok tried a few after 10 days in the bottle to see how it's coming. Not bad, but far from the original Shed. Bearing in mind that I screwed up and used real chocolate instead of chocolate malt and it's only 10 days into a 3 week conditioning, but otherwise I was to the letter in the recipe. It might be a little premature to call it at 10 days but I don't think the complexity is going to drastically change in the next 2 weeks that will bring this any closer to the original Shed we're trying to duplicate.
I'm not a dark beer kind of guy so I was very skeptical when I tried the original Shed Mountain Ale (I find dark beers MUCH too bitter for my taste). I was blown away after the first sip. It was almost like they describe a heroin addiction; one try and you're hooked. So with that experience in mind I can judge what I have bottled now accurately and say it's not close. The hops in this recipe is WAAAAAAAY too bitter, there is zero creamy feel/taste, no hints of chocolate (because I screwed that up), no hints of vanilla and overall the hops overpowers any of these subtle flavors if they do exist in this recipe, which I don't think they do. These are crucial elements of the uniqueness of the original Shed Mountain Ale that make it so good, such a standout. It's as dark as three feet up a bulls ass but it doesn't exhibit any traditional dark beer bitterness shock to the tonque. I'd describe the original as a blend of a dark beer, lager and cream ale and this uniqueness is recognized by it being classified as a "specialty."
On a 10 scale the original is the benchmark 10. This recipe comes in around 6.5-7 on that scale. It's decent, I like it and I'll drink it all but only because I put so much effort and work into it.
The missing elements I described earlier are going to be addressed in my next batch this weekend. And of course I'm not going to make the mistake of screwing up the chocolate malt this time either. I'm completely changing the hops profile to reduce the bitterness by half, adding malto dextrose to try and create the creamy feel on the tongue and adding somewhere between 1/2 to 1 oz of vanilla and see where that takes us...
I'm not a dark beer kind of guy so I was very skeptical when I tried the original Shed Mountain Ale (I find dark beers MUCH too bitter for my taste). I was blown away after the first sip. It was almost like they describe a heroin addiction; one try and you're hooked. So with that experience in mind I can judge what I have bottled now accurately and say it's not close. The hops in this recipe is WAAAAAAAY too bitter, there is zero creamy feel/taste, no hints of chocolate (because I screwed that up), no hints of vanilla and overall the hops overpowers any of these subtle flavors if they do exist in this recipe, which I don't think they do. These are crucial elements of the uniqueness of the original Shed Mountain Ale that make it so good, such a standout. It's as dark as three feet up a bulls ass but it doesn't exhibit any traditional dark beer bitterness shock to the tonque. I'd describe the original as a blend of a dark beer, lager and cream ale and this uniqueness is recognized by it being classified as a "specialty."
On a 10 scale the original is the benchmark 10. This recipe comes in around 6.5-7 on that scale. It's decent, I like it and I'll drink it all but only because I put so much effort and work into it.
The missing elements I described earlier are going to be addressed in my next batch this weekend. And of course I'm not going to make the mistake of screwing up the chocolate malt this time either. I'm completely changing the hops profile to reduce the bitterness by half, adding malto dextrose to try and create the creamy feel on the tongue and adding somewhere between 1/2 to 1 oz of vanilla and see where that takes us...
OP
OP
Interesting that you find it so far from the original mountain ale. We did side by sides and it was clearly a good clone. The hop profile was spot on, and the flavors were very close. I know you did the chocolate thing but I can't believe it would have changed it so much for the worse. Two questions I would ask are what was the volume you boiled (hop utilization) and how long did it condition? Mine was three weeks in the keg before we tapped it. I wonder why your results are so different.
EDIT: just reread your post. 10 days in - got it! I need to read better.
EDIT: just reread your post. 10 days in - got it! I need to read better.
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Ya, to me, what I have isn't close to the original Shed. I made another batch today with the aforementioned changes. The ole wait & see game now. I boiled the hops in 2 1/2 gallons and as it's conditioning it's getting stronger and not mellowing at all (had another two today as we were making the new batch...
)FWIW, using ice worked MUCH better than a wort chiller. It cooled the brew pronto. In fact, 2 gallons of ice cooled the 2 1/2 gallon wort from boiling to 50 degrees in 2 minutes! I had to boil & add a pot of water to warm it up to 65 degrees before I tossed the yeast in there.
And the saga continues...
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
Ok, just as I thought.... I called the Shed today and talked to the brewmaster about their Mountain Ale. He said "there's very little hops in it. It has an IBU of 35." Take the meaning of "very little hops in it" as you wish, but the IBU of 35 is WAAAAAAAAAAAY far from the 76 this recipe claims. I knew it was MUCH too strong on the hops to be anywhere close to the original. The hops is too overpowering and you lose any ability to enjoy all the other flavors the original has.
Batch #2 is in the fermenter now and I went with a hops combo in the 25-30 IBU range, used the correct chocolate malt and a couple other additives that I felt were missing by comparison.
After talking to the brewmaster today I'm very excited about being headed in the right direction now...
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
I don't know what others have done, but I didn't. I let it go in the primary for 2 weeks then bottled. It has gassed up very nicely...
Rolling_Thunder
Active Member
OK this stuff has been in the bottle exactly 3 weeks now and it has turned out fantastic! It's not the same as the original Shed Mountain Ale but it's a very good unique taste in the same family of uniqueness found in the original. That is to say it's close, it's very good (everyone that has tried it has loved it, even non dark beer drinkers) and many of those that have tried it want me to make them a batch and if I try to meet the demand I'll have to cook up at least 100 gallons!
Here's where I went with my changes to the recipe:
2 oz. Briess Black Patent Malt (by the ounce)
2 oz. Muntons Chocolate Malt (by the ounce)
1 lb Carastan
8 oz. Caramel Wheat
2-3.3 lb Munton's Amber Liquid Malt Extract
2 lbs Muntons Wheat Dried Malt Extract (by the pound)
1 oz. Cascade Hops (US) - 1oz. Pellets
1 oz. Saaz Hops (Czech) - 1oz. Whole
1 oz. Tettnang Hops - 1oz. Pellets
Malto Dextrin - 4 oz.
1 lb KreamyX - Priming Sugar
1 oz. Vanilla Extract
Safael U.S. 50 yeast
Steep grains @ 155 degrees (get water to temp then turn off heat) for 45 minutes dunking in & out of water like tea bag
Bring to boil & add both 3.3 lb. cans of Amber LME & 2 lbs of DME
Toss ¾ oz of Cascade hops in boil for 60 minutes
Toss ½ oz of Saaz 20 minutes to flame out
Add 4 oz of Malto Dextrin 15 minutes to flame out
Toss ½ oz of Tettnang hops 5 minutes to flame out
Fill primary fermenter with 2 gallons of ice & 1 oz of Vanilla Extract.
Add wort to primary fermenter straining through screened funnel then fill with filtered water to 5 gallon mark on bucket to top off.
Cooled wort needs to be between 60 & 72 degrees.
Toss Yeast when wort is to temp.
Slap lid & air lock on it and wait 2 weeks then bottle and wait another 3 weeks.
The next batch is going to have the following changes to the above:
Use Dark malt extract instead of Amber (I ordered Amber by mistake)
Use 2 oz of vanilla instead of 1
Add 8 oz of 2 row to try to get better mouth feel
I'm planning to cook this next batch in about a week and I'll post the findings in a couple months.
Happy New Year everybody!
Here's where I went with my changes to the recipe:
2 oz. Briess Black Patent Malt (by the ounce)
2 oz. Muntons Chocolate Malt (by the ounce)
1 lb Carastan
8 oz. Caramel Wheat
2-3.3 lb Munton's Amber Liquid Malt Extract
2 lbs Muntons Wheat Dried Malt Extract (by the pound)
1 oz. Cascade Hops (US) - 1oz. Pellets
1 oz. Saaz Hops (Czech) - 1oz. Whole
1 oz. Tettnang Hops - 1oz. Pellets
Malto Dextrin - 4 oz.
1 lb KreamyX - Priming Sugar
1 oz. Vanilla Extract
Safael U.S. 50 yeast
Steep grains @ 155 degrees (get water to temp then turn off heat) for 45 minutes dunking in & out of water like tea bag
Bring to boil & add both 3.3 lb. cans of Amber LME & 2 lbs of DME
Toss ¾ oz of Cascade hops in boil for 60 minutes
Toss ½ oz of Saaz 20 minutes to flame out
Add 4 oz of Malto Dextrin 15 minutes to flame out
Toss ½ oz of Tettnang hops 5 minutes to flame out
Fill primary fermenter with 2 gallons of ice & 1 oz of Vanilla Extract.
Add wort to primary fermenter straining through screened funnel then fill with filtered water to 5 gallon mark on bucket to top off.
Cooled wort needs to be between 60 & 72 degrees.
Toss Yeast when wort is to temp.
Slap lid & air lock on it and wait 2 weeks then bottle and wait another 3 weeks.
The next batch is going to have the following changes to the above:
Use Dark malt extract instead of Amber (I ordered Amber by mistake)
Use 2 oz of vanilla instead of 1
Add 8 oz of 2 row to try to get better mouth feel
I'm planning to cook this next batch in about a week and I'll post the findings in a couple months.
Happy New Year everybody!
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