So, I'm on to the next! This time I will take a stab at making a stout. I really, really love me some whiskey barrel stouts. I was thinking I'd never be able to make one because where am I going to find a 5 gallon whiskey barrel, but then I found out I don't have to get that fancy. I can just dump some whiskey soaked wood into the beer after fermentation. So, that's what I think I'll be doing next.
Of course that started the search for what bourbon/scotch should I use! I've never really been a whiskey drinker myself (I am now), so this began several months of intense "research". It's a little gimmicky but I settled on Johnnie Walker's Game of Thrones tie-in "White Walker" whiskey. Obviously there are better, more expensive choices, but I'm not going to throw a $75+ bottle of scotch in my beer. Plus, this was blended/designed to be put in the freezer (the bottle actually glows blue when it's cold) and served cold which coincidentally is how I like my beer, so win-win. But I do actually like this particular whiskey as well (For the record, my favorite so far while "researching" has been Balvenie Caribbean Cask 14yr).
As I said before, for the stout itself, I'm going to get a kit (or comparable ingredients from LHBS) and just stick to the recipe. No substitutions, tweaks, or enhancements (other than dumping a bunch of wood and whiskey into it). So, what I'm curious about is have any of you guys done this before? Did you use chips or cubes or maybe spirals? American, French, or Hungarian? To toast or not to toast? And if you have done this, how long did you have the whiskey and wood in a jar soaking together and how long did you leave it in the beer after fermentation? I've been reading about this on other sites but I trust your opinions more than the general internet. 
I've been doing a lot reading about simulating the barrel aging. I have a feeling I'm again trying to do something that I probably shouldn't be attempting just yet, but what's the worst that can happen. 
I've decided to use Hungarian oak cubes with a medium toast. I'm getting a 3oz bag, but I'm thinking I'll probably just use 2oz of it. My plan is to boil the cubes first, partly to sanitize, but mostly to remove the harsher oak tannins. It seems there is some debate whether the soaking in alcohol is enough to sanitize if it can't penetrate the wood. I saw some suggestions to bake the wood at 200° for 20 minutes, but I don't know if I'll bother with that. Then I'm going to soak them in the whiskey for 2 weeks and dump them in during secondary for at least a month, maybe 2 if I can be patient. I'm still on the fence about whether to include the whiskey from the soaking or not. I figure I'll taste it weekly to make sure I'm not destroying it, but from I read it seems it will start off very oaky but mellow over time. Crossing my fingers, this should be a fun one.
That sounds fun. Definitely let us know how it turns out.
I have done this before Vega! I currently in fact have this exact kind of brew in my keg in the keezer hooked up to the tap.
I used two ounces of these toasted American oak cubes, and soaked them in Longbranch Bourbon for I think three weeks before adding them after fermentation was completed. The first time I tried this kind of beer I boiled them before soaking them in the bourbon, but this time I just rinsed them off with some water. After adding them to the beer (and I did dump in the extra bourbon from the soaking too!) they sat there together for a month.
After kegging and carbonation I've tried it about once or twice a week. You really need to give it time to settle, because this kind of beer is super harsh at first. I've got no off-flavors that I can tell at least, and it is definitely getting better by the week. The first pull after carbonation was like "whoa no way", and it tasted like bad watery beery bourbon, but after a few weeks it got to "okay, getting pretty good" and at this point after about six or seven weeks it is finally getting nicely drinkable. I went with an imperial stout for the beer itself, ending at about 11% abv if I remember correctly. The hardest part of making a beer like this is all the waiting, but man, it can be amazing, and you really do get some of that nice barrel-aged flavor once it mellows. Good luck to you!
Happy National Beer Day!
To celebrate, I'm taking a break from my farmhouse ale experiments and getting started on a Rum Cask Stout. I'm using David Heath's Super Fast Imperial Stout recipe (which I've done before--it's great). It will be ready in a week or two to go into a freshly-dumped rum barrel for a couple of months.
Well, yesterday was brew day for the Chocolate Stout. Didn't realize it was National Beer Day, but I guess I celebrated in the proper way. Everything went smoother with this one. My main struggle has been cooling the wort during transfer to the fermenter, but I prepared better, had extra ice ready, and a larger container for the hot water run off. It went pretty quick and went in around 66°. First brew it was 84° and second brew was 74°, so I think I have handle on it now.
The problem this go around is that only 4.5 gallons went into the fermenter. I think something is wonky with Grainfather's water calculator or something. For one thing, the calculator on their website and what their phone app calculates for you when you start a brew are different. For a 5 gallon batch with an 11 lb grain bill the website says 4.48 mash and 2.63 sparge. The app tells me 4.48 mash and 2.24 sparge. Not a huge difference but odd they don't match. I went with the slightly larger sparge and still only got the 4.5 gallons at the end. Looking through several of the uploaded recipes on the GF site I see a lot of people using 5.75 or 6 gallon batch sizes so I'm thinking maybe this is a known issue so people compensate with the larger batch size. It's like it's not compensating for the deadspace at the bottom and what gets stuck in the chiller but you'd think their own calculator would know that. Or maybe I just had an unusually high boil off rate? So, I still have some things to figure out with the water calcs I guess.
Anyway, I briefly thought about topping off the 1/2 gallon with distilled water but decided against it for now. I'll just see what happens with it and how it tastes. If I think it needs it I figure I could do it at bottling time and include extra water with the priming sugar. I'm also wondering if when I dump the whiskey and oak in later if I should hold back a few of the cubes since my volume is lower than expected. Maybe a half gallon won't make much of a difference.
I have done this before Vega! I currently in fact have this exact kind of brew in my keg in the keezer hooked up to the tap.
I used two ounces of these toasted American oak cubes, and soaked them in Longbranch Bourbon for I think three weeks before adding them after fermentation was completed. The first time I tried this kind of beer I boiled them before soaking them in the bourbon, but this time I just rinsed them off with some water. After adding them to the beer (and I did dump in the extra bourbon from the soaking too!) they sat there together for a month.
I did end up boiling them twice for 5 minutes each time. Put them in a jar with somewhere around 10 oz of whiskey. Right before I did this I was out shopping and happened upon some vanilla beans so spur of the moment I picked one up, split it, and threw that in as well. Figured why not. And you sold me, I'll likely just dump it in, liquid and all.
The hardest part of making a beer like this is all the waiting, but man, it can be amazing, and you really do get some of that nice barrel-aged flavor once it mellows. Good luck to you!
Thanks! Ya, I'm hoping to let this one go for at least 2 months before bottling. Depending how it turns out I'll probably even save some of the bottles for next winter since I'm kind of brewing this out of "season".
So, update on the Stout. It turned out awesome! It has a very chocolaty aroma but hits you with a nice roasty coffee flavor. It's a bit on the sweeter side (the recipe was for a sweet stout) which I think is because of the water issue and it's more condensed then it's supposed to be. After not being happy with my first 2 attempts I was super happy how well this came out. Before I dumped the oak/whiskey in I went ahead and bottled 2 of just the plain Stout. I wanted to have something to compare it to at the end. Really see how much the oak and whiskey added to it.
I dumped the whole jar in but I held back a few of the oak cubes since I ended up with 4 gallons (after bottling 2 bombers) instead of 5. It's been a couple weeks now and I sampled a bit just to see how it was doing and it's actually still pretty good. I had read others taking early samples had spit out their first taste because of too much oak that eventually mellows over time. It has a bit of an oaky, smokey flavor to it, but it's not overwhelming. The mouth feel was a bit odd, like a coating on your tongue after swallowing, that I assume is from the tannins. I'm hoping that will improve over the next month or so. I'm figuring I'll probably bottle somewhere around mid-June or so.
The last thing this recipe calls for is adding cocoa nibs to the secondary a couple week before bottling. I'm hoping that might add some bitterness to cut the sweet a bit.
There is a software update and a new kit for the PicoBrew that lets you use whatever ingredients you want. That makes it a lot more interesting product.
I dumped in the coca nibs 2 weeks ago which means today was bottling day for the White Walker Whiskey Stout! I got 24 bombers out of the batch so not too bad I guess. In celebration I decided to crack open one of the 2 I bottled before I added the oak and whiskey. Flavor wise I think the plain recipe came out really good. I think I messed up with the carbonation since I was only doing 2 bottles. I just quickly looked up how much sugar to add per bottle and all the results I kept seeing said 1/2 tsp so I just went with that. But it was a bit flat and I'm thinking now people were talking about regular 12 oz bottles. I probably should have used a full tsp for bombers. Anyway, I would have been perfectly happy just drinking it like this so hopefully I didn't mess it up with the oak and whiskey. Guess I'll find out in another month. Ugh.. maybe I should look into kegging. Doesn't that basically carbonate in a day or so? So much waiting! 
Ugh.. maybe I should look into kegging. Doesn't that basically carbonate in a day or so? So much waiting! :drink:
It can or you can take a week. If you low and slow, you just set it to your end psi target (12-15 for most) and it should be ready in a week. Or, you burst carbonate it. Basically, you carbonate it at very high psi (35-50) for 18-36 hours, vent/degas the pressure, then set your CO2 regulator to your target psi, likely in the 10-15 range. Some use a rocking or shaking method (F'n stupid and unnecessary in my very opinionated opinion). If you overshoot your carbonation, it is a PITA to vent it back down to target and can take the same time or longer as if you went low and slow. Plus, if it is an IPA or dry hopped beer, you are losing all that good hop aroma with every depressurizing vent.
I do an in between approach, combined with a gelatin fining in the keg for non-dry hopped beers or the hops in the keg (with filter screen and clipped dip tube) for dry hopped beers. I will do 40+ psi for 12-18 hours then drop it to target serving psi. I would rather undershoot and wait an extra day or two than overshoot.
Seriously, I have a very hard time imagining a return to bottling. If anyone is in my area and want a ton of bottles, let me know!
Plus with kegging, you have regular "samples" to check to see if it is at desired psi levels yet.
Agree totally with BH. Be careful if doing the burst carbonation...just did that with a recent keg and left it at high PSI too long. Like he said, took a while to get it down to a reasonable carb level
Also agree I can't imagine returning to bottling either - the time saved and the control over carbonation is amazing.
So, the company that makes the fermenter I ended up getting just started a new kickstarter (the fermenter itself was a kickstarter as well). This time for a glycol chiller. I looked into a few of these or possibly an upright freezer to rig up so I could maybe try some lagers. Mostly I just want some type of temperature control since I'm currently just fermenting at whatever temp my basement happens to be at. I know this won't help heating up, but mainly my problem is trying to bring the temp down. Anyway, I jumped in on their early bird pricing. Figured I'd pass it along if anyone else was thinking about getting a glycol chiller.
Healthy fermentation is perhaps the biggest factor, IMO, of quality of beer produced, so there are a lot worse places to spend your money. When talking of bringing temperatures down, lowering and holding temperatures once you get in the mid 70s and lower range, glycol will work well. For that price though, you could have a pretty nice temperature controlled keezer/fridge fermentation chamber, and a kegging set up with the same level of temp control. I say this as someone who purchased a number of pricey brewing toys in the past that I really should sell or that I wish I has something different.
Space can certainly be an issue for many people though.
Space is an issue! My "beer" area is the storage room in the basement. But also the effort I'd need to put into finding a stand-up freezer that will fit my fermenter + stand, then drilling holes (hoping I don't drill through a coil) and figuring out how to wire up thermostats, temp probes, and heating plates, etc. I did look into it, it just seemed a little complicated. It's probably easier than I was making it out in my mind.
At some point I would really love to get the Grainfather fermenter that conejote posted a couple pages back. It has a built-in heater and I could still use this same glycol chiller with it. This one is half the price of the upcoming GF glycol chiller, so I figured I'd take a chance with it. There's a risk it doesn't perform as expected I suppose but I think Craft-A-Brew did a good job with the quality of their fermenter so I'm crossing my fingers.
Yeah, with the space issue it is a big deal and it is a good price relative to other chillers out there. Kegging demands a dedicated serving chamber for sure and a separate unit from a fermentation unit. Hot cold temp controller and a fridge requires no drilling and is pretty simple though if you change your mind. Happy to give you a laundry list.
I messaged Wayfarer off-line about the SsBrewtech 1V eBrewing system. Marshall from Brulosophy raved about it and they have a 20G system. I love the idea of doing low to standard gravity 8-10G batches and have enough space for high gravity 5-gallon batches. Pretty much the same price point with much more power, tri-clover fittings, larger size, and greater versatility. Pretty sure Wayfarer has a Grainfather, so he can speak to that.
Love my Grainfather. Have put about 2 dozen brews through it, but man they have screwed up the app. They replaced the old reliable one with a really difficult "community" version that tries to do too many other things.
That being said....for all grain brewing, the hardware is very convenient, doesnt take up much space at all, and is easy to clean.
Seriously, I have a very hard time imagining a return to bottling. If anyone is in my area and want a ton of bottles, let me know!
Yeah, I'm the only person I know who returned to bottling after many years of kegging, around the same time I downsized my brewing set up to a Grainfather. My DIY 3-tap kegerator just didn't fit my lifestyle and drinking habits anymore. Before kids and a mortgage and the other usual adult-y stuff, my friends and I would run through them pretty quick. But when it's mostly just me, a 5 gallon keg took forever to go through. I prefer variety over volume. Plus, Perlick faucets didn't exist when I built it, which meant that if I waited a week between pouring beers I had to take the tap apart and clean it just to have a pint.
I use 22 oz. bottles almost exclusively, plus the occasional 5 liter minikeg, and a 1.5 gallon keg once in a while, both cartridge-driven. I had been brewing just a few times a year until I started my farmhouse series experiment with a bunch of kveik strains and some non-kveik but still hot-and-fast Eastern European strains. As a result I've brewed more in the past 3 months than I had in the previous 3 years. I'm at the 50% mark on the experiment, and I'm running out of shelf space for the first time ever. Pic does not include the two batches I bottled today.
Cool! I love the 1.5G and 3G kegs, I just wish they were more affordable. I have a 3G. Modern forward sealing SS faucets are a big deal. Hard to imagine using anything else unless it is a specialty faucet (nitro, etc.).
Are the clear bottles on the right wine or meads?
Please share your thoughts on the Kviek and other hot strains. I have read some articles on Scandinavian traditional farm brewing and would be curious what you have found.
Cool! I love the 1.5G and 3G kegs, I just wish they were more affordable. I have a 3G. Modern forward sealing SS faucets are a big deal. Hard to imagine using anything else unless it is a specialty faucet (nitro, etc.).
Are the clear bottles on the right wine or meads?
Please share your thoughts on the Kviek and other hot strains. I have read some articles on Scandinavian traditional farm brewing and would be curious what you have found.
The clear bottles are mostly meads, plus a couple of country wines (parsnip, elderberry). As for the farmhouse beers, they're super interesting, some very clean and others very funky, but all in a good way. The speed of fermentation is incredible. I've been keeping track of everything in a document with way too many embedded links to feasibly post here. I'll pm you.
Coming here to post the success of my extract habanero raspberry wheat I made this spring. It's been a joy to have around and we really nailed the heat perfectly. Was 4 habaneros for the 5 gallon brew. I think next time I make it I will go heavier on both the wheat and raspberry but if not then this is a perfect fun summer beer.
I was surprised at how little guidance thee was for pepper addition. My method of figuring out the amount was to sample some of the vodka soak of the pepper before adding in. Tried to get the amount that would be in a beer in a quarter teaspoon. I just let them soak chopped for days in vodka and added in before primary fermentation.
Bhchrist, I have a couple I'll save for next time you're up!
Now I think I am on to some sort of citra IPA or something.
That's awesome, Hobear! I've thought about doing a pepper beer myself sometime but I've never tried it. I'll have to remember your method there about trying it out in some vodka first just to try and get the heat right.
Yeah feel free to ask questions. It's hard to find solid information where ever I was looking although I also didn't ask my local Homebrew store either.
What I did learn was to retain heat and flavor it seems like either dropping in for a few moments at the end of your boil will sanitize the peppers but can lose flavor/heat so the vodka soak seemed the best route.
So far it has not been turned away by anyone and everyone had their bad stories of pepper beer. Including someone who was given 5 gal of jalapeno beer and dumped it.
One of my favorite beers of all time was a local brewery (that has since closed 
) that had a mango and habanero ale he'd make every summer. I always got excited when I dropped in for a beer and saw the guy in the back peeling mangos and chopping peppers and knew it was coming soon. It had a slow build up of heat where you'd only start feeling it by the time you finished the first one, but it never got too hot. It mainly just had that fresh habanero flavor with the mango balancing it out. I really want to try doing something like that some time. Every other place I've tried something like that has been an undrinkable mess, so heavily spiced you can't even really taste anything.
Ha no kidding, I was debating doing that one next too. I'd say to do something like that heat, mine has some immediate heat but nothing overbearing if you're used to spiciness. If one isn't used to spicy food then reducing to 1 to 2 habanero will give some heat and flavor with very little overtaking it.
Also letting bottles condition seems to calm it down, my bottles I had early on were spicier compared to where it is at now. Just hits a little different. I had 2 or 3 late at night once and when my kid woke me up at 3 am it felt like my stomach was on fire. But that was only once.
Question for y'all about capturing wild yeast. I tried making T'ej using Sandor Katz's recipe from Wild Fermentation. Now, I'm pretty sure I screwed it up two ways: not using unpasteurized honey and using pelletized hops instead of dried hop cones. I had hoped there would be enough airborne yeast to cause spontaneous fermentation, but I'm on day 5 post-hop addition and I'm not seeing any activity.
This late in the brewing cycle, can I put the jar of honey water outside to capture some wild yeast or is it too late? I suppose the same question goes for adding a commercial yeast?
Question for y'all about capturing wild yeast. I tried making T'ej using Sandor Katz's recipe from Wild Fermentation. Now, I'm pretty sure I screwed it up two ways: not using unpasteurized honey and using pelletized hops instead of dried hop cones. I had hoped there would be enough airborne yeast to cause spontaneous fermentation, but I'm on day 5 post-hop addition and I'm not seeing any activity.
This late in the brewing cycle, can I put the jar of honey water outside to capture some wild yeast or is it too late? I suppose the same question goes for adding a commercial yeast?
Sorry nobody responded any sooner, but I'm kinda curious how things turned out? I have no experience with honey wine or wild yeast, but can just throw my $.02 in from the ramblings I've read about brewing as I've been learning myself. I don't know a lot about T'ej but I think you're right about not using unpasteurized honey being a problem as I think that's where the bulk of the wild yeast is supposed to come from. If you're depending on airborne yeast that would probably take longer than the recipe says before you notice fermentation taking place. I've read about some home brewers creating wild yeast starters and leaving them exposed for over a week so it's not unheard of. I'm assuming you had it covered with some kind of cloth and were stirring everyday and checking for any noticeable fizzing or foaming and not seeing anything?
5 days is quite long, but depending on your sanitization it could still be okay. It's basically a gamble whether the yeast takes hold first or some other infection. I think you still would have been okay to throw in some commercial yeast if you wanted to give up on the wild and see what happens. I'm not sure if there's any tell-tale signs of infection but I assume taste is probably the biggest indicator. In the future, if you're going for the airborne wild yeast, I think outside is okay (temperature allowed) if you leave it overnight or, if it has to be daytime, in the shade. Preferably near a fruit tree or a garden if possible to get the highest concentration of wild yeasts around it.
I ended up chucking both batches. Neither of them showed any signs of fermentation and because I forgot to stir them one day, ended up with mold growth on one. I would have picked it off, but there was already too much to bother with. I'll try it again, but would make sure I use dried hop cones and unpasteurised honey. I also suspect that, because it's been so chilly here lately and we don't have the heat on yet, that it was too cold for the yeast to really get going.
I'm also thinking of starting a ginger bug for sodas, and figure I can dump some of that in the T'ej if it doesn't ferment quickly enough.
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