Recent content by Masticon

I always have difficulty telling what the final flavor will be like when I'm drinking warm flat beer. Plus the big addition of vanilla will have a significant impact on the final flavor. I can say that 1# of lactose gives some sweetness but not much when you're thinking about soda rather than...

I racked to secondary on Tuesday. 19 days in the primary. It was sitting at about 1.028, Higher than I expected for sure. Perhaps with all the other additives it boosted it some but .008 sounds like a lot to boost. I moved it to the secondary and threw in a tablespoon of Stevia for additional...

I've just never had anything take that long to drop in gravity, except for a really high gravity mead. Normally I get .040 in 5-7 days. I'm at 2 weeks and I've only gone down .040. I guess I'll just calm down and wait more. I've never used lactose in a beer before so I'm not sure how it...

14 day update. Gravity down to 1.030. I think I'll give it a few more days then move it to a secondary. It's only been dropping about .002 per day. The flavor is interesting, the smell is great. I'm thinking if I did it again I'd probably double most of the herb quantities to really bring...

It's actually just 1 week and 2 days right now. It's slow, but I'm not anywhere near dangerous with it. I'm just curious to know what it should be when it's done. Just by the stats beertools seems to think that my FG should be 1.013. It estimated my OG at 1.066 which is pretty accurate. I've...

I'm running into an issue with slow fermentation. The OG came out really high (1.070) and after a week it only made it down to 1.040. Today it was at about 1.036. I'm not entirely sure how low it'll end up going with all the additions from herbs and the lactose. Any thoughts on how much longer...

I just brewed up a Root Beer Beer using heavy lactose as a sweetener. My OG came out a bit higher than expected so I'm curious to see where it'll end up. Recipe and details can be found on my blog. Root Beer Beer Amount Item 7.00 lb Pilsner Liquid Extract (3.5 SRM) 1.00 lb...

I just made a root beer beer. Information and recipe is on my Blog. dearmondfood.blogspot.com I'll let you know how it comes out.

First off it came out great. By far the best beer I've made to date. It has an almost soda like flavor with the 4 vanilla beans. The main thing I'd suggest is if you go with what I have above on my earlier post that you use multiple bags, one for the oats, one for everything else. The gravity...

Just toss it in. It's mostly alcohol. It won't mess anything up.

In the bottle I had, still really flat. It's been fairly cold around here.

I have a batch of Cider that I bottled 10 days ago. Popped the first bottle last night. 5 gallons Musselman Cider 5 Lbs Honey Nottingham yeast Started out at 1.070 and ended up at 1.002 It spent about 4 weeks in the primary and straight into bottles. (my secondary has mead in it)...

Initially I started with Wyeast Sweet Mead. When it got stuck at 1.070 for about a month I repitched some Vreka Mead that may have been past time. After a week of no action I pitched a big ole starter of White Labs Sweet Mead and it took off down to where it is now. It looks like the Vreka must...

My 4 month old mead has gone just about totally dry. OG of 1.120 and now it's at about 1.002. I was going for a sweet mead but had to pitch some additional yeasts when fermentation got stuck. So I'm looking at close to 16% ABV right now. If I want to sweeten it up should I: 1) Throw in...

I threw 1/2 lb of Crystal 120 into my stout. Should add some pretty strong caramel flavors.