ewhite1217
Member
I will look into brew in bag. You are right about the roasted barley. I was confused. I will definitely let you know how it goes. Gonna brew this evening.
I will look into brew in bag. You are right about the roasted barley. I was confused. I will definitely let you know how it goes. Gonna brew this evening.
I will look into brew in bag. You are right about the roasted barley. I was confused. I will definitely let you know how it goes. Gonna brew this evening.
So i brewed the PM version of this January 2013, kegged it and put it in my closet for my 30th bday Feb 2014. Yesterday for the first time ever I moved the keg, it literally sat in the same spot for a year. So its in my keezer now on CO2 until my bday at the end of Feb, and I admit I stole a quick sample last night....WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAA. This thing is nuts, very thick and silky like the original BCBS. I think mine has way more bourbon up front than the original (which is not a bad thing) and I nailed it at 11%. Needless to say my 30th bday will be a glorious day. I'll have some of the original and my version for side by side tastings. Thank you for this recipe!!!
Assuming potential of 43, 7.8 lbs in 10.5 gallons.
10.5 x 102 = 1,071
10.5 x 134 = 1,407
1,407-1,071= 336
336/43= 7.8lb
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If you have 5gal at 11%...
5*128= 640 oz at 11%
16 oz at 50%
640*.11=70.4
16*.5=8
70.4+8= 78.4
640+16=656
78.4/656= 11.95%
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What was everyone's oak+bourbon schedule? I was thinking 4oz of wood chips + 16oz of bourbon for 4 weeks. I like a big bourbon flavor, and I used 16oz of bourbon in Northern Brewers' Bourbon Barrel Porter. That much bourbon will probably require more aging, I'm thinking if I get this kegged by August, I can be drinking it by late winter (February/March).
so thoughts on this. bcbs is my second fave beer on earth, behind stones enjoy. they are making more of it so it is pretty easy to get some in season. mine is coming up on 6 months now, I will be bottling and cellaring most of it for a full year. mine came out to 1.130 and 1.034. abv was 12.9% before adding 3/4 bottle of bulleit bourbon (yum). I used 1 oz of oak chips for 6 weeks. as you can see (the real thing on the right), color is spot on (duh, black is black) and the real one has just a shade tanner head. I carbed mine higher than the real thing as you can see. mouthfeel is about the same I would think. so is this a clone, can I make 5 gal of bcbs in my basement? errr... no. differences: the oak is hard to get right. mine is a little heavy on oak aroma and flavor. this mellows in time and isn't at all bad now, just different than the real one. I don't think that bcbs has a very heavy oak profile. however, nailing it will be tricky - if it's good today, it might not be after a year of aging. not a big thing though. as far as the bourbon goes, if you have a bottle of bcbs handy you can keep comparing and adding until you think you are close. for me that was 3/4 bottle. the real bcbs is a lot smoother, again probably aging which you can do if you like. so none of these are a big deal, but one is. it has been mentioned before - some have said this recipe is too "roasty". I knocked down the dark malts as suggested to compensate. and I can understand what people are saying but I think the real problem is not that it is too roasty, I think it isn't sweet enough (maybe that's a different way of saying the same thing). the real bcbs is like boozy pancake syrup, I have always said I am going to pour it on pancakes for breakfast one day and I am completely serious. it even smells like molasses. this one doesn't have that same "it's almost cloying" sweetness. you DO get a hint of it, no doubt about it - when you drink this it's like "nope. but... wait..." you get a flash of it. I will leave it up to the experts here how to bump up the sweetness more, you sure can't do it with higher gravity so should you brew this? hell yes, it is an excellent stout, and will get you about 60% of the way to bcbs. and 60% of perfect is pretty damn good.
Brewed this for the first time yesterday. I tried going all-grain with it (39 lbs for 6 gallons?!?!?!). I assumed some efficiency problems with the no-sparge situation, so I set my efficiency 5% lower in Beersmith and did a finer crush. My pre-boil gravity was only 1.085 instead of 1.114, quite a bit off. We heated the wort up a bit more to 170 and ran it through the mash tun again, but it barely made a difference, something like 1.088.
I admitted defeat and added 4 lbs of extract to get up to the expected pre-boil gravity. I made a huge starter and it was chugging away like a madman by morning. I'll give it a few weeks then rack it into my used 5 gallon barrel to sit until the flavor gets to where I like it!
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