ViperMan
Well-Known Member
Hey all! Love this place - just wanna say...
I brewed a beer a few months ago and now that it's "done"... ...it tastes awful. Lots went wrong I think - mash temps were off, I got poor efficiency, I didn't separate out dark grains, PH was probably off, I think I used the wrong yeast, and when I went to bottle, I left my priming sugar on the stove, bottled the whole batch, then went "AW CRAP!!!" I carefully poured them all back into the bucket, added my sugar, stirred softly, and rebottled.
The beer is an all-grain, self-created recipe called "The Chocolate Grapevine" - it had cocoa nibs in the mash, and raisins in the secondary. I was aiming for an American Brown Ale. I let the raisins sit in secondary for more than 2 weeks - actually forgot about it for a little bit. I used WLP041 for my yeast. I tasted my wort before I pitched my yeast and it tasted AWESOME.
Now, the beer is overcarbed. I'm really not sure how that happened... It's also VERY "boozy", especially just after opened. After it sits for a few minutes, the alcohol flavors seem to dissapate, and you're left with this sortuva too-light body, pretty-sure-its-oxidized, weird-tasting beer...
SO, to my point - I want to try it again. I'm considering going a bit more belgium double/triple with the flavor - I need that residual sweetness to bring out the raisins.
Here's my recipe:
7lb belgian 2-row
1lb munich
12oz chocolate
12oz special b
8oz flaked barley
8oz crystal 80
4oz cocoa nibs, ground and added in mash (I might replace this with 6oz of chocolate syrup)
8oz brown sugar (I might replace this with dark candi sugar)
1oz Northdown, 65 minutes
8oz raisins, chopped and boiled then added to secondary for 7+ days
I'm debating on my yeast... After just a few days of fermenting I was no longer pleased with the flavor imparted by the WLP041. I'm considering using WLP002 as it's a simple, straight-forward yeast. I'm also considering WLP011 - seems pretty similar. I would also consider a belgium yeast, maybe WLP500 or 530, but they're attenuation is higher and I'd have to compensate with more grains to keep my residual, and I think it'd just result in another boozy beer. (My guess is, there's a decent amount of sugar in raisins...)
So what do you guys suggest? I really want to try and create a beer that kinda tastes like liquid Raisinets...
I brewed a beer a few months ago and now that it's "done"... ...it tastes awful. Lots went wrong I think - mash temps were off, I got poor efficiency, I didn't separate out dark grains, PH was probably off, I think I used the wrong yeast, and when I went to bottle, I left my priming sugar on the stove, bottled the whole batch, then went "AW CRAP!!!" I carefully poured them all back into the bucket, added my sugar, stirred softly, and rebottled.
The beer is an all-grain, self-created recipe called "The Chocolate Grapevine" - it had cocoa nibs in the mash, and raisins in the secondary. I was aiming for an American Brown Ale. I let the raisins sit in secondary for more than 2 weeks - actually forgot about it for a little bit. I used WLP041 for my yeast. I tasted my wort before I pitched my yeast and it tasted AWESOME.
Now, the beer is overcarbed. I'm really not sure how that happened... It's also VERY "boozy", especially just after opened. After it sits for a few minutes, the alcohol flavors seem to dissapate, and you're left with this sortuva too-light body, pretty-sure-its-oxidized, weird-tasting beer...
SO, to my point - I want to try it again. I'm considering going a bit more belgium double/triple with the flavor - I need that residual sweetness to bring out the raisins.
Here's my recipe:
7lb belgian 2-row
1lb munich
12oz chocolate
12oz special b
8oz flaked barley
8oz crystal 80
4oz cocoa nibs, ground and added in mash (I might replace this with 6oz of chocolate syrup)
8oz brown sugar (I might replace this with dark candi sugar)
1oz Northdown, 65 minutes
8oz raisins, chopped and boiled then added to secondary for 7+ days
I'm debating on my yeast... After just a few days of fermenting I was no longer pleased with the flavor imparted by the WLP041. I'm considering using WLP002 as it's a simple, straight-forward yeast. I'm also considering WLP011 - seems pretty similar. I would also consider a belgium yeast, maybe WLP500 or 530, but they're attenuation is higher and I'd have to compensate with more grains to keep my residual, and I think it'd just result in another boozy beer. (My guess is, there's a decent amount of sugar in raisins...)
So what do you guys suggest? I really want to try and create a beer that kinda tastes like liquid Raisinets...