Yep, the lamington ale was way too jammy.
Baking choc nibs? Would that be like chocolate chips? Nibs most people use in beer are crushed dried beans.
That said, I’ve used nibs a few times. Last was in a big 13% Imperial stout, so I used quite a bit.
@EzyLee Coconut can be a nice addition, but I personally havent used it. IIRC, it doesnt take loads of toasted coconut to add some smooth nutty/vanilla-y notes.
I picked up a 6 pack of these last week and really enjoyed it, bit of coconut, bit of chocolate - ti was good! But in saying that, I’ll drink and enjoy almost any stout.
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I think I would like to try the coconut at some point - I just need to work out the best way to add it in. There seems to be a few options out there:
- Add it in a hop sock for a few days along with some sort of weight so it doesn’t sit in the top
- in the mash
- soak the chips in vodka along with the nibs and pour the liquid into the fermenter before kegging
- adding chips into the keg itself
This looks like an interesting malt to play with
I used raw cacao nibs - not sure why the notes say baking choc.
I tend to steer clear of the overly gimmicky stouts - just give me a nice solid stout with a wee hint of choc or coffee. Except that time I had a peanut butter stout at GABS, that was spot on!
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Little Creature’s seasonals are usually on point.
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He’ll need help deciding which one is best 
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Easy - I’ve only done one legit NEIPA! My SNAFU!
The biggest take from me here was to use good yeast and pay attention to your water chemistry if you can. Feel free to play around with the base malt - as @beercyclist has mentioned, I could go lighter in colour.
Also, if you do make this (or something like it) I recommend drinking it quickly as after a few weeks the hop aroma started to decline.
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Alright legends - I just bought 500g of hops that sound quite good. I really want to go a heavy hopped pale ale of sorts, but also want that balance so it isn’t just hop water. Any advice for a malt bill to compliment would be great!
Those hops sound really good. Are you going to use the whole 500g in one whack?
Planning for what exactly for your base beer? Light/dark, low/high ABV, hazy/clear, crispy/wet?
Red shiso and strawberry gose went in the keg this week. TBH its been needing to get kegged for a while, but Ive been too busy with other things to get to it.
For a 20L batch - I don’t think I will be using 500g. Possibly 250g in one batch. I am thinking just a light hazy pale ale at 4-6% ABV of sorts for this will suit. Kind of like what I did with the Sabro.
So maybe a mix of Gladfield American Pale Malt Oat Malt and Wheat Malt?
What do you mean by crispy/wet? I haven’t heard of this before.
Dry or … anti-dry (Think bone dry Japanese lager vs something like a cask double IPA for extremes on both ends)
The malt bill sounds fine to me, I’d also try to pick a neutral yeast like US-05. Your hopping rate will also impact the characteristics from the aroma and flavour, not just more or less bitterness so it might be worth doing one batch which is light on the hops (~100g total), and another which really crams them in to see the difference.
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ANTMANDAN IS BACK!!! YES!!!
Welcome welcome, share all your exciting antics and wisdom with us.
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Well look who decided to show up
Haha, hey crew, so to get up to speed, here’s a bit of what I have been brewing of late.
I’ve been experimenting a lot with sours using a 100L ex-wine barrel. I put a huge number of yeast strains in the barrel, including Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. diastaticus , Saccharomyces fermentati , five Brettanomyces isolates, Lactobacillus brevis , Lactobacillus delbreuckii and Pediococcus damnosus. I yanked a 20L sample last year and put it onto some raspberry, it was pretty great, but this year it’s really matured beautifully and I ended up draining the whole barrel into 4 kegs (one of which has strawberries). We’re planning a house renovation so I’ll have to move the barrel soon anyway and figured it best to do it at a good moment.
With the renovation coming I’m also working through bulk grain stores and brewed a big imperial stout on the weekend (it’ll be around ~10% when it’s done). I also used it as an opportunity to do a Parti-Gyle brew by using the mash a second time to eek out a smaller ~4.5% stout. It made for a long brew day but was super fun. I’m thinking of doing the same in a couple of weeks with a BarleyWine / Pale Ale combo.
So complex! I love it. I am here just trying to get my head around hazy pale ales, and you’re on another level. Amazing.
I have a hard time deciding (shocked?) what to brew next - with three taps available, I want to have 3 different beers, but at the same time I want to ensure that it is going to be drinkable. How do you all approach brewing different styles for your taps?
I’ve pretty much always have a sour of some kind on tap, then IPA (clear or hazy), something lightish or low ABV (hefeweizen, dark mild, bitter, etc.), and finally a seasonal (stout of some sort, browns, pilsner, bock, maibock, etc.). For parties I add the handpump, which is usually whatever I felt like drinking, almost always British.
If you’re wanting to try a style you’ve never done before, maybe look up some award winning recipes and made adjustments based on what materials you got in stock. The basic principals of water adjustments, temp maintenance, volumes, yeast pitching, etc. basically are the same no matter what you brew.