What are you drinking right now?

Enjoying a glass of Uncle Gene's Chocolate Cherry Smoked Stout. Yum yum.
Here's the recipe:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homeb...49/uncle-gene-s-chocolate-cherry-smoked-stout
Based on this recipe from John Mallett of Bell's:
https://beerandbrewing.com/recipe-malletts-cherry-stout/
I tried a Bell's Cherry Smoked Stout knock-off, but don't remember it having any mention of chocolate in it. The Cherry Smoked malt to me was very harsh and bitter. Probably just put a little too much, or used the wrong bittering hops.
 
I looked at those picnic tap 2.1's,
But 40 euro is a bit steep
 
I looked at those picnic tap 2.1's,
But 40 euro is a bit steep
Yeah, they're pricy, but so are bottles, cleaning materials, and the continuing cost of caps and primer sugar (I just use table sugar now). I'm hoping some of the cost goes away and it'll certainly be a hell of a lot more convenient to store than 30 bottles or so with the same 2.5 gallons in them. The amount of stuff I need to add for cleaning is one of the limiting factors, but most of that is a one-time cost as opposed to the caps and sugar for bottling. There's no small amount of water and StarSan involved in cleaning 100+ bottles, either. But let's not forget the CO2 hardware. However, my stepson gave me a bottle and regulator because he wasn't brewing any more. I've had it nearly a year, and have yet to use it at all. It's still 'charged' however, I don't know how much it really has in it. If I can perfect my plumbing, I can hopefully make a cylinder last me 10 months like Ben did.
 
Chimay Clone

20231208_150656.jpg
 
I tried a Bell's Cherry Smoked Stout knock-off, but don't remember it having any mention of chocolate in it. The Cherry Smoked malt to me was very harsh and bitter. Probably just put a little too much, or used the wrong bittering hops.
This Bell's recipe actually doesn't have any smoked malt, but served as a base for my recipe. Has the chocolate malt and chocolate rye. It used cherry juice, and I fermented on top of cherries in a secondary fermentation.
My smoked malt is barely noticeable at about 20% of the grist - not overwhelming, I like to think it adds to complexity.
 
Didn't have time to keg this today, so serving from the fermenter again. Much lighter than the picture, color is pretty much the way it looks at the bottom.
This is the Hazy I brewed last Saturday.
View attachment 27587
Looks great! I assume you pressure fermented if your drinking already?
 
My last bottle of Smooth Stout - time to brew another batch, maybe with some tweaks, maybe as is. I have slurry from last batch available for deployment, which might benefit from a SNS starter (a little under 2 months old).
A starter will never hurt. But even if there's only 50% viability, you're just pitching into a very large starter. It might take some time to get going, but it will still go.
 

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