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- Aug 18, 2020
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I've been brewing for about 6 months now, pretty actively, and since I've started my process has always been to Primary for 7-10 days, then split the primary into 2 secondary's so that I can experiment with 1 with different additives. Pretty much experiment and always be able to test my experimental batch with a control. It's gone well thus far. However, I just brewed a 2 gallon Peanut Butter stout. I wanted to have a fairly high OG (1.087) because my theory was that ending it at a Final Gravity of 1.040 would help produce a sweeter beer (which I've since read is not the case). These OG and FG numbers are exact.
Anyway, I fermented at 68-70 in the primary for 8 days prior to splitting into 2 1gallon carboys, which then sat for another week. Here are the two issues I ran into:
First - the original 1 gallon carboy that wasn't experimented on, tasted good, but had almost zero carbonation. I've had the most success doing 1TSP of sugar added direct to each bottle prior to adding beer. Not sure why it didn't work this time?
Second - the other 1 gallon carboy, the PB stout batch had ALOT of carbonation (same amount of sugar), where I'd open a bottle and it would volcano out for a good minute or so. In addition to that, there's almost zero peanut butter flavor, even though I added 6.5 oz PB2 Powder to a 1 gallon carboy of beer. This batch tastes like alcohol. Not a bad alcohol flavor, but like an Imperial Stout. What's the cause for the lack of PB flavor, alcohol flavor, and the fact that these bottles were over-carbonated on the same amount of sugar?
If I had to guess, I believe I stressed the yeast which caused the alcohol flavor. The Carbonation part i'm confused on. Figured I should get some insight from others...
The next time I try this recipe, I think i'm going to either do 2 11.5g yeast packets (instead of one) to help the yeast get the beer down to a lower final gravity, and/or reduce the grains used to reduce the OG down to 1.060 or so. Also add more time to the secondary. Curious if there's anything else I should change?
Anyway, I fermented at 68-70 in the primary for 8 days prior to splitting into 2 1gallon carboys, which then sat for another week. Here are the two issues I ran into:
First - the original 1 gallon carboy that wasn't experimented on, tasted good, but had almost zero carbonation. I've had the most success doing 1TSP of sugar added direct to each bottle prior to adding beer. Not sure why it didn't work this time?
Second - the other 1 gallon carboy, the PB stout batch had ALOT of carbonation (same amount of sugar), where I'd open a bottle and it would volcano out for a good minute or so. In addition to that, there's almost zero peanut butter flavor, even though I added 6.5 oz PB2 Powder to a 1 gallon carboy of beer. This batch tastes like alcohol. Not a bad alcohol flavor, but like an Imperial Stout. What's the cause for the lack of PB flavor, alcohol flavor, and the fact that these bottles were over-carbonated on the same amount of sugar?
If I had to guess, I believe I stressed the yeast which caused the alcohol flavor. The Carbonation part i'm confused on. Figured I should get some insight from others...
The next time I try this recipe, I think i'm going to either do 2 11.5g yeast packets (instead of one) to help the yeast get the beer down to a lower final gravity, and/or reduce the grains used to reduce the OG down to 1.060 or so. Also add more time to the secondary. Curious if there's anything else I should change?