Thread Jacking

[JoKing]

Sorry for jacking everyones threads and going off topic.

Feel free to jack this thread - or use this thread if there is someone pissing you off because they just jacked your thread.

[Reviled]

lol, I do drink every night, sometimes only 2 or 3 tho. At one stage just before I got into kegging I had my entire sheds walls lined with full beer bottles, ahh it was bliss :o)

I ran out of beer once... Never, ever again!!!

[JoKing]

Tu meke bro. That is some impressive stock! I haven't been saving any of my brews for the last 12 months! Once the keg is empty, that's it - restricted to the depths of my memory only. In some cases... thats where they will remain!

[Reviled]

Actually, you reminded me, I have about 15 bottles of the last 6-8 brews i kegged, I normally do a litre or two extra and bottle condition a couple each batch, then enjoy them long after the keg has finished and tell myself what a dick I was for drinking it too quickly and not letting it age :o) hahaha

[Nolen Smith]

* 20 liters of my Mild in the carboy (agree with denimglen on the SO4... tastes like someone stole the hops out of it!)
* Two dozen bottles of APA (had to give most of it to the father in-law for his 61st)
* 3 bottles of Chili Chocolate Porter (from an 11 ltr test batch.. Man, it made me wanna slap my momma!)
* 6 bottles of an ESB (fermented *way* too high - tastes like liquid banana)

Need to brew - planning a batch for the weekend.

And here's a photo of the APA - it's not as dark as it looks in the photo. It's clear as a bell and only 3 weeks old.

[Reviled]

Chilli chocolate? What was the recipe? Taste? Would you do it again?

[Nolen Smith]

It was a standard Porter recipe with 5 fresh serrano chilis and some pure cocoa powder thrown in at the last 10 mins of the boil. It had a beautiful chocolate (but not sweet) aroma and flavour with a wee tingle on the back of the throat from the chili... when it was young. However, as it has aged, the flavours are no longer distinct - it really isn't as nice now (it's about 6 months old). I'll definitely be doing it again once summer is nearing an end - it's definitely a winter beer. There are a few things I want to tweak.

[Reviled]

Wicked! You should try it with lindt chocolate next time cos apparantly its better? But I cant remember why...

Did it give a really bitter chocolate taste?

[Mike Neilson]

Brewing with choclate? My thinking would be to go high cocoa % opposed to a more buttery milk chocolate? pure because of the fats and Lactose? I have been think of a double chocolate porter but cant get my head around the Chocolate addition.

[Nolen Smith]

I did about 6 weeks of research on brewing with chocolate before I made it.. including have a long discussion with a 'Chocolatier' about the make up of chocolate, the effects it would have on yeast, etc. Consensus was to use as pure cocoa powder as possible. You don't want the butter fat, etc that is used in 'processed' chocolate - regardless of the quality. Cocoa beans would be another thing, but good/fresh ones are hard to source and expensive. I managed to get some great cocoa powder, so the bitterness wasn't really an issue. The best way to describe it is that it tasted like chocolate but wasn't sweet. But like I said earlier, the flavour and aroma doesn't seem to stay around long... but man, you should've smelled the aroma when I took it out of secondary!

[Mike Neilson]

What cocoa powder did you use a high quality or good old cadbury, nestle?

[Nolen Smith]

Very high quality that I sourced from a chocolate maker. It took some pleading and I had to promise him a dozen. He loved it and wants more. I actually did use some plain old cadbury in a chocolate stout. It was ok, but I think I'd have to add another 30% or so due to the quality difference. That's only speculation because the result wasn't the same.

[JoKing]

Nolen, your APA looks fantastic. Have you posted the recipe for it on here?