Kit O' Beer #6 Chocolate Dark Ale

[Glass]

KoB #6 is underway. Took a few hours but we got there without any major mishaps

I got the idea to steep some specialty grains to add to brew. I don't know where I got the idea for this combo of grains and extract. I thought I saw a YT but when I looked I found similar recipe's but using the Coopers stout not their Dark Ale.

Anyway a lot of people have done this combo and one of the beer kit review sites most people recommend something like this.

The recipe:
1 x 1.7kg Coopers Dark Ale extract
1 kg Dark Ale Brew booster - from the preferred LHBS
200gms dextrose approx
1 pkt LHBS brand ale yeast - 15gms
250gms ~9oz Chocolate Malts - steeped

Changes:
The yeast is new this time around. Not used this one before. Was no reason for choosing it over anything else. Being a dark ale means using darker dry malt fermentables. Just used what the locale brew shop recommended. Steeping some chocolate malts.

OG 1.050

Brew temp: 25C - ambient
Pitch temp: 22C - wort
Current temp: 21C - wort

Notes:
Cold steeped 250 gms cracked chocolate specialty grains over night in the fridge. They say you don't have to hot steep specialty grains and preferable not to. Ok? Why not. I simply used filtered water over the grains, stirred out any clumps and let sit over night.

I'm not a dark ale drinker. The only ones I have tried have a burnt after taste which I'm not into. So I was looking to do something that was sweeter on the finish. I thought I could do that with some chocolate malts. I'm not sure that is going to happen but it's worth the attempt. I am aiming for late winter for this one.

I strained the grains and added the liquid to 3 litres of boiled water. I used about 1litre/quart to rinse the grains. I think I will let the water cool down more or use some boiled earlier and cooled a bit. The reason is to avoid releasing any tannin which I think might be that after taste I don't want. So maybe I could do better on that.

I brought all that liquid to the boil. Boiled for 5 ~ 6 minutes. By now the house was full of the smell of coffee. Not chocolate so much but like roasted coffee. Very strong very nice smell. It's smelling like cold espresso coffee. I was expecting chocolate. I don't know if this step is needed or a good idea. We will find out.

Mixed that liquid with the dry malts in the fermenter. Still very enjoyable aromas. Then I added in a can of Coopers dark ale extract. Gave it a good thrashing with a mixing tool.

I've not done one of these, even using the regular recipe let alone with specialty grains. I tasted some of the liquid extract and I found it to be strong and tastes exactly like I'd expect a dark ale to taste. Strong after taste. Its like cold coffee. hmmm.

I was worried I could be doubling up on that after taste with what I had done. It was smelling like a strong black coffee. Macchiato style. Checking internet got me happy this recipe was what lots of people do. If that taste ends up being there then so be it.

Had to wait about 6 hours for the temp to come down for pitching. Need to chill even more water to go in the mix and chill it faster. Probably more than half needs to be chilled IMO.

Higher OG than any brew so far. I think that is par for the course for dark beers. I tasted the sample and it is much sweeter than the extract was alone. The burnt after taste is still there but only just. It seems to be overwhelmed by sweet. That's a good thing IMO. There is a hint of chocolate but it is not sweet like milk chocolate. More like the powdery high quality cacao chocolate. It looks promising.

This is really an experiment. I wanted to do something for the dead of winter. A dark ale or stout seemed to be the way to go. I figured the dark ale was less stout like. I don't think I'll have any problems giving this a couple of months to condition. It will be interesting to see if I enjoy this beer.

[Libertytree]

Damn, you went and got all fancy! J/K mate :) Sounds like a great recipe and experiment. I wouldn't try it with a 20gal batch but I'd like to give it a go with a 5gal run, or something real dark and high octane. I'm gonna pay a lot of attention to your notes on this one, especially how you dealt/deal with grains and their presence in the fermenter. Maybe I should find a youtube too.

Good luck!

[Glass]

So problems this morning. Not happy right at the moment.

This beer is going fantastic. The krausen on this bad boy is an ocean of foam. Just awesome fermenting going on.

I wasn't happy with the airlock. It clearly wasn't sealed. By comparison I'm also using the coopers fermenter and it doesn't have an air lock at all. This beer is in a traditional barrel fermenter with screw on lid and airlock. I know a lot of people do away with the lid altogether an just put cling film over it. So basically it would be working the same as the coopers one. So did it matter the seal was not 100%?? Probably not.

So I decided that because I have 3 different airlocks and 2 different styles I would swap out the airlock for the other style. Thinking I'd get a better seal. Well I would have because this thing was tight. So tight that the grommet popped out and disappeared into the beer.

Some would say that disappearing into beer is what it's all about (but not for grommets)

I have spare grommets, I bought all new seals for these 2nd hand fermenters. I was able to put another one in and reverted to the original airlock. I did pull the lid off and dip a sanitized spoon in to the foam where the grommet had disappeared but I don't know if these things even float AND its damn black in that there beer.

So whats going to happen now I wonder? The grommet would be ok on one side but the exposed side could bring some nasties in. It was liberally coated with keg lube. I don't know that helps any.

It's looking like an absolute screamer of a brew. I'm not going to be happy if this brew goes bad from here. Lesson here seems to be leave well enough alone.

Of course the internet tells me I'm not alone. Apparently these grommets have been classified as evil grommets.

What to do when evil grommit-itus strikes:



When fitting your airlock to your (evil) grommet, gently twist the airlock into the grommet. Do not harpoon the airlock into the grommet. It is evil, and it will pop out and fall into the wort.
If you're really ambitious, you may fit the airlock into the grommet before locking down the lid. Then if the evil little sucker falls to the floor, you can lay it to rest beneath your boot heel!
If your evil grommet does fall into your bucket, do not panic and start performing crazy homebrew tricks. Simply cover the hole with tape. While the beer is fermenting, the carbon dioxide gas will produce a positive pressure within the bucket and will safely find its way out. After siphoning out the beer, you can retrieve, clean and reuse the (evil) grommet.



link to above (https://www.boomchugalug.com/knowledge/beer/evil-grommet/).

It seems the best plan of action is to
6300

[Libertytree]

Adventures in homebrewing eh?! I can imagine the look on your face watching that grommet vanish into the wort, that "oh fuck" moment.

I wouldn't worry about contamination, it sounds like you kept things sanitary and you really have to try hard to infect a batch. I don't use an air-lock either, just the garbage lid and its snap on closure.

None the less, good luck, just don't forget about the grommet!

[Glass]

yes the air did crackle for a minute or two. anyway we seem to have perfect fermenting temps here are the moment so that an upside and things seem to be banging on in the fermenters. KoB #5 seems a bit dead. Will test that one again tonight. It should be close.

[Glass]

Day 7. I think it's a rounded 7 days to now.

1st reading was 1.015 (@22C Day 7).

OG was 1.050

Ambient today was barely 21C. The temperature has really dropped in the last 2 hours this arvo. The desert wind is bitter. We are headed for a 6C I think tonight and fairly low temps tomorrow. Fermenter ran at 22C. I put a towel around it early this morning. About 3am when the chill came in. That seems to have held it steady. I might lift the fermenter and put something on the bench under it to insulate it a bit more. I may also setup a heater to run for an hour or so at the coldest time. Still need to look at this heat belt.

Beer. The krausen collapsed about 36 hours after the now infamous evil grommet incident of 2014. I was troubled how quickly it dissipated. So today was the first opportunity to see whats going on.

The aroma that first hit me was something like vinegar or a very poor quality fortified wine. Hmmm troubles a brewing. The taste almost nearly taste likes that but it doesn't. It takes a couple of sips to start pulling things out. It's cold coffee but not as tart. It's got a soft edge to it. Much softer than the base dark ale. I think it has a subtle chocolate finish but it isn't milk chocolate. The smell is the thing. But it also has some subtle smells there that if you can focus.

I don't think it's off. I think it's interesting and better tasting than the base. I could end up liking something like this after all. Lets see. Hopefully the aroma and taste mellow some more. They should do. The smell might also be an alcohol content thing. I remember drinking some 9% beer and the smell was similar but I don't think there is any chance of much above 5% on these kits.

I have a feeling that I should be racking this to a secondary or maybe crashing it. OG 1.050 to SG 1.015 suggests an Abv of 4.59 now or 5.25 if I let it run to 1.010.

thoughts?

[Libertytree]

I'd probably let it run to the 1.010, it would almost seem mandatory. If you crash it now you risk not letting it fully develope and the esters taking control. Patience is in order IMHO.

[Glass]

I think you are right. took another wiff of the beer sample this morning. It benefits from being a bit warm. I expected it would be something you would let the temp come up a bit before serving. Maybe around the 12C/54F mark or higher perhaps.

Anyway we will see. I'm looking down the barrel of having to bottle both batches at about the same time. Could be a busy weekend.

[Libertytree]

Good luck with your bottling and keep an eye on the brewery, I have a drunken camping trip to go on, be back Sunday.

[Glass]

drunken camping trips are the best kind. Drunken fishing trips on the other hand....

roger on the brewery. I'll keep an eye on it.

Have a blast. Wait, that's the drunken fishing trip. Have a hoot.

[Glass]

Day 11. Loosing track but I think thats right

1st reading was 1.015 (@22C Day 7).
2nd reading was 1.013 (@23C Day 11).

OG was 1.050

Fairly cool temps every day now. I have been trying to get a bit of warmth where the fermenters are of a night. Using a fan heater. I have it on a timer but I am unfamiliar with it. Seems I managed to have the thing on over ride when I thought it was running on the timer so the heat was on for a couple hours straight last night. The fermenter was pushing 24C. This brew actually seems to run fairly warm.

Progress has been pretty vigorous. There is still a fair amount of yeast in solution. I think. I'm suspect that the trub filter is not working so well so it is sucking through into the meter tube.

Smell is still the dominant thing. I am not happy with the smell. It think it's suspect. The taste is ok though after the first sip. That means the taste could be ok but the aroma needs some work. If we do again I'd work on the aroma and either hop it or go for some sweeter flavours like vanilla or milk choc. We will give this one some time and see for taste. Hopefully the edge comes off it.

I'm bottling KoB #5 tomorrow. I'm figuring on bottling this one Sunday. Busy weekend.

[Glass]

Bottled this one today. Result was 32 bottles of various sizes. Most were 20+ oz. There were a couple of pint sized ones. 15 were PET, so half and glass for the balance.

Final reading was 1.012 (@23C Day 13).

OG was 1.050

I racked this into another fermenter to bulk prime it. First time doing this. I used 170gms dextrose to prime this. Have no idea what I should be using but I had this and someone said 180gms to 23L. I had 22L on the scale and expected to lose 1L to trub volume. I was able to get the most out of it with just a small amount of trub making it to the fermenting bucket. I think my estimate was good. The racking went smoothly enough. Gravity fed.

I used the same hose into the spigot then into the filling wand. Saves lifting the bottles to the fermenter to fill. Much better method. I can get a good rythym going. If the glass bottles were the same size I could have capped while filling the next one more easily. Managed for a while.

Hose coming lose from the spigot is 1 issue I need to sort. Cleaning up is a pain and beer makes everything sticky, tonight everything had to come out to get in behind things. Not doing that again. The hose is only pushed in with nothing to secure it. The spigot is non standard fitment. Will ponder it.

The other is to come up with a method to tilt the fermenter/bottling bucket. I don't have enough hands or eyes when getting to the end.

Strong coffee smell to this beer. Ended up being a bit lighter in viscosity than I expected. Other than that. All good. Despite the spill the method is faster and I think easier. I racked from regular style fermenting barrel into the coopers one. Next one might be other way around. I'll compare both spigot styles with the hose. Maybe I can secure better on the other type. I racked from it and that went no problems. wider hose. tighter fit. A straight through ball valve with a push on barb would be ideal IMO.

[Libertytree]

Good to hear you got it bottled, you didn't forget the devil grommet, did ya? j/k

I had the same issue with tilting the bucket and just use a block of wood to prop it up. It's an easy/cheap fix. I'll get some pics of my set up, maybe it'll give you an idea or two. I don't think I can do it any easier.

Spent an extra day camping, 3 of the days all it did was rain, so having the last two days be nice and letting everything dry out was a huge plus. Much more enjoyable than the race trip! Ran into some hellatiously excellent moonshine from West Virginia, best I've had in a looooong time. Good to be home though, I'm wore the fuck out!, lmao.

[Glass]

glad you had a good time. Shame about the rain but at least it clear for some of it.

I've been using cutting boards to tilt the fermenters. The Coopers one needs to tilt a lot more. About 30Degrees to get the most out of it. I sit it on top of a cupboard and as I tilt it the spigot obviously goes with it and the hose coming out fouls on the cupboard sides or doors as it no longer goes straight down. This has caused it to come out of the spigot causing the spills. Using a table may be better as the hose would have nothing to foul on. There would be a void where the cupboard doors or sides would be.

Found the evil grommet. It had obviously sunk straight away and was embedded in the trub right under the airlock hole. No chance it was going to be scooped out of there.

[Glass]

I tried a bottle of this last Saturday. The PET bottles had firmed up a lot so I figured we can give it a crack.

Apples, apples very green apples. I always thought that people meant the green variety but no, I think it means unripe apples.

There is a nice coffee taste on the tongue with a hint of choc on the finish but it's all apples on the front. So this one is still green. To be expected I guess given the age and style. I expected this one to be a couple of months anyway and was aiming for deep winter, late July into August.

This beer is dark. It has a slight red tinge from the dark ale malts but basically it's dark. Light does not get through this one. We will come back to it in a maybe 4 to 6 weeks and see how it is progressing.

[Glass]

ok 5 weeks in the bottle. I thought I would have another taste and see how we are going. Much has changed. I probably should have cleaned the palate after drinking a couple of the lemon lagers from KoB #5. leaves a lemonade taste on the lips.

This beer is still green but it is improving for sure. Bitter fruitiness that is less like green apples. I am getting slight chocolate taste to the front. Quickly morphing into a dark roasted coffee flavour. Aroma is really the roasted coffee. It is not what I would call rich. Lets call it a budget roast coffee. Percolated coffee not expresso.

Pours well and there is a decent 2 finger head, off white. Disappates in a few minutes but there's always a trace. Colour is dark dark with a red tinge. Need strong light to penetrate.

It is green and the taste needs to get better but it has been getting better and we are still 6 or 7 weeks from when I expected it to be ready. I don't think this is a session beer so this batch might last a while but it might not. Needs some sweet choc in there somewhere. I would like a richer roast flavour. Will have to try some different dark malts.

Its different to anything else I usually drink so I am surprised that I like this beer and it will get better.

[Glass]

cracked another one of these today. This one has been on the chill for about a week. I poured chilled to warm glass. This has mellowed a lot. I think for this brew it is about the sweet spot in the aging process. Hard to judge where it could go from here. The coffee taste has mellowed. There is no real bitterness. The aroma is the same. There is a chocolate aroma. Like hot chocolate gone cold. That is new. I would like more thickness to the beer. I think it would do well with raw/brown sugar, molases or a dark honey. It has a clean finish. I like that.

[BrewTech]

cracked another one of these today. This one has been on the chill for about a week. I poured chilled to warm glass. This has mellowed a lot. I think for this brew it is about the sweet spot in the aging process. Hard to judge where it could go from here. The coffee taste has mellowed. There is no real bitterness. The aroma is the same. There is a chocolate aroma. Like hot chocolate gone cold. That is new. I would like more thickness to the beer. I think it would do well with raw/brown sugar, molases or a dark honey. It has a clean finish. I like that.

Your palate and skill for beer tasting have certainly become more sophisticated. It may be that extract brewing will not allow you to manipulate various beer characteristics sufficiently to allow you to produce the beer that you really want. This is the reason brewers switch from extract to all-grain: control!

Very good beers can be made with extracts, but much of the control lies in specific malt selection and proportion, as well as mash techniques to allow certain qualities (often complex and subtle) to be developed in the finished product, such as mouthfeel, foam quality, tertiary flavors, etc.

Seems to me, Glass, that it may be soon you find yourself getting into all-grain brewing!

[Glass]

There seems to be a brewing renaissance going on right now. It looks like it has been building or dare I say brewing for a few years now but is getting to critical mass. Tons of craft breweries and brewers out there SO there are plenty of beer choices to give you an insight into what people can and are doing with their brewing.

So I think thats great. I'm trying to educate my palate by looking out for interesting craft beers to try or if I see one I have heard about before and giving it a try. I generally didn't drink much variety in the past which makes it interesting now.

I'd like to AG brew. We will get there I hope but it will be some time. I don't really have a space I would be happy using burners in and so on right now. In the mean time I am looking at for recipe's of AG clones of beers I like and even maybe take one or two of the extract styles to AG. Canadian blonde for example I think makes a good base for dry hopping, based on my experience so far. I'd like to know how to AG something like that. Then obviously some of the more "up scale" styles.

I need to find a brew club or some kind of in store meet up. I really want to get a whiff of the various hops so I know what they are like. Hoping to find a demo night or something. I think there is a place that does it but they are across town. Too far to go with the transport options I have ATM.

In the mean time I have 2 more brews to get underway. Another blonde for dry hopping with Motueka (B-saaz) and I've got another lager there I may as well brew. Might keep it regular recipe this time around. I'm getting a bit tired of the lager now though. Too many other nice flavours to have in beer. But I can give it to my mates and they'll think it's great.

[Glass]

I'm bored so I'm gonna dribble on about beer. If anyone had of said I'd enjoy a dark beer I'd say they was nuts. This is actually not bad. Not a session beer. One of these quenches the thirst. The coffee flavour is richer now. There is, is a bit of chocolate in there as well. bitter but it's been mellowing. We have these chocolate cafe's here where they sell a lot of chocolate styles, rich, dark, cocoa. Real purists stuff. Ethical supply? The flavour of this would not be out of place there.

I said I wanted to have something for the depth of winter. I think we are there and it's not a bad effort. I'm going to tweak it for next year. See if I can get a bit of milk choc flavour in there. Founders breakfast stout.

its odd but of all the beers so far this one pleases me the most.

[Libertytree]

A buddy of mine makes a chocolate-peppermint dark that's pretty good, it's kind of like a liquid girl scout cookie (if you have had them?). I couldn't drink but just a half of one but it was tasty and different...NOT a summer kinda beer at all IMHO.

[Glass]

that sounds pretty tasty. I like after dinner mints. Mint and chocolate. Like you I find one of these is enough in one sitting. I don't generally feel like anything else to drink after one but that is a bit like I was expecting. It is not thick beer, a bit richer than others maybe. I'm pleased that it turned out fairly close to plan.