AG #4 Vanilla Bourbon Porter

[RZH]

Me again, brewed this one about a month ago, want to give it plenty of time to condition. Looking forward to cracking the first one open on Christmas morning!

Recipe:

The grain ready to dough in!

Brewday pics:

Missed my targets slightly, ended up a bit low at 1.060, but by no means a catastrophe.

Had some equipment issues and I'm still very much a novice, but pretty happy over all.

On the brew day, I soaked two vanilla pods in some good bourbon and tossed one in at the end of the boil.

Gave it 3 weeks in primary and then racked it to secondary over the bourbon vanilla mix. Got down to 1.020, checked it again a week later, still no movement. I expected quite a high FG due to the complex grain bill and higher mash temp, but do you reckon this can be pushed at all? It's had nearly 2 weeks in secondary there so far, I'll do another couple of checks then if there's still no movement I plan to bottle at some point this week.

It already tastes delicious. Surprised me at how good it was. Not getting much vanilla if any, but hopefully ageing and conditioning will lift this a bit.

Anyway, that's it for now, cheers folks!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Christmas morning :shock: will you be able to wait that long. :lol:

 

[RZH]

Christmas morning :shock: will you be able to wait that long. :lol:

Absolutely not. :smile:

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I knew that was going to be the answer. :lol:

 

[calluma11]

I like the romance of waiting until Christmas morning - like a present in itself.
Then again, I like the taste of good beer so 'tis a tough one!

(My porter is to be bottled this weekend and, whilst it's supposed to be my Christmas drink, there'll be no waiting about haha)

 

[rodabod]

Looks great. Thanks for posting the photos.

 

[RZH]

Yeah, I think it's more to the tune of "I hope I have a good amount left for Christmas so I can appreciate how nice the beer can be when given enough time to condition properly..." Haha.

 

[clibit]

I think I woujd expect lower than 1020 with US05, it's only 66.7% attenuation. But you may not get any lower now. Did you aerate well, and rehydrate the yeast?

Sounds lovely.

 

[RZH]

Yup, rehydrated it and used my latest technique of putting a whisk into a power drill and going at it for 10 minutes. I also shook the hell out of it with lid on for another 10 minutes. Gonna have another look today.

 

[rodabod]

What was the mash temp?

 

[RZH]

Mashed a little higher for extra body, 68 IIRC so expected a higher FG. Lost a couple of degrees over the hour though if I remember.

 

[Alexislife]

Sounds good, hope that Vanilla flavour comes through for you in the conditioning.

 

[RZH]

Bottled this bad boy today. Realised I'd been reading my hydrometer wrong (doh!) and it's actually at 1.018. Only a little difference but BeerSmith predicted 1.017 so not all bad tbh. Bottling went well, used my new auto siphon which is a miraculous thing. Should have got one ages ago! I got 56 bottles in the end so plenty to keep me going. Had a sniff and a taste of the trial jar sample and the vanilla is most definitely there, so I'm very happy!

Here's some pictures for you!

 

[RZH]

Couldn't resist...

Cracked one open last night - that makes it 2 weeks in the bottle. Lovely vanilla aroma, not overwhelming though. As well as that there's chocolate, coffee & caramel. It still needs to carb up fully but it's already forming a delicious creamy head. And it's smooth, oh so smooth. Already really happy with this one. Can't wait to see what it tastes like in 6 weeks or so!

Beer is fun, eh?

 

[rodabod]

Sounds great. For me, it sounds like you got the vanilla right. It should be there, but should be very subtle and just enhance the stout flavour.

 

[trooper]

Roll on Christmas 6 weeks Friday just started my stout tonight

 

[wizurd]

Sounds and looks brilliant! With the vanilla I was a bit confused. You soaked two pods and then chucked one pod in at the end of the boil. Is that before cooling it down? Also did the vanilla pod stay in the mix in the fermenter. O and where did u get the auto syphon from?

 

[RZH]

Sounds and looks brilliant! With the vanilla I was a bit confused. You soaked two pods and then chucked one pod in at the end of the boil. Is that before cooling it down? Also did the vanilla pod stay in the mix in the fermenter. O and where did u get the auto syphon from?

Thanks!
I probably didn't explain myself very well. Added one pod to the boil 5 minutes before the end.
On the same day I soaked 2 more pods in around 200ml of bourbon separately in a jar. I let them steep for 3 weeks or so while the beer was in primary. When I racked the beer to the secondary fermenter, I emptied the jar in and racked the beer on top and let it sit for another 2 weeks or so :)

As for the auto syphon, I got it from brewuk Click!

Could probably get it cheaper elsewhere, but this was the only place I could get all the New Zealand hops I wanted for my next brew so got it while I was there.

 

[wizurd]

Cheers mate. That makes sense with the vanilla pods. Bet it tastes great. I'll have to try that.

Thanks for the link on the auto syphon as well.

 

[RZH]

One more thing with the pods. I cut them in half and scraped all the seeds out to get maximum flavour. :)