Festival Bonfire Toffee Stout

[Clydebrewer]

Bought this limited edition kit in December as my fifth brew kit. I made in to the instructions supplied, initial aroma and taste of wort was sweet and heady.
The yeast was pitched with the wort at 24°C and it was fermentated at 20°C for 15 days (bottled at 6 am on Christmas eve). Bottled into five 750ml swing top bottles and remainder in Cooper's PET 500ml bottles.
The kit came with a bag of oak dust which I added as per instructions into the wort, this worried me a bit as it was fine dust and I wondered if it would give cloudy beer but I needn't have worried.
After two weeks in the airing cupboard at around 21°C it was then transferred to the garage where its been cool but not freezing cold (must get a thermometer in there).
8 days later I just had to open a bottle and was very happy with the initial results but now after 16 days conditioning it is starting to shape into a very nice Stout.
It currently has a rich treacly flavour with the hint of the toasted oak chips, the head is good with smaller bubbles than last week and better head retention. It is very dark with a tan coloured head and you need a pretty strong light to see how clear it is.
It looks like this will continue to improve over the next few weeks and providing that I can avoid opening any more for a few weeks I'm sure I'll be very happy.
I'll report further later.

 

[Dutto]

If it tastes anything like my Mum's Bonfire Toffee then it will be great!:thumb::thumb:

The original, had an initial sweet taste followed by a "black treacle" twang that lingered on the tongue. I hope the beer follows suit. :thumb::thumb:

 

[Clydebrewer]

Six weeks since bottling now and this stuff just gets better as each week goes by.
The flavours have mellowed and there's no twang.
The Bonfire Toffee name is well founded with a smoky aroma and initial taste followed by a sweet slightly burnt treacle flavour like Dutto's Mum's Toffee.
The head is a rich Toffee colour and gets creamier as the weeks go by and the bubbles get smaller and tighter together.
This is definitely not a light summer drink but one for cold and stormy autumn/winter nights.

 

[H0PM0NSTER]

Wish I'd brewed this up - sounds lovely. Not sure if there would be time to get it on now before spring arrives and it gets too warm for stout drinking. Although with the normal British summer weather...

 

[Clydebrewer]

Another ten days and it's still improving, sad that I'll not have enough left for it to get to full condition.
I'm going to leave the other kit for a bit and get it ready for the autumn and hopefully give it much longer conditioning.

 

[DavidHatton]

Another ten days and it's still improving, sad that I'll not have enough left for it to get to full condition.
I'm going to leave the other kit for a bit and get it ready for the autumn and hopefully give it much longer conditioning.

Thank you for the great advice, gonna brew it as instructions roughly say this next week and bottle it and leave it for Halloween.

Cheers D

 

[Kevin Falconer]

This sounds good and I may give it a go next year if you can still get it. Currently working on my first project, which is a Coopers Dark Ale. Just finished 14 days in the fermenter. Now waiting for bottles to condition. If all goes well will be doing it regularly.

 

[Applesnmore]

A follow up question regarding this Bonfire Toffee Kit.
From the discussion it's a brew that is an autumn winter drink and benefits 8 weeks conditioning + 2 weeks brew. Would you plan to brew this in late July/ early August?
Got the kit for Christmas so wondering do I put it on or save it for 7 months.
Advice welcome?

 

[terrym]

A follow up question regarding this Bonfire Toffee Kit.
From the discussion it's a brew that is an autumn winter drink and benefits 8 weeks conditioning + 2 weeks brew. Would you plan to brew this in late July/ early August?
Got the kit for Christmas so wondering do I put it on or save it for 7 months.
Advice welcome?

Its really up to you when you start it dependant upon how and when you want to drink it. If you want to drink all of it over the autumn then leave it until the summer before you brew it. Alternatively you could put it on anytime, then after a few weeks start to drink it slowly noting how the beer changes with time as it most likely will. I have kept modest strength darker beers for up to a year and they have been fine. But if you intend to postpone your brew for a while I would put the yeast in the fridge.

 

[Applesnmore]

Cheers Terry.
Shall leave it a few months and take your advice about the yeast.

 

[Drunkula]

wondering do I put it on or save it for 7 months

Put it on straight away. Liquid malt extract gets worse over time even in the tin. It'll then be fine aging in the bottles.

 

[terrym]

Put it on straight away. Liquid malt extract gets worse over time even in the tin.

Noticeable over a few years yes, but a few months?

 

[Drunkula]

but a few months?

Yeah - seriously.

 

[terrym]

Yeah - seriously.

If kit LME was that bad at ageing the declared shelf life would be a lot shorter than it is, and how the stuff is sold would have to be rethought, or it would have been 'found out' by homebrewers long ago.
Many kits I did had a BBF date that were in excess of 12 months or more, and the small number that were approaching the use by date or slightly exceeded it turned out the same.
So in my experience any deterioration over a few months is not noticeable.
Your experience must be different.

 

[Drunkula]

I bought 28 beer kits from Tesco when they stopped doing homebrew stuff and started brewing them in willy nilly order before I did any research and I found the same kits tasted different, some more twangy and the colour different. Then I started writing down the expiry dates and the same kits 4 months apart were different.

It's why I put down malt extract age as the main cause of twang.

Brulosophy did some tests where the describe the older taste just like what I was getting.
http://brulosophy.com/2017/11/27/the-impact-of-age-on-liquid-malt-extract-exbeeriment-results/

 

[terrym]

I put down malt extract age as the main cause of twang.

I agree with that.
And cheap LME falls into the same category.
Been saying that for ages.