It has it's ups and downs. I would have never bought one but the brewery has 3 so I've been using the small system. The only negative I can say is the limits on the malt pipe. You either have to use some extract or run a double mash if a beer has a big grain bill. Runs step mashes at the push of a button though which is really sweet.
Ok, so I brewed and bottled and cracked one open on saturday at our brew club meeting and got some feedback. Well it was thin and watery; which I think I had too much water on kettle and didnt boil enough off. And some feedback said it had a cherry taste. Which I think may have been the 3/4 teaspoom of baking cocoa I decided to throw in at flame out. Iam going to up the whaet just a bit and not do the baking cocoa and maybe a bit of cocoa nibs at flame out of in fermentation.
I won't lie Im too lazy to do the math right now but I'd try bumping the crystal to 5-10% of the grist and mash a little higher. Not sure what the percentage you have now but eyeballing it looks lower than 5%. This should help the body/mouthfeel. Another option is adding in some torrified wheat.
I had a second to put everything in my Beersmith and it looks like you've got 2.6% Crystal. Jumping right up to 10% might be too much as it will add more sweetness to the beer. If it were me I'd bump it up to 5% first and up the mash temp then on another batch move to 7.5% and eventually 10% if you like where things are headed.
Thanks, I was off. Appreciate it. I am just going to try 5% then. And I am not sure if my local shop as any pale chocolate so i may just go 3 oz of Chocolate wheat. Again, thanks for checking that out, jmping up to 10% might have been a bit much.
No problem! Theres a likely chance 10% is fine but I know when I tweak my recipes I like to make smaller adjustments when it comes to specialty malts.
Did you use a hefe yeast or a neutral yeast? Although a chocolate covered banana beer does sound tasty... I will take your word on it though, lol. Did you just use the lactic acid instead of a sour mash or adding lacto in the fermentor? I am wanting to brew a sour mashed gose but I think it's getting too cool for that now.
I used WLP400, pitched cool and let it hang in the 60s for the first 2 days then let it ramp up to 75 on its own. Ester profile came out perfect, lots of tart peach notes. No bugs, sour mash, or sour worting just 88% lactic acid from AHS @ 1oz per gal added right to the keg. The tartness isn't as complex as going the traditional route but I think its character is just right in this beer. Definitely a method worth playing around with if you want to keep your system clean.
Love Breckenridge vanilla porter, one of our favorites.
Damn that sounds tasty!!!!!!!!!
