Before I start I would like to say Hi to everyone, and then bore you all with a description of my limited experience so you will hopefully forgive my stupid questions.
I was first shown how to homebrew a couple of years ago by my father who used to make beer and wine but gave up wine when we moved to back to Oz. I have two uncles who make beer or wine so it kind of runs in the family a bit. Anyway dad stopped brewing a while ago as he moved to being predominatly a wine drinker.
I was shown what I now consider a half arsed way of doin it which I contribute to my failures. So far Ive made about 6 or so batches:
one came out all right,
One failed as I added honey without any other treatment
one failed when I added some Malt that I bought at Safeways (not brewing malt)
one failed when I added honey again instead of priming suger
one failed when my fermenter broke seal and I thought it was stuck so I added another yeast satchet
last one failed for an unknown reason but it got infected and dumped it in the toilet this morning. (first batch in over a year)
I have not been much of a beer drinker as I primary drink whisky... Until recently.
A week before my 23rd Bday I was going to a party and was broke so decided to get some beer instead of Jack and coke. While staring at another boring red sixpack of Carlton draughft I thought "F##k it, Ill get something different".
I bought a six of James Squire Malt runner winter '10 limited release... WOW this is awesome I thought when I tried it and promptly finished all six.
I then started buying and trying severl different sorts and brands of beer thru out the next week and had a Beer taste test with my father for my bday. For the next month I bought six or so diff beers every week. I then decided to make the Stout kit I had sitting in the pantry for the last 6 months, I had decided I Love Dark Malty beers, It failed.... hence was the one I dumped down the toilet. However the day before, I went to my local Brew n' Grow and had a small chat with the storekeeper and ended up buying a can of LME and a bag of DME and some maltodextrin and dextrose, I made that batch last night in my second fermenter Its going text book perfect at the moment and cant wait till I can finally taste it in a few weeks.
At the first sign my Stout had failed dad dug out a book which I have since been reading called 'The complete joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazain' Old but with a ton of info. I have since modified my procedure since reading it which I believe is why this current batch is going very well.
Any way I bought a couple of bottles on wednesday of Double chocolate stout which I liked a hell of a lot and was wondering if I could make it for my self.
I now have a free fermenter so waas considering trying out several micro batches at a time of something like 5L to 11.5L just to try out to see if I could make a chocolate beer.
Is there a somewhat easy way for a begginner to make a chocolate beer? I dont think my local BnG has chocolate malt or many grains however I can probably order off the net.
Ive looked a bit in the Recipe section of this forum and havent quite found what I was looking for.
Second is there any tips if I tried just to concoct this off the top of my head?
If you have managed to read all of that and are still awake well done
Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks
Killbz
Ps excuse any spell errors Ive had a few JS porters after work
I was first shown how to homebrew a couple of years ago by my father who used to make beer and wine but gave up wine when we moved to back to Oz. I have two uncles who make beer or wine so it kind of runs in the family a bit. Anyway dad stopped brewing a while ago as he moved to being predominatly a wine drinker.
I was shown what I now consider a half arsed way of doin it which I contribute to my failures. So far Ive made about 6 or so batches:
one came out all right,
One failed as I added honey without any other treatment
one failed when I added some Malt that I bought at Safeways (not brewing malt)
one failed when I added honey again instead of priming suger
one failed when my fermenter broke seal and I thought it was stuck so I added another yeast satchet
last one failed for an unknown reason but it got infected and dumped it in the toilet this morning. (first batch in over a year)
I have not been much of a beer drinker as I primary drink whisky... Until recently.
A week before my 23rd Bday I was going to a party and was broke so decided to get some beer instead of Jack and coke. While staring at another boring red sixpack of Carlton draughft I thought "F##k it, Ill get something different".
I bought a six of James Squire Malt runner winter '10 limited release... WOW this is awesome I thought when I tried it and promptly finished all six.
I then started buying and trying severl different sorts and brands of beer thru out the next week and had a Beer taste test with my father for my bday. For the next month I bought six or so diff beers every week. I then decided to make the Stout kit I had sitting in the pantry for the last 6 months, I had decided I Love Dark Malty beers, It failed.... hence was the one I dumped down the toilet. However the day before, I went to my local Brew n' Grow and had a small chat with the storekeeper and ended up buying a can of LME and a bag of DME and some maltodextrin and dextrose, I made that batch last night in my second fermenter Its going text book perfect at the moment and cant wait till I can finally taste it in a few weeks.
At the first sign my Stout had failed dad dug out a book which I have since been reading called 'The complete joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazain' Old but with a ton of info. I have since modified my procedure since reading it which I believe is why this current batch is going very well.
Any way I bought a couple of bottles on wednesday of Double chocolate stout which I liked a hell of a lot and was wondering if I could make it for my self.
I now have a free fermenter so waas considering trying out several micro batches at a time of something like 5L to 11.5L just to try out to see if I could make a chocolate beer.
Is there a somewhat easy way for a begginner to make a chocolate beer? I dont think my local BnG has chocolate malt or many grains however I can probably order off the net.
Ive looked a bit in the Recipe section of this forum and havent quite found what I was looking for.
Second is there any tips if I tried just to concoct this off the top of my head?
If you have managed to read all of that and are still awake well done
Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks
Killbz
Ps excuse any spell errors Ive had a few JS porters after work