Ingredients

Maillard Malts Specialty Grain (1 lb Flaked Barley, 0.5 lb Briess Black Malt, 0.5 lb Briess Chocolate Malt, 0.25 lb Briess Caramel 120L), 6 lbs Gold malt syrup, 6 lbs Dark malt syrup (10 min late addition), 2 lbs Golden Light DME (10 min late addition), 1 oz Nugget (60 min), 1 oz Glacier (15 min), Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast

Recipe

This was an extract kit from Midwest Homebrewing Supply. The recipe is available online here.

Brew Notes

Followed the recipe pretty much to the letter. Steeped grains for 20 minutes. I made a 1200 ml yeast starter on a 24 hour stir plate using the Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast and a can of Fast Pitch Canned Wort. As I was chilling with my wort chiller I noticed I had forgotten to add the DME (I was trying to do too many things at once), so I heated a gallon of water and added the DME. I continued cooling the original wort and once it was the DME was boiling I added it to the existing wort and finished chilling it. I undershot my OG a little and came out just a tad high.

I transferred the beer to a secondary fermenter at two weeks and added the soaked the American oak cubes in 12 oz. of Bib and Tucker small batch bourbon, which has a strong charred vanilla flavor. The 12 oz. of bourbon should bring the overall ABV to ((volume of beer * alcohol of beer) + (volume of bourbon * alcohol of bourbon)) / total volume = (((640 fl oz * 0.102375)+(12 fl oz * 0.46))/(640 fl oz + 12 fl oz)) * 100 = 10.90% ABV.

Tasting Notes

This was my favorite kit in six years of brewing. Will be doing this one again.