Bayernbiere Bought and Drunk

Tony, I took note of: “Well, the sweetness didn't come through as much as I hoped …”

Below is a description of Lactose from a homebrew vendor:

“Lactose Non-fermentable milk sugar that adds body and mouthfeel to beer. Great for porters and stouts.”

I personally have never homebrewed with lactose but it was always my understanding (as per the above) that it would not contribute a lot of sweetness to the beer.

I wish I had a good suggestion on how to ‘bump up’ the sweetness of your beer but in my homebrewing I have never tried to make a beer with a ‘bumped up’ sweetness.

Maybe somebody else could help you out here. Maybe start a thread on the homebrew forum?

Cheers!

Jack

 

Without having tried the beer, I have found that most spiced beers are a delicate balance. It's important that your keep track of your sensoric evaluations and ask someone else critical about their thoughts and impressions.

As far as sweetness goes, you are best advised to use caramalts or mash a bit higher to leave some unfermentables and add mouthfeel rather than highly fermentable sugars. Or switch to the 05 yeast which also does not attenuate quite as low as english yeasts. Be aware that these steps will mean that you will probably want to finish around 1.010.

 

“As far as sweetness goes, you are best advised to use caramalts or mash a bit higher to leave some unfermentables and add mouthfeel rather than highly fermentable sugars.” Lactose is an unfermentable sugar: it provides mouthfeel and I would guess a bit a sweetness but not a lot of sweetness.

“Or switch to the 05 yeast which also does not attenuate quite as low as english yeasts.” I utilize US-05 a lot for my homebrews. My consistent experience is that this yeast is highly attenuating. For example, for my IPAs US-05 has an Apparent Attenuation > 80%.

Cheers!

 

The easiest fix is adding caramalts which I would expect in the grain bill of a "Lebkuchen Ale" as well as a "Nutella Bier", both which highly intrigue me.

Tony, how high is the ABV? Maybe cellar for 2 months and the spices may mellow/meld. Otherwise, what do the Germans say about your "Biere vom Teufel gebraut"?

 

In der Kürze liegt die Würze?

 

Yikes. And zoinks. Never heard that in the context of beer brewing.

 

Are you implying it would work better in the context of Schnaps?

 

The double entendre is a classical late-night-German knee slapper.

 

LOL

 

I know where he lives

 

Can't talk about the Lebkuchen one but the Nutella one actually turned out really well. Nothing to drink by the mass on a hot summer night of course but that was never the intention.

 

Tony - could you post or message me your Nutella recipe?

 

Couple of comments/questions...

1) You are using vanilla, cocoa and hazelnut adjuncts in both cooking process and dry spicing - has this proved beneficial in any manner? 2) Despite using molasses you still finished at 1.017, which I consider pretty high. Was this super sweet? Were there molasses flavors in final beer? 3) Was there noticeable hop character? If not, why not a simple 60 min addition? 4) Do you think that a specialty malt could get the hazelnut character instead of using hazelnuts?

 

FYI - when first thinking about how I would go about this, I assumed that the base recipe could be close to Rogue Hazelnut Brown Ale (rather than your Beamish Stout) and did a quick search on a clone recipe. Most suggest using "hazelnut extract" which is apparently readily available here in the States.

 

Schlappe-Seppel "Unser Seppel'sche":
Two 330 ml bottles poured into a footed pilsner glass. Best By of December 4th/6th (both numbers punched out), 2013. I'm not going to give this a full on effort, to be honest, just a thumbnail sketch.

I thought this was going to be a golden Export Hell, but the beer is a clear orange with a nice, fluffy white head that dissipates quickly. Carbonation streams early but dies out. First sip is pleasant - apple notes, malty, pretty nice. Subsequent sips, however, brings out a thin body and not super great tasting beer. Would not seek out again.

Not pictured.

2.75/5.00

 

Maybe you should have stated: Not worth taking a picture.

Prost!

 

Yeah, well, kinda....