Hi
I tried and experiment and need help. I have wanted to do a dragons milk stout clone without buying a kit and using what I have. I had already on hand 2 stout kits form Beer Simply Beer. One kit is .25 lbs black malt, .25 lbs chocolate malt, 6lbs dark malt syrup, 1lb dark dry malt extract, 1oz cluster (60min) and 1oz cascade (20min). So because they have been sitting around 6 months plus and I hadn't gotten to using them, I decided to experiment, I basically brewed two kits as 5 gallons. Super concentrated, so much syrup which may be the problem. I did however leave out half the hops to dry hop in second. Also in second I added 2 cups whisky and 4oz American oak soaked in the whisky. Because I knew this was going to be tricky I used a lot of yeast nutrient 5 tablespoons, instead of teaspoons. I did a big starter of safale s-05, s-33 and a touch of red star Dady. Day two I added another starter and more yeast nutrient. Starting gravity was 1.115. it fermented super fast in one day to 1.062. Then it slowly crept for two weeks to 1.056. At this point I racked to second and added the whisky and added the dry hops in a spider and removed after 48 hours. This lowered the gravity to 1.052 immediately, as expected, and it has been now stalled for two days doing nothing. Even with the whisky the yeast should still be within tolerance range. Last night I pulled a 500mL sample and added Red Star Premier Blanc to see if it was indeed the yeast that petered out. It fizzed within the first few hours and this morning there was no activity. I also did this with Dady and nothing at all. I go home in the next 3 hours and hope to see activity in one of the samples. Otherwise I am at a loss. I would like to get 11-12% like the dragons milk. I know it's not a true close but it's an experiment. Any ideas what I could do to or should I just let it sit and see? I am prepared to let this rest for the next 6-8 weeks. I am not taking samples constantly I have a RAPT pill in there, I have checked against the hydrometer and the are within 0.002 points each time. I I should have never got the RAPT pill cause now I can't stop watching it, which is probably the real problem. Anyway thanks for the help in advance.
I tried and experiment and need help. I have wanted to do a dragons milk stout clone without buying a kit and using what I have. I had already on hand 2 stout kits form Beer Simply Beer. One kit is .25 lbs black malt, .25 lbs chocolate malt, 6lbs dark malt syrup, 1lb dark dry malt extract, 1oz cluster (60min) and 1oz cascade (20min). So because they have been sitting around 6 months plus and I hadn't gotten to using them, I decided to experiment, I basically brewed two kits as 5 gallons. Super concentrated, so much syrup which may be the problem. I did however leave out half the hops to dry hop in second. Also in second I added 2 cups whisky and 4oz American oak soaked in the whisky. Because I knew this was going to be tricky I used a lot of yeast nutrient 5 tablespoons, instead of teaspoons. I did a big starter of safale s-05, s-33 and a touch of red star Dady. Day two I added another starter and more yeast nutrient. Starting gravity was 1.115. it fermented super fast in one day to 1.062. Then it slowly crept for two weeks to 1.056. At this point I racked to second and added the whisky and added the dry hops in a spider and removed after 48 hours. This lowered the gravity to 1.052 immediately, as expected, and it has been now stalled for two days doing nothing. Even with the whisky the yeast should still be within tolerance range. Last night I pulled a 500mL sample and added Red Star Premier Blanc to see if it was indeed the yeast that petered out. It fizzed within the first few hours and this morning there was no activity. I also did this with Dady and nothing at all. I go home in the next 3 hours and hope to see activity in one of the samples. Otherwise I am at a loss. I would like to get 11-12% like the dragons milk. I know it's not a true close but it's an experiment. Any ideas what I could do to or should I just let it sit and see? I am prepared to let this rest for the next 6-8 weeks. I am not taking samples constantly I have a RAPT pill in there, I have checked against the hydrometer and the are within 0.002 points each time. I I should have never got the RAPT pill cause now I can't stop watching it, which is probably the real problem. Anyway thanks for the help in advance.