Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:14 pm
Last year we used a whole 55 pound sack of Chocolate malt. The recipe scaled up to 45 pounds and I just figured why not the whole sack. Well duh, it was too much chocolate. The beer tasted great, believe me, it was very well received, but a chocolate sharpness did get into the finish. This year, we just went with the 45 pounds like good boys should do. This year there was a surprise jump in efficiency due to a new base malt delivery to the silo so our pre-boil gravity was too high. I really wanted the beer under 7.8% so we just deleted the sugar addition and went with an all malt beer. We either didn't take a Ph last year or it was not out of the ordinary but this year we had a mash Ph of 5.5. We thought that was fairly high but didn't see a need to take any serious action. I did add a half pound of extra gypsum to the boil (they add a whole pound for Pliny...18 bbl batch).
So to answer your question. This year's beer tastes like last years beer when it was about 7 weeks old. The maltiness in last years older beer seems the same as the maltiness of this year's with all malt , no sugar, fermentables. This years has a much more pleasant finish. At least for me, a lot of people really liked that chocolate dominance.
This beer is probably homebrewed by dozens of homebrewer every week. I get a lot of feedback on peoples experiences. I love it all. I wish I could send a case of JBA to everyone of you. But you are the chosen ones, you have the skills to make your own JBA. So as I drink pint after pint of Vinnie's JBA during these next 3 weeks of my mini-rollout, I'll be thinking of you guys and all that JBA you can brew.
Cheers,
Tasty
yep, yep, yep, yep
Next up:
JBA Light
Fermenting:
nada
Serving:
Rauchbier (ugh!)
