Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Vanilla Bourbon Porter tasting

I popped open the first bottle last night and was unpleasantly surprised. The Vanilla had mellowed A LOT, almost to the point where I couldn't taste it. And, the carbonation was lacking to say the least. I've had it in the bottle for exactly 3 weeks, and the only thing I can think of is that it's too cold in my kitchen where I store them. I moved them into the dinning room right next to the heating vent last week. Hopefully that will have an effect, but I don't know.

I had big hopes for this beer, and it still tastes pretty awesome, but the carbonation sucks and I need more cowbell.........I mean vanilla. Any hints on what went wrong or how to fix it? I primed with 5 oz. of corn sugar. Do you think the addition of the bourbon killed off the remaining yeast which would lead to little or no carbonation??

Let me know what you think!

Cheers,
Jason

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe try using a more alcohol-tolerant yeast like Champagne yeast (which has saved me every time I try and brew something really strong).

Dave said...

Depending on how much burbon you added might make a difference in how your remaining yeast were able to carbonate your beer. Instead of adding bourbon directly to the beer, try soaking oak chips in bourbon and then tossing them into your secondary. That may help keep more yeasties alive for bottle conditioning.

Jason said...

Yea, back to the drawing board. I'm going to let it sit for another week or so to see if it perks up a bit. Hopefully the heat will help out.

Jason said...

Good news....I had another last night and it seems that moving the cases closer to the heat vent is working. not exactly where I want it, but it's getting there.