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This one's for you, @MiniYoda. I've never been to Kentucky but they tell me that this was a popular style back in the day. Hop times are 45, 15 and 5 minutes. This tasty all-grainer turned out great but I'll find out at Sunday's Lost Cabin Homebrew comp if it appealed to BJCP judges. Entered in the historical category, they will probably group it with other Amber/Common-type beers for judging. I'll follow up with a score then. 🍻 Dark Cream Ale (2-gallon, Mash-in-Sack) Rahr 6-row, 2.25 lb. Flaked corn, 1 lb. Briess Victory malt, 0.12 lb. Briess Crystal 60, 0.12 lb. Weyermann Carafa II (Special), 0.04 lb. Mt. Hood, 0.25 oz. Cluster, 0 25 oz. Mt. Hood, 0 25 oz. Safale K-97 German Ale yeast Step mash grains 20 min. @ 132 F followed by 40 min. @ 152 F, adjusting pH to 5.3 with lactic acid (if necessary). Mash out @ 168 F for 10 min. Sprinkle sparge grain bag with hot tap water. Begin 45 min. boil, hopping as indicated. Chill wort to < 70 F. Pitch K-97, areate, and ferment cool for 2 weeks. Cold crash is optional. OG 1.043 IBU 19 SRM 12-14 ABV 4.5 - 5%

Talking of fermentation temps , I was looking at the "Craft Week" Recipes Mr. B has this week, and noticed that all of them say ferment between 70 and76 deg. Seems a little warm for some of them. I am thinking it is just a boilerplate number not catered to the recipe/yeasts - which is a bit disappointing. I am especially intrigued by the Pennsylvania Lager, but I am thinking even for S-04, 70-76 may be a bit high especially as Fermentis says "ideally 15-20°C (59-68°F)." And this is the Wort temp not ambient. I think I will just keep it at my cellar temp of 62-64 ambient.

Who is Kanye? and where is my old geezer cane?

@Fire Roosterdry hopped my 4 gallon smash today. only used 1/2 oz of the mosaic cryo pellets. recipe called for 1 oz. will keg in a week.

Brew #2 - MRB - 1776 Ale (ABV 4.2) Finally... a success! After losing to my first brew batch - MRB's American LAGER, I've got a winner. At least, to me it is! Not quite as carbonated as I'd like, and lacking in sustainable head, it's as sweet as I could have asked for. No sourness. No unpleasant aftertaste. Just a nice, sweet Ale. I can do this. I have one brew in the queue - an all-grain English Pale Ale. It should be just fine. We'll see. ON EDIT: Changed MRB's American Ale to MRB's American LAGER

Experimenting is what I have been all about since starting this hobby and I love doing it. 20 batches of beer and 18 were total experiments. None have been bad or undrinkable, some remarkably good for a novice who doesn't know what the heck he's doing half the time.

👍 bonsai gets me. That’s a very rare thing

I think what @Creeps McLane was trying to convey is that my recipe is a Kentucky Common, which would be correct. The BJCP describes the overall impression of this style as a darker version of cream ale. As I've gotten a bit lazy with my recipe naming of late, that description just kind of stuck.🍻

Congrats!

No, only partly. While the oats do contribute some haze, they're mostly for body. The haze is a mixture of proteins from the oats (and other grains), suspended yeast (this is why NEIPAs use low-flocculating English yeasts), and suspended hop oils. An infection probably won't happen unless you're aging the beer for long periods of time, and since IPAs aren't normally aged and should be consumed fresh, it's probably a non-issue here. I have used oat milk before with some success. It should go into the mash, though, since it's still mostly starch. This is another reason why oats and other flaked products should ALWAYS be mixed with 2-row (or rice hulls). The husks in the 2-row help provide efficiency with water flow. Just putting oats in a muslin sack on their own only creates a gooey and dense "dough-ball" that the water cannot penetrate. That means you're only pulling from the surface of the dough-ball, while the inside stays shielded from water access. Using some 2-row (or 6-row) prevents this. But I guess if they say it tastes like the real thing, who am I to argue? lol

That was my thought, too. The oats won't do anything without the enzymes in 2-row to convert the starches (the unconverted starches can also promote an infection). I'd leave the oats out anyway since they aren't even in the original beer, which I'm assuming is Founder's All-Day IPA (oats are only added to hazy NEIPAs). Should be some Crystal and/or carapils malt in there instead.

I wasn't sure if Mr. Beer is advising a commando-style dry-hop either but I agree that for a 'malt guy,' this recipe gets brewed this summer. looking forward to all the recipes in this series!

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cocoa-powder-nutrition-benefits Good beer and dark chocolate are also enjoyed. I enjoy beer before dinner and during, would be up alI-night having chocolate anything. Speaking of cocoa, can't wait until this is released-

Today I brewed my 20th batch of beer since I started brewing last September, if I remember rightly. It was another total experimental concoction which included my first use of chocolate. Unsweetened baker's chocolate, 1 ounce flaked with a knife and added to the wort of 3.3 lbs Briess Traditional Dark extract, 1 full lb of Briess Dark DME and 4 ounces of malto dextrin to counter any loss of 'mouth feel' from the chocolate. Can't wait to see how it turns out. 1.067 IG, tastes like a chocolate milkshake. The sweetness should go away after complete fermentation. Oh, and I will add 1.5 oz of espresso (made in my French press) to each 25 oz bottle at charging time. I'll call it 'Mic's Chocolate Espresso Stout'.

I did, I wrote to customer service 😎. They would be right - it will be beer, but it could be better beer. However, I think if they specify some other temp range that requires other than just sitting the LBK in the kitchen, they will discourage sales.

As Rickbeer suggested keep your temperatures at the low end and add both later. Adding it while the malt sugars are fermenting will only encourage a bulimic feeding frenzy resulting in the fruit flavors and aromas being lost.

"I want a good girl, she want a gentleman, we saying the same thing like a synonym" - kayne west off of "This Way" by Dilated People. Such a good song. Back when Kayne was in his prime. Sorry, that's what this made me think of.

Toast, but I've not heard of a Dark Cream Ale being popular in the Bluegrass State. What we are trying formulate is a Kentucky Common. https://homebrewacademy.com/kentucky-common/

Haven't looked at the recipe. but don't add the fruit at the beginning. Ferment at 62 (you can see the range if you Google S-04), because WHEN you add the fruit it will be very active. A week in, puree the fruit in a sanitized blender, remove the lid carefully, gently pour in, and replace the lid. It will then kick into high gear again.

The instructions do specify using clean scissors to open the hop packs so this must have been intentional. Earth-shattering!🍻

I think that's the first one of their recipes I've seen that says to just dump the hop pellets in.

experimenting is what it's all about! will dry hop 1/2 oz in a week or 2. next batch, may try whirlpool at 120. will see if big difference.

Looks Delicious! Cheers!

Toast. 🍻

Thank you for all your comments on here. To address a few: 1) Security concerns on Facebook are real so don't join if you are concerned at all. It OK. 2) Facebook is a totally different group than the forum here. There is no need to join if you prefer to be here. 3) Every business goes through staffing changes and we have had many people throughout the years. Our former brewmasters include Eric Green who started one of the best craft breweries in Arizona, Dragoon Brewery, Gene Sandoval started Blackrock Brewing, Pat Butler joined Dragoon Brewing, Sam Diggens joined Sentinel Brewing, and most recently we had Josh move up to Pinetop Brewing Co. Then we have others like Tim, Tyson and Renae that were here for a time and then were able to continue to grow themselves (millennials change jobs 4 times between 21 and 32 according to LinkedIn study). We continue to bring in new people with or without experience. Right now we have two current agents with over 25 years experience in brewing not counting the additional 65 years of experience with the other people in the office. 4) It may appear that Mr. Beer participation is lagging in the forum, but instead the amount of searches that go on just show that people are finding the answers that they need. Similar to what many of you have said, they dont go that next step and further participate. With almost a half a million posts, they will find their answer. We have had to adjust our way of communicating and now had more people participating in our support chat on our website more than anything else. This too could possibly take away from participation here. 5) The homebrewing business has changed drastically over the past decade. Interest grew dramatically up to 2012 then slowed, then in 2015 reverse and many people lost interest. The craft beer craze that we all enjoy has some to blame as we all can go to one of many close by craft breweries and enjoy what we once could only brew. 6) With more people working, there is less time to brew. There is almost a perfect correlation to the unemployment rate to the interest in "how to brew" google searches. Most businesses go through this cycle and it will come back around with more interest developing again in short order. When that does happen we will have this forum, Facebook, our site and continue to look at all options where people want to be contacted. This forum is not going anywhere soon. We will continue to upgrade and maintain. We will continue to engage when needed and point new brewers here to get their answers. Please continue to be the warm and engaging group that you all are.

Third all grain brew was first SMaSH recipe, first time using pale ale malt, and first time mashing correctly at 151. Beers malt is tasty, beer itself is very crisp and clean, but lacks a notable hop presence. This batch was 4 pounds grain for 2 gallons, prior two were 5 1/2 pounds grain per 2 gallons, ABV too high on those. Slowly getting away from ever opening the fermenter, don't like dry hopping, and will also try that cryo whirlpool at 120. I would like a set it and forget it fermenter, and will do any extra processes to make that happen. side note, using 22 oz glass bottles, and saving three bottles per batch to age.

@AnthonyC This is Tobina, a Greek Tortoise I got at age 10, 60+ years ago, and mates and offspring ( pics taken about 8 years ago). Still healthy and breeding as of last contact. My mother incubated her eggs in a box by the water heater several times after recovering them from the flower bed.