Kathie (and everyone else who wants to know)
My holiday ale has been bottled and conditioned. I couldn't help but chill one and taste it the other night. It is very hoppy and you can really taste the orange and cinimon in it. I feel that the orange flavor somewhat potentiates the hopps but the dark grain flavors cut the bitterness. At 7.08% I figure that after a couple of glasses you won't care what it tastes like
. It also came out with a very nice head to it. I was surprised to see that much considering that it had only conditioned for a couple of weeks.
Apointer on the holiday ale if I had it to do over would be,1. Strain the wort through some cheesecloth before it goes into a finer mesh strainer when transferring to the fermenter because the hopps will clog up the fine mesh strainersand be sure to catch all the big pieces. George told me about the cheesecloth after I fought with a fine mesh strainer.
2.There are different directions on the yeast package than what is in the BB directions itself. I did a bit of a hybrid method where i used the yeast package directions and then lightly poured it all over the top of the wort.
And lastly, use the two stage method of fermenting.There is a small boxon the right side of the instructions that explain how to do itif you have another carboy.
*I promise you that your house, or wherever you brew will smell better than it has in a long time when you make this stuff.
So, what happened to your stout?