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| Logo by my daughter |
Sometime in the last quarter of last year I bought the Midwest Supplies extract kit for "Chocolate Covered Beavr Nutz" and a couple jars of peanut butter powder (the kit doesn't include the peanut butter). Then the kit and powder sat around in my garage until early last month where we finally busted out the equipment and brewed.
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| Peanut Butter Powder in the Carboy |
The recipe was pretty simple. Basically you make the beer like any extract kit but when you go to secondary just add the peanut butter powder. Then, a few days later you add the cocoa nibs. After that let it ferment for another week or so and voila' you're done.
I however let it sit in secondary for a few weeks longer than called for because I was being lazy about the time to prep the fridge for the keg. It had been keg-less for so long I had put shelves back in it and the shelves all contained store bought beer. Thankfully, kickball season started so the beer bottles disappeared and I finally found the motivation to fully clean the keg lines and get this beer in on tap about 10 days ago.
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| My garage is a jam packed mess. |
Interestingly when I brought the beer up from the basement and into the warm garage it almost instantly started to bubble in the airlock. The yeast had been re-awoken and it started to go crazy so I left the beer sitting in the carboy in the garage for a few hours. Eventually, however, I got it in the keg and into the fridge. The fridge was sitting at about 42F so I set the CO2 at 11 PSI and left it for this past Sunday (June 21, 2015). It was hot out and I was in the mood for a drink so I poured a glass a day earlier than I planned but, fortunately, it was fully carbonated and ready to go.
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| The first pint |
The beer has a nice head but it doesn't keep it for long. It also has a pretty strong peanut butter aroma but a nice mild peanut butter flavor. In fact, the entire beer, with an IBU of 68, is really mild and smooth. It has a bit of a watery mouthfeel for a stout but I found that to be refreshing in the summer heat so I don't mind. Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out and I can see myself making this kit again. My wife also really likes it so that gives me further motivation to keep this on the keg rotation.
Up next I'll probably make another IPA or a Hefe or maybe some kind of Belgian. Until then I look forward to drinking the rest of this keg of Chocolate Covered Beavr Nutz
