I have a stout kit on the go, its down a week and seems to have stoped fermenting after the first 4 days.
Can I at this stage add some chocolate grain in a muslin bag to steep for a few days?
Also some admiral or fuggles hops?
Or is it too late to be any addition?
Hops, yes
Grain, no
But I'd leave it for a couple of weeks first
You would need to make a tea.
Why don't you let this one run its course if you haven't done it before and then decide if you need to up the anti.
LE is out resident expert in this area.
You could add steeping grains if you really wanted. I'd steep the grains in a muslin bag at 65c for 30 mins, then give the liquor a quick boil before adding to the fermenter.
Thanks,
I have been brewing for a long time, but only ever kits and never hacked before.
All I ever do is follow the basic kit instructions. I never take sg readings or even bother too much about temp.
I generally just do 2 weeks in bucket with loose lid (no air lock)at room temp (20c ish), 2 days off the yeast in a fresh bucket, batch prime, bottle, 1 week in the same room temp then 2 weeks in the shed where it is cold. I have never had a bad batch.
While the beer always tastes good, there is always a slightly yeasty "oh its homebrew" aroma.
I would like to improve on that and also get a more unusual crafty taste. I'm loving Blacks Black IPA and Galway bay stormy porter to name a couple.
I am also looking to get in to corny's but I think I need to up the quality to match the initial investment.
You 'could' steep the grains in and make a tea. Then boil it, cool it and add it. But I'd probably leave it. Ride this one out and add the grains to the next one.
Add the hops though.
I've tested kit yeasts a lot and found that in the Coopers kits the yeast is usually just as clean as other commercial dried yeast. The yeast in the Irish Stout seems to be something close to US05.
The traces of 'kit' you get from the final beer seem to be more from the extract.