[Review] Gozdawa Milky Stout

[auralabuse]

What about bottling a few litres to give a review of the kit as intended then adding some sugar to bump the ABV so Drzava doesnt end up with a load of 3% stout?

Yeah, good idea

[Leann ull]

too many review kits have been given out to never be heard from again.

If a review kit has been given out and there is no review then I thought there was a ban on getting any more?
Who What When?

[armedcor]

No direct finger pointing on my part but its easy enough to go through some of the raffle threads and see theres no where near the amount of reviews in comparison to the amount of winners.

[auralabuse]

On that subject, I should be pulling the first pint of the Brown porter all grain kit from the hbc competition in a few days, just force carbing at the mo. Will be doing a full review from opening the parcel to pulling a pint and tasting.  It's a tough job

[Drzava]

OK, following the advice here, I bottled about 7.5L last night (plus 35g brown sugar in 100ml hot water to give 2 vols CO2). SG was still 1.028. I added 300g brown sugar (in 250ml water) to the remaining 15L or so - just stirred it into the primary rather than racking off. It's bubbling away this morning. This is equivalent to 1lb sugar per 23L kit, which various fora suggest as raising final ABV by 1% without impacting taste too much, and I think 4% is about right for a mild stout. This brought the SG up to 1.034. I'm away for a few days from Thursday so, all going well, will bottle the rest on Sunday.

First time using a bench capper too last night - after a shaky start, found it much faster than my hand held capper.

[Drzava]

Finished off this kit last night. FG was 1.025 so the kit fermented further with the sugar added, even after all that sugar had been used. Final ABV 4.2% if I've calculated it correctly (I may not have!). Sample taste after the sugar addition was a bit cidery, but that has lessened. Put 5L into a minikeg (primed to 1.2 vol CO2), and bottled the rest at 2 vols. Final count across both bottlings was 44 bottles equivalent. Lots of trub, and a difficult to remove krausen ring, even using Bruclean which I've found very good.

PET carb checker of the first batch (straight kit) carbed up quickly. Kit recommends leaving for 5 weeks minimum, so I'll report back in a month or so! If anyone has any questions on this kit, just ask!

[Drzava]

An update. I had a shnakey sample (in the name of brewing science) of both batches (straight kit, and boosted with some sugar) after 1.5 - 2 weeks in the bottle. Both were terrible - pouring exactly like Coke, i.e. big fizz which immediately disappears. Taste for both was similar - a rather unpalatable fizzy treacle. However, that wasn't doing the kit justice as it recommends a week carbing, followed by a month resting. I had a sample of the 'straight' batch last night after four weeks in the bottle (so, a week less than advised). Pours same as before - big load of 'soft drink' fizz, which vanishes straight away. Colour is good - a deep, deep ruby a la Guinness etc, rather than the darkest brown of Coopers Stout. Still a fizzy treacle taste (that doesn't sound very nice does it?!); however, this had lessened a lot and, while still sweet (that'll be the lactose I'm guessing), there was some nice bite at the back of the palate. So, while not great currently, there could actually be a decent beer lurking in the bottles! I reckon it'll take some serious aging before it's ready though - probably 3 months minimum, and likely closer to 6 months. I'll chance a bottle of both batches in about a month to see how it's developing.

[LordEoin]

Hmmm... not too promising

[Drzava]

Three months in the bottle now for both batches. And I'm afraid there has been little improvement, aside from reasonable head formation. Taste is still 'fizzy treacle', with the 'straight' kit a bit better than the sugar enhanced version. Gave a drop to a friend; his verdict? "Disgusting". I wouldn't go quite that far but it is very disappointing. At this stage I think it's highly unlikely there will be any miracles with the taste in the future. I'm going to hold onto a few bottles to test around Christmas but the rest is for the drain unfortunately!