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Bilby Chocolate Porter


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I have finished brewing the Bilby Chocolate Porter recipe and will be bottling it tomorrow.  When I took my hydrometer readings, I thought it tasted very bitter.  Would the flavor benefit from leaving it in the bottles for a few months?  Or is this a bitter tasting beer?  The recipe says to leave it in the bottles for 2 weeks and then give it a taste, but that doesn't seem long enough.

Any thoughts?

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2 hours ago, EWildcat7 said:

I thought it tasted very bitter. 

Hey EWC7

I did the Bilby Chocolate Porter a while ago.  It has been in bottles for a month and a half.  Still very bitter.  I brewed it to 9.5L so it should be a shade less bitter than the 8.5L as per the recipe.

Conversely, I did a Russian Imperial Stout and it has been bottled for over four and a half months and is smooth as.

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15 hours ago, EWildcat7 said:

After reading these replies (combined with how I was already leaning), I leave this batch in the bottles for 2 months before trying it.

waiting sucks.....

And it my not be at its best for 6 months or even 12 ...I generally bottle Stout this winter for next as do many but not all ...  but in a weird twist that i don't quite understand, I make a double batch bottled 1/2 in tallies for my son and kegged 19L for my son in-law and saved a few 500ml flip tops for myself ... the kegs stuff was as smooth as silk and the keg is empty but I opened a flip top  yesterday, drank 1/2 of it and threw the rest as it was no where near ready to drink ... same brew different process of delivery ... can anyone in the brains trust explain to me the chemistry behind that ... 

Edited by MartyG1525230263
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Beer conditions faster in kegs than bottles because it's one larger volume rather than many small volumes. At least that's my understanding of it. I did notice similar things when I bottled surplus of batches, the kegged portion was always quicker to hit its peak than the bottles were. The bottles after 6-7 weeks tended to taste like the kegged portion did after 2-3 weeks, so they did get there, it just took longer. 

I have a big stout on tap at the moment, which had been sitting in the keg since late October/early November last year. Very smooth, goes down too easily for being 8.5% or so ABV. 

Not naturally carbonating kegs would have an effect as well due to the beer not going through a secondary fermentation, even if it is only a small one. For the styles I drink I do prefer the force carbonation. It just tastes a bit cleaner than bottle conditioned to me.

In response to the OP, bitterness does mellow in time. I find dark beers much better after months of conditioning than they are fresh. It takes time for the strong flavours to meld together and smooth out. At the same time, I also pretty much always find that FG samples taste more bitter than the beer does once it's carbonated and ready to drink. 

Edited by Otto Von Blotto
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I just finished bottling and ended up with 10 1/2 bottles.  I knew after I had filled 10 bottles that I wouldn't have enough to fill an 11th.  So, rather than dumping it out, I decided to keep the half bottle and put in 1 carbonation drop.  I have no idea how this will end up - I suspect it won't carbonate well because of having too much space.  But if it tastes bad and I dump it out, I figure that is no different than if I had dumped it out today.  Worth a shot to see what happens.....

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I did that once or twice back when I was bottling, but since I bulk primed it got the same rate as the other full bottles. Being stubbies, the full ones would have had about 3g dex in them, so around 1.5g in the half full one. It carbonated fine but half a stubby is a bit pointless 😂

I suppose one carb drop in a half full tallie would be similar to what I did. Should carbonate ok.

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