Customer Reviews

Very Nice with Cacao Nibs Review by Alexander

Rating

I brewed this one again since I kind of screwed up the oak additions last time (way too long). I used 4 oz of cacao nibs instead of oak and after about 10 days the beer has a very nice flavor profile. It's a little bitter, slightly spiced from the rye and specialty grains, and has a good amount of cacao presence. I would definitely do this beer again with nibs, and I'm thinking about using it for a Rye IPA base. (Posted on 5/7/13)

great beer, oak flavor builds quickly Review by Alexander

Rating

I really enjoyed this beer, used the max amount if time in primary and secondary. Left oak cubes in for fourteen days which was a little long, but the flavor settled down after kegging. At seven days the oak cubes were much more subtle, I would suggest around 10 if doing this again. (Posted on 2/16/13)

Delicious... just be patient Review by Matt

Rating

This was a great beer to brew. I'm a bit of an instant gratification type, so I did my best to be as patient as possible with this beer. I typically stick to doing a pale ale or a wheat so that I can have my beer fairly quickly, but I decided to be a little different with this guy.

I ended up going almost 2 weeks in primary and a solid 3-4 weeks in secondary before adding the whiskey and oak. I used Bulleit Rye as my whiskey, which I think makes a huge difference. You can spend $10 on a bottle of rye, or you can invest a little more and get something of quality, plus there's some leftover at the end to enjoy yourself. I let the beer sit another full 2 weeks after adding the whiskey and before bottling.

I started kegging my beer a few years ago, so bottling was another thing that was difficult for me to do, seeing as I hate to be patient. I'm now at 3 weeks since bottling and tried one of the beers; it was amazing. I'm going to let them sit in the cool, dark basement a few more weeks/months, but this is going to be a brew to remember.

One thing of note, I only used half the recommended amount of sugar when bottling. When I tend to be impatient my sugar levels never drop to where they're supposed to be, so I get over-carbonation problems. I decided to play it safe and only use half... I'd rather have a slightly carbonated beer versus a glass of foam. (Posted on 2/6/13)

Great Brew Review by Albrecht_Ales

Rating

Amazing kit turned out fantastic. A nice spicy malt flavor with the undertone of the rye whiskey coming through. If your a whiskey lover, this kit is for you. I will be making this again.
(Posted on 1/4/13)

Just fantastic Review by J Strong

Rating

This beer really surprised me just how good it turned out. It's definitely on the spicy malty side, a really stellar mouth feel and just an overall great character. It came out really balanced in all its flavors. Neither of us could really detect the oak, but I will be honest that we are not yet that sophisticated in analyzing different notes.

When we brew this again, we'd probably use more oak, and perhaps a bit more whiskey, or something stronger than 42%.

My buddy and I are fairly new to brewing, and this kit was our sixth batch. We selected Michter's US-1 Straight Rye Whiskey for the whiskey addition and following the directions to the letter. We used Wyeast 1028 and prepared a 1800mL starter. We served at a temperature around 55 degrees to really bring out the whiskey's character. Any colder than that the contribution of the whiskey was really diminished.

Hopefully somebody with a bit more experience will post a more thorough analysis, I just thought it was sad that such a great kit didn't yet have any reviews! (Posted on 10/30/12)