I finally drank enough beer to brew some more !
I’ve done 2 brews in May one brew was meant to be a rerun of my Black IPA and the other was a version of a California Common.
The Black IPA on the 9th of May went slightly awry ! The old version of Brewpi didn’t have the right PID values and as a result the mash temp overshot .. This meant I had an amount of hard to ferment sugars and the fermentation finished earlier than I wished. Even the usual rousing and the addition of Amylase enzyme didn’t restart it.

The OG was 1.074 and the FG ended up at 1.027 making it 6.3 % but it was too sweet for a Black IPA . Cacao nibs, Tonka beans and Vanilla to the rescue . 150g of Cacao nibs were roasted for 15 mins at 170ºC and 2 Tonka beans were ground up and added with the dry hopping. After leaving for a couple of days and then sampling it just didn’t sit right on the palate, it was too bitter ! I added 3 TSP of Vanilla essence to get it balance right…