First Brew Day! - Paging Dr. Bubra to the ER.

[Ozwald]

You always know how to make my mouth water

Did you get real cinnamon or the american version?

Just wait til Lipsti-cember...
The cinnamon I used was from a huge bag my wife brought back with her from India a few years back... they are flat pieces rather than the curled sticks, but other than that I'm not sure... it's a beautiful red color, I drained and strained the vanilla, cinnamon, and cranberry last night, the roobios was last in, so gonna leave that a bit. I think I'm gonna do some bigger batch infusions of the cinn and package in clear 187s with waxed tops to give to local friends for Xmas... would be leery about including that to my SS recipient though.

Oo baby!

Hard to say. All cinnamon as well as the fake stuff is bark, you could dry it flat or let it curl so that really doesn't give us an answer. I think the real stuff is from Vietnam (somewhere in that corner of the world anyways) & India's pretty close, relatively. There was a guy a few weeks ago on the Session talking about it, but I can't remember what he said the american stuff actually is. I'm not a huge cinnamon freak, but listening to him talk about the flavor differences really got the saliva flowing.

And who doesn't like real vanilla... so yummy. My biggest disappointment in brewing was the porter I aged on 2 split/scraped beans. It just didn't have the vanilla punch I was looking for. Definitely going extract next time I do a vanilla beer.

I've heard of roobios in passing, what's it taste like?

[Dr. Bubra]

There was a guy a few weeks ago on the Session talking about it, but I can't remember what he said the american stuff actually is. I'm not a huge cinnamon freak, but listening to him talk about the flavor differences really got the saliva flowing.

The true cinnamon is Ceylon Cinnamon, it's produced mainly in Sri Lanka (so super close to India). The more common cinnamon found mostly in the states & on the global market is Cassia Cinnamon. If you do a google search you can find online spice shops selling the Ceylon, you might even try your local Coop, Farmers Market, or health food store. I can find it in a number of stores here in the Bay Area so I just keep the Ceylon on-hand. I like the flavor better, personally & it's usually fresher since its normally stocked in smaller quantities.