Brett Stock Ale: 4 Years

Before moving down to DC I enjoyed a couple months of unemployment between when my previous employer (a purveyor of no-verification loans) went belly up and my new job started.  I'd been thinking about making a beer with Brett since soon after I started brewing, but I had hesitated, not wanting to risk letting the bugs make the jump to my clean beers.  Not knowing when I'd be able to brew after moving I decided to spend my last few days in Massachusetts brewing four sour/funky beers to leave at my parents' house to ferment/age.

One of those beers was a Old Ale with Brett C, something the English traditionally called a stock ale.  This is the sort of beer that is perfect for blending; it has big complex flavors, but not the amount of sweetness you'd expect from a strong English ale.  Historically this blending was done to order by a publican, but there are still a couple of bottled blends available like Olde Suffolk from Greene King (I wish they bottled the funky "5X" portion, 12% ABV, two-year in oak). 

Funky Old Ale

Appearance – Deep brown with a wonderful clear garnet highlight when held to the light. A hard pour produces an inch of head that fights to maintain verticality, but steadily sinks to a light-tan ring over five minutes.

Smell – Vinous, port-like, slightly dusty/musty, just a hint of toasty malt (or is that oak?). Certainly smells like an English strong ale rather than anything from Belgium, despite the Brett (the claussenii strain was originally isolated from a stock ale).  As it warms there is a slight alcoholic sharpness to the nose.

Taste – The dank cellar quality comes through stronger in the flavor than it did in the aroma, but it is still backed up by some of that aged-wine character.  Not much bitterness remains after the years, but it doesn't take much to balance the small amount of residual sweetness.  The finish is short, almost abrupt.  As the beer warms the flavor becomes spicy from a combination of the oak and alcohol.

Mouthfeel – The body is a bit thin.  For a big beer like this a thick creamy body would have been nice, but it isn't unpleasant as is.  The medium-low carbonation is perfect, glad the Brett was finished when I bottled.

Drinkability & Notes – Too easy to drink, the lack of body means that the flavor doesn't linger to reveal all of its complexity. Certainly a beer that is built for blending with a fresh/sweet ale, something I may try out with one of the last few bottles.

Pliny the Younger Clone Recipe

I first sampled Russian River's Pliny the Younger at a BeerAdvocate American Beer Fest about five years ago.  I've had samples of it a couple more times since that night, mostly from growlers, but that first sip left an indelible stamp on my tongue.  The hop flavor was dominant, with complex citrus and fresh pine, while the beer was still remarkably smooth and easy to drink.  Over the last few years I've made a handful of attempts at replicating PtY using information gleaned from talks, articles, and emails from Vinnie; the beers were good, but not quite there.

After I finally bought a kegging system last year, my hoppy beers got considerably better.  I credit a couple techniques that kegs allow me to do for this improvement.  The ability to flush the keg with CO2, which reduces oxidation preserving a fresher hop character.  Keg hopping, which allows the beer to remain in contact with the dry hops until second before serving.  Force carbonation, which enables quicker, more reliable carbonation of strong beers.  With the kegs (not to mention the moratorium on Younger growler sales this year) I thought it was time to give a clone another shot.

I've learned to anticipate 20% lower efficiency when brewing a big IPA as a result of the huge amount of wort lost to the hops.  I used half a sack of Great Western 2-row (paler than their pale malt) along with a small amount of carapils (for added body).  I mashed just under 150 to ensure the targeted 85% attenuation of the original.  The high attenuation keeps this beer firmly in the DIPA category where a sweeter beer would come across as an American barleywine.

The other big change I made was switching to hop extract for part of the bittering addition.  Extract adds IBUs without contributing vegetal matter to the kettle, which steals wort and can give grassy flavors at high levels.  I was originally planning to derive all the bitterness form extract (20 ml), but right before brewing I realized that the two Northern Brewer HopShots I purchased were 5 ml each not 10 ml; I decided to add 2 oz of Columbus to augment the bitterness from the extract.

For hop aromatics I added a total of 9 oz of Amarillo/Centennial/Simcoe at the end of the boil (with 3 oz of the blend at flameout, at the start of chilling, and three minutes into chilling).  I stirred the wort continually as it cooled to speed up the cooling process, reducing the amount of hop aromatics driven off.  I've had the best luck using pellets for late additions since they contribute their flavor quicker than whole hops, and don't suck up quite as much wort.

With the wort cooled I pitched a decanted starter of White Labs 001, the same strain Vinnie uses for his hoppy beers.  He has suggested not pitching "too much" yeast as the cells will strip out some of the bitterness from the beer.  Not knowing exactly what this meant and not wanting to stress the yeast, I made a 2.5 qrt starter, a bit short of the 4 qrt starter that yeast pitching calculators suggest for a beer this gravity.  Luckily fermentation started after 12 hours, and was going strong after 24.  My basement is in the high 50s this time of year, perfect for keeping the strong fermentation just below 70 degrees. 

To help boost the attenuation, Pliny the Younger includes some easily fermented refined sugar.  I could have added this to the kettle, but I wanted to cut the yeast a break and give them time to reduce the gravity of the wort significantly before adding the cane/corn sugars.  Too much osmotic pressure from concentrated sugars can put a lot of stress on yeast (enough sugar can exert so much pressure that it make a liquid shelf-stable, as in the cases of honey and maple syrup).

The original dry hops schedule (at the bottom of the post) calls for four separate dry hop additions.  That sounds like too much time/effort/risk for me, so I simplified to one dry hop addition and one keg hop.  The same amount/timing worked well on the great Double IPA I brewed last winter, so it seems like a good idea for this one.

Hoping to have a party when this one is ready since this is a beer best consumed quickly (and for safety reasons not all by me).


Pliny the Younger Clone

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 27.19
Anticipated OG: 1.094
Anticipated SRM: 6.6
Anticipated IBU: 199.5
Brewhouse Efficiency: 48 % (65% including second runnings).
Wort Boil Time: 95 Minutes

Grain/Sugar
------------
92.0% 25.00 lbs. American 2-row
3.7% 1.00 lbs. Corn Sugar
3.5% 0.94 lbs. CaraPils
0.9% 0.25 lbs. Cane Sugar

Hops
------
10 ml HopShot @ 90 min.
2.00 oz. Columbus (Pellet 13.00% AA) @ 60 min.
4.00 oz. Amarillo (Pellet, 6.90% AA) @ 0 min.
3.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 8.80% AA) @ 0 min.
2.00 oz. Simcoe (Pellet, 12.20% AA) @ 0 min.

Dry Hops
1.00 oz. Amarillo (Whole, 10.00% AA) 
1.00 oz. Centennial (Whole, 10.50% AA)
1.00 oz. Simcoe (Whole, 14.00% AA)

Keg Hops
1.00 oz. Amarillo (Whole, 10.00% AA)
1.00 oz. Centennial (Whole, 10.50% AA)
1.00 oz. Simcoe (Whole, 14.00% AA)

Extras
-------
0.50 Unit Wirlfloc @ 12 min.
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 12 min.

Yeast
------
White Labs WLP001 California Ale

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pliny the Water

Mash Schedule
----------------
Sacc Rest 15 min @ 143
Sacch II 60 min @ 149
Sacch III 5 min @ 156

Notes
-----
12/14/10 2.5 qrt starter made, crash chilled to 37 three days later

Brewed 12/19/10

Mash water 4.5 gallons filtered DC plus 3 gallons distilled, 7 g gypsum.

Initial mash temp was a bit low, heated up some water and boosted the temp closer to the 150 I was initially aiming for. 2.5 gallons (inc 1 gallon distilled and 3 g gypsum) added before the wort was run off.

About 1 gallon short on pre-boil wort, so I stole 1 gallon of runnings from the small beer.

Totaled 8 gallons pre boil ~1.065.

3 oz of hops at flameout, waited 5 min before starting the chill, added 3 oz more hops after about a minute, waited 3 minutes added final dose of 3 oz of hops. Cold ground water ~50 F, lots of stirring, cooled quickly.

The mash was capped and I used the second runnings to make an American Bitter.

1.084 post-boil, pre-sugar.

Chilled to ~64, strained, pitched the decanted room-temp starter, and gave 60 seconds of oxygen. Left at ~63 ambient to start fermentation.

Good fermentation after 24 hours, moved to ~59 ambient.

12/21/10 Measured fermentation temp at 68, which is spot on for what Vinnie suggests.

12/22/10 Added the sugars boiled in 1 pint of filtered water for a few minutes to dissolve.  Cane/corn sugar represent 11% of the fermentables by extract.

12/28/10 Down to 1.014, 85% AA, 10.6% ABV.  Right on target.  Krausen already dropped, but I'll give it a few more days to ensure the fermentation is complete before racking.  Nice lingering bitterness, nice aroma, but despite the huge late hop addition the citrus/pine/tropical aroma isn't as powerful as I expected (the dry hops will fix that).

12/31/10  Flushed a sanitized keg twice with CO2, pumped the auto-siphon in the keg, then flushed the keg again.  Racked to ~4.75 gallons of the beer into the keg, then sealed it up and flushed the headspace two more times.  Left at cool room temp for a day or two more before chilling.

1/2/11 Moved the keg to 35 degree fridge to help the yeast flocc out before adding the first dry hop addition.

1/10/11 Moved keg out of the fridge, allowed to warm for a few hours, drained 1 pint of yeast/trub through a tap, added the first addition of dry hops (weighed down by marbles).  Left at room temp ~64 F.  Beer tastes good, firm bitterness, but not nearly enough hop aromatics.

1/26/11 Removed first dry hop addition, added second dose.  Moved to kegerator and hooked up to CO2, vented, and left to carbonate.  Hopefully ready for a sample in two weeks.

3/1/11 About as close as I could expect to get without getting the exact details from Vinnie. Could be slightly drier, and a bit danker, but it has a hugely complex pine/citrus nose and loads of bitterness.  Well worth trying if you have an iron liver or lots of hophead friends.

-------------------------------------
Actual dry hop schedule per Vinnie.
DH 1 Simcoe, Amarillo, Centennial for one week and remove
DH 2 Amarillo, Centennial for one week and remove
DH 3 Simcoe for one week and remove
DH 4 Simcoe, Amarillo Dry Hop in Keg

I think an ounce of each of the hops at each addition would be about right if you want to go this route.

Courage Clone Tasting 2010

I can't believe this big funky stout is already three-and-a-half years old.  I've been drinking just one bottle every winter when I visit my parents for Christmas, a nice treat after the long drive up from DC to Massachusetts.  Luckily I've got enough left for another few years.

Courage Russian Imperial Stout Clone

Appearance -Pitch black, and opaque unless held right up to a light.  The tan head is pretty thin, with tight bubbles and decent retention. A longer lasting head would certainly be nice, but the beer still looks like a winter night.

Aroma - Over-roasted coffee, cocoa nibs, and starting to develop some tobacco.  Behind the dark malt there is some damp basement/oak.  A toasty character from the amber malt adds complexity to the dominant dark malts.

Flavor - Smooth dark malt roast, with some vanilla (I assume from the oak).  There is some alcohol in the finish but not too much for a Christmas beer. The combination of oak/vanilla/ethanol gives the impression of smooth bourbon.  The hop bitterness has fallen off over the years, but the combination of roast/oak/alcohol are still enough to balance the residual sugars (the better than average attenuation from the Brett A helps the balance as well).

Mouthfeel - Moderate body for such a big beer with a bit more carbonation than I like in a substantial beer like this,  I get a bit of drying tannins from the oak.

Drinkability/Notes -Getting to a very enjoyable point, but it still tastes like it can take some more age.  As it warms I get more complexity and the the body smooths out, I like this beer more every year.

BBR Kvass and Barrels

A few weeks ago Nathan and I recorded a double dose of interviews with James and the gang for the Basic Brewing Radio podcast.  Both episodes have since been posted.  The first interview covers the three kvasses we brewed (and I'm sure you've heard enough about).  We sent samples of each down for the guys, and they seemed to enjoy them.  The second interview goes into our group barrel aging projects.  The samples of those seemed to be appreciated as well.  James always does a great job keeping the interview focused and moving (and editing out my um's and ah's.)

Speaking of barrels, on Saturday Nathan and I brewed a dark saison at McKenzie's Brew House (winners of three of the last four GABF gold medals for saison).  Today half the batch is going into a three barrels to funk/sour over the next few months (where they'll be fed various sugars).  Their bottled saison was as funky and complex as anything I've tasted from Fantome, and the sour Baltic Porter was a revelation in complex woody/fruity funk.  While we were up there we procured one of their apple brandy barrel already had one beer aged in it.  The current plan is to start another solera with a strong golden sour. 

In other barrel related news we're just about three weeks out from bottling the porterish-stout that has been sitting in a second use bourbon barrel for the last year or so.  Next in will be a moderately strong malty brown.  The Belgian pale/single in the wine barrel is being lapped because it is still a bit sulfury, and not sour enough despite more than a year of bugging. 

More on all of those things later.

Beer Word Trends (Thanks to Google)

Google recently released a simple little tool that essentially lets you run trends on word usage over the last 500 years.  The tool searches over 500 Billion words contained in 1 million of the books they have scanned. I just played around with it for a few minutes and found some interesting beer related trends.

Beer and Ale had similar usage rates 200 years ago, with beer now the dominant term (lager is surprisingly unpopular).

There was a large spike in homebrewing interest during prohibition and then it crashed back down until the early 1990s.

Interest in wine is more variable than beer over the last 300 years.

There were spikes of interest in hops around 1700 and 1800, anybody have a theory on this one?

That's all I found, if you find any other good ones leave a comment.

Bière de Garde Tasting

I usually try to keep session beers on tap, but at ~8% ABV I broke that rule when I put on the Bière de Garde I brewed near the start of September. It has been a good complement to the ~4% Bretty Belgian Single, especially since my father and my housemate have been doing their fair share of the heavy lifting.

Bearded Guard - Bière de Garde 

Appearance – Clear chestnut-brown body topped with a dense off-white head. The head slowly trailing sticky lacing behind it down the sides of the glass.

Smell – Big toasty malt aromatics (rustic bread) mixed with strong fruity esters. The fruit character is dark enough (almost reminiscent of brandy) to match well with a bigger/darker beer, not nearly as fresh-grape-ish as it was in the lighter beers I've done with the Wyeast Kolsch strain.  Maybe a hint of spice from the hops, but not much.

Taste – Dry upfront, but with a nice lingering toffee sweetness in the finish. The malt comes through more than the fruit, with complex toasty aromas. It smells like a loaf of bread that has a couple of spots on the bottom that are almost charred. Enough bitterness to balance the slight bit of sweetness, but no more. A bit of warming alcohol in the finish as it comes up to temp.

Mouthfeel – Medium body, with a lively carbonation that ensures it isn't too heavy. Just about right, but if it was bottle conditioned I might have gone slightly higher on the carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – I think this is a great beer, sort of a French Doppelbock. A bit maltier and sweeter than most of the commercial versions of the style, but nothing objectionable when there is snow on the ground.

Adjusting Recipes: Volumes, Efficiency, Extract

With nearly 100 homebrew recipes posted on The Mad Fermentationist over the last four years it was time to post a guide on how to adjust them for different setups.  I post the recipes as they were brewed with the actual volume and efficiency rather than converting them to a consistent format, and I realize that this can be a hassle.  Whether you want to brew a batch that is a different volume, your efficiency is different than the recipe, or you brew with extract, this guide will show you how to adjust the recipes to suit your system.

Many of these calculations are easy to do with a copy of BeerSmith, ProMash, BeerAlchemy, or one of the dozens of other programs/websites/spreadsheets designed to do recipe calculations.  However, I think it's important to develop some instincts on how recipe adjustment works.  Fairly frequently I hear someone complain that they accidentally doubled the hops (for example) and didn't realize until it was too late (and the wort was in the fermenter).

Volume
To convert a recipe to a different volume multiply each of the ingredient (hops, malt, sugars, spices, fruit etc...) by the size of your batch divided by the size of the recipe.  For example: if the recipe is designed to produce 5 gallons of wort and you want to brew 10, multiply the weight of each of the malts (adjuncts, sugars, spices, fruit) by 10/5 = 2.

For the hop additions rather than doubling the weight of each addition double the amount of alpha acids contributed by each addition.  To do this take the weight of each hop addition in the recipe and multiply it by the percent alpha acids called for and the ratio of the batch sizes, then divide by the percent of alpha acids in the hops you are using. If a 5 gallon recipe calls for 1 oz of 5% AA hops and you want to brew 10 gallons with a 4% AA hop the formula would be: (1 oz * 5% AA * 10/5)/4% AA = 2.5 oz of 4% AA hops.  The same formula can be used to adjust a recipe for lower/higher AA% hops in the same size batch.

Here is an example of scaling a recipe from a four gallon batch to a five gallon batch.  Let's assume that the Magnum hops are 12% AA and the Saaz are 4% AA.

German Bitter

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 4.00 to 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.044
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 80 Minutes

Grain
------
69.2% - 4.50 lbs. French Pils (4.5 lbs * 5/4 = 5.6 lbs French Pils)
15.4% - 1.00 lbs. German Wheat Malt (1 lbs * 5/4 = 1.25 lbs German Wheat Malt)
15.4% - 1.00 lbs. German Munich (1 lbs * 5/4 = 1.25 lbs German Munich)

Hops
------
0.38 oz. Magnum (Whole 14.50% AA) @ 75 min. ((.38 oz * 14.5% AA * 5/4)/12% AA) = .57 oz of 12% AA Magnum
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Whole 3.30% AA) @ 5 min. ((1 oz * 3.3% AA * 5/4)/4% AA) = 1 oz of 4% AA Czech Saaz

Extras
-------
0.50 Wirlfloc @ 15 min. * 5/4 = .628 Whirlfloc
(For finings I usually wouldn't bother with this conversion for a small change in volume.)

Yeast
------
WYeast 2565 Kolsch (5/4 =1.25 times more yeast)

Mash Schedule
----------------
Sacch Rest - 90 min @ 148 (no changes, except to use more mash/sparge water to hit your desired pre-boil volume, which in turn depends on your boil-off rate.)

Efficiency
To adjust a recipes for your efficiency multiply all of the grains/malts by the efficiency listed in the recipe divided by your expected efficiency.  You only need to adjust the ingredients in the mash, no changes to other fermentables (such as sugars or fruit) or other recipe parameters such as hops, yeast, or finings.  Some sources recommend only scaling the base malt to adjust for efficiency, but if you are extracting fewer sugars from the mash you are also extracting less flavor/dextrins from the specialty malts.

Let's look at a recipe that calls for 10 lbs of pale malt and 1 lb of crystal 80 with 70% efficiency.  If you are expecting 75% efficiency you'd multiply each of the malts by .70/.75 = .933.  So you'd use 10*.933= 9.33 lbs of pale malt and 1*.933=.93 lbs of crystal 80.

Here is an example of converting the five gallon recipe above from 70% to 80% efficiency.

German Bitter

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.044
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70% to 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 80 Minutes

Grain
------
69.2% - 5.60 lbs. French Pils  (5.6 X .70/.80 = 4.9 lbs French Pils)
15.4% - 1.25 lbs. German Wheat Malt (1.25 X .70/.80 = 1.1 lbs German Wheat Malt)
15.4% - 1.25 lbs. German Munich (1.25 X .70/.80 = 1.1 lbs German Munich)

Hops (no changes)
------
0.57 oz. Magnum (Whole 14.50% AA) @ 75 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Whole 3.30% AA) @ 5 min.

Extras (no changes)
-------
0.63 Wirlfloc @ 15 min.

Yeast (no changes)
------
WYeast 2565 Kolsch

Mash Schedule
----------------
Sacch Rest - 90 min @ 148 (slightly less mash and sparge water will be needed to hit your pre-boil volume to account for less absorption by the grain.)

Extract
If you brew relying on malt extract for the bulk of your fermentables you can still make most of the recipes I've posted.

To determine the amount of liquid malt extract to use multiply the amount of each base malt by the efficiency of the recipe, if using dry malt extract multiply that number by .84 (this accounts for the more concentrated sugars in DME compared to LME).  Make sure to pick an appropriate malt extract(s) (pils, English pale, pale/light, smoked, and/or Munich) to replace the base malt called for by the recipe.

Remember that wheat and Munich extracts will replace both the wheat malt or Munich as well as some of the pils/pale in the recipe.  In general I recommend against using darker extracts as they tend to be less fermentable, and it is hard to know the proportions of the malts used (or with some manufacturers even what those malts are).

Any caramel (including Special B), crystal, roasted malts/grain (roasted barley, Carafa, chocolate, pale chocolate etc...) can be crushed and steeped in the amount listed by the recipe without adjustment. 

If you are doing a full boil there is not need to adjust the hop additions.  If you are doing a partial boil the only hop issue of great concern is that IBUs saturate the wort around 100.  So if you end the boil with 2.5 gallons of wort the most bitterness you can have when you dilute the beer to 5 gallons is 50 IBUs (100*2.5/5 = 50).  For a long time it was assumed that there was lower hop utilization as the gravity increased, but from what I have read recently this is not the case (namely John Palmer's about face on the issue).

German Bitter (5 gallons Extract)

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.00
Anticipated OG: 1.044
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 80 Minutes

Grain
------
I would look at the wheat first since it will contribute to both the wheat and pils.

15.4% - 1.1 lbs. German Wheat Malt
We'll imagine our wheat DME is 50% wheat and 50% pils.  So 1.1 (weight of the grain) / .50 (percent of wheat in the extract) * .8 (efficiency of the original recipe) * .83 (DME conversion factor) = 2 lbs wheat DME

69.2% - 4.9 lbs. French Pils
Since the wheat extract was 50% pils we can subtract the equivalent of 1.1 lbs that it already added, leaving us with 4.9-1.1 = 3.8 lbs.  Using pils DME 3.8 (weight of the grain)  * .8 (efficiency of the original recipe) * .83 (DME conversion factor) = 2.5 lbs of pilsner DME

15.4% - 1.1 lbs. German Munich Malt
Using 100% Munich LME 1.1 (weight of the grain) * .8 (efficiency of the recipe) = .9 lbs Munich LME

In this case there are no grains that need to be steeped, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Hops
------
0.57 oz. Magnum (Whole 14.50% AA) @ 75 min.
1.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Whole 3.30% AA) @ 5 min.

Extras
-------
0.63 Wirlfloc @ 15 min.

Yeast
------
WYeast 2565 Kolsch

Mash Schedule
----------------
Sacch Rest - 90 min @ 148

There are some limits to extract with steeping grains. Many specialty malts like Victory, biscuit, amber, brown, melanoidin, as well as unmalted adjuncts (corn, wheat, rice, rye, and oats) need to mashed with an enzymatic base malt to convert their starches to sugars.  Malted grains like rye, wheat, and oats have enough amylase enzyme to self-convert. Partial mashes are relatively easy to accomplish without any special equipment.  In fact partial mashes are just like steeping except that you have to put a bit of extra effort into using the right ratio of grain to water (between 1 quart per pound and 2 quarts per pound) and holding the right temperature (~150 F) for at least 30 minutes.

To convert an all-grain recipe to partial mash simply use as much grain as you want (making sure there are two pounds of enzymatic malt for every one pound of something else) and then use the method above to convert the remainder of the base malt to extract.  You may need to add more extract depending on the efficiency of your partial mash (if you are lazy or don't know your efficiency you can keep extra DME on hand and add more to adjust as needed).  Once your mash is complete remove the grains and add the extract and any additional water, continuing with the rest of the recipe as instructed.

Summary
If you need to make more than one of these adjustments the order doesn't matter, so you can adjust for volume and then efficiency or t'other way round.  Hopefully this little tutorial will help give you an idea on how to convert and adjust recipes for your system.  If anything wasn't clear, or if I missed your particular situation please send me an email at madfermentationist@gmail.com and I'd be happy to update this.

Funky Date Dark Saison Tasting

After posting the recipe for the dark saison we brewed a few weeks ago it seemed like it was about time I posted a first tasting of the dark saison Noah, Alex, and I brewed last fall.  It had a complex grain bill, red wine deglazed dates, and a touch of black cardamom.  It was fermented with 3711 (French Saison), along with dregs from several sours we drank during the brew. 

Dark Fruit Saison II

Appearance – A hard pour produces a two-finger-dense-tan (Guinnesque) head. Decent retention paired with some lacing, but it's not nitro foam. The beer itself is a few shades darker than Guinness, deep leathery brown, but clear when held to a light.

Smell – Big dark spicy nose with just a touch of tobacco (it's amazing what 3 grams of black cardamom can do in 15 gallons). Not much sour/funk in the nose, but there is some beautiful dried/red fruit . There is a light ethanol nostril burn, but at a year old I still consider a 10% sour a toddler.

Taste – I'd call this beer tart bordering on sour. The roast is long and on the light side of coffee/chocolate. There is a red wine character that is really nice (can't wait to see how the 3 gallons on Cabernet Sauvignon grapes turns out).

Mouthfeel – Medium-light body, perfect for a big Belgian. Moderate carbonation, about right for the body and complex flavors.

Drinkability & Notes – The flavors are great, but it certainly needs another year or two to mellow/meld and round some edges, but it is getting there. 

Fig Honey Anise Dark Saison

When most people think about saison they are imagining Saison Dupont (pale, moderate gravity, relatively hoppy, peppery yeast) while in fact saison has a huge range, from featherweights like Dupont's 3.5% ABV Avril to a darker 10% ABV beer like Fantôme Spéciale De Noel.  In my opinion the only constraint for calling a beer a saison is that it is fermented with a saison yeast strain.

After successes with our first two dark winter saisons Alex and I (Noah moved to Colorado a few months ago) decided on a similar plan for the third in the series.  This year we opted to add figs (instead of dates or raisins), buckwheat honey, and warming spices (cinnamon and anise).

The malt bill was similar to its forebears, but we reduced the original gravity to produce a more drinkable beer.  The high lovibond crystal malts will provide some dark fruit character to complement the figs, and the Carafa will add a light roast without causing the dry finished beer to be harsh/acrid.  For some body we added steel cut ("Irish") oats to the mash, but not before gelatinizing their starches with a quick boil (a step you can skip when using oats that have been rolled or flaked).

For additional fermentables we added buckwheat honey, the darkest most flavorful varietal we could get our hands on.  After smelling the musty honey (not too far off of dark LME) we cut back the amount to lend a rich earthiness (hopefully without letting it get too funky).  When Nathan and I were brewing with Terry at Bullfrog Brewing he mentioned that he used a small amount of buckwheat honey (~3%) in his 2008 GABF Gold Winning Beekeeper (a sour barrel aged saison) along with a more substantial addition of a milder honey (~7%), I've been looking for an excuse to play with the ingredient ever since.

A small amount of bitterness was all we asked from a single addition of Simcoe hops.  In a big complex beer the hop variety is of little import, so I used up the last of my 2007 "hop crisis" order.  Fermentation was ably carried out by the yeast cake from the Petite Funky Saison I'd brewed a few weeks earlier (with added dregs from a couple commercial sours).

So far this has been a great yearly tradition that I'm hoping we'll be able to continue for a few more falls before we get bored of the dark fruit saison concept.

Dark Fruit Saison III

Recipe Specifics
--------------------
Batch Size (Gal): 10.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 25.94
Anticipated OG: 1.066
Anticipated SRM: 22.6
Anticipated IBU: 22.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67 %
Wort Boil Time: 85 minutes

Grain/Sugar
-----------
61.7% 16.00 lbs. German Pilsener
15.4% 4.00 lbs. German Munich Malt
8.1% 2.10 lbs. Fig Puree
3.9% 1.00 lbs. Steel Cut Oats
3.3% 0.84 lbs. Buckwheat Honey
2.9% 0.75 lbs. Carafa Special II
2.9% 0.75 lbs. CaraMunich
1.9% 0.50 lbs. Special B

Hops
-----
1.25 oz. Simcoe (Whole, 11.00% AA) @ 70 min.

Extras
------
1.00 Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
1.00 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

2.00 gm Anise @ 5 min.
1.00 gm Star Anise @ 5 min.
0.50 gm Cinnamon @ 5 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I
White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces claussenii

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 90 min @ 156

Notes
-----
Brewed 11/13/10 with Alex

Chalk and baking soda added to the mash to make sure the pH doesn't go too low.

Oats were steel cut and boiled for 15 minutes to hydrate/gelatinize before adding to the mash about 10 minutes dough-in.

Batch sparged with 180 degree water.

Hops ~3 years old, adjusted down from 13.6% AA.

Spices ground in a coffee grinder for 10 seconds before adding.

Half Black Mission figs, half Canadian. Both organic from the CO-OP. De-stemmed, and halved. Boiled in the the final runnings for 15 minutes, then pureed with a stick blender. Added with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Organic buckwheat honey warmed in a pot of water to loosen, then added after the end of the boil (2 minutes into chilling).

Chilled to 72, then pitched half yeast cake from Bretted Saison (along with dregs from Supplication and Consecration). Shook to aerate.

Fermented for 10 days on a heating pad set to low to try to keep the fermentation temp above the ambient ~63 degrees.

12/14/10  Racked to secondary with .75 oz of dark rum soaked American oak cubes.

10/15/11 Blended some, and bottled the remaining 2.25 gallons with - 1 5/8 oz cane sugar.

5/3/12 Tastes great, although the carbonation isn't quite as strong as it could have been.The buckwheat honey softened out nicely from some earlier samples.

What is the best beer for a cold winter night?

Imperial Stout - 26%
Barleywine - 18%
Belgian strong dark - 14%
Old ale - 6%
Anything barrel-aged - 5%
Dark sour - 5%
Holiday spiced beer - 5%
Wee heavy - 4%
Smoked beer - 4%
Double IPA - 3%
Doppelbock/Eisbock - 2%
Something light (to brighten things up) - 1%

Even big sweet wintery beers should be brewed to have some balance, something many brewers seem to have forgotten.  While I enjoy some barleywines, wee heavies, and doppelbocks all too often they are sticky sweet (especially after a year or two once the hops age out).  Imperial stouts have an advantage over these other big beers, while their high hopping rate balances the residual sweetness early on the roasted edge from the grains assists as the beer ages.  The polyphenols contributed by the dark grains also help fight oxidation, allowing big stouts age more gracefully than their pale counterparts.  I had a hard time making that my answer (it seems too obvious), but I've got a two year old case of Bell's Expedition Stout in my basement (and it's the only case I've purchased in about four years).

Belgian strong darks are the other strong contender for my cold weather drinking dollars.  Rather than being balanced by hops or roast the best ones are fairly well attenuated (something brewers of other strong ales should take note of).  Dark sours have a similar "problem" I enjoy drinking them year round, so I don't view them as a special winter only treat.  To me a wintery beer should feel rich and substantial, a higher final gravity enhances that character.

I enjoy the rest of the styles listed, but either they aren't wintery enough (smoked beer, DIPA, old ale), or they aren't my favorites (barrel-aged beers tend to be too boozy, holiday ales are frequently over-spiced).  Even the best examples of each of those just don't say winter like top shelf imperial stouts (although I guess barrel aged Imperial Stouts can as well...).

What says "winter" to you about the beer style you picked?  Were you thinking of a specific beer/batch or the style in general?  Did I leave out your favorite winter beer style? Post a comment and let the rest of us know what you were thinking.

Last week I finally had a chance to bottle my Smoked Baltic Rye Porter, and Sour Cherry Quad which should make for some good cold weather sipping in a month or two.  My Biere de Garde on tap is just about carbed, which should be a good beer for the holiday season.  I'm hoping to get a couple batches brewed in the next few weeks before the holidays arrive (although the starter of WY2001 I started last night hasn't taken off yet).

The December poll is up on the blog, "What is the toughest type of beer to brew?"

Funky Low Gravity Saison Recipe

Parti-gyle is a simple concept: separating the runnings from a single mash to create more than one wort of differing gravities (rather than combining all of the runnings into a single beer).  Even though this was originally an English technique (one that some breweries like Fuller's still use) there is no reason not to apply it anytime you are brewing a high gravity beer and have an extra hour or two and an empty fermenter.

The first beer will get all of the dense first runnings, so it starts pre-boil at a high gravity and doesn't require an excessively long boil to concentrate the sugars.  After the wort for the big beer is collected the mash in infused with sparge water and the wort for a second beer is drained.  The gravity of the wort falls precipitously with each infusion, with the second beer usually in the sessionable range and the third down towards "table" strength.

The lower gravity beers often take a backseat to the big beer, but there is some room to augment their fermentables.  You can cap the mash to add additional color/flavors (for example I made a black IPA from the second runnings from an overclocked Pliny the Elder clone by adding Carafa to the mash after draining the first runnings).  You can also cheat, for this second runnings saison I added some malt extract to the boil to help boost the gravity (a flavorful sugar is another option).

The initial mash temperature will set the fermentability of all of the wort, this will need to be a compromise (although you might try infusing the sparge water at a temperature that would allow for good beta-amylase activity [~145] with additional base malt in order to increase the fermentability of the second/third beer), the auxiliary beer often come out a bit thinner than you might expect, given the OG/FG, so the extra effort to increase attenuation may not be worth the effort.

With the mostly pilsner malt grist of my Calvados Sour Tripel, the best option I could think of for the second runnings was a low gravity saison.  The problem was that I wanted to mash hot for the tripel to ensure there were dextrins for the microbes to consume over the long slow souring process,  but I like my saisons dry.  To try to overcome this conundrum I opted to combine the notoriously temperamental Dupont strain with Brett claussenii for primary fermentation.  This is an idea I stole from Bullfrog Brewing, whose Busted Lawnmower is one of my favorite American examples of the style (rustic, dry, hoppy, deceptively drinkable).

For the hopping I went with a similar strategy to the one I took with the Hoppy French Saison I brewed last year.  This recipe is not quite as hoppy/bitter, but all of that spicy Saaz should complement the peppery phenols created by the yeast strains.  I wanted to keep this one free of actual spices to let the fermentation character take the lead.  After a few weeks fermenting slowly, with a heating pad to keep it warm, I racked the beer to secondary and pitched the yeast cake into the third in our annual series of spiced dark fruit saisons (this year Alex and I went with fig, buckwheat honey, and anise).


Bretted Petite Saison

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 22.48
Anticipated OG: 1.046
Anticipated SRM: 6.4
Anticipated IBU: 30.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 24 % (67% including the first runnings)
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract
-------------
53.4% 12.00 lbs. German Pilsener
36.7% 8.25 lbs. French Pilsener
4.4% 1.00 lbs. Flaked Wheat
4.4% 1.00 lbs. Light DME
1.0% 0.23 lbs. CaraPils

Hops
------
2.00 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ 45 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA)  @ 15 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.50% AA) @ 5 min.

Extras
-------
0.50 Tsp Yeast Nutrient Other @ 15 min.

Yeast
-----
White Labs WLP565 Belgian Saison I
White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces claussenii

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
---------------
Sacch Rest 45 min @ 154
Mash Out 10 min @ 167

Notes
------
Brewed 10/31/10 by myself

Second runnings from Calvados Sour Tripel.

Sparged with ~7 gallons of 170 degree water and ran off 7.5 gallons of wort for the saison. Added 1 lb of Light DME to bring the gravity up.

Both beers were lower gravity than expected.

Chilled to ~85, racked to a better bottle. 3 hours later pitched one tube each White Labs Brett C and White Labs Saison and placed on a heating pad set to low. Ambient temp ~63 F.

Turned off heating pad after one week, krausen gone, but still looks very yeasty/cloudy.

11/11/10 Small pellicle formed. Racked to secondary, gravity still 1.020 (counting on the Brett to get it down below 1.010). Tastes good, nice spicy character, some hop bitterness, still too thick/sweet. Turned the heating pad back on to try to get the yeast moving.

11/18/10 Turned heating pad off, still low 60s ambient.

4/9/11 Kegged with 3.75 oz of cane sugar for natural carbonation.  Maybe I'll add dry hops after seeing how it is without.  Only made it down to 1.008 (82% AA, 5% ABV), not quite as dry as I was hoping for.

7/13/11 Solid beer, although a bit funkier and a touch sweeter than I had wanted.  Next time mash cooler and maybe hold off on the Brett until a few days into fermentation.

7/18/11 Added 40 g of Australian Summer Saaz pellets in a baggie with marbles to the half filled keg to add a bit more fruit and freshness since the Brett is stronger than expected.

-----------------------
Bullfrog's Busted Lawnmower: A complex combination of citrus fruits, peppery spice and the funk-a-licious Brettanomyces Clausenii dominate the nose and palette of this Belgian-inspired ale. Wonderfully effervescent, this is the real lawnmower beer of Belgium.  7.5% ABV

Kriek-Framboise Imperial Lambic

Most of the sour beer sold has fruit in it.  It makes sense because the acid from the beer helps to accentuate and brighten the naturally tart fruit, while the fruit in turn helps to soften the farmyard notes from the Brettanomyces.  Some larger producers use juice, concentrate, or puree, but I find that fresh fruit is the best option when it is available (in this case sweet cherries and raspberries).

People often say that fruit (seeds/pits and all) can dissolve completely as it sits in the beer, consumed by the various bacteria and yeast.  This simply isn't the case, after more than a year on the fruit not only were the pits still there, but the fruit itself was still largely intact (and that was considering it was frozen and defrosted before adding to breakdown some of the cell walls).

This high gravity lambic, after such a long time on the sweet cherries and raspberries, overflows fruit aroma, but the aromatics belie the big funky flavor you get when you take a sip.  I'm not sure why some beers don't have matching flavors and aromas, but this beer has a very misleading fruity aroma that contrasts the Brettanomyces driven flavor.

Friek (Imperial Kriek-Framboise Lambic)

Appearance – Beautiful orange-red with a thin white head. Nearly clear. It doesn't have the deep garnet color and pink-ish head that some kriek lambics have, not sure if it is a question of amount of fruit or specific variety.

Smell – Big farmyardy nose with cherry skin and raspberry. There is some fresh lemon and mineral in there as well. The combination of raspberry and cherry along with the funk is a good one.

Taste – The flavor leans much more towards an earthy-funk (damp leaves or wet hay especially) than the nose did. There is some fruit, but the nose is misleading. Light acidity, not as much as there should be. As the beer warms the alcohol provides some floral/perfume notes that add to the complexity. For a bigger lambic it is plenty dry.

Mouthfeel – A bit big for a lambic, but the carbonation helps to lighten it up. There are some tannins that help to balance it as well.


Drinkability & Notes – Not a bad beer, but not great either. The high OG prevented souring even with the additional year on fruit.

Calvados Sour Tripel Recipe

Belgian Tripels have never been among my favorite beers.  When done right I can certainly appreciate them, but something about how yeast forward they are without much hop or malt complexity doesn't tug at my taste buds.  While the definition of the style can be myopic, the beer can be a jumping off point for other flavors.  For example three years ago I brewed a tripel with an assertive American hop character.  The result was a blend of fruity hops and spicy yeast that I really enjoyed. 

I hadn't been planning on brewing another tripel until a few months ago when my friend Nathan shared a bottle of Buteuse Brassin Special a complex funky elixir from Le Trou Du Diable. It is a tripel dosed with Brett and aged in barrels that previously held distilled apple cider.  The fruit pulled from the barrel and spicy funk imparted by the Brett blended wonderfully to make a beer of great depth.  The result was something I wished Captain Lawrence's Golden Delicious had been (too much barrel character for a clean tripel to support).

Buteuse Brassin Special reminded me of a sample of Allagash's Tripel Roeselare (Tripel aged for 2 years in oak wine barrels with Roeselare yeast culture) that Rob Tod brought to one of the Lupulin Slam Reunions here in DC.  It was never bottled, which is a shame because it had a wonderfully sourness with a great wet oak basement funk. Tröegs Splinter Gold is another example of a sour/funky barrel aged tripel, and one that I'm sorry to say I have not gotten the chance to try (yet).

So I decided to brew a funky tripel along those line, with apple brandy soaked oak as well as a full complement of microbes.  I took just the first runnings from a simple mash of pils, wheat, and carapils (a Petite Saison came out second - more on that later) and gave the wort a light dose of hops.  The Westmalle strain and a pack of Roeselare Blend got the first crack at the sugars in primary.  After a couple weeks I racked the beer to secondary and added a culture from Russian River Temptation that my friend Matt had isolated (two lactic acid bacteria and one yeast) and propagated. 

I waited to add any sugar until the beer was in secondary to give the microbes a chance a multiply before the alcohol got too high.  I may add more sugar down the road, but it will depend on how the beer develops. Along with the sugar I added 1.25 oz of French oak that had been soaking in Daron Fine Calvados for a couple weeks.  I may dose the beer with a few ounce of the liquor later to add more character, but this early on I didn't want to boost the ABV more than necessary.

Sour Calvados Tripel

Recipe Specifics
-----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 22.23
Anticipated OG: 1.073
Anticipated SRM: 5.6
Anticipated IBU: 16.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 43 % (67% including the second runnings)
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Sugar
-----------
54.0% 12.00 lbs. German Pilsener
37.1% 8.25 lbs. French Pilsener
4.5% 1.00 lbs. Flaked Wheat
3.4% 0.75 lbs. Cane Sugar
1.0% 0.23 lbs. CaraPils

Hops
-----
0.50 oz. Simcoe (Whole, 11.50% AA) @ 60 min.

Extras
-------
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 20 min.
1.25 oz French Oak Cubes soaked in Calvados (fermenter)

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3763 Roeselare Blend
WYeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity
Russian River Temptation Culture

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 45 min @ 154
Mash Out 10 min @ 167

Notes
-----
Brewed 10/31/10 By myself

Ran off ~6 gallons of 1.060 first runnings for the tripel (lower gravity than expected).

Simcoe adjusted down from 13.6% AA, 2007 crop.

Chilled to ~75. Trappist High Gravity plus Roeselare in primary pitched directly from swollen packets. Shook for 2 minutes to aerate before pitching. Left in 60 degree basement for fermentation (wish I could have gone warmer, but I was using my heating pad on the saison).

Good fermentation after 18 hours.

11/14/10 Racked to secondary, gravity down to 1.025. Added 1.25 oz of French Oak soaked for about 2 weeks in Calvados (waiting to add actual liquor). Added .75 lbs of table sugar boiled for 5 minutes in 12 oz of water, and cooled before adding. Also added a culture from Temptation from Matt, he said two strains of lactic acid bacteria and a yeast(could be Sacch or Brett).  Slow renewed fermentation after 12 hours.

4/11/11 Nice fruity flavor with a bit of funk, but still not much acidity.  The warmer summertime temperatures should get the lactic acid bacteria into gear.

4/9/11 Only made it down to 1.011, even after all this time. Bottled one gallon with .5 g of Premier Cuvee and .9 oz of cane sugar. Kegged the rest with about 2 oz of whole Citra (my scale was having issues) and hooked up to gas in the kegerator.

5/16/12 The dry hopped version is spectacular, bright citrusy, fresh, balanced... and at 8.2% ABV a bit too drinkable on a hot spring night.

820/12 The plain portion is pretty good. Good balance of oak and yeast. Only a slight funk and nearly no acidity, but it works.

Pumpernickel Porter Double Tasting

If you haven't been interested by the last three weeks worth of posts on kvass, you'll probably be pleased to hear that this is the last you'll hear of them on this blog (at least for a few weeks). 

Last night I decided to cracked open two bottles of the Pumpernickel Porter to try side-by-side, one that was primed with table sugar, and one that was primed with caraway infused molasses.  Drinking two similar beers next to each other is the best way to tease out the flavor contributions of a single ingredient, it allows your pallet to focus on the differences rather than the similarities.

What was most interesting about this batch is that despite dumping a pureed loaf of pumpernickel bread into the boil (with all its salt and starch) the base beer is remarkably unremarkable.  It is a solid session beer that I wouldn't think twice about if I had it on tap at a local brewpub.  It is hard to say just how much of the "bready" character comes from the bread (rather than the Maris Otter and specialty grains), but it is a testament to the fact the the standard brewing practice isn't the only way to make a standard beer. 

Pumpernickel Porters

Appearance – Hazy dark brown body with a thin off-white head sitting atop. Decent retention for a small beer, but it starts to sink after a few minutes. The two versions look very similar (no surprise) but the caraway/molasses portion has a head that is slightly darker.

Smell – Nice light cocoa powder nose with bready/malty backup on the standard version. The caraway takes the lead in the spiced half, with the bready character staying in a supporting roll.

Taste – The balance is towards the malt, with minimal hop bitterness. The same sorts of complexities from the nose come through in the flavor. With the standard version staying bready and clean, and the spiced version leaning towards the caraway (probably a bit too much in the finish).

Mouthfeel – Nice creamy body on both with light “cask” carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – The standard version is a great session ale, the sort of beer you can drink and not think about too much. I like the caraway flavor in this beer, but I was probably a bit too heavy handed with the addition. If I tried the same technique again I would probably cut the amount of spice in half (a 50/50 blend of the two is close to what I was aiming for).

Pumpernickel Porter Kvass Recipe

The third and final entry into Nathan and my series of  Kvasses was a Pumpernickel Porter (just in time because the December issue of BYO Magazine showed up in my mailbox on Friday).  This recipe turned out a beverage much closer to what most people would recognize as beer than either the Scandinavian Gruit or the East End (a substantial addition of hops in the kettle and the switch from bread yeast to ale yeast prevented it from souring... so far).

The grain bill was based on East End's Wood Street Kvass with the addition of Carafa Special II and Chocolate Rye to give the beer a more suiting darker color and flavor.  Chocolate rye like Carafa Special is dehusked, and has a similar coffee flavor without being harshly ashy/acrid/burnt like other dark grains.  We also made the switch to Maris Otter for the base malt to provide more depth to the toasty malt/bread flavors.  Of course we also swapped out the loaf of seeded rye for pumpernickel bread. 

I primed half the batch with table sugar, but for the remainder I added caraway infused molasses at bottling.  To infuse molasses I mixed it with an equal volume of water and some coarse ground caraway in a small saucepan.  After bringing the mixture barely to a boil I allowed 10 minutes of steeping before straining through a piece of cheesecloth in a small sieve to remove the seeds.  I'm not usually an advocate of priming with unrefined sugars, but I think molasses is flavorful enough to be a worthwhile addition even in such a minuscule amount (although the carbonation will be less predictable).

Our beer isn't as big and rich as Beer Here's Mørke Pumpernickel Porter (an excellent beer), but the bread character certainly comes through making the beer feel substantial.  The plain version doesn't taste much different from a fresh bready brown porter, but the molasses/caraway version is certainly more reminiscent of its namesake.

Pumpernickel Porter Kvass

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.25
Anticipated OG: 1.042
Anticipated SRM: 22.9
Anticipated IBU: 14.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 80 %
Wort Boil Time: 30 Minutes

Grain
-----
72.7% - 6.00 lbs. Maris Otter
16.7% - 1.38 lbs. Rye Malt
4.5% - 0.38 lbs. Brown Malt
3.0% - 0.25 lbs. Chocolate Rye
3.0% - 0.25 lbs. Carafa Special II

Hops
----
1.12 oz. Fuggle (Whole 4.75% AA) @ 30 min.

Extras
-------
1.00 Whirlfloc 15 min.

Yeast
-----
Safale US-05

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
-------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
-----
Brewed 9/24/10 with Nathan and Devin

1 gallon of bread goo (1 loaf of pumpernickel pureed in water after 24 hours of soaking) added at the start of the boil.

Chilled to ~80, left in the fridge overnight at 64. In the morning pitched most of a pack of US-05 and gave 30 seconds of pure O2.

Good fermentation after 12 hours, but the krausen never got very big.

10/1/10 Moved out of the fridge to ambient basement temps to help fermentation finish.

10/9/10 Bottled 2.5 gallons with 1.875 oz of table sugar. Bottled the remaining 2.25 gallons with 2.75 oz of Grandma's blackstrap molasses that was boiled with .25 oz of crushed caraway seeds and allowed to steep for 10 minutes before adding to the beer.

11/18/10 Great session beer, although I overdid it with the caraway addition on that half.  Next time I'd cut it down to 1/8 oz.

Quick Oud Bruin Tasting

 I've settled into quite a rhythm with the way I make sour beers.  However, there are loads of other routes to take.  While New Glarus, Cascade, Russian River, and Ithaca all make some delicious sour beers, the ways they do it vary considerably.

I'm hoping to try some different methods to see if there are any techniques that can help me to make my sours taste better, be more consistent, and get ready to drink sooner.  The first of those departures was an Oud Bruin using a method based on the way New Glarus (reportedly) sours Raspberry Tart, Belgian Red, and some of their Unplugged beers.  The results were interesting, and it certainly was faster than brewing a sour the old fashion way.  However, without the slower multi-microbe fermentation the sourness comes out somewhat flat (I also fermented part of this batch with 100% Brett Brux, which will make for an interesting comparison).

Sour Brown

Appearance – Marginally hazy amber going into brown. The thin white head collapses quickly into a wispy covering.

Smell – The aroma comes across as toasty, a combination of the malt and the oak. There is a vinous character that increases as the beer warms a bit.

Taste – Mellow tangy tartness. A friend of mine commented that he didn't think it tasted lactic, but I think it is just lower level and “cleaner” than most sour beers display. It has a bit of oak character (spice with some vanilla), but it doesn't come across as excessively tannic. The balance of slightly sour with slightly sweet is interesting, and one I don't taste too often in beer.

Mouthfeel – Medium body with medium-low carbonation. The body is nice for a dark sour, which often are a bit too thin for me.


Drinkability & Notes – I go back and forth on this beer, sometime I like it others it comes across as a bit vegetal. Even when the beer is “on” there is just something about the combination of flavors that doesn't send me back for a second pour from the tap. It is an interesting beer, but I think I may evacuate the last few gallons from the keg to add fruit and some Brett.

Kicked Fall Kolsch Tasting

One thing I hate about kegging is that it is difficult to really know how much of a beer you have left. With bottles it's easy (I'm down to my last six-pack of Sour Squash for example), but with a keg sometimes you go to pour a beer to review and the tap starts sputtering while the glass is still only half full... sorry for the ugly picture of what was a beautifully clear Kolsch as of yesterday.

Fall Kolsch

Appearance – Sticky white head sputtered on top of the hazy yellow liquid (looks like the last pull dredged up some yeast from the bottom of the keg).

Smell – Light herbal hops, with a crisp crackery background malt character. There is a mild yeastiness, but that is a new addition.

Taste – Flavor is still great. Nice rounded bready pils malt character. Some fruitness from the yeast (like white wine with a hint of fresh apple). The firm hop bitterness and touch of sulfate mineraliness come through in the finish giving it a wonderful crispness.

Mouthfeel – Light body without being watery. Moderate carbonation.

Drinkability & Notes – It has much more character than a traditional Kolsch should, but is that really such a bad thing? Sorry to see this one kick so soon, but luckily the Biere de Garde I brewed with the yeast from this batch is ready to keg after 6 weeks of lagering.

Smoked Spruce Gruit Kvass Tasting

After it was pointed out that De Molen is Dutch (and thus not Scandinavian) I've decided to just call this beer what it is, a smoked-spruce-elderberry-sour-gruit-kvass...  I really like this beer, but it isn't the type of thing I would want to have on tap.  The flavors are intense, and take a few sips to get used to.

Gruit Kvass

Appearance – Muddy amber-brown. The thin white head recedes quickly.

Smell – Sharply smoky. Almost comes across as peat, it might be the resiny spruce mingling with the beech wood smoked malt. Behind the singed woodlands there is some yeasty/bready “rustic” character.

Taste – Strong lactic acidity, that is a surprising after experiencing the aroma. The finish recalls the nose, smoky and bready (maybe a hint of pine). It is dry enough, and with the acid for balance I don't miss the hop bitterness. I don't get much from the elderberries.

Mouthfeel – Medium body, a bit more substantial than the East End Kvass (which works well with the more assertive flavors). The carbonation is moderate, which helps to clean the palate of all of the heavy flavors.

Drinkability & Notes – The smoke has already calmed down a bit, but I'd suspect that this will continue to get better for awhile. It will be interesting to see how this beer ages, certainly a nice first attempt at a gruit (but I'd like to do something with more spices and less smoke next time around).

If you could only drink beer from THREE countries?

With more than 400 people casting votes the USA edged out Belgium by only six votes for the top spot on the list.  With such a huge range of beers being brewed in the States today (and the ~83% of my readers who are American) it wasn't too surprising.

USA - 84%
Belgium - 83%
Germany - 51%
UK - 36%
Ireland - 9%
Czech Republic - 7%
Denmark - 3%
France - 2%
Italy - 2%
Japan - 2%
Netherlands - 2%
Sweden - 2%
Other - 7%

I was surprised to see Germany beat out England by so many votes, I assumed they would be right around the same level because they are two of the three "original" brewing powers.  If you voted for one and not the other, post a comment. I voted for Germany because they brew some of the most consistent and well made lagers available (one of the few areas where America craft brewers are still relatively lacking.) I think England makes some great beers, but so many of the lighter ones don't travel as well as the beers of Germany and Belgium, so I don't buy them regularly.

I'm also interested in which country the people who answered "Other" wanted to vote for.  Canada was a serious omission (with brewers like Dieu du Ciel, Unibroue, Hopfenstark, Charlevoix, and Le Trou Du Diable), which I didn't realize until after the poll had already been running for a couple days.

The November poll up is up on the blog, "What is the best beer for a cold winter night?"

Scandinavian Gruit Kvass Recipe

After Nathan and I brewed East End's recipe for Kvass, we decided to crank out a couple more kvasses with recipes of our own design. The first was inspired by a sample of Menno & Jens (a gruit that had a unique flavor that was smokey, tart, and herbal) a collaboration between the two Scandinavian breweries (Haandbryggeriet and De Molen).

Nathan took the standard kvass recipe and morphed it into a complex Scandinavian gruit.  The smoke character came from three pounds of Weyermann rauchmalt, a sizable addition for a beer that barely topped 4% ABV.  For winter spicing we added blue spruce (for evergreen aromatics) and elderberries (for dried fruit character).  The sourness was provided by Lactobacillus resident in the dried bread yeast working unconstrained by hops.

This was the first batch of beer I have brewed that was devoid of hops.  While today beer and hops are culturally (and in some cases legally) synonyms, this has not always been the case.  For centuries political and religious institutions required the use of gruit (a secret spice blend often containing mugwort, yarrow, marsh rosemary among others) both as a counterpoint to the sweet malt (beers were often far less attenuated than today) and as a way to tax/control brewing.  Hops became the dominant seasoning for beers only about 500 years ago, as a result of their ability to add bitterness as well as inhibit lactic acid producing bacteria.

Our method of incorporating the bread (by soaking it overnight in 190 degree water, pureeing it with a stick blender, and then adding it to the boil) was identical to our previous batch of kvass, but this time we used a loaf of pumpernickel bread in place of the standard seeded rye.  We hoped the darker bread would be a better complement for a slightly stronger beer intended for fall/winter drinking.

The results were intriguing, one of the most flavorful low alcohol beers I have tried.  Granted the beer is still young, but it turned out a bit smokier and not as sprucey as we intended.

Scandinavian Kvass

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.50
Anticipated OG: 1.040
Anticipated SRM: 11.9
Anticipated IBU: 0.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain
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40.0% - 3.00 lbs. Maris Otter
40.0% - 3.00 lbs. Rauchmalt (Bamberg Smoked)
6.7% - 0.50 lbs. Rye Malt
6.7% - 0.50 lbs. Brown Malt
6.7% - 0.50 lbs. Crystal Rye

Extras
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5 g Blue Spruce @ 30 min
20 g Dried Elderberries @ 0 min

Yeast
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Red Star Bread Yeast

Water Profile
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Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
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Sacch Rest 60 min @ 152

Notes
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Brewed 9/24/10 with Nathan and Devin

1 gallon of pumpernickel bread puree (1 loaf) added before the start of the boil.

5 grams spruce at 30

20 grams dried elderberries lightly crushed at flameout

Pitched 1 gram of rehydrated Red Star bread yeast once the wort was cool. 

Left in Nathan's basement ~75 degrees to ferment.

FG 1.010

10/08/11 Turned out well, powerful smoke (mingling with the spruce) and as predicted bread yeast and no hops made for a tart beer.

Sour Kvass Tasting

We weren't surprised when the kvass we brewed based on East End's recipe went sour, with the minimal hopping, low gravity starchy wort, and bread yeast it was something we suspected might happen.  Luckily a low gravity, lightly hopped beer makes for a good base for sour flavors (as we tasted at East End in a sample of unintentionally sour Kvass). 

East End Kvass Clone

Appearance – Surprisingly clear (but still slightly hazy) pale orange. The thin white head floating on top has poor retention. The beer has gotten much clearer over the last few weeks as the yeast and the starches from the bread have slowly settled to the bottoms of the bottles.

Smell – Caraway is the first thing I get, as well as a yeasty/bready malt character. There is a sour, yogurtish component to the aroma as well.

Taste – Tangy lactic acidity followed by warm bread crust maltiness. The caraway comes in the finish, but it isn't as strong as in the aroma. The acidity isn't especially strong, just enough to make for a bright, interesting beer.

Mouthfeel – Medium body, with moderate carbonation. The body is thicker than you'd expect for such a low gravity beer.

Drinkability & Notes – A refreshing beer that is easier to drink than the highly acidic Berliner Weisses that I tend to make. I'd be interested to see if this method (minimal hopping and fermenting with bread yeast, could work for other sorts of low gravity sours).