Mountainbeering in bottles

Bottled "Mountainbeering" two days ago. Little nervous that I used some stale StarSan, it was a bit cloudy which means it's either shot or very near it. Most of the stuff was pretty clean and I'm trying not to get too nervous about it. I'm beginning to think that contamination is more difficult than portrayed, although sanitation is easy and should be maintained regardless.

I had a taste and it was quite good. Different hops than P4P imparted a fruitier flavor. The added salts may have improved the hop character although there seemed to be a perceptible saltiness.

Tried a new trick to filter the wort to the bottling bucket. Kept a tea filter under the hose, and the hose low enough to be under the surface of liquid to minimize oxygen exposure. Seemed to trap a good bit of trub and the beers are clear enough.

Wednesday I'm doing Aspis Hoplon.

Bruxelles Sprout: Week 3 conditioning tasting notes

• Appearance: Pours copper with slight reddish hue. Reasonably clear. A 1/2 inch head from a vigorous pour. Head quickly dissipates.
• Aroma: Deep dark fruit on the nose: raisins, dates, fig. Some green sour apple. No apparent hops.
• Flavor: thinner than the nose with a dry, phenolic (i.e., clove) finish
• Mouth: nicely carbonated but could be improved
• Drinkability: low alcohol level (5-6%) and modest flavor make drinking a couple pretty easy

I suspected the "secret" origin of the yeast to be Rochefort's own and a website did confirm as such. (This was facilitated by Nilam and my splitting of a Rochefort 10 on Friday night.) This is an excellent yeast and is really pulling the flavor weight. I'd like to give it more fermentables to work on.

I am enjoying this beer more and more now that it's conditioning into its peak. The apple hint suggests more conditioning time is needed. I hope the flavor improves but I don't expect a dramatic change. On a future iteration, I would like to bridge the gap between the excellent aroma and nice finish. This will probably require retooling the grain bill and raising fermentability.

Bruxelles Sprout results; IPA in primary

Hello Beerworld,

I have been enjoying Bruxelles Sprout for the last 10 days. Some thoughts:

1. Significantly under-carbonated relative to previous brews. I'm looking at my notes and trying to identify the difference. I recall not using cane sugar but instead a more traditional, corn-based priming sugar, though recollection is fuzzy. Also, I did try to dial it down. Finally, where previous brews were bursting by 7 days, this one may well need the full 3 weeks of conditioning. However, carbonation is pretty important with taste so I think it's still a negative.
2. I'm digging the esters/phenols from the abbey yeast.
3. Overall the taste is a little thin. This was by scientific design: I want to learn Belgian yeast and therefore tried to isolate the variable as much as possible. I went for a simple malt profile, relatively low alcohol, and a light hoppiness, that, combined, would let the yeast profile shine. And wow, the yeast is really a beautiful thing. But, I am perhaps enjoying the beer pedagogically.
4. The chill haze is oppressive in this beer. Look at a warm bottle and it's clear as water. Put it in the fridge for half a day and it's fog. Mostly cosmetic and equipment-related but I'd like to fix it eventually.

The next Belgian will be mashed for heavy attenuation. I don't want residual sweetness and the more the yeast gobbles up, the more of those delicious byproducts it will leave in the beer. I may try for more hops next time. I love the Belgian tradition, but damn, it breaks my heart to make a batch on an ounce of low alpha hops.

In the primary: a new IPA with a similar grain bill to P4P and a new hop. Looking forward to it.

Bruxelles Sprout in the primary; IPA on deck; Berliner Weisse and Gose in design

Mostly successful brew day with Bruxelles Sprout, my Belgian Pale Ale. This recipe diverged from my previous all-grains as follows:

1. Not an IPA
2. Pilsner malt instead of two-row
3. A non-base malt used (Caravienne)
4. Homemade Belgian candi sugar
5. Belgian abbey yeast

I really did not hop this much at all, which pained me while it liberated me. In fact, I used a "Noble-esque" hop which has been "aged" in my fridge for several months. Not by design but could have been.

I had a ripping starter going which was timed perfectly for brew day. Siphoned some of it into a bottle for storage. BS was bubbling like a champ by morning.

Next up, a new IPA with some variations from PfP. Gonna use a new hop I'm curious about and maybe even the remnants of the Belgian candi sugar.

Finally, I've changed my mind and will not siphon a gallon of BS off to pitch with Roselaire and turn into a Flander's Red. I'm still intrigued by the sour flavors but want something a little faster (a Flander's Red requires 12-18 months to reach peak flavor). Instead, I'm going to try a Berliner Weisse or a Gose, two ancient and rare German ale's which feature very sour character on account of early lactobactillus inoculations.

Skol

After a week in the bottle, we broke out a "Pining for Pliny" today and I must say it is truly an amazing brew! Bright orange, nearly clear (I think some more time in the fridge will clarify it more), thick, frothy head, absolutely delicious hop aroma and flavor. I really think it is a huge step forward and not too far from Pliny (of course it is not Pliny but Pliny seems not so distant anymore). There is a slight resiny hop flavor that I hope gets conditioned out in the next few weeks (it is still a bit early in the conditioning phase) but overall I'm very impressed and for once proud of one of my brewing creations.

Update

Lot's of stuff since the last post.

First, the two extract brews ended up aging nicely and are now quite drinkable. Argentina, in fact, was tasty, and hopefully Hoppy Diwali will come into its own soon.

Though they were tastier, the hop flavor never arose. I narrowed the problems to:

1) Too much time with the dry hops

2) Poor filtering at bottling time, leaving hop sediment to bitter the beer more

3) Too many IBUs (most likely), causing a harsh bitterness which obscured the hop flavors

4) Water profile

I dialed down the hops big time for a new brew called "Pining for Pliny". This is an all-Simcoe IPA with an IBU count of ~70, which was a substantial rollback. I made the recipe as light on grains as possible to showcase the Simcoe. (Wow, do yourself a favor and smell a bag of Simcoe some time. It's known for a piney/citrus flavor; hence the naming "Pining for Pliny".). Regarding the process: I paid special attention to water levels and managed to perfectly hit my water amount. I used BeerSmith to aid in the process and I don't think I'd brew again without it. Today I bottled it and wow, what a smell! The beer is clearer and much lighter than previous brews. Can't wait to try it.

I have been reading a lot about water profiles and it turns out that Orange County water does not cut it for highly hopped beers. The sulfates are way too low, and sulfates are critical to really pull the flavors out of hops. So, for the next brew I'm going to be adding gypsum salt to get it up to the right level (again, Beersmith will help me calculate this).

Next up: a break from the usual hop bombs. I'm going to try something summery; a light, Belgian ale, using Pilsner malts, Belgian yeast, a low ABV, and a low dose of Sterling hops. I'm calling it "Bruxelles Sprout" (were it a stout you know what I'd call it.) I have a crazy idea to siphon off a gallon of it into my little 1G carboy and add some wild yeast to give it a nice sourness.

Finally, I have decided that if "Pining for Pliny" comes out decent, I'm getting/building a keggerator. I hate bottling enough to abandon the hobby altogether.

Not-so-happy

Hoppy Diwali is a big, malty, hoppy mess. I think the reduction from 2.5G ending volume to ~1.75 caused a concentration which does not favor flavor. I recalculated and got 11.1% ABV and 150+ IBUs. The sherry off-flavors are telltale of allowing the beer to get too hot, which I know was the case as the upstairs closet has reached 80+ temperatures in the last month. There is a nice toasty malt flavor with honey and some light spices. The bitterness is near astringent and not right. Also some husky, tannic tones. Good thing the batch size was small. I had really almost written this one off anyway.