Wild times

A new IPA called Sintennial is in bottle, and after a week tasting much like Two-Hearted, though lighter and drier (in ways I prefer).

I can say that my recent shortage of American hops in the freezer is coinciding with an emerging boredom in the IPA as a style. Not that I don't enjoy them, but I'm ready to get a bit more experimental. I am happy though: I never thought I'd run through those hops so quickly.

With the Pining for Pliny (P4P) I brewed months ago, I siphoned off 2L (1 per yeast) into new "fermenters" and inoculated with wild yeast (Brettanomyces). This produced about 5 bottles (2.5 each). The results were interesting. First, the flavor variation among bottles -- even within-batch -- was high. Interestingly, the half of P4P that under-attenuated in the primary ended up tasting much wilder -- presumably because it had more remaining fermentables for the yeast -- although the bitterness was too high. But the other P4P half received a touch of lemon that was quite nice. Both ended up pretty dry. The amazing thing was how much the wild yeast transformed the flavor in a relatively small time. The wild beers were almost completely unrecognizable from their source.

This inspired me to continue with wild fermentation.

I brewed a Westmalle/Westvleteren clone (the beers share the same yeast). The base beer is a Belgian tripel. This time, I have siphoned off half of the whole batch for a Brettanomyces second fermentation, which will make for a wild blonde. The other half has received some special ingredients which I hope will add some of the unique flavors of Westvleteren.

Interestingly, I took a long whiff of the dregs of the yeast starter I made from Bretts. Amazingly, this one tasted very much like a lambic. This got me thinking that I could try a beer that is 100% Brett fermented. For various reasons, full Brett fermentations are discouraged, one reason being that the yeast work better under reduced PH environments typically caused by a primary fermentation from brewer's yeast. But, the smell was too compelling.

So, tonight I made a very small (.75 liter) -- though smaller than planned -- batch to be used as 100% Brett. It will probably end up like a Flanders Brown or Oude Bruin. I'm calling it "Lil' Orvie". Because, as a bad scientist, I can't resist confounding variables, I used only wild hops that we picked from a nearby abbey. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll wake to a pellicle.

Lemons!

Life has handed me lemons, in the best way possible.

On my first batch I siphoned off 2L for re-yeasting using a highly experimental yeast. The yeast has converted the IPA to lemons, and it's delicious.

Citroen tasting nice

Opened Citroen today, after a week in the bottle.

Tastes only slightly green. Carbonation is great (I carb'd even more this time), but head dies quickly. Yeast did not want to settle out after an evening in the fridge.

Flavor is surprisingly similar to P4P despite being a different hop.

Observations on Pining for Pliny

First of all, something completely blew my mind about this batch. I split the wort into 2 fermenters and inoculated one with an American Ale and the other with a Duvel yeast. I lost track of which was which (dumbass). Weirdly, one of the batches took a complete nose dive. Fermenter activity was seemingly strong for both, as measured by bubbling in the airlock. The "normal" one turned out fine. The "bad" one had weird qualities. It was nearly flat even after 3 weeks in the bottle. It tasted watery and overly bitter. The former 2 lead me to suspect a problem with the yeast. Not enough? Weirdly, the beer transformed into a ruby red color. I even tried on homebrewtalk which is usually an oracle for this shit. They had no clue. WTF did I do?

I am noticing my tastes change in time. I am definitely less of a hophead than I used to be. The DIPAs just don't do it for me like they used to (Pliny the Elder remains the eternal exception). My interest in Belgian beers, particularly lambics, has renewed my appreciation for dryness and fostered an appreciation for acidity. The new P4P I brewed seems to have gained ground in the latter respect. Does this mean it's the Duvel yeast at work, or my own perceptions kicking in?

Tasting

Popped open a homebrew (from the Pining for Pliny batch). Not sure which yeast is working here.

Appearance is bright hazy golden. Half inch of head in the mid of the Duvel glass, not a lot of retention.

Very tropical aromas with pineapple dominant.

Taste is dry, acidic, and slightly bitter. Perhaps only slightly on the thin side but not surprising given the relatively low gravity.

This one is a knockout!

Citroen in primary

Citroen brewed last night. Simple recipe pitched on top of existing yeast cakes from last batch.

Stuff is taking way too long and driving me crazy. Boil time seemed forever. I bailed on cooling and pitched at around 100F, hoping the cellar would further cool the wort. I think this was a bad idea but it was after midnight and my "helper" was retiring for the evening.

Brew from Belgium

Finally got my setup for the new "brew house" mostly complete. Brewed yesterday: a simple variant on Pining for Pliny. This was of course not without challenges.

First, I forgot to order DME from the brewstore, and the yeasts I purchased were both propagators -- meaning not enough cells for a real batch. I tried making an all grain starter but it was impossible: the cooler could not keep such a small volume of water warm. In the end I decided on an approach that turned out even better. I decided to brew a normal sized batch (~3G) and split into two fermenters and pitch the different yeasts on each one. This has the advantage of keeping the volume to a reasonable amount for the yeast w/o starter, plus I get to learn the differences between the yeasts!

Second, no barley mill. Rolling pins do not provide a consistent crush and are labor intensive. I used a coffee grinder and achieved reasonable though not ideal results.

I learned about my setup today. My kettle and stove will take over an hour to bring 3.5G of wort to a boil. That kind of sucks but now I can plan.

Comin' back at ya!

This blog is not dead ... it was merely going through a prolonged conditioning phase. I've had a few things happening over the last several months: graduating, starting a new job, and moving to Belgium. Of these, only the last may have a nontrivial influence on my brewing. Case in point, my next project:

I've got a few ideas bouncing around. We have both technical and recipe matters at hand. Regarding the former: as I have moved temporarily (2 years) to Belgium, I'm trying to maintain my brewing without necessarily spending a lot on equipment, as equipment is generally impractical to move to the US. I'm trying to use my experience with brewing to identify areas where corners can be cut.

First of all, wort chilling seems to be a stinker within the cost/benefit curve. On homebrewtalk.com, there has been an emergence of activity and interest on the subject of "no chill" brewing, where hot wort is not artificially cooled. The fears of DMS seem to be insignificant on a homebrewer's scale. Basically if you can keep the vessel that contains the wort sanitized enough for an evening with cooling wort, you're fine.

I thought about buying a cheap food-grade container for fermenting, but I'm now leaning toward a Better Bottle, which is more expensive, but available in Europe and will suffice for both fermenting and bottling.

Next, we're drinking some Hopus beers which have the benefits of a swivel top and cheap price at the local "wal mart". Hopefully will accumulate 3 gallons worth in the next 2 months or so, though it may require a party.

Recipe-wise, I must admit a deep affinity for Duvel, a truly sublime beer. Among its beauties include the dryness, light body/color, alcoholic sweetness, subtle hop flavor, and clarity. I'd like to merge this with the "Sonoma IPA", a yet-unofficial style, describing Pliny the Elder (PtE) by Russian River. PtE is actually unlike a lot of IPAs in its light body, color, and dryness, all of which accentuate the hop aroma and flavor. Interestingly, Duvel is so unique that Michael Jackson invented a style to describe it. Now, all "golden strong ales" are compared against Duvel.

Duvel, to me, creates its effect through unconventional means. It seems bitter, but not from the hops, as traditional beers would, but from a combination of the heavy carbonation, dry finish, and perhaps effects from the Scotch Ale yeast (Wyeast 1388). It seems sweet, but isn't (i.e., it's dry), due to the well-masked alcohol. It is truly a beer about recreating expectations from roundabout means.

So, how to get the dryness of Duvel? Dryness is a consequence of lots of the fermentables from the wort getting fermented. Hence, you should lean away from non-fermentable sugars such as maltose. Two ways to achieve this: low malt-temperatures, and a lot of raw sugar in the overall grain bill.

I'm taking this approach with Belgian Pale Ale malt, a lot of sugar, and the Duvel yeast. I'm going to throw an American spin with some Pliny-friendly hops.

Dry Hopped Aspis Hoplon in bottles

Got 10 16oz+ bottles filled. Had a taste of the good stuff. Nice hop aroma, huge roasted malt flavor. Was a bit sweet because I tasted after adding the sugar. Yum! Eager to try it after a week or two in the bottle.

Aspis Hoplon in primary/secondary

Moved half of Aspis to a secondary. Boiled about an ounce of oak cubes (French Oak, house toast) in water for 10 minutes, put them in. Cut open a vanilla bean, scraped the contents into a shot of Caribbean rum, then diced the rind and put that in the rum too. Let it soak for 10 minutes or so to sanitize, then put that in the secondary.

To the half remaining in primary, I added dry hops. I'll leave them in for 3-7 days then bottle that batch. The other will stay on the oak and vanilla for as long as it can.

Mountainbeering tasting notes (2)

We're at day 10 in the bottle.

Appearance: Pours a caramel red with nicer carbonation than last time. Still, a quickly dissipating head which is rescued by some nice lacing. The yeast have dropped, and there's a pleasant absence of chill haze.

Aroma: Nice, deep hop aroma with a lot of apple and a kiss of honey. Signs of prematurity. The aroma is not as pronounced as last time.

Taste: Pleasantly bitter with a lick of sweetness. Not quite a finish to match the aroma, but tasty nonetheless.

Mouth: More carbonated than last time. A lingering bitterness.

Drinkability: Love it. 5-6% can be sessioned. Too bad I ended up at 2G.

Mountainbeering tasting notes

Popped a cold bottle today.

Yeast is still suspended, and it's flat. Trails of sugar are visible. Darker than expected, probably from the 40L caramel. I might switch to 10L or 20L next time.

Hop aroma is absolutely delicious. Flavor not as strong, but needs more conditioning and carbonation.

I am psyched about this one.

Aspis Hoplon in primary

Aspis Hoplon was a success up until the last steps. I hit the temps and volume perfectly. If you haven't brewed a stout before, do yourself a favor and try it: the smell of the wort is delicious.

Problems:

1. Second time using whirlfloc, which makes some crazy coagulation. Am I using too much for a 3G batch? Can't really split the tablet. The problem is that, to speed cooling, I whirlpooled the wort while chilling, which stirred up the trub a bit. The filter clogged nearly immediately every time I tried to siphon to primary. I have heard you should wait after cooling for 30 minutes or so for the trub to drop out, but a recent infestation of fruit flies had me worried to leave it. Not to mention, it was midnight and I was tired.
2. Usually I keep the primary cool by putting it in a cooler with water and ice packs. At the beginning, I use ice to get it extra cool. This time, I just used ice packs and it did not get cool enough (75 by morning). Will I get fusels and bananas? Probably. Oh well.

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.