Belgian Dubbel

My first batch of beer, brewed back in January 2014, was a Belgian Tripel.  It was an extract beer kit and it was fermented without temp control and a bit warmer than it should have been (80s).  It turned out quite a bit darker than expected and had a bit more sweetness and ester/fusel alcohol character initially than I was hoping for.  It ended up aging very nicely though and the last bottle (consumed last month) was subtle and very smooth.

I have decided to try to make another Belgian Abbey-style Ale.  There are a lot of interesting looking recipes out on the internet for these beers - lots of use of spices and flavorings.  I'll probably try one of these before too long but for this one I found a cool recipe on homebrewtalk for a Westvleteren 12 Clone that calls for a very simple grain bill (all base malt) and utilizes the interesting technique of boiling down first runnings to get caramel flavors and a brown color.  I have never had a Westvleteren beer so whether this is a good clone or not isn't very relevant to me.  This recipe is for a 10% which is a "Quad".  I've decided to try to bring the beer in at around 7.5 to 8% ABV which would make this more of a "Dubbel".

The recipe will use WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast which is apparently pretty authentic for what the Belgian brewers use.  The recipe calls for some temperature ramp up towards the end of fermentation which I will ignore for this batch.  I plan on chilling the wort down to the low 60s and then letting it ferment in the ambient temperature of the basement (also low 60s right now) - it can free rise as much as it likes from there.

Seeing how much my Tripel improved with a bit of age (and how well stocked I am right now with homebrew after bottling two batches this week) I will let this beer sit in primary for one month and then age for an additional three months prior to bottling (might decide to throw in some oak as well).

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjuncts:
• 7 lbs 2 row malt
• 7 lbs Pilsner malt
• 4.5 oz Acid malt
• 2 lbs D-180 Candi Syrup (added at 5 min)
• Hops:
• 1 oz Brewers Gold (Pellet, 9.0% AA) at 60 min
• 1 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 2.7% AA) at 30 min
• 1 oz Styrian Goldings (Pellet, 1.4% AA) at 15 min
• Yeast:
• WLP 530 Abbey Ale Yeast
• Red Star Pasteur Red Wine Yeast (Bottle Conditioning)
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 2 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

 Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 152 F (Target 150 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 75 min (Target 90 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• Ambient Basement Temps (Mid to low 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 1 month
• Secondary Duration:
• 3 months

Results:

• OG:
• 1.076 (Target 1.070)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 69%)
• FG:
• 1.011 (Target 1.012)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 85% (Target 82%)
• ABV:
• 8.53 (Target 7.61%)

Brewing Notes:

• 2/26/15 - Created a 2 litre starter with 7.5 oz of DME and 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient and pitched the yeast.  Put onto a stir plate to grow.  Activity was seen the following morning.
• 2/28/15 - Brew day - 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM including setup and cleanup
• Brought 7 gal of spring water up to 172 F strike water temp (lowered the flame on the burner once it got withing 10 degrees to avoid overshooting) - took 20 min
• Added CaCl to the HLT as it was heating
• Moved 24 qt of strike water to the mash tun - let the temp settle for 5 min - ended up in the high 160s
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls
• Checked the temps after 10 min - ended up between 152 and 154 F.  Gave it another good stir and let it go at that temp
• Stirred after 30 min - temp was high 140s to low 150s.  It was the right call to let it ride at the slightly higher than desired temp as it came down to the correct range
• Brought 6 gal of sparge water up to 200 F - took 25 min
• Mash was in the low 150s after 60 min.  Vorlaufed and drained - slowly at first and then up to full speed

• Pulled off 1 gal of first runnings to boil down to a syrup
• Added 6 gal batch sparge and stirred - ended up in the mid 170s
• Vorlaufed and drained like before
• Started to boil the first runnings on the range in the kitchen
• Collected 8.5 gal of wort in the kettle and 1 gal for syrup
• Brought the kettle up to a boil
• Added the 60 min hops at 8 gal and the 30 min hops at 7 gal
• The stovetop wasn't boiling fast enough so I moved the gal of 1st runnings to the HLT to reduce down more quickly
• Added irish moss when volume was down to 6 2/3 gal
• At 6.5 gal added the 15 min hops

• Once the first runnings looked fairly thick I pulled some of the boiling wort and mixed it in with the syrup to loosen it up and then poured the whole thing back into the kettle
• Added the Candi Syrup at 6.25 gal
• Put the chiller in to sanitize at flame out
• Chilled the wort down to 65 F - took 10 min
• Transferred the wort to the fermentor - ended up with 6 gal
• Poured back and forth between the fermentor and another bucket to aerate
• Measured gravity at 1.076
• Pitched the yeast (looks to be at about high krausen)

• Set the fermentor up with a blow off tube

• 3/2/15 - Powerful blowoff from the fermentor today.  The lid is bowing out due to the high pressure.  I wont be surprised if it pops overnight.

• 3/8/15 - The beer is still bubbling away after a week.
• 3/27/15 - Transferred to secondary in a 6 gal glass carboy.  The beer finished out at 1.011.  It still had a bit of krausen on the surface which is odd.  The beer is deep brown and a bit cloudy - will probably need to cold crash even after aging for 3 months.  It has a nice, but restrained, fruity yeast character.  The flavor is, likewise, fruity in a somewhat restrained way.  It has a bit of sweetness and hoppiness mixed in.  Hides it's alcohol very well - never would guess this is an 8.5% beer.  It's a lot better than my first Belgian.  Doesn't really need any more age but I'm going to stick with my plan anyway.

• 6/26/15 - Cold crashed down to 36 F in preparation for bottling this week
• 6/27/15 - Added 1 packet of gelatin dissolved in hot water to the beer to clear it.
• 6/29/15 - Bottled 5.5 gal with 6.5 oz of priming sugar and 1 packet of re-hydrated wine yeast.  Got 55 12 oz bottles from the batch.
• 8/29/15 - Tasting Notes - Smooth, malty, and complex.  This beer hides it's 8.5% ABV very well.  Yeast character is restrained from the low fermentation temperature.  Would try to increase that ab bit next time.

Lessons Learned:

1. My efficiency calculation needs to be updated to recognize the fact that I get maybe 70% efficiency from the grain but pretty much 100% with sugar.  I believe this is the root cause for the higher than expected efficiency in this batch.
2. I was a bit more careful with my water usage for this batch and had a nice short boil as a result
3. Boiling down the first runnings on the kitchen range was a good idea but it just didn't have the power to get a real good boil.  I wont be trying that again.  The boiling of the wort down to syrup didn't really have much of a color impact - the beer was pretty light until the candi syrup.  I wonder if it will have any real flavor contribution

Sour Blonde 1.2.1

It has been 3 months since I brewed my first batch of Sour Blonde which is loosely based on a Belgian Lambic.  I will be transferring that beer off it's yeast cake and brewing a new batch to add to it.

For this batch I'll be using the same grain ratios but upped slightly to account for projected lower efficiency.  That will be 60% Pilsner Malt and 30% Flaked Wheat to try to simulate the starch contributions of raw wheat in a turbid mash (might try for a real turbid mash next time).

I plan on mashing at 162 F to try to preserve more sugars for secondary fermentation.  I missed that mark last time and after a month of fermentation the beer was down to 1.014.  I would like that to be in the 1.02s for this batch to try to get a bit more sourness.

Like last batch I'm going to leave the beer out over night to cool and hopefully collect some wild yeast to provide some other flavor contributions.  I don't expect high risk or high rewards associated with this as I'm pitching onto a cake that likely still has brewers yeast living in it but it's fun to imagine that I'm going to get something unique doing it this way.  I did learn that I lost a lot more volume from evaporation chilling this way so I plan on stopping the boil at 7 gal in order to end up with 6 gal in the fermentor.

It's really kind of fun brewing these batches of beer that I'm going to get to watch evolve over the next several years.  I know there is a risk that this particular beer might not turn out but I'm viewing all of these "Sour Blondes" as part of one big project where, even if one isn't great or doesn't sour up much, it could still potentially be used as part of a blend or, at the very least, teach me something useful about the process.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 9 lbs Pilsner Malt
• 4 lbs 8 oz Flaked Wheat
• 5 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 4.6% AA) at 120 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 11 gal Spring Water
• 2 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6.25 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 162 F for 60 min
• Boil:
• 150 min
• Fermentation Temp:
• Ambient Basement Temps (62 F to 75 F)
• Primary Duration:
• 3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.050 (Target 1.055)
• Efficiency:
• 64% (Target 68%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.006)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 89%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 6.43%)

Brewing Notes:

• 2/7/15 Brew day Part I - 2:00 PM to 7:20 PM including setup and cleanup
•  Brought 6 gal up to 196 F - Took 26 min
• Added the CaCl to the kettle
• Transferred 15 qt to the mash tun and let settle for 5 min - ended up at 182 F
• Added the grain and stirred vigorously to eliminate dough balls.  Ended up a bit high at 165 F so I added 2 cups of cool spring water which lowered the mash temp down to about 162 F

• Stirred after 30 min to try to improve efficiency - temps were down to 156 F which was pretty frustrating.  It was a pretty thick mash so that probably contributed (less thermal mass to hold the temps)
• Brought 9 gal of water to a boil - took 40 min

• At the end of the 60 min mash it was down to the high 140s to the low 150s
• Added 2 gal of near boiling mashout water, stirred, and then drained without a vorlauf - drained slowly at first and then with the valve all the way open (got some very cloudy muddy looking wort)
• Added 3.5 gal of boiling water for a batch sparge (raised mash temp up to 185 F), stirred and then drained
• Added a second 3.5 gal of boiling water which brought the mash temp up to 188 F (running a risk of extracting tannins) and drained
• Collected 12 gal of wort
• Brought to a boil (came pretty close to a boil over with that large volume) - took 25 min
• Once the volume got down to 11 gal I added the 120 min hops

• Added the irish moss once the volume got down to 725 gal
• Ended the boil at 7 gal
• Move the pot to the front porch to cool down over night and hopefully capture some interesting wild yeast from the air
• 2/8/15 Brew day Part II - 7:00 AM to 7:25 AM:
• Wort was down to 45 F the next morning.  Had 6.25 gal of wort remaining after evaporation.
• Cleaned up the krausen ring around the bucket the held the previous batch of Sour Blonde and swirled the yeast cake with the 1 cup of beer I left behind when transferring 1.1.1 to secondary
• Transferred SB 1.2.1 onto the yeast cake - transferred most of the cold break but left the hops for the most part.  With the wort being so cold I image the yeast will be a bit shocked and probably take a while to start fermentation

• Measured OG as 1.050 which is about 64% efficiency.  The sample was very cloudy - lots of starches in the wort.  It was sweet but also pretty bready - I'm guessing the the mash temp problems aren't going to screw up the souring of this beer too much.  No tannins in the flavor.
• Moved down to the basement to ferment - will check on the gravity in a month once primary fermentation is complete.
• 2/12/15 - The beer finally started to bubble today.  It filled the airlock with gunk.

• 3/14/15 - It has been just over a month since brewday.  Pulled a sample and measured the SG as 1.008.  So, it's down a bit more than I would have liked (would rather have seen it in the teens).  I'm going to try really hard to keep the mash temp higher on the next batch.  No real pellicle on the beer at this point but it does have a tart aroma.  The beer has a very slight acidity with a bit of brett funkiness - tastes nice.  I believe it's a bit farther along the road towards souring than the previous batch was after a month.

• 5/10/15 - Transferred to secondary after 3 months - took a bit of the yeast cake with me to give the brett a bit of extra food.  Measured the gravity as 1.006.  The beer has pretty intense funky/fruity aroma like the last one.  The flavor is also pretty funky - no real sourness has developed yet.  It's very similar to the last one except for the lower gravity at transfer.  I'll check on this again in 3 months.

• 3/4/16 - Sampled the beer today.  Measured the gravity as 1.005.  It has cleared beautifully and is a very nice golden color.  There is a pretty strong brett funk on the nose.  Quite a bit of brett in the flavor as well.  Still no sourness has developed.

• 10/20/17 - Status Report:
• A bit of earthy funk along with a bit of fruit
• Lightly gold and slightly hazy
• Beer has a bit of earthy funk.  Also get some alcohol flavor.  Maybe a slight bit of fruity ester mixed in as well.  No sourness has developed
• Pretty mild flavored and not very complex
• 12/2/17 - Topped off with 1 gal of lacto soured 1.020 beer to add a bit of sourness to this beer and to give the bugs a bit more to eat after a couple years.
• 5/25/18 - Status Report:
• Pungent earthy and cheesy aroma to the beer.  Maybe a bit of overripe fruit.  Quite musty as well.
• Light gold and clear - a few pellicle chunks floating in it.
• Fruity with a light tartness in the finish.  Has some earthy brett notes.  I detect a bit of sulfur.  Also get a bit of bread flavor in the finish on this one.
• Medium-light bodied a bit of sweetness to it.  A bit of prickling acidity in the mouthfeel.  Drinkable beer.
• Some nice flavors and aromas with pretty good complexity.  I quite like this one
• 6/3/18 - I used this batch on three blends today:  4 gal in a Plain Sour Blonde, 1 gal in a Cherry Sour Blonde, and 1 gal in a Raspberry Sour Blonde.  The beer seemed to have improved a lot with some extra food which made it very attractive as a blending component.  As unimpressed as I was with it 6 months ago that was a big surprise.  There was about 1 quart of beer remaining at the bottom of the glass carboy along with some yeast dregs.  I added Sour Blonde 6.1.1 to this (calling this Fermenter #2).

Lessons Learned:

1. I don't think collecting all the pre-boil volume I did makes much sense.  The runnings from the final batch sparge were like water - I can't believe I got much sugar out of the beer with that one.  I also don't think a 150 min boil bought me anything that a 90 min boil wouldn't have.  I'm really sick of doing batch sparging.
2. Mashing this batch was a disaster - can't move to the RIMS setup quickly enough.  It seems like no matter how much stirring I do the mash varies significantly in temperature from one spot to another.  I'm sure the beer will be fine but this fire and forget methodology just doesn't suit me very well - I want control that I'll never be able to have with the current setup.
3. I like the simplicity of this recipe and I think I'm getting good starchy wort out of it in spite of the mash not behaving as expected.