Russian Imperial Stout with Brettanomyces - 2015 Vintage Tasting

I brewed this Russian Imperial Stout in November 2014.  I let it ferment out for a couple months and then let it age with oak and Brettanomyces for almost a year.  This was an attempt to create a beer like the defunct English brewery "Courage's" RIS which reportedly featured some Brett character including a leather like flavor.  I based the recipe on one from the Mad Fermentationist.

I harvested the Brett (Brett C) from some bottles of a Berliner Weisse I'd brewed.  The beer formed a pretty good pellicle after a few months and dropped about 10 points of gravity during it's time with the Brett.  I was very concerned that the Brett might over attenuate on me but it ended up finishing at a really nice 1.022.

It was a complex beer to start with and it got more complex with age on it.  I found it difficult to sort out anything I would describe as Brett character.  The later tastings all had a slight earthiness that I was thinking could be attributable to the Brett but I wasn't sure.  I was very interested to see what the time in the bottle would bring.  This beer has now been in the bottle for 3 months and I think it is high time for a tasting.

The beer tastes fantastic at basement temps which are about 60 F so that is what these notes are based on.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• A mix of roast, dark chocolate, and a fruitiness (maybe raisin).  Also get a bit of coffee.  There is some alcohol mixed in but doesn't smell like it would be 10% ABV.  Get quite a bit of vanilla oak character.  Still get the earthy aroma that I had attributed to the Brett in my initial tastings.  Well blended with everything else.  I don't think it's really gotten any more prominent.  Aroma of the beer is quite complex and, overall, very nice.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a pretty light head that quickly dissipates down to nothing.  The beer is a very dark red/brown pretty much opaque.  From the edges it looks pretty clear.  This bottle had a slight pellicle and there were little chunks of it floating on top of the beer.
• Flavor:
• Bitter dark chocolate and dark fruit ester character are pretty prominent along with coffee.  The oak cuts through in the finish along with a definite earthy Brett character (it might be fair to describe it as tobacco or leather like).  I think this has gotten more prominent during it's time in the bottle.  I don't really get any hop bitterness in the finish at this point.  It is a little malty sweet but the earthiness balances it out pretty nicely.  The beer has really good bold flavors which come out really nicely at basement temps.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied and smooth.  Slight alcohol warming.  Mild astringency.  A pretty easy drinking beer.
• Overall:
• This beer had a great level of complexity after primary fermentation and it has gotten significantly more interesting with age.  I really like the coffee/chocolate/roast flavors and aroma along with the dark fruit character.  The Brett seems to be getting to be a more significant player in the flavor profile with some time in the bottle and it is creating some really nice aged beer sort of flavors.  Hops have fallen off but they aren't missed.

I brewed up another batch of RIS with Brett this last November which went onto the Brett cake from this batch.  I am planning on drinking half of the batch of each of these each year and then saving the other half to do vertical tastings with future vintages.

Trappist Single - Tasting

I brewed up this Trappist Single back in December based on a couple recipes in Zymergy.  I enjoy the bold yeast derived flavors that characterize the Trappist ales.  Being able to brew these beers, which are expensive and sometimes difficult to come by, is one of the great benefits of homebrewing.

The Trappist Single is one of the rarer beers in this category as these beers were traditionally brewed for the monks own consumption while the higher alcohol beers were sold to pay the rent.  In recent years they've started selling them to the general public.

This beer was intended to come in at under 5% ABV.  Ended up getting very good efficiency so I overshot a bit.  Fermentation went very well and it got all the way down to 1.005.  Fermentation character is very nice (extra temperature control paying dividends) - exactly what I was hoping for.

This is intended to be a dry and hoppy beer that a laborer (like a monk making beer) could drink at lunch for refreshment and then go back to work.  I've consumed about half the batch at this point.  Had it almost all to myself which is how I like it.  I feel like I hit the mark pretty well with this one.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity/Spicy Belgian yeast character dominates.  Some bready malt in the background along with some spicy/herbal hops.  No alcohol on the nose.
• Appearance:
• Pours with three finger head.  Well carbonated.  Head lingers for most of the glass.  Leaves lacing up the glass.  It's a golden color.  Fairly clear - not quite transparent.  Bubbles cascade up for most of the glass.
• Flavor:
• Spicy and bold Belgian yeast up front.  Also get a bit of fruity ester - peach maybe.  A bit of light bready malt mixed in with maybe a bit of honey.  Medium bitterness in the finish.  There is some malt there as well but the balance is definitely tilted to the hops.
• Mouthfeel:
• Dry and crisp finish.  Medium light bodied.  No alcohol warming.  No astringency.  Some prickliness from carbonation. 
• Overall:
• A low alcohol beer with big bold flavors.  This is what I was hoping for.  The Belgian yeast's esters are prominent but don't overwhelm - I think this turned out well.  The dry finish allows fairly subdued hopping to really come through nicely.  It makes for an easy drinking beer with a really nice crisp finish. 

Black Raspberry Tart

I have wanted to try New Glarus Brewing's Raspberry Tart ever since reading about it initially.  Per the web site:

"Treat yourself to a rare delight. The voluminous raspberry bouquet will greet you long before your lips touch your glass. Serve this Wisconsin framboise very cold in a champagne flute. Then hold your glass to a light and enjoy the jewel-like sparkle of a very special ale.

Oregon proudly shares their harvest of mouth watering berries, which we ferment spontaneously in large oak vats. Then we employ Wisconsin farmed wheat and year old Hallertau hops to round out this extravaganza of flavor."

Sounds awesome.  Sadly, they don't distribute outside of Wisconsin so I haven't managed to get my hands on any.  I am going to attempt to create something similar. 

For souring I am going to use my culture of Lactobacillus Brevis rather than use what is on the fruit.  The Brevis produces a nice level of sourness.  I am going to try souring two gal of the six in separate glass jugs in order to get a good level of control over the bacteria.  I will ferment the remainder of the batch with good old US-05.  I'll combine the two after a couple weeks.

For a further level of control over the bacteria after I add the sour portions back to the main batch I'm going to try hopping the main batch.  My hope is that hops will restrain the lacto from making the main batch any more sour after the sour batches are added back (I've been experiencing this a bit with my Flanders Reds)  I decided to try making a hop tea that would be added after the beer would be chilled.

For the grain bill I decided to make a Red Ale similar to my Flanders Reds.  I'll mash at 160 F and add 12 oz of Maltodextrine to try to ensure that the FG of the beer is high and that it has a nice solid malt backbone which I'm hoping will go nicely with the fruit.  I'm shooting for a beer at ~4% ABV.

As for the fruit, I harvested 10 lbs of Black Raspberries from a local Pick-Your-Own Orchard (Highland Orchards) last summer and froze them solid.  They taste really nice - a bit different than Red Raspberries.  I think they'll make a really rich tasting beer at 10 lb per 6 gal ratio I'll be using.

I've read that Raspberry Tart comes in at an FG of 1.040 (per this link).  This is really sweet but it sounds like the sourness balances out the sweetness nicely.  I'm going to try for the same sort of high gravity.  Post fermentation I'll cold crash and fine and then transfer off the yeast cake over to the fruit.  I'll then age the beer on the fruit for two to four weeks in the 40s.  Once the fruit and beer are well integrated I'll bottle.  I'll sample bottles daily until the carbonation is right and then I'll pasteurize them in a hot water bath as I did successfully with my Hard Apple Cider.

The fruit was quite expensive but I'm pretty confident that this beer should turn out nicely.  Really looking forward to giving this one a shot.

Recipe Detail:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 4 lb Maris Otter
• 4 lb Munich
• 8 oz CaraMunich III
• 8 oz Aromatic
• 8 oz Special B
• 12 oz Maltodextrine (Not factored into efficiency calculations)
• Hops:
• 1 oz Fuggle (Pellet, 4.1% AA) for Hop Tea added after chilling
• Yeast:
• Safale US-05 American Ale Yeast
• WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis (Eighth Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 7 gal Tap Water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• 1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
• Extras:
• 10 lb of Black Raspberries

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  160 F for 60 min (Target 160 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  Ramped up to 175 F in 20 min (Target Ramped up to 175 F in 25 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 66 F
• Primary Duration:
• With Yeast:  4 weeks
• With Lacto:  2 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• With Fruit:  4 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.045 (Target 1.045) - with 5 points from maltodextrine
• Efficiency:
• 72% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• Beer:  1.006 (Target 1.018)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 86% (Target 59%)
• ABV:
• 5.12% (Target 3.54%)

Brewing Notes:

• 3/6/16 - Brewday - 11:40 AM to 3:40 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water in the HLT and cycled through the Mash Tun, Grant, and RIMS until the system was at 165 F - Took 40 min
• Milled my grain while waiting for the water to heat

• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom and 7.5 gal in the system total
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls
• Cycled the RIMS at 165 F
• After 10 min the mash temp was between 162 and 164 F so I lowered the RIMS temp to 163 F
• Heated up 9.5 gal of mashout/sparge water in the HLT to 200 F
• After 60 min of mashing I added 2 gal of mashout water and raised the RIMS to 185 F to get the mash up to 175 - cycled for 20 min
• Once up to temp I transferred the grant volume back to the mash tun and then started the fly sparge
• After collecting 3 gal the gravity at the grant was 8 brix (1.032)
• Heated the kettle after collecting 4 gal - Beer was at a boil prior to the end of the sparge
• Finished the sparge after collecting 8 gal - took 25 min.  Gravity at the grant was 4 brix (1.016) at the end of the sparge
• Hop Tea
• Collected an additional 2 quarts from the grant for a hop tea
• Brought the extra wort to a boil on the kitchen range and added the hops
• Boiled the hops for 30 min

• The hops had a herbal aroma kind of like tea
• Tasted the wort at the end of the boil - very bitter
• Let it cool with the lid on after the boil had ended
• Added the Maltodextrine at the start of the boil
• Added the Irish Moss with 10 min left in the boil
• Ended up boiling for 60 min
• Added the wort chiller just prior to flameout and brought the wort back to a boil to sanitize
• Chilled down to 90 F before transferring 2 gal of wort to glass jugs with Lacto

• Added the hop tea to the beer at this point
• Chilled down to 70 F and transferred remaining beer into fermentor.  Let the beer fall a foot or so to aerate
• Measured the gravity as 1.045.  The beer has a really nice redish brown color and is pretty clear.
• Rehydrated yeast in 100 F water in a coffee mug for 20 min before pitching
• Moved the fermenter down to the fermentation chamber
• 3/21/16 - Moved the fermenter out of the chamber and added the two gal of beer fermented with the lacto.  The batches were only lightly sour.  They have gotten much more sour than this in the past - very surprising.  I will let this batch sit for another couple weeks before cold crashing it and then transferring it onto the fruit.
• 4/22/16 - Moved to the fermentation chamber to cold crash.  The beer has a bubbly krausen with some spots of white pellicle.  Took a sample and measured the gravity as 1.008 which is a bit lower than expected.  The beer is a reddish brown.  It has a malty aroma with a hint of lactic sourness.  The flavor is malty with a slight sourness.  Really not as sour as I was hoping for.  It's actually a bit bland.  No off flavors though so I'm comfortable proceeding with fruiting it as planned.  I will cold crash for a couple days and then fine with gelatin.
• 4/23/16 - Added some gelatin dissolved in hot water to the beer
• 4/24/16 - Transferred the beer onto the frozen raspberries in a second bucket.  The beer ended up turning purple during the transfer.  The bucket was about an inch from full - had to leave a couple quarts behind in the fermentation bucket.  Moved back to the fermentation chamber set to 45 F.  This will allow the juice to be freed but should also prevent much fermentation from going on.

• 5/4/16 - Took a sample of the beer.  It is a really lush purple and it has a very distinct black raspberry aroma.  Measured the gravity as 1.008 still.  There are no signs of fermentation in the beer and I've kept it right around 45 F the whole time.  I don't think it fermented down in any significant way.  I'm very surprised that it's this low.  It may be that the liquid in the raspberries offset the gravity increase from the sugar or that maybe there is still some sugar that hasn't gone into solution yet.  I'm not sure what to do next.  The flavor is nice.  The fruit has a presence but it isn't quite as prominent as I'd expected.  More time is definitely needed.  If time doesn't do the trick I may have to try some actions to mush the fruit to try to coax out more fruit flavor.

• 5/21/16 - The airlock has been bubbling slightly even with the beer around 45 F.  I decided to just let it ferment all the way out.  I'm allowing the beer to rise up to the 60s.
• 5/26/16 - Made 2 gal of starter wort with 3.5 lb of Munich malt via BIAB to sour separately with my Lacto Brevis strain.  Didn't add any hops..  Added the wort to 2 one gal jugs after chilling it to 90 F and then put the jugs in a 100 F water bath in the sink over night.  I will use this to give the beer a bit more sourness if it needs it as the original 2 gal I tried to sour with the lacto didn't really build up much acidity (probably due to the cold basement temps).
• 7/23/16 - Bottled the beer today.  Transferred off the fruit which got me about 6 gal of beer.  It is a really lovely purple color.  It was fruity but a bit bland so I added about 0.75 gal of the beer soured with lacto.  This added a slight acidity that didn't seem to overwhelm the other flavors.  Gravity of the beer was 1.006.  Added 4 oz of turbinado sugar for priming - this was what I had on hand.  I got 67 12 oz bottles out of the batch.

• 8/31/16 - Tasting Notes - It's an interesting and really nicely flavored beer.  Not sure you'd guess it had 10 lbs of fruit but it's certainly very fruity.  It definitely provides the sour kick that I've grown to enjoy frequently.  I was a bit disappointed to not get the amount of sweetness that I'd expected from the fruit.  Also hard to disconnect the beer from the fact that I spent $40 for the right to pick and 4 hrs doing the picking in order to make it.  I didn't do that this year and I'm not sure I'd do it again.  The black raspberry flavor is nice but I think I may prefer the normal red raspberry to it.

Lessons Learned:

1. Very smooth brewday - took just about 4 hrs.  Really glad I only collected the required 8 gal of wort.
2. Hop Tea process was pretty easy.  We'll see how effective it is at stopping the lacto.  I think I'm going to employ this for some of my Flanders Reds going forward if it works.
3. I didn't get much, if any, gravity increase from the raspberries.  They really aren't all that sweet when I think about it so I really shouldn't have expected the high FG I'd planned for.  They have plenty of flavor though.