English Barleywine - 2015 Tasting

This is my second English Barleywine tasting after doing one last year (to the day) with my First English Barleywine.  I brewed up a Second English Barleywine this year using the same basic recipe and this will be a side by side comparison and review.  Excited to be doing another tasting after putting quite a bit of thinking about these beers.

2014 Brandy & Oak, 2014 Plain, and 2015 Vintages

It's cool to have accumulated some old beer to do some long term tastings with.  I will plan on brewing another one of these beers next Memorial Day for another tasting.  I may try a slightly different recipe next time (maybe something with a bit of rye).

These are pretty huge beers and I was feeling some effects from the three partial ones I drank to put together this tasting.  Also was experiencing some palate fatigue by the end.  I am going to have to space out the tastings a bit as I accumulate more beers over the years.

2015 - Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity aroma.  Almost has the character of a Belgian yeast.  Has a pretty distinct oak character which is pretty much on the level of a red wine.  Also has a bit of alcohol aroma as it warms.  Nothing I can pick out as hops.  No malt either.
• Appearance:
• Dark copper.  A bit cloudy.  Very light carbonation that quickly subsides.  This beer has only had a bit over a week to carbonate so I'd expect this to pick up.
• Flavor:
• Dominated by the fruity yeast character.  The fruity is somewhat indistinct apple or pear maybe.  Oak is also a pretty major presence.  There is also some caramel flavor from the malt up front.  The finish has some bitterness which balances out the malt a bit.  There is a fairly firm alcohol presence which hits in the finish.
• Mouthfeel:
• This is a light bodied beer.  The finish is fairly dry.  The high alcohol content is noticeable by the warming finish more than the flavor.  No astringency from the oak that I can detect.
• Overall:
• It is a rich, flavorful, and complex beer.  I like the fruity yeast character and what the oak brings to the table.  This beer finished quite a bit lower than I had been expecting but it is not overly dry.  It has decent malt flavor but a bit more malt complexity would be an improvement.  It's a big beer so I believe it's going to keep pretty well.  I expect that it will gain in complexity as it ages.

2014 Plain - Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Fruity with caramel malt.  There is also a bit of alcohol on the nose.  The fruity is quite different than the 2015 version - much stronger apple aroma.
• Appearance:
• Dark copper.  A bit darker than the 2015 version.  Still muddy even after spending the last few months in the fridge at my Mom's house.  Very light carbonation that quickly fades down to nothing
• Flavor:
• Fruity yeast is the primary flavor - very apple like.  It's really nice along with a strong toffee/caramel flavor.  There is no hop bitterness remaining.  A bit of alcohol on the finish along with sweet malt.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied.  The finish is a bit sticky sweet.  A good beer to sip and savor.  Nice warming alcohol melds well with the whole package.
• Overall:
• Also rich and flavorful with nice caramel malt and apple yeast ester character.  I prefer the yeast character in this beer over the 2015 vintage.  Last year this beer was a bit of a boozy mess.  Alcohol was still a significant presense but it has definitely mellowed out quite a bit with more aging.  This probably isn't a beer I would want to drink two of in one sitting very often but one would be quite pleasant.

2014 Brandy and Oak - Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Very similar to plain half but with a bit of oak on the nose.  This one initially had sort of a musty smell as well that diipated off and left the fruity aroma.  The oak in this one isn't as pronounced as the 2015 version.
• Appearance:
• Same as plain 2014
• Flavor:
• Also very similar to the plain half except with the oak coming through a bit on the finish.  The oak and brandy contributions have mellowed out a bit since last year.  There isn't really that much difference between this and the plain half flavor wise.
• Mouthfeel:
• Same as plain 2014
• Overall:
• With the extra year both of these 2014 beers have mellowed out considerably.  I had initially preferred this one due to the additional complexity of the oak adding something beyond booziness.  I really wouldn't describe either of these as boozy at this point.

So, I think I prefer the 2014 version to the 2015 based on this tasting.  I really like how the yeast character has developed in the 2014 while the 2015 is too reminiscent of a Belgian yeast next to it.  I also really enjoy the more luscious body in the 2014 and the caramel malt flavor which is a bit more prevalent.  We'll see how these two stand up to my next one of these in a year.

Munich Helles - Tasting

I am happy to finally be getting around to doing a tasting of my first Munich Helles lager.  This beer has been in the bottle for about two and a half months now after an abbreviated lagering period.  I tried a bottle after the first week and found that significant diacetyl (a buttery flavor) had developed.  After a couple more weeks this had been cleaned up by the yeast and the beer has been drinking very well since.  I've consumed about half of it so far.

We go out to eat to a local bar and play trivia most weeks and I usually end up drinking Yuengling Lager as it's cheap and I like to have 2 or 3 pints of it.  It's simple and easy drinking but it also has a depth of flavor that is missing from BMC.  I've found I really enjoy the yeast character.  People always say that ale yeast is fruity and that lager yeast is clean.  I would agree with that but I also detect a slight tartness from the lager yeast in the Yuengling Lager.  I get this same flavor from this Munich Helles.

I think this beer, although quite a bit higher in alcohol, drinks very similar to the Yuengling.  It's simple and pretty easy to drink in volume.  I would say it has a touch more malty complexity than Yuengling.

Once again I've really enjoyed the process of brewing this lager.  I intend on trying another one soon.

Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Sweet bready malt dominates along with a slight flowery hop smell.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a thin white head that quickly dissipates down to a ring of foam around the edge of the glass.  Nice golden color.  Slightly cloudy with a bit of particulate matter (didn't pour very carefully). 
• Flavor:
• Malty with a slightly tart yeast flavor up front.  The malt has a sweet honey like flavor.  The malt caries through to the finish along with a clean bitterness which lingers.  I think the finish is nicely balanced between the malt and bittering hops.
• Mouthfeel:
• Medium bodied with a smooth finish.  No alcohol warming.  Carbonation is light.
• Overall:
• It's a simple and easy drinking beer with enough going on to keep it interesting.  It goes down really smoothly and has a pleasing finish.  It's pretty easy to drink in volume (I had three of them putting together this review).  I really happy with it.  I think it stands up reasonably well to a professionally made Munich Helles. 

Trappist Single

A Trappist single is a low octane Trappist ale that the monks are said to brew for their own consumption (also known as a Patersbier).  I was inspired to try one of these out based on the article in Zymurgy's November/December 2015 edition.  I am going to roughly adhere to the "Westvleteren Blond Clone" recipe.

I've wanted to try one of these since I had the Chimay version of the single (Dorée) last year.  It was crisp and refreshing and very flavorful with great yeast character (also very expensive).  I haven't seen it again since.  The Westvleteren clone seems a bit hoppier than I remember the Chimay being but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

I will be deviating from the recipe slightly.  I will be brewing 6 gal of beer rather than the 5.5 the recipe calls for.  I will be using Dingemans Pilsner malt as my LHBS didn't have their Pale Malt.  I have also decided to skip the candi sugar which is going to cost me some gravity points.  I'm planning on bringing the beer in at around 1.040 which, if it ferments down to 1.006 as projected, would get me a 4.46% ABV beer.  Finally, I will be going with only 1 oz of bittering hops rather than the 1.25 ox called for in the recipe as I didn't have any Northern Brewer on hand and didn't want to over buy.

As for process notes:

I'm only planning on boiling for 60 min even though I'll be using pilsner.  I will make sure to get a strong rolling boil going to evaporate off the DMS.

For my previous Belgian's I've ended up fermenting in the mid to low 60s and end up with a fairly subtle ester contribution from the yeast.  For this batch I will be maintaining fermentation in the low 70s using a reptile pad to try to get a bit more character.

I am also going to try changing up my Mash Tun configuration for this batch.  I had been using marbles below the false bottom to take up some dead space (which would be 2+ gals).  Unfortunately, I found that grain that would get through the false bottom and would get stuck in the marbles (or on the filter media I used to keep the marbles from getting into the drain).  Cleaning up the marbles would then require me to remove them from the tun and rinse them.  This was a huge pain so I got a brew in a bag to mash in which really simplified cleanup as no grain would get through to the marbles.  Unfortunately, I've been finding that the deliberately starchy worts in my Sour Beers have been clogging up the fine mesh brewing bags.  So, for this beer, I am going to replace the marbles with 11 12 oz beer bottles which have been filled with water and capped to rest the false bottom on top of and to reduce the dead space.  I will also be removing the marbles that had served the same purpose in the grant.

I expect that I'm going to need quite a bit more water for the mash with this configuration (had been using about 2.5 gal more than what was used for mashing between dead space, lines, pump, grant, and RIMS) but I don't expect that it will be a problem.  It will be interesting to see if this change impacts my efficiency.

Recipe Details:

• Grain:
• 9 lbs Pilsner Malt (Dingemans)
• 3 oz Acid Malt
• Hops:
• 1 oz Northern Brewer (Pellet, 6.0% AA) at 60 min
• 2 oz Styrian Golding (Pellet, 4.5% AA) at 10 min
• 2 oz Hallertau (Pellet, 2.7% AA) at 0 min (stand for 10 min)
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity Ale Yeast
• Water:
• 9 gal spring water
• 5.5 gal tap water
• 1 oz Calcium Chloride
• 1 oz Gypsum
• 1 oz Irish Moss at 20 min

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  147 F for 60 min (Target 147 F for 60 min)
• Step 2:  Ramped up to 168 F over 30 min (Target ramp up to 168 F over 20 min)
• Boil:
• 60 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• NA

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.040)
• Efficiency:
• 83% (Target 72%)
• FG:
• 1.005 (Target 1.006)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 89% (Target 85%)
• ABV:
• 5.38% (Target 4.46%)

Brewing Notes:

• 12/5/15 - Cooked up a 1.2 L starter with 6 oz of DME and 1/8 tsp of yeast nutrient.  Chilled, pitched the yeast and set it up on a stir plate to propigate.  A layer of foam had formed within a few hours.
• 12/6/15 - Brewday - 12:30 PM to 4:50 PM including setup and cleanup
• Milled the 9 lbs of grain at a fine setting

• Heated 9 gal of spring water in the HLT and cycled through the mash tun, grant, and RIMS until the system was at 155 F - Took 45 min
• Set the Mash Tun up with 3 gal above the false bottom.  There was about 6.5 gal in the system as a whole
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added grain while the system cycled.  Stirred to eliminate doughballs
• Set RIMS to 150 F with a cycle at about 1 gal per minute

Grant with cloudy early runnings

• After 10 min the mash was between 145 F and 147 F
• Started heating 8 gal of sparge water about 50 min into the mash
• Raised the RIMS to 168 F for mashout - took 30 min to raise up to that temp
• Fly Sparged - took about 25 min
• Started heating the kettle after collecting about 3 gal
• Gravity at the grant was 3 brix (1.012) after collecting the target volume
• Collected 8 gal
• Had it at a boil a few min after sparging completed
• Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
• Added the irish moss with about 20 min to go
• Added the 10 min hops once I had boiled down to about 6.25 gal
• Added the chiller to sanitize right before flameout and let it get back up to a boil
• Added the 0 min hops at flameout
• Let the 0 min hops stand for 10 min
• Chilled down to 70 F
• Drained into the fermentor.  Ended up collecting about 6 gal.  Measured the gravity as 1.046 which is a bit higher than expected
• Moved to the fermentation chamber and pitched the entire yeast starter - was just about at high krausen
• 12/8/15 - The beer started bubbling the evening after pitching the yeast.  Today it had pushed some krausen through the airlock.  It's giving off a pretty strong yeast character today - very fruity.  I think the higher fermentation temperature is doing the trick.
• 1/10/16 - Bottled with 5 oz of priming sugar.  Measured the FG as 1.005.  Ended up with 5.25 gal which got me 52 12 oz bottles.  The beer has a pretty nice fruity aroma and nice, complex, flavor between yeast character and hopping along with a fairly pronounced hop bitterness.
• 3/8/16 - Tasting Notes - 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. 

Lessons Learned:

1. I got very good efficiency on this batch.  Only time will tell if this is due to getting rid of the grain sack.\
2. Cleanup was still pretty easy without the grain sack as well.  Maybe easier even.
3. I ended up having a bottle shatter on me.  I used 11 bottles under the false bottom.  I think I'll continue with 10 bottles on the next batch

Sour Blonde 1.5.1

It's been a bit over three months since I brewed my last Sour Blonde (1.4.1).  That beer quickly fermented down to 1.004 and had a pretty strong alcohol bite.  I've decided to try an new recipe using this yeast cake with lower ABV and with an attempt to put some barriers in place to prevents such quick fermentation.

Like with my recent Flanders Reds I will be doing a primary first with ale yeast with a gallon pulled off for lacto fermentation.  I will also be doing a Cereal Mash that I will try to prevent from converting by raising the main mash temps out of the conversion range (to 175 F) prior to adding the cereal.  As is traditional with the Belgian Lambic, I will be using raw wheat for this Cereal mash.  Finally, I am going to add 5 points of Maltodextrine to give the LAB and Brett a bit more food in secondary.  Hopefully this will allow me to finish primary in the high teens to low 20s.

I have scaled down the grain bill to give me an OG of about 1.045.  If the beer ends up attenuating down to the low 1.000s I should still end up with a 5% beer.  I think this will be nice to cut down the alcohol from my bigger earlier beers when blending.

My previous recipes all used hops.  I am doing away with them for this beer as the bitterness would all age out anyway and I think they likely inhibited some of the souring microbes in my earlier beers (they would certainly inhibit the lacto portion).  I'm not going to try to capture any wild microbes for the main batch this time (even though it's cold enough out to keep undesirable microbes at bay) so I wont need the hops to protect the beer.

Finally, I am going to oak this batch which is something I hadn't done for the previous Sour Blonds.  I had held off in the past as oak character isn't traditional in Belgian Lambic as the oak barrels they use are typically pretty much spent of oak character.  I think a bit of oak in a few of the batches could add a nice dimension to the flavor though so I'm going to give this a shot.

Raw Wheat

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 5 lbs Pilsner Malt
• 3 lbs White Wheat
• 12 oz Maltodextrine
• 4 oz Acid Malt
• Cereal Mash (Not factored into efficiency calculations)
• 2 lbs Raw Wheat
• 6 oz Maris Otter
• Hops:
• None
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II (Second Pitch)
• WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis (Fifth Pitch)
• Wyeast 3278 Belgian Lambic Blend (Fifth Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal Spring Water
• 6.5 gal Tap Water
• Extras:
• 5 handfulls of rice hulls
• 1 oz Medium Toast Hungarian Oak Cubes

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  163 F for 45 min (Target 160 F for 45 min)
• Step 2:  Ramped up to 175 F in 25 min (Target ramp up to 175 in 25 min)
• Boil:
• 2 hrs (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• Primary:  70 F
• Secondary:  60 F to 70 F (Ambient Basement temps)
• Primary Duration:
• With Yeast:  4 weeks
• With Lactobacillus:  2 Weeks
• With Lambic Blend:  3 Months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.045 (Target 1.045 - with 5 points from Maltodextrine)
• Efficiency:
• 77% (Target 77% - Not including cereal mash)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.002)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 95%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 5.64%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/22/15 - Brewday - 12:15 PM to 5:30 PM Including Setup and Cleanup:
• Adjusted my grain mill a bit finer than normal to crush the raw wheat.  Ran it twice to get a good crush.
• Heated 10 gal up in the HLT and cycled through the Mash Tun and RIMs until the system was at 175 F - took 45 min
• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom and 6.0 gal in the system
• Added rice hulls, CaCl, Gypsum, and Acid Malt to the mash tun
• Doughed in the grain and stirred to eliminate doughballs
• Cycled at 2 qt per min with the RIMS set to 165 F
• Checked the mash temp as 161 F after 10 min - close enough
• Heated up 2.5 gal of Cereal Mash tap water water to 175 F
• Added the Cereal Grain, stirred in, and let sit for 10 min
• Cereal mash was 160 F after 10 min.  Heated to a boil.  Stirred frequently.  Killed the flame once it was to a boil and let it sit covered

• Added 4 gal of water for sparge and brought 6 gal up to 200 F
• After 45 min the main mash was 163 F.  Raised the RIMS to 175 F for mash out - took 25 min
• Cereal mash was down to 185 F.  Brought it to a boil.
• Added the cereal mash to the main mash tun and cycled for 5 more min.  This raised the mash tun to 190 F.  I ended up getting a stuck mash during the 5 min cycle.

• Fly sparged at ~1 gal per 5 min or so.  Ended up having to stir frequently to avoid stuck sparge.
• Sparge ended after 30 min
• Ended up collecting 9.5 gal of very cloudy wort.  Gravity at the grant was 1 brix (1.009)
• Started heating up the kettle after collecting 3 gal.  The beer was at a boil about 10 min after the fly sparge.
• Took my yeast out of the fridge half way through the boil and decanted out the spent beer.
• With about 5 min left into the boil I added the Maltodextrine and stirred it into the wort
• Added the chiller at flameout to sanitize.
• Cooled down the beer to 90 F and then pulled 1 gal for the lacto
• Chilled down to 70 F and transferred into the fermentor.

• Collected 6 gal of beer.  Measured the gravity as 1.045 which was right on target.  The wort is very mellow.  It is barely sweet at all but it is very thick.  I think it should give a lot of food for the Brett and LAB.
• Moved the wort to the fermentation chamber to keep it around 70 F.
• Added the yeast once it warmed up to about 70 F.
• 11/23/15 - Both the main fermentor and the lacto portion were bubbling this morning.
• 11/26/15 - Moved the beer out of the temperature controlled fermentation chamber
• 12/19/15 - The beer has developed a slight pellicle somehow - I've used this fermenter for sour batches previously - probably didn't clean it well enough.  There is a slight sourness to the beer.  Measured the gravity as 1.026 which is pretty much what I was hoping for.  Added the 1 gal of beer soured with lacto (it is very sour).  Added a couple litres of malt extract wort to the remaining lacto to keep the culture going.

• 1/2/16 - Transferred onto the yeast cake from the previous batch (1.4.1).  Added the 1 oz of oak during the transfer (didn't do anything to rinse or sanitize the oak cubes).  Measured the gravity as 1.020 which is down a bit from last time.  It still has the film from when I transferred before.  The fermenter had a sulphur smell to it which I don't recall smelling any of these beers so far.  The beer has a pretty assertive level of sourness - lacto must have been able to do a bit more work since adding it to the main batch.  The wort is very cloudy still - I think the Brett and LAB will have a lot to work with on this batch.  I will check on it again in 3 months
• 10/20/17 - Status Report:
• Overripe fruit along with earthy and cheesy funk.  Very pungent aroma.  Also get a good amount of vanilla and oak.  By far the best smelling of the group
• Gold and a bit cloudy
• Quite sour.  Light fruit flavor.  Bready malt in the finish.  Also get a slight bit of earthy funk.  Maybe also gat a bit of oak in the finish
• Fair amount of complexity and some nice bold flavors
• 12/2/17 - Added 1 gal of 1.020 lacto soured beer to this batch to give the microbes a bit more to work on
• 5/25/18 - Status Report:
• Strong funky and earthy aroma.  Quite musty actually.  Has kind of an overripe fruit smell.  Get a bit of malt coming through faintly.
• Orange and quite cloudy
• Fruity with a pretty pronounced sourness.  Fruit is overripe peach maybe.  Finishes with quite a bit of bready malt.  There is a bit of funk mixed in
• Medium-light bodied and pretty dry.  The acidity in the beer is prickling
• Bold flavor and a pretty satisfying sourness.  The malt in the finish is interesting but the beer isn't all that complex really.
• 6/3/18
• Used 0.5 gal of this beer in a Sour Blond Blend with Raspberries.
• Decided to transfer this beer into a glass carboy (Fermenter #1) along with 1 gal of Sour Blonde 1.1.1 - left most of the yeast cake behind.  This will free the cake to be used to age Sour Blonde 1.6.1.  I am going to add another piece of oak to the bucket fermenter (I'm now calling this Fermenter #7) as well as to the glass carboy.

• 8/24/19 - Status Report:
• Aroma:  Earthy with a mineral character.  Slightly wine like aroma as well
• Appearance:  Light gold and slightly hazy
• Flavor:  Lightly sour with a lemon-like character.  Also get a bit of mineral flavor and bit of earthy funk
• Mouthfeel:  Light-medium bodied.  Fairly dry.  Pretty smooth - no real prickliness.
• Overall:  The flavors are pretty bold - particularly the lemon like sourness.  Not all that complex as the supporting flavors are fairly far in the background.

Lessons Learned:

1. I've gotten a pretty bad stuck mash with the starchy wort for my Flanders and now the Sour Blond.  I think the BIAB I've been using with the Mash Tun might be a little two fine.  I'm thinking I might try just using the false bottom without any extra filtration.  I'm currently using marble to fill the dead space under the false bottom (~2 gal).  This makes cleanup a nightmare as the grain sticks to the marbles.  I need to find an alternate way of filling up the dead space.

Berliner Weisse Take II - Tasting

I can't believe it's been over four months since I brewed up my second Berliner Weisse.  I am finally getting around to doing some tasting notes after drinking this beer for the last couple months.

This was a pretty complicated beer.  I tried the technique of culturing the microbes from grain for this batch which was interesting.  I wasn't feeling great after doing this due to some odd and kind of disgusting aromas being developed but it's turned out that no disgusting flavors made it to the final product.  Not sure I'll do it again but it's good to know how it works.

I also used about 6 lbs of lb cherries that I harvested from a local orchard on half of the beer which was a first for me.  This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while and I think this beer was a good one to try it with.

I was hoping to produce a beer with a good level of clean sourness that would be an easy drinker.  I think I have succeeded.

Plain Tasting Notes:

• Aroma:
• Musty, slightly grainy and bready, and a little bit fruity.  Smells a little bit sour.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a pretty strong head that quickly dissipates down to nothing (a few bottles were strong gushers but my last couple haven't been.  Pours fairly clear.  I dumped a lot of the dregs in with it though so it's cloudy in the picture.  It's a nice golden color.
• Flavor:
• It has a relatively mild but still distinctive sourness that lingers on the finish.  It's a pretty nice level of sourness really - roughly on the same level as the Nodding Head Brewery's Berliner.  I'm not sure I'd really want it any more sour than this.  Also happy to note that it's a pretty clean sour flavor - no gross byproducts from grain harvested microbes that I can detect.  The beer has a bready flavor mixed in with the sourness that provides some balance.  There's also a bit of the mustiness and fruitiness mixed into the finish to make it a bit more than just sourness.  It isn't a complex beer but it has enough going on to keep it interesting
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied and very dry.  It has pretty strong carbonation that prickles the tongue.
• Overall:
• It's a pretty nice little sour beer.  It turned out a bit better than I thought it would after souring the gallon with grain.  I was really worried that I'd developed some off flavors - really happy that the final product doesn't really have any.  I really like the level of sourness.  It makes for a refreshing and really easy drinking beer.

Sour Cherry Tasting Notes:

• Aroma: 
• Really nice sour cherry aroma.  A little bit of mustiness and sourness mixed in but pretty far in the background.
• Appearance:
• Pours with a strong head that lasts a bit longer than the plain half.  It dissipates down to a very thin ring around the edge of the glass.  This beer is a really nice red color.  It also poured clear if not for the sediment going into the glass.
• Flavor:
• Cherry flavor dominates up front and through the finish.  There is no sweetness left from the cherries but it does have a certain juiciness up front.  The cherries then mingle pretty seamlessly with the sourness in the finish.  The sourness level in the beer is just about the same as the plain.  I don't get any of the more subtle secondary flavor from this beer that I was picking up in the plain half.
• Mouthfeel:
• Light bodied but slightly fuller than the plain half.  Very dry.
• Overall:
• The addition of the cherries also produced a nice beer.  The cherries get along with the base beer very well.  It does overshadow some of the nice subtleties of the base beer but the cherries provide enough of interest to compensate.  I'm really happy I decided to split the batch and try this.

Flanders Red 2.2.1

This will be my tenth batch of Flanders Red in a little bit more than a year.  Somehow I'm not bored brewing these even though none of them are even ready to bottle.  I think this is because the samples of the beers I have had so far are very encouraging and my process of making these beers is becoming increasingly intricate.

I still have quite a few other things to try with these beers (different aging vessel, time on the yeast cake, and souring with cultures built up on oak cubes to name a few) but this round is mostly to determine how the Yeast Bay Mélange Sour Blend, used for Flanders Red 2.1.1, performs on the second pitch.

I have liked my primary first approach used for a number of previous Flanders Reds so I will use that again.  I will be using a small pitch of Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II that I'd pulled from Flanders Red 1.5.1.  I'm not going to build a starter for this as I want to see if stressing the yeast with a small pitch will cause them to produce more esters.  To this end, I will also be fermenting at 70 F in my Fermentation chamber with a reptile pad heater setup.  As with the other recent beers I will be pulling off a gallon to sour with lacto.

I will be doing another cereal mash with 1.5 lbs of corn grits for this batch to increase the starches in the wort.  On my last Flanders I ended up scorching the corn to the bottom of the pot during an hr long boil.  To avoid that happening this time I have decided to heat the cereal mash up to boiling and then kill the heat and let it sit at a high temp for the remainder of the mash.  This should save fuel and will require less attention for stirring.  Hopefully it will still produce a very starchy wort.  As I've done with my last few brews, I will be ramping up the mash temp to 175 F prior to adding the corn grits to prevent conversion.

The batches since I've switched to this new Pale/Maris otter based base malt have been a bit on the brown side.  To try to get back to red I'm going to swap out the Dark Munich used in my last few batches for normal Munich.

I had some sparging issues during my last batch.  To combat that I will be adjusting my mill (which I will use for the base malt) for a bit courser crush.  I will be using rice hulls again as they seemed to help quite a bit.  I am going to go with a bit less water (3 gal above the false bottom rather than 4) to see if that helps with my recycling.  I am going to also sparge a bit warmer than I had in the past - with 200 F water to see if that has any effect on the ease of sparging or the efficiency.

Finally, as with my last several batches I will be using 12 oz of Maltodextrine which should give me 5 extra SG points for the bacteria and brett to chew on during aging.  Flanders 1.5.1 was down to 1.020 after primary.  It will be interesting if this round gets the same result.

Pouring in the Corn Grits

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjunct:
• 4 lbs Maris Otter
• 3 lbs Munich
• 12 oz Caramunich III
• 12 oz Aromatic
• 12 oz Special B
• 2 oz Acid Malt
• 12 oz Maltodextrine
• Cereal Mash (Not factored into efficiency calculations)
• 1 lb 8 oz Corn Grits
• 6 oz Maris Otter
• Hops:
• None
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II (Second Pitch)
• WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis (Fourth Pitch)
• Yeast Bay Mélange Sour Blend (Second Pitch)
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 5.5 gal tap water
• 1 tsp Calcium Chloride
• 1 tsp Gypsum
• Extras:
• 5 handfulls of rice hull
• 1 oz Medium Toast Hungarian Oak Cubes (in primary - from previous batch)
• 1 oz Medium Toast Hungarian Oak Cubes during aging

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• Step 1:  161 F for 45 min (Target 160 F for 45 min)
• Step 2:  Ramped up to 175 F over 20 min (Target ramp up to 175 in 25 min)
• Boil:
• 80 min (Target 60 min)
• Fermentation Temp:
• Primary:  70 F
• Secondary:  60 F to 70 F (Ambient basement temps)
• Primary Duration:
• With Yeast:  4 weeks
• Lacto portion:  2 weeks
• With Mélange:  3 months
• Secondary Duration:
• TBD (15 to 33 months)

Results:

• OG:
• 1.046 (Target 1.045 - with 5 points from the Maltodextrine)
• Efficiency:
• 75% (Target 73% - does not include cereal mash)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.004)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 91%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 5.51%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/6/15 - Brewday - 12:00 PM to 4:15 PM - including setup and cleanup
• Widened the grain mill spacing a bit and crushed basemalt
• Heated 10.5 gal of spring water in the HLT and cycled through mash tun and RIMS until the system was at 170 F - took 45 min
• Ended up with 3 gal above the false bottom
• Added CaCl and Gypsum to the mash tun
• Added the rice hulls and stirred in

• Poured in the grain and stirred will to eliminate doughballs - it is a thick mash
• Setup the RIMS to cycle at about 2 qts per minute with the temp set at 163 F.  Found a good cycle rate this time so I was able to set it up and then not adjust it for the remainder of the mash.
• Added 2 gal of 200 F water to a separate pot for the cereal mash.  Added corn grits and 6 oz of crushed grain.  Temp was 172 F after adding the grain.  This probably denatured the enzymes (oops).  Let sit for 10 min
• Checked the mash temp after 10 min - ranged from high 150s to the low 160s.  Gave it a stir.
• Brought the cereal mash to a light boil and then killed the flame.  Covered the pot to keep the temps up.  Heated it to a light boil again right before transfer into the main mash.
• Added 5 gal of tap water to the HLT and heated to 200 F
• Mash temp was 161 after 40 min
• Raised the RIMS to 175 F after 45 min - took 20 min
• Once the mash was up to 175 F I added the cereal mash.  Let cycle with the cereal mash for 5 more min.  No issues with sticking this time.
• Drained the grant volume back to the mash tun
• Set the fly sparge for ~1 qt per min

• After collecting about 3 gal the gravity at the grant was 10.5 brix (1.042)
• Started heating the kettle after collecting 3 gal
• Ended up collecting a bit more than 8 gal - gravity at the grant was 2.5 brix at this point (1.010)
• Wort was at a boil about 5 min after the end of the sparge
• Added the maltodextrine after the hot break cleared
• Got very low on gas in the tank halfway through the boil which slowed it.  I swapped out to the other tank and got back to a good rolling boil - this probably cost me 20 min

• Boiled down to 6 gal
• Added chiller at flameout to sanitize
• Chilled down to 85 F and transferred a gallon of wort to the lacto cake
• Chilled down to 70 F and transferred the remainder of the wort to the fermenter
• I had forgotten to take the yeast starter out of the fridge to warm up at the start of the brewday so I moved both the fermenter and the jar of yeast down to the fermentation chamber at 70 F
• Pitched the yeast a couple hours later when it had warmed close to 70 F
• Measured the gravity as 1.046 and collected the planned 6 gal
• 11/7/15 - The fermenter was bubbling vigorously the next mourning.  The lacto half was over filled and ended up sending foam up into the airlock over night.  I cleaned it out and set it back up.
• 11/21/15 - Moved out of the fermentation chamber and pulled some yeast from the bottom with my siphon to two mason jars with DME wort to use for a future batch.  Took a sample and measured the gravity as 1.026.  It is a pretty red color (so the change to the grain bill did help) and it's got a subtle fruity yeast character.
• 11/22/15 - Poured the 1 gal of soured beer into the main fermenter.  I didn't measure the gravity or taste it this time.
• 12/5/15 - Moved the beer onto the yeast cake used for Flanders 2.1.1.  The beer was down to 1.022.  It has a pretty nice sourness from the lacto (it must have been able to do some work on the other beer in the fermenter after adding the lacto in).
• 8/7/16 - Transferred this beer into the glass carboy previously used for aging Flanders Red 1.2.1.  There were a couple cups of beer left at the bottom along with some yeast slurry.  Added 1 oz of oak cubes to the beer during the transfer.  The beer has a funky and slightly fruity aroma.  It is red and cloudy.  The flavor is slightly fruity and very tart - not sure if that's the Mélange or the Lacto primarily.  It also has a really nice malt profile that balances out the tartness in the finish.  I think it is really nice.  Gravity of the sample measured 1.003.  The blend no longer has the band aid aroma that I'd picked up initially.  Transferred Flanders Red 2.3.1 onto the cake for the next batch.

• 7/23/17 - Status Report:
• Bright fruity aroma mixed with earthy leather from the Brett.  Very rich
• Orangish red and a bit cloudy
• Light sourness.  Has a nice fruity character.  Also a smooth bit of bready malt in the finish.
• Pretty good set of flavors that pop nicely
• 9/4/17 - Used 3 gal of this beer in Flanders Red Blend #2.  Transferred the remaining portion of it's blending partner, Flanders Red 1.5.2, into the fermenter for further aging.  I am left with a bit less volume than I started with and quite a bit of head space.  It might be worth brewing a top up batch for this and some of my other beers in the relative near future.

Lessons Learned:

1. The new mill setting seemed to work better than the old one.  I had a good smooth flow.
2. The corn still provided a lot of starch with the short period of heating.  I think I'll use this approach again.  I also saw no ill effect associated with potentially not getting any conversion.  I may not use basemalt in the cereal mash next time.
3. I noticed that the wort has a slickness to it that I think must have been due to the corn starches.  I think the high temperature sparge really helped preventing this from being an issue.

Russian Imperial Stout with Brettanomyces Take II

The Russian Imperial Stout that I brewed last year has been bulk aging with Oak and Brett for just about 10.5 months.  It is smooth and mellow with really nice roast, coffee, and chocolate flavors.  It absolutely doesn't taste like a 10%+ beer.  I think it has aged enough at this point and want to start drinking some of it this winter.  This will be a batch to replace it in the glass carboy.

I will be sticking with the same grainbill as it seemed to have worked out really nicely.  I gave the LHBS an incorrect value so this batch will have 5 lbs of amber malt rather than the 4 lbs in the last batch.  I will also be mashing with the same 162 F I used for the last batch.  The last beer fermented down to 1.036 after primary and then after a month in secondary with the Brett it was down to 1030.  The gravity stayed there for a good 5 months but somehow the summer heat allowed fermentation to kick up again and the beer got down to 1.022.  We'll see if it manages to get any further at bottling time.

The Brett character in the first iteration of the beer was, at best, very subtle or, at worst, not there at all.  I'd like to increase that for this round if I can.  To that end I will be doing a warmer primary (70 F as opposed to the low 60s used for last batch) with an expressive English yeast (Wyeast 1318 London Ale III from this Robust Porter).  I am also going to deliberately under pitch, with 4 cubs of slurry,  My thought is that under pitching and the warmer fermentation temperature will cause the yeast to produce beer with more fruity esters.  The brett would then (theoretically) convert the fruity esters from the primary and create some earthy or leathery character from them.

The previous beer had inoculated oak cubes added to it to get the brett secondary fermentation started.  I will just use this brett to drive this fermentation as well (in addition to any dregs are at the bottom and a qt or so of beer that I'll likely leave behind with them).  I will add a second ounce of fresh oak cubes in case a lot of oak character has faded in the current ounce.

Finally, I am going to go with a vented silicon bung for this round to see if a bit more oxygen exposure could help the brett along.  This could backfire on me and allow the brett to supper-attenuate but I am willing to risk it.

Recipe Details:

• Grain/Adjuncts:
• 13 lb Maris Otter
• 5 lb Amber Malt
• 1 lb Brown Malt
• 8 oz Black Malt
• 2 lb Black Candi Sugar
• Hops:
• 2 oz Target (Pellet, 9.8% AA) at 120 min
• Yeast:
• Wyeast 1318 London Ale III (Second Pitch)
• 4 Cup Slurry from Robust Porter
• White Labs 645 Brettanomyces Claussenii (Third Pitch)
• From 1 oz of inoculated oak cubes
• Water:
• 10 gal spring water
• 9 gal tap water
• 1 oz Calcium Chloride in mash
• 1 oz Gypsum in mash
• 1 oz Calcium Chloride in boil
• 1 oz Irish Moss at 20 min
• Extras:
• 1 oz oak cubes from previous batch
• 1 oz medium toast oak cubes
• 10 handfulls of rice hulls

Process Details:

• Batch Size
• 6 gal (Target 6 gal)
• Mash:
• 162 F for 60 min (Target 162 F for 60 min)
• Boil:
• 120 min (Target 120 min)
• Fermentation Temperature:
• 70 F
• Primary Duration:
• 4 weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 48 weeks

Results:

• OG:
• 1.102 (Target 1.100)
• Efficiency:
• 76% (Target 75%)
• FG:
• TBD (Target 1.025)
• Apparent Attenuation:
• TBD (Target 73%)
• ABV:
• TBD (Target 9.84%)

Brewing Notes:

• 11/1/15 - Brewday - 1 PM to 6:15 PM including setup and cleanup
• Heated 10 gal of spring water and cycled through the Mash Tun and RIMS until the system was at 165 F
• Ended up with 6 gal above the false bottom
• Setup the RIMS to cycle at 2 qts per min at 164 F
• Added the CaCl and Gypsum
• Added the grain and stirred in to eliminate dough balls

• After 10 min the mash was at 157 F.  Gave it a stir and raised the RIMS to 166 F
• Started to get a stuck sparge.  I added 5 handfulls of rice hull and stirred in.  Still stuck so I added 5 more handfulls.  This seemed to do the trick.
• Stirred after 30 min.  Temp was up to 159 F.
• Brought 10 gal of sparge water up to 185 F
• Stirred after 45 min - mas was 162 F.  Lowered the RIMS to 164 F.
• Drained the grant volume back to the tun and added sparge water until there was about an inch of water above the grain bed

• Set the sparge up for about 1 gal every 5 min
• Started heating the kettle after collecting a couple gal.  It was to a boil after collecting about 8 gal
• Added more CaCl to the kettle during the sparge
• Collected 10 gal
• The gravity in the grant at the end of the sparge was 3.5 brix (1.014)
• Added the hops after the hot break cleared
• Added the irish moss with about 20 min to go in the boil
• Added the candi sugar with about 5 min left in the boil

• At the end of the 120 min boil I added the wort chiller to sanitize
• Chilled down to 70 F and then transferred into the fermentor.  Let fall a foot to sanitize
• The wort is super sweet - 1.102 and very bitter.  Collected 6 gal
• Moved to the fermentation chamber with reptile heater at 70 F
• Added 4 cups of yeast slurry (forgot to sanitize the measuring cup - oops) and setup with a blowoff tube as I'm anticipating a very vigorous fermentation
• 11/2/15 - The beer is bubbling vigorously this afternoon.  The chamber is holding steady between 70 and 72 F
• 12/13/15 - Transferred this beer into the carboy previously used for my first RIS with Brett.  Measured the gravity as 1.030.  The warmer fermentation temperature seems to have done the trick - the fruity esters are pronounced both in aroma and flavor.  Hopefully this will give the Brett a bit more to work on (as planned).  The beer is very bitter and has a lot of body.  I'm sure both of these will fade quite a bit with the long aging.  Added the additional ounce of oak cubes during the transfer - hoping this won't be too much.  Set the fermentor up with a vented silicon bung.  Will age the beer for the next year.  I'm not planning on taking another sample of this one until next October.

Lessons Learned:

1. I was getting a stuck sparge during cycling.  I'm sure this was not helpful for my efficiency.  I need to adjust the grain mill a bit to reduce the crush for the next batch.