This is my fourth English Barleywine in a series of beers that I've brewed up on Memorial day going back to 2014 - I've made slight variations each year. For this one I have used Wheat as a major component (20% of the grainbill) and have aged the beer on raisins soaked in rum for 5 months. I will do a verical tasting to assess the differences between the beers next week.
Most of these have had same two basic goals:
Light color
Finishing Gravity in the mid 1.02s for body
In previous batches I've ended up both a bit darker than desired (due to extended boil) and a bit more attenuated than expected. With this beer I've finally ended up with the right color and have gotten it to finish with the level of sweetness that I was hoping for.
I've been drinking this beer for the last month or so and have been really enjoying it (exclusively at cellar temperature - which this tasting is done at).
Tasting Notes:
Aroma:
Fruity yeast ester dominates - raisin-like. Sweet malt mixed in. Also get a bit of caramel. No alcohol and no hops come through. Has a very rich aroma.
Appearance:
Dark gold and quite clear. Pours with a 3 finger head that quickly settles down to a thin ring.
Flavor:
Fruity up front with a sweet, rich, malt backbone. The fruit is raisin-like. The malt is a mix of bready wheat and caramel It finishes with a bit of hop bitterness which provides some nice balance. I get a bit of alcohol from the beer but it doesn't taste like a 10% ABV beer. I don't really get any strong oak or rum character from the beer (these might just be well integrated with the other flavors) and the raisin could very well be intermingled with fruity yeast character.
Mouthfeel:
Medium bodied and little sticky on the palate. Mild astringency on the finish (oak's contribution maybe). A bit of warming alcohol as well.
Overall:
A complex Barleywine with a really lovely balance between fruity yeast and sweet malt. I'm happy with the color and the balance of the beer at the higher FG (1.034).
I really enjoy a Whiskey Barrel Aged Stout. For my money there is no better version than Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout. It is incredibly rich and flavorful and has a really profound bourbon character that no other beer I've tried has matched. I've brewed a couple "bourbon barrel" beers previously (Bourbon Barrel Oatmeal Brown Ale & Bourbon Barrel Chocolate Imperial Stout) and, while both turned out okay, neither were particularly rich or boasted the sort of bourbon character that I had been after.
I have decided to look to the masters and attempt to brew up a proper clone of BCBS. I'm going to use roughly the same grain bill used for the real BCBS which was generously published in this video (see 27:58):
This will be the biggest beer I've made so far with an OG of 1.129. Given the size of the beer I'll be assuming a conservative ~60% efficiency. To get 6 gal of this very sweet wort I'll need a huge 37 lbs of grain. This is a lot more grain than my mash tun can handle. To work around this I will do 2 mashes with half the grain in each.
Each will have as much water as the mash tun will fit, probably about 8.5 gal. I'll mash for 60 min at 155 F and then drain off the wort until I have 7 gallons in the kettle - this will be all the first runnings and then maybe a gal or so of sparge water. I'll boil this for 2 hrs which will get me down to about 3 gal of wort. In order to hit my gravity target I'll need the pre-boil wort to be at least 1.055 SG. I think I should be able to hit this number pretty easily unless something goes seriously wrong with the mash.
Concurrently with this first boil I'll run the second mash with the other half of the grain. I'll collect 7 more gallons from the second mash which will get me up 10 gallons in the boil kettle. This 10 gal needs to be 1.078 or better to get 6 gal of 1.129 beer. I'll boil this for 2 more hours or until the target gravity has been reached.
I'm going to bitter with 60 IBU of hops - I've chosen Magnum and Willamette to accomplish this.
For yeast I'm going with US-05 which I'm hoping will stop at around 12% ABV which will give me the desired 1.040 FG. I'll ferment at 66 F. I'm going to start fermentation in two vessels to provide lots of head space which will hopefully limit my blow off losses. Will combine the two batches after a week or two to let all the beer finish out together.
I do not have a used bourbon barrel to age this beer in unfortunately (no way in hell I could come up with 55 gal of this wort anyway). Given that, I think the biggest challenge for this beer will be getting the right kind of oak flavor. I've used Medium Toast Hungarian Oak cubes in multiple batches of beer and found that they consistently produce a wine like flavor (even when soaked in bourbon for extended periods). The lack of the char that is put on the inside of a bourbon barrels is a very likely explanation for this (I credit the Bertus Brewery Blog for opening my eyes to this concept - also note two very helpful links: HBT and Artisan Distiller). To try to address this potential shortfall I've decided to make my own toasted and charred oak cubes (having control over the level of toast and the dimensions of the the oak cubes is exciting - I feel like this will just be scratching the surface in terms of possibilities with this batch) I did this as follows:
Bought a couple board feet of white oak from a local wood working shop
Cut this into 6x0.75x0.75 inch pieces
Toasted these in the oven at 450 F for 2 hours wrapped in foil (based on some research into the flavor contributions). The oak really gave off a wonderful vanilla aroma during this toasting
Toasted vs Untoasted
Charred these with a propane torch. Put the fire out with a spray bottle
Put the wood into a jar of Makers Mark Bourbon to take on some whiskey character and soften the wood character. Let this age for several months prior to brewday
I will let the beer primary for 4 weeks and then I will cold crash it to drop the yeast. I'm going to age this in a secondary fermenter (likely a bucket) with 1 or 2 sticks of oak for 6-8 months.
This is an ambitious project and will be a very long brewday. I feel optimistic that I'm prepared enough and experienced enough to hit the desired OG number (my refractometer will be my friend in this process) - fingers crossed that I hit my FG number though.
Recipe Details:
Grain:
24 lb 2 Row
8 lb Light Munich
1.5 lb Chocolate Malt
1.5 lb Crystal 60L
1.5 lb Roasted Barley
12 oz Debittered Black Malt
2 oz Acid Malt
Hops:
2 oz Magnum (Pellet 14.1% AA) at 60 min
1 oz Willamette (Pellet 4.8% AA) at 30 min
Yeast:
2 Packs of US-05 "Chico" Ale Yeast (2nd Pitch for one pack)
Water:
20 gal Spring Water
TBD gal Tap Water
2 tsp CaCl
2 tsp Gypsum
1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
Extras:
4 oz Bourbon Soaked Oak
Aged with 2 oz for 4 months
Added 2 oz more for the remainder of the aging
Process Details:
Batch Size:
6.5 gal - diluted to 7 gal (Target 6 gal)
Mash:
155 F for 60 min
Boil:
4 hrs (Target 4 hrs)
Fermentation Temperature:
66 F
Primary Duration:
4 Weeks
Secondary Duration:
6-8 Months
Results:
OG:
1.140 diluted to 1.130 (Target 1.129)
Efficiency:
69% (Target 58%)
FG:
1.046 (Target 1.040)
Apparent Attenuation:
62% (Target 67%)
ABV:
13.05% (Target 13.73%)
Brewing Notes:
1/28/18 - Brewday - 9:30 AM to 6:15 PM including setup and cleanup
Heated 10 gal of water up to 185 F
Milled half the grains. Added half the CaCl and Gypsum to the grains
Moved 6 gal to the mash tun - let the temperature settle for 10 min. Ended up at 173 F. Added 1 quart of cool spring water and stirred in. Temp had settled down to 167 F after 10 more min
Added the grain. Stirred in well to eliminate doughballs. Added the base grain first and then the specialty malts. Mash Tun volume was a bit less than 9 gal with the grain and water. Temperature was 155 F after adding the grain. It had fallen to 154 F after 10 min.
Mashed for 60 min. Stirred the mash every 15 min - added 1-2 quarts of 200 F water prior to each stir to try to keep the temperature between 154 F and 155 (was successful for the most part).
Added half a gal more 200 F water to get up the very brim of the mash tun
At the end of the mash I vaurlaufed to clear the wort. Measured the gravity of this sample as 20 brix which is 1.083
Slowly drained the mash tun into the grant and pumped into the boil kettle. Topped up the mash tun with more hot water as I went (Added 5 more gal of sparge water during the process).
Gravity in the kettle was 19 brix after collecting 3 gal. Gravity in the grant was down to 15 brix at this point
Started heating the kettle after collecting 4 gal
After collecting 5 gal the gravity in the kettle is 16.6 brix and the gravity in the grant is 13 brix
After collecting 7 gal the gravity in the kettle is 16 brix and the gravity in the grant is 12 brix
Decided to use the last gal in the grant. The increased me up to 8 gal of 15 brix wort. So, I think I've gotten a bit more sugar out than I had anticipated
Had the kettle to a boil once the sparge completed. Set the timer to boil for 2 hrs.
Added ~7 more gal of water to the boil kettle for the next mash and heated up to 200 F
Drained off the remaining wort from the mash into my small 5 gal pot. Got ~2 gal of this. The gravity of this wort is 8 brix. I am going to include this in the next mash
Cleared the grain from the MLT
The boil started to slow a bit so I swapped out the propane tank part way through this first boil
Milled the other half of the grains - added CaCl and gypsum
Added second running to the mash tun - these were 135 F
Added 200 F water up to 6 gal in the mash tun - this settled out at 163 F
Added in the grain with 1 hr left in the first boil - stirred well to eliminate dough balls. It turns out I forgot to add the 2 oz of Acid malt I'd set aside. The temperature settled to 154 F. I added 1 gal of kettle water at 190 F. The temperature fell to 151 F in the mash tun. I checked the temperature at the top and it was 158 F. Decided to let it ride
After half an hr of mashing I added a gal of 210 F water. This raised the mash temp to 152 F at the temperature probe (was still 158 F at the top of the mash).
With 15 min left I added another gal of hot water
Drained my previous beer off the yeast cake for use in this batch.
At the end of the 2 hr boil I had just about 3 gal of wort. The gravity is too great for the hydrometer to measure (above 35 brix or so). Target is 30 brix so I'm doing considerably better than the 58% efficiency on the first mash.
Sparged slowly. Added hot water to the top as I went
Checked gravity on the vaurlauf sample and got 21 brix
After a gal collected the gravity at the grant was 18 brix
Collected pretty much all the first runnings - got 10.5 gal of wort. Gravity of the final running's were about 10 brix. Measuring the kettle gravity was not possible as samples taken from the bottom of the kettle were ~5 points higher than those taken from the top. The top was about 18 brix and the bottom was 23 brix.
Started the heat during the sparge. Was a boil shortly after the completion of the sparge
Boiled for 2 hrs
The beer was amazingly frothy during the 3rd hr of the boil. Had one pretty significant boil over where I lost maybe a pint of beer. After than I was able to avoid further boil overs by adjusting the heat down when the foam got close to the top
The second hr of the boil was much calmer fortunately
With 1 hr left I added the bittering hops - had about 9 gal of wort at this point
Rehydrated a second pack of dry yeast
Added the 30 min hops
Added Irish Moss at 15 min
The beer measured 30 brix with ~7 gal of beer at 15 min. I'm going to end the boil as planned
Put the wort chiller in to sanitize with 5 min left
Chilled the beer down to 70 F
Transferred 4 gal of the beer into my SS Brew Bucket onto the second pitch cake and 2.5 gal into a better bottle with the new, rehydrated yeast
Measured the gravity of the beer as 1.140. So, I overshot my target OG by 8%. I am going to add some spring water to get to 1.130 - this will require 0.5 gal. Added 3 cups to the 2.5 gal portion and 5 cups to the 4 gal portion. I verified that the new gravity was 1.130
Moved these to the fermentation chamber set to 66 F
1/29/18 - The batch that went onto the yeast cake took off very quickly and is fermenting very vigorously this morning (~12 hrs after completion of the batch). The portion with the fresh yeast hasn't started to show signs of fermentation yet.
2/2/18 - Fermentation has gone strong this week in both batches. There is still quite a bit of airlock activity in both fermenters today (5 days out).
2/5/18 - My curiosity has gotten the better of me so I've taken a gravity sample 1 week out from pitching. It is down to 1.050. Still have a bit of airlock activity so I'd guess it will come down a bit more. It is quite sweet and has a nice roast/chocolate flavor. Also pretty boozy and rough at this point.
2/10/18 - Transferred the 2.5 gal from the better bottle to the main fermenter. The krausen has mostly fallen from both of the beers. Ended up collecting up to a bit less than 6.5 gal of beer. Will give it a couple more weeks to finish up before transferring to secondary.
2/22/18 - Checked the gravity again - it is 1.048. I think it has gone as far as it is going to
2/26/18 - Cold crashed the beer down to 32 F
2/28/18 - Added gelatin for fining
3/2/18 - Transferred the beer to a bucket fermenter with a vented silicone bung to secondary. Added two toasted and charred oak sticks that had soaked in whiskey for several moths to age with the beer. Ended up with a little more than 6 gal in separating it from the yeast cake.
4/1/18 - I moved the beer into a non-climate controlled room off the garage. I hope the temperature changes through summer help draw out more oak and bourbon flavor
4/12/18 - Took a sample. The aroma has a pretty strong whisky and oak influence - very close to BCBS in the regard. These come through in the flavor as well but it isn't anywhere near the levels in the real thing just yet.
5/3/18 - Took another sample. Bourbon is barely perceptible in the aroma and not present at all in the flavor. Not sure how that happened since there was a pretty pronounced aroma of bourbon and oak a month ago. Otherwise the beer is tasting pretty nice - rich, smooth, and pretty complex with dark chocolate notes. Will check on it in another month.
5/4/18 - Moved the beer into a room of the house that has been getting a bit warmer (70s-80s) in the hopes that heat will help the beer penetrate further into the oak in order to draw out more flavor.
6/15/18 - Took another sample which I've compared with the real BCBS. The aroma of my beer has a bit of whisky but not quite as much as the real thing. The flavor of mine is significantly less whiskey forward than BCBS. More time with the oak is definitely needed. Mine tastes nice at this point even when compared head to head with BCBS which I think is a good sign
7/8/18 - The beer has now been aging on the oak for a bit over 4 months so I'll do another side by side comparison between it and the real BCBS (2017 version). Both beers have a very boozy aroma and both have a rich chocolate/coffee smell - the real BCBS has a stronger bourbon/oak presence. Both beers have very pleasing and complex flavors but, just like last tasting, the flavor of the real BCBS has a lot more bourbon character than my version. I don't think mine has picked up any more oak than it had last month and, based on this, I think it is unlikely to pick up much more over the next 4 months. I could be happy with my beer but I really want that bourbon flavor that BCBS provides so I'm going to add two more sticks of oak that I've continued to soak in bourbon.
8/10/18 - 5 month mark tasting side by side with a 2017 BCBS. Mine has picked up quite a bit of whiskey aroma after the addition of two more oz of oak. Not quite as much as the BCBS but it has closed the gap. Also a lot more whiskey flavor to my beer this month but still quite different than the BCBS. My beer is quite a bit smoother than the BCBS. Three more months to go. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.
9/14/18
6 month tasting site by side with a 1017 BCBS. In terms of aroma my beer is basically indistinguishable. Both have very prominent and pleasant bourbon aroma. Flavor wise they are still a fair bit different. The BCBS has a much firmer bourbon bite than mine. Mine has similar level of bourbon flavor but is quite a bit smoother in the finish with more prominent chocolate and coffee notes than the real thing. Both beers are excellent. Some theories regarding the differences:
Maybe the barrels have more really oaky/concentrated whiskey saturated than my sticks brought to the beer. This could cause their beer to have more whiskey than mine
I soaked these sticks in 45 proof makers mark. Whiskey is aged in the barrel at 60+ proof typically. This 60 proof spirit is what is mixing with the BCBS. The stronger spirit seems like a good candidate for the stronger bite in theirs.
I ended up 10 sg above the suggested FG. It could be the sweeter/fuller body of the beer would change how the whiskey were perceived even if all other process details were creating the same whiskey character BCBS has.
I plan to brew another one of these in October/November to try out some of these ideas
I'll age this current batch for another couple months
11/2/18 - Bottling day - measured the FG as 1.046. Bottled with 4 oz of priming sugar and some Primier Cuvee wine yeast. Collected 6 gal of beer which got me 32 ~16 oz/~500ml bottles and 15 12 oz bottles. Happy to have this one done!!
2/11/19 - Tasting Notes - This is a big, rich, and complex beer. The base beer brought a real rich set of flavors which stand up nicely to the the whiskey and oak. This was intended to be a clone of BCBS but I'm thinking I likely missed the mark a bit in terms of the strength of the whiskey character. Even so I think the beer strikes a very nice balance of it's own. I'll be brewing another one of these.
2/16/19 - Side by Side Comparison My Beer vs BCBS 2017
Aroma:
Both beers have a fairly pronounced whiskey and oak character but the BCBS has a more pronounced booze character. I get a lot more chocolate and caramel malt out of mine than from the BCBS
Appearance:
The two beers are pretty much an exact match for color. Carbonation seems about the same as well - about equal amount of head on an agressive pour. The BCBS head lingers a bit longer than min.
Flavor:
My beer has bold set of malt flavors that then sort of fade into oak and whiskey. The BCBS seems to be more whiskey and oak forward right out of the gate and malt is playing more of supporting role. In the finish my beer has lingering alcohol presence, some malt, and a bit of hop bitterness. The BCBS is a bit firmer in terms of alcohol burn and has a really lovely chocolate malt component that lingers. A lot of similar flavors but the balance is quite different.
Mouthfeel:
The beers are very similar in terms of body and sweetness (full and slightly sweet). Mine is a bit smoother where the BCBS is a bit prickly. Both have noticeable alcohol warming. BCBS burns the nose a bit when swirling it in my mouth.
Overall:
I think the major difference between the two beers is the intensity of the alcohol. Both have a whisky and oak presence but the balance is shifted much more towards the whiskey with BCBS than in My Beer. Both are pleasant but I think I prefer the balance struck by the real BCBS.
As an experiment I added some Whiskey mixed with a few drips of water to the mix. The difference in terms of Whiskey character between my beer and BCBS is much less than the difference between BCBS and whiskey.
9/6/20 - Performed another vertical tasting comparing this beer to my 2019 version as well as the real BCBS. The beer has held up very nicely. I don't have too many of these left at this point. I'll need to restrain myself if I'd like to have the opportunity to include it in a vertical tasting next year.
Lessons Learned:
I found that the temperature at the top and bottom of the mash were not equal for this beer. I probably would have been better off recirculating this one
Found that the gravity at the top and bottom of the boil kettle were also quite different which made tracking of efficiency a bit tricker
The double mash worked out very nicely. My timing of the cleanup from one mash to setting up an executing the next one fit very well within the 2 hr boil
I'm worried that my wort chiller may have formed a small leak. I didn't get a good to drain it and I could have sworn that I saw a bit more dripping that is normal. I need to test it before the next brew day.
This recipe is an English Bitter-like malt bill with American Hops and Yeast. I have been wanting to try a beer using some homemade brewers caramel (aka Invert Syrup) for quite some time. This is an ingredient traditionally used by British Brewers. I found a nice article documenting the process of making it, along with a traditional recipe using it, on the homebrewersassociation.org web page. I'm going to give it a shot.
I had previously made a Candi Syrup in an Amber Ale which used a similar process.
For hops, I'll be using some homegrown Cascades from a friend of mine. I have 4 oz that I'll use for a late additions. I'll use some store bought Cascades with a known AA% to bitter the beer to ~30 IBU.
I'll be fermenting the beer using US-05 which is the Chico strain. I'll use this yeast cake on a second, larger, beer a week or two later.
I ran out of acid malt and forgot to pick up more. I'm going to acidify the mash with Citric Acid. Decided on 1/8 a tsp which should be below the taste threshold - not sure it will help much with mash pH.
I purchased a new stainless steal fermenter which I'll be trying out for the first time with this batch (SS Brewtech's 7 gal Brew Bucket). It is really a nicely made piece of equipment. I'm really excited about the swiveling spigot on it which will eliminate the need to auto-siphon. I plan to relegate my plastic brew buckets to sour beers going forward.
Recipe Details:
Grain/Adjunct
4 lb and 12 oz Munich
3lb 5 oz Maris Otter
1 lb Flaked Corn
1 lb Dark #3 Invert Syrup
Hops:
0.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 8.3% AA) at 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade (Pellet, 8.3% AA) at 30 min
1 oz Cascade (Pellet, 8.3% AA) at 5 min
2 oz Cascade (Whole Hop) at 0 min
2 oz Cascade (Whole Hop) Dry hop for 7 days
Yeast:
US-05 "Chico" Ale Yeast
Water:
10 gal spring water
1/8 tsp Citric Acid
1 tsp CaCl
1 tsp Gypsum
1 tsp Irish Moss at 15 min
Process Details:
Batch Size:
5.5 gal - Target 6.5 gal (6 gal in the fermenter assuming loss to hops)
Mash:
155 F for 60 min
Boil:
60 min
Fermentation Temp:
66 F
Primary Duration:
1 week
Secondary Duration:
2 weeks
Results:
OG:
1.045 (Target 1.044)
Efficiency:
67% (Target 72%)
FG:
1.012 (Target 1.008)
Apparent Attenuation:
73% (Target 81%)
ABV:
4.33% (Target 4.73%)
Brewing Notes:
1/20/18 - Made 1 lb of #3 Invert Sugar
Mixed 1 lb of Demerara Sugar, 1 cup of water, and 1/8 tsp of Citric Acid
Heated on Medium low
Took a couple hours to raise the temperature to 310 F at which point the sugar was very dark (almost black) and smelling very nice
Let it sit out to cool - went solid at room temperature
1/21/18 - Brewday - 11:15 AM to 3:45 PM- including setup and cleanup
Heated 10 gal of spring water to 190 F
Milled my grain. Added CaCl, Gypsum, and Citric acid to this
Measured out 1 lb of flaked corn
Added 4 gal of strike water to the Mash Tun - temp settled to 172 F
Added my grain (first the barley and then the corn). Stirred well to eliminate doughballs
Temperature settled to 156 F after 10 min
Mashed for 60 min. The temp was down to 155 F by the end of the mash
Fly sparged (after vaurlaufing) with 190 F water until I had collected 8 gal of wort. I drained the mash tun slowly into my grant and then pumped out of the grant and up into the boil kettle.
Started heating the kettle part way through the sparge
Added the 60 min hops after the hot break cleared
Liquefied the candi sugar again by adding hot wort to it. I had to do this multiple times to get all of it out. Poured this back into the kettle as I went
Added the 30 min hops
Rehydrated my dry yeast with a couple cups of 100 F spring water
Added irish moss with about 15 min left to go in the boil
Added 5 min hops
Added the Wort chiller with a few min left in the boil
Bagged up my whole leaf hops and added them to the kettle at flame out
Slowly chilled the wort down to 70 F (took about 15 min)
Drained this into the fermenter. Let it fall a couple feet to aerate. Added the yeast during this transfer
Moved the fermenter to my chest freezer setup with a reptile heating pad. Set this to ferment at 66 F. I am using a blow off tube for this batch.
1/22/18 - The beer was bubbling fairly vigorously by the afternoon
1/28/18 - Transferred this to a bucket fermenter to finish out in order to free the fermenter and yeast cake for my next beer. The spigot and rotating arm worked nicely but it did leave a pint or so in the cone. I poured that off into the bucket fermenter.
2/3/18 - Added 2 oz of Whole cone hops to the beer in hop sacks weighed down with stainless steel nuts. They're floating on the surface initially. The hops smell very nice.
2/10/18 - Bottled with 4.5 oz of priming sugar (used Demerara Sugar). Measured the FG of the beer at 1.012. Collected 5 gal of beer which netted me 48 12 oz bottles. The beer has a nice smooth malt profile along with some piney hop and mild bitterness in the finish. I'll give it a week to carb up before opening the first one.
3/5/18 - I found that the bottles had formed pellicle after a couple weeks in the bottle - looks like I have picked up some sort of infection in these. No idea at what point that happened. The beer I pitched onto this yeast cake in primary had no signs of infection after a month so I don't think that was the source. I've been drinking a few of these a week and haven't noticed any flavor impacts or over-carbing so far. Will do a tasting soon.
4/14/18 - Tasting Notes - This is a really pleasant, flavorful, low alcohol beer. I find the malt character to be nicely complex and very enjoyable. Fresh, the beer was somewhat similar to a session IPA with some pretty pronounced floral hops. Now that those have faded it is very much like an English Bitter - I've enjoyed all phases of it's evolution.
Lessons Learned:
This method of making candi sugar was pretty darn easy. I kept the temperature at medium low the whole time and the boil was very subdued. I was able to just creep up to the 310 F target temperature without any scorching. The syrup tastes very nice as well. I don't think I'll be buying it again after seeing how easy it was to make.
Working with the whole cone hops was very nice for the late additions. The bags do a great job of containing them and keeping them out of the fermenter. They smelled really great as well - I think I could pick Cascade hops out of lineup pretty well at this point - really enjoy them. I am seriously considering trying to grow my own again.
I found that my dry hop bags never fully submurged after 7 days. I didn't weigh them down enough. I thought that as they absorbed beer they would sink on their own. I believe the hop aroma suffered because of this. I should have weighed them down properly at the start just to be sure.
Last year I embarked on what turned out to be a 6 month processes of making my own Ice Cider. This is a cider that is 4x concentrated (up to 40 brix which is 40% sugar content) via freezing and then fermented to the low teens ABV (wine strength) which, due to the high starting sugar content, results in a very sweet finished product. My Ice Cider slowly fermented down to 23 brix from 40 which resulted in a 14.5% ABV cider.
I bottled it back in July 2017 and have been sampling one every month or so. I'm happy to say that they've all remained perfectly still so far - looks like I dodged the infection bullet.
I only ended up with 20 bottles for all my labors and I'm going through them fairly quickly. I decided I better get in some tasting notes while I've still got them.
It is truly an extreme beverage and quite interesting to sample (in small quantities).
Tasting Notes:
Aroma:
Intense apple cider aroma dominates. Also get a bit of alcohol and what I think is yeast ester which provides a slightly different bit of fruitiness (wine-like maybe)
Appearance:
Dark gold and very clear. It is perfectly still.
Flavor:
Very sweet with a concentrated apple flavor. Alcohol flavor is mostly hidden. There is a somewhat sharp flavor in the finish which may be a mix of alcohol and tannin
Mouthfeel:
Full bodied and sticky sweet. It has a slight astringency that comes through in finish that cuts through the sweetness.
Overall:
This is really an amazingly intense beverage. It tastes exactly like you would expect a 4x concentrated cider would taste like - intense apple and incredible sweetness. What is nice is that it doesn't taste how a 14.5% ABV beverage might be expected to. I really like how the bit of sharpness in the finish sort of counters the sweetness - it makes taking the next sip much more enjoyable than I think it would be if it were purely sweet. Even so, this is a beverage to sip in small quantities. I've found that 4 oz at a time is more than enough. I've been taking a week or so to get through a bottle - keeps well in the fridge fortunately
My first year raspberry plants unexpectedly ended up producing enough fruit for two batches of beer (22 lb). This will give me the opportunity to make up a third blend of Flanders Red this year (in addition to plain and cherry blends). I've never had a straight raspberry Flanders Red but I strongly suspect that beer and fruit flavors will get along well.
For this batch I am choosing to blend two beers I haven't used yet: Flanders Red 1.6.1.B:
Brewed:
1/15/16
Overview:
Sixth pitch onto Roeselare yeast cake
Cereal Mashed with Corn Grits
Used Maltodextrine to give yeast a bit more to work on
Primary fermented with Belgian yeast
Soured a portion of the batch with lacto during primary
Aged on the yeast cake for the entire period
Aged in a bucket fermenter
Tasting Notes:
Earthy funk and a bit of fruit in the aroma. Rich.
Orange/red and a bit cloudy
Light sourness. Earthy funk with a little fruitiness. Finish has some bready malt.
Batch fermented with a culture built up from Rodenbach Foederbier
Cereal Mashed with Corn Grits
Used Maltodextrine to give yeast a bit more to work on
Primary fermented with Belgian yeast
Soured a portion of the batch with lacto during primary
Aged in a glass carboy
This is half of a split batch - the other half is aging in a bucket fermenter.
Tasting Notes:
Funky and earthy aroma. Dark fruit mixed in as well
Orangish red and cloudy
Light sourness with an interesting Brett funk (band aid like)
Mild flavor with a fair bit of complexity. Doesn't taste particularly like Rodenbach unfortunately.
I will be mixing together 2.5 gal of each of these beers. Each beer brings some unique flavors to the table which I hope will be complimentary. Both ended up with a fairly mild level of sourness which I'm thinking will leave some room for the acidity the fruit are going to impart. I'll combine the remained beer back into the 6.1.1.B fermenter (this will get me down to 6 glass carboy of Flanders Red).
I'll be using 10 lbs of fruit for this batch. This amount of fruit ended up giving a very strong character to the Black Raspberry Tart I brewed a couple years ago. The raspberries have been kept frozen solid in the freezer for the last couple months - this should allow the juices to be released more easily.
I plan to give this beer 3-6 months on the raspberries to ensure all the flavors are well incorporated.
Blending Notes:
12/17/17
Transferred 2.5 gal of Flanders Red 3.1.1.A to a bucket fermenter
Transferred 2.5 gal of Flanders Red 1.6.1.B to the bucket fermenter
Added 10 lbs of raspberries and stirred them in
Racked the remainder of Flanders Red 3.1.1.A into the 1.6.1.B fermenter
Set this up with a 3 piece airlock
5/6/18 - Bottled the beer today
Made some Invert #3 syrup to back sweeten and carb the beer. Used 1.75 lbs Dimarara sugar, 1/4 tsp of Citric acid and 2 cups of water. Heated at medium low until it was 290 F and a nice red color. Added a cup of boiling water after it had cooled down to 200 F to make sure it stayed a liquid
Re hydrated some red star wine yeast
The beer has a funky looking pellicle with the fruit floating on the surface
Measured the gravity as 1.004
Transferred to the bottling bucket with the Invert #3 and yeast. Ended up with 5.5 gal. Had quite a bit of the fruit flesh make it to the bottling bucket.
Got 54 bottles of beer out of this batch. Bottling was a bit more painful than normal due to fruit getting stuck in the bottling wand spring
The beer is a really lovely red color with an intense raspberry aroma - it is almost candy like. It is quite sour and, before the sugar addition, was very dry. I think the sugar will balance the beer nicely and let the fruit come through a bit better.
I will open a bottle of this every few days to check on carbonation levels. Will pasteurize these when the carbonation is where I want it.
5/17/18 - I've had a couple bottles of this over the last few days. They have reached a nice level of carbonation now. Pasteurized the bottles in a 150-160 F water bath for 15 min. I had two bottles explode on me in the process.
9/30/18 - Tasting Notes - I really enjoy the Raspberry character of this beer. The complex base beer has been almost completely overwhelmed by the 10 lbs of fruit but still comes through enough to provide some balance. The acidity a bit more intense than I would preferred but is still easily within the range that I can enjoy. The slight sweetness from the backsweetening really helped this one a lot I think.
In my recent tasting of the Sour Blonde ales I've accumulated so far I was a bit disappointed in the level of complexity that had developed in beers that I'd been aging for 2-3 years. Many had no sourness and only very light Brett character. I plan to make a few blends with these in the next month or so and was thinking they would benefit quite a bit from the sourness being raised slightly. To try to accomplish this I am going to brew up a top up batch that I'll acidify in primary using Lactobacillus and blend that into the older beer.
I left 1-1.5 gal of headspace in all my sour blonde fermenters. This will give me an opportunity to add some fresh beer with some additional fermentables as well as a good amount of acidity. Hopefully this will make for a more interesting beer as it goes through a final bulk aging post blending. I'll make 5 gal of beer for this purpose.
I'll also use this top up batch to make some acid beer using the Omega Lacto blend I pitched with Sour Blonde 4.1.1 a couple weeks ago. I'll split this cake into two 1 gal carboy. I'll use this during blending to add a bit more acidity if needed. This will be 2 more gal of top up beer.
Finally, I've decided to attempt a spontaneous fermentation with 3 gal of this beer. It has been between freezing and 50 F for the last couple weeks so I believe this should be an optimal time to capture the right kinds of bugs. I'll be trying to capture microbes from my raspberry plants using a the air exposed cooling technique leveraged by the Belgian Lambic brewers. I am going to hop this portion of the batch to try to inhibit molds and other nasties in the air. I'll use some Apollo hops I've been keeping in the fridge for the last couple years for this. I'll plan to age this portion for 1-3 years in the original fermenter. This should be an interesting experiment - hopefully fermentation is vigorous enough to out compete the spoilage microbes I'll undoubtedly also be inviting into the beer. If it works out well I'll try it again next year
I'll be sticking with basically the same cereal mashed raw wheat and pilsner malt grain bill I've used for the last few of these beers. Should give me a nice starchy wort for the microbes to work with.
Recipe Details:
Grain/Adjunct:
8 lb Pilsner
1.5 lb Munich
5 oz Acid Malt
10.75 oz Maltodextrine
Cereal Mash:
6 lb Raw Wheat
1.5 lb Pilsner
Hops:
Top Up Batch:
None
Sour Blonde 5.1.1
0.25 oz Apollo (Pellet, 18.5% AA) at 15 min
Yeast:
Top Up Batch:
Main Portion:
Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II
WLP 672 Lactobacillus Brevis
Laco Top Up:
Omega Yeast OYL-605 Lactobacillus Blend (L. Plantarum and L. Brevis)
Sour Blonde 5.1.1:
Spontaneously Collected
Water:
11.5 gal spring water
~4 gal Tap water
2 tsp CaCl
Process Details:
Batch Size:
10 gal
Mash:
Main Mash:
161 F - 158 F over 60 min
Cereal Mash:
Step 1: 120 F for 15 min
Step 2: 150 F for 15 min
Step 3: Boil for 15 min
Boil:
60 min (15 more min for 5.1.1)
Fermentation Temperature:
Primary: 75 F
Secondary: Ambient Basement Temps
Primary Duration:
2 Weeks
Secondary Duration:
Top Up: 1-3 months
Sour Blonde 5.1.1: 1-3 years
Results:
OG:
1.048
Efficiency:
74%
FG:
TBD
Apparent Attenuation:
TBD
ABV:
TBD
Brewing Notes:
11/19/17 - Brewday - 7 AM to 5 PM included Cereal Mash, Setup, Cleanup, and Yeast Capture
Cereal Mash:
Milled cereal grain and added to 2 gal of tap water and 1.5 gal of spring water
Heated this to 120 F and let sit for 15 min
Heated the cereal mash to 150 F and let sit for 15 more min
Brought to a boil for 15 min
Let this cool for a few hours - formed an interesting jelly-like layer on the surface in this period - I assume this is gelatinized starches
Heated 10 gal of strike water to 175 F
Milled my grain - added the CaCl to the milled grain
Added the cereal mash to the mash tun first - this was about 4 gal of liquid. The temperature settled to 168 F with this
Added 3 gal of strike water. Stirred this a bit and then let the temperature settle. Was still at 168 F
Added the main mash grain and stirred well to eliminate dough balls. The temperature settled to 161 F after 10 min
After 60 min mash the temperature was 158 F
Heated remaining 7 gal of sparge water to 185 F
Vorlaufed until the wort ran clear
Fly sparged with all 7 gal of the sparge water. Used a new toy for fly sparging: SS Brewtech Sparge Arm. It worked pretty nicely. I had some flow rate problems out of the HLT where the line was getting steam bubbles - need to find a solution to this.Drained into my grant and then pumped the wort into the boil kettle.
Ended up a couple gal short so I sparged with a bit more tap water
Started heating the boil kettle after collecting 3-4 gal of wort. Had the wort to a boil shortly after completing the sparge.
Boiled for 60 min
Added Maltodextrine during the boil
Moved my Yeast and Lacto culture out of the fridge to warm up during the brew day
Split the Omega lacto culture from Sour Blonde 4.1.1 into two 1 gal glass jugs
Added the wort chiller to sanitize with 5 min left in the boil
Chilled down to 90 F and drained off wort into the two 1 gal lacto jugs
Chilled the remaining wort to 80 F and drained 5 gal off to a bucket fermenter - let this fall a couple feet for aeration. Added the yeast/lacto culture during the transfer. Moved these to the fermentation chamber with a reptile heating pad to maintain a 75 F fermentation temperature
Measured the gravity as 1.048. I dropped the sample and broke my measuring container. Somehow the hydrometer survived.
Brought the remaining 3.5 gal of wort back to a boil
Added my hops and boiled for 15 min
Moved the Boil Kettle outside to collect some wild yeast. I set it up between my raspberry plants. I covered the kettle with some cheese cloth to keep out bugs and leaves
Left this to cool for a few hours
Once it was down to 80 F I transferred the beer to a 3 gal better bottle. Moved this into the fermentation chamber
11/20/17:
Spontaneous Fermentation Day 1: No activity
11/21/17:
Spontaneous Fermentation Day 2: Light Krausen Forms
11/22/17:
Spontaneous Fermentation Day 3: Vigorous Fermentation
11/23/17:
Spontaneous Fermentation Day 4: Fermentation Slows
11/26/17:
Spontaneous Fermentation Day 7: Fermentation About Done
12/2/17 - Transferred the main portion of the top up batch onto Sour Blonde 1.1.1(1.25 gal), 1.2.1 (1 gal), 1.3.1 (0.5 gal), 1.4.1 (1.25 gal), and 1.5.1 (1 gal). Measured the gravity of the top up beer as 1.020 - it has a nice level of sourness along with a pretty rich wheat flavor. The beer had formed a bubbly pellicle over the last two weeks.
12/3/17 - Added a dozen or so Chardonnay soaked oak cubes to Sour Blonde 5.1.1. Moved the fermenter out of the chest freezer. Also moved the acid beer out of the chest freezer
12/10/17 - There is a bit of foam in the beers I topped up indicating fermentation is kicking up again.
2/17/18 - Found that the spontaneously fermented beer (Sour Blonde 5.1.1) has started to form a pellicle. The beer had just had a bit of krausen left on the surface previously. Had some mold growing in the airlock from when fermentation pushed krausen up into it. I cleaned that out really well. Still haven't tried this beer.
Aroma: Lightly fruity aroma with a bit of musty and earthy smell
Appearance: Light gold and pretty murky
Flavor: No sourness has developed. Has a pretty firm bitterness in the finish and a bit of fruity Belgian like yeast character
Mouthfeel: Light and very dry. Pretty smooth drinking
Overall: Not very interesting or very tasty unfortunately. Interesting that it's so bitter after almost 2 years of aging.
Lessons Learned:
Doing the cereal mash a few hours before the beer worked out nicely as it gave it time to cool to a more manageable temperature. This made it easier to handle and prevented it from having such a significant impact on the overall mash temperature. I think I'll do this again
The fly sparge arm was nice. I need to figure out a better way to get the water to gravity feed down to the pump from the HLT. I get steam bubbles which interrupt the flow pretty frequently I have a couple elbow (one for the water pickup and one at the disconnect) which I suspect could be contributing to this. I will eliminate both of them.
I was really happy that my spontaneous fermentation took off as quickly as it did and led to some fairly vigorous activity. I'm going to try this again next fall with a larger batch.
