First brew day of the years
by Beeraroundtown ~ April 20th, 2009. Filed under: Homebrewing, Uncategorized.
Yes, years. As my buddy and I started getting ready for the brew day in front of us the question was asked, when did I last brew? Although it didn’t seem that long ago the conclusion that was reached was summer of 2004, just a small 5 year sabbatical from the hobby, mostly due to living in small apartments and having my brew gear in storage. Now back on track, the Joy of Homebrewing briefly skimmed through, I was ready to get to it.
I stopped in at Steinbarts Saturday AM to pick up my supplies and a few replacement parts. The first person I encountered was a total dick, but luckely they had quite a few other people on staff that were all pretty helpful in finding the replacement parts I needed due to a 5 year storage of my gear. Supplies in hand I headed back to start the day. Normally I would have purchased my ingredients a day or two ahead and done a yeast starter, but I didn’t have time to make it into town this week.
Here is the grain bill, I didn’t really aim for a style, but sort of wanted some sort of Belgian beer between a Belgian Pale and Dubbel.
8 lbs Belgian pislner malt
1 lbs Belgian aromatic
.5 lbs caramel 60L
.5 lbs munich
2oz Fuggle hops
Wyeast Trappist Ale
Overall things went pretty well, starting gravity was 1.060 which was right about what I was aiming for. We added some table sugar to dry and thin out the body a bit. I could have collected more volume, but I lacked a measuring stick with my new kettle, probably should have done that beforehand huh? Dumb mistakes aside it went pretty smoothly and now it is fermenting away. I think after a few days I will put it in my attic to raise the fermentation temp up for a bit for more esters.
Next up will be a Saison that hopefully benefits from some good weather in the area to keep my attic nice and hot for the high fermentation temps.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Hmmm….. I was going to say, that’s a a pretty amazing extraction rate from that GOTT Cooler! They do a real good job at Single Infusion Extractions. I was bored, so I ran your Extraction numbers and figured if you got a 85% extraction, which would be VERY Good, your end volume would be about 4.25 gallons. Am I close??
Do you use a brewers Calculator?
If not, I have very simple one for mash volumes and adjustments….
April 20th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Doc,
Yah, we got just under 4 gallons, but keep in mind we added sugar as well, so that should have boosted the gravity a bit. I also needed to get more pre-boil volume since I did a 90min boil I probably lost 1.5 gallons or so.
I downloaded a program called Beer Smith to try out and do some calculations. Have you tried that out?
So Doc, what style did I create?
April 20th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I have a Beer Calc Frankenstein….. I hobbled it together from a bunch of different home made programs….. It works real well, but funky.
Style? Hopefully, something that tastes like a Belgian beer…. ;-}
The Belgian Beer Styles that do exists are kind of very loose or very tight. Based on your recipe your beer won’t be in any “Hardcore” Belgian style; i.e. Belgian Pale, Dubbel, Blonde, etc.
The BJCP has done something stupid and rolled a lot of Belgian Styles into a Specialty category which covers:
• Blond Trappist table beer
• Artisanal Blond
• Artisanal Amber
• Artisanal Brown
• Belgian-style Barleywines
• Trappist Quadrupels
• Belgian Spiced Christmas Beers
• Belgian Stout
• Belgian IPA
• Strong and/or Dark Saison
• Fruit-based Flanders Red/Brown
Your beer might fall into one of these categories, but I don’t think so…. The recipe isn’t complex enough for Dubbel, nor in the ballpark of a Belgian Pale, per accepted flavor guidelines…. Not the right dark malts for a Dubbel, nor any Biscuit or Toast for Pale. The gravity isn’t is either category either, but that doesn’t matter that much…
Wyeast Trappist High Gravity? Should give ya some fruit esters and some phenols. Of course, that depends a lot on fermentation temperatures. It may ferment to be BONE DRY… I don’t see a lot of dextrinous malts used, but I don’t know what your Mash Temp was, either…..
Belgian Aromatic is like a Munich malt and adds a Malted Barley flavor. 60L Crystal…. Mid Toffee. A Cara-Munich Malt would have gave you some Nutty toffee. Cara-Vienna would have given you a sticky sharp toffee, butterscotchy flavor. CV can acquire a Rummy flavor in excess. Special B would be used in Dubbels do to it’s Plum to Raisin flavors.
Fuggle are not usually used in Belgium, but that doesn’t mean never. Styrian and EK Goldings are more common due to their Spicy overtones. German and Czech NOBLE hops are widely used too…. There are plenty of American made Noble equivalent hops.
So, it’ll be some like of Belgian Ale.
April 20th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Who was the dick to you? Just curious. Anyhow, hope you are well, man. Talk to you soon.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:18 am
DA,
Was any of that info useful?
I don’t brew as often as I used too, so it’s fun to talk the brewing talk, once in awhile. I have a bunch of recipes if you’re interested….?
April 21st, 2009 at 10:44 am
Doc,
Good info for sure. I tend not to usually brew a style, hence my whack recipe, so normally I just set out to create a beer and see how it turns out. Sort of brew first, pick style later if I must mentality. It was the trappist high gravity yeast, I was going to use another one, but I couldn’t find it, so I went with that, I was hoping to have the beer really dry for the summer heat.
Not sure what I would do if I ever decided to enter a homebrew competition, I guess I could just scan the styles to see what fit. I’m thinking about maybe racking off a gallon of it and pitching some brett to see how that does, although the trappist may eat up all the sugar anyway right?
April 21st, 2009 at 11:36 am
Although “The DOC” is all hell-bent about beer styles and correct style correlation for sales of beer….. “I’m” not really into brewing to style, nor care if a beer is IN style.
I find it funny that most DW readers can’t see the separation…. ;-} There’s a major difference between a proper identifiable style label, that will identify what you are purchasing and educates the public of the style presented vs. Brewing the beer to style or no style. :-O
I don’t care if a beer doesn’t fit into a style…. just don’t say that it’s IN a certain style, if it’s not. That just causes confusion to the consumer and they don’t learn which style tastes like what… Of course, some people don’t really care either… which is a shame. That’s just drinking to drink without really appreciated the art and craft of brewing…. Other would argue! ;-}
I usually do what you’re doing… Brew a beer and see if it FITS into any style. Of course, I can brew to style if I want, but that gets boring…
Entering comps? I’ve judged my share of comps and can say Belgian Comp styles are very loose. As long as you don’t say your beer is a Dubbel and it doesn’t taste like Dubbel, you’re OK. It;s better NOT to give it a style, than to give it the wrong one. I’ve judges plenty of “Belgian Ales.” No other descriptor. Then I’m ready for anything!
Brett and Sugar? Brett will eat the residual sugar, but if the beer ferments real dry, you’d need to add sugar with the brett to give it something to eat. The more the Brett eats, the more Brett you will taste. Just remember….. Brett and other Wild yeasts take a long time to ferment! Some years! Brett takes quite awhile to make it’s presence, so you’d have to be patient. Maybe 8 months, plus.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:51 pm
D-
I’ve been fermenting a brew with that same yeast strain for about 2 and a half weeks now. Had a 1.072 OG (I decided to test the high gravity claim of the yeast) and primary won’t be done for at least 3 weeks. So far so good.
Doc –
Good to know about entering as a Belgian Ale, I’ve wondered about doing that since I too don’t brew to style. Mostly interested in learning what different inputs do to flavor. But if I had a good one I might want to enter it into a comp.
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Joe,
Smaller Homebrew comps have a tendency to have limited beer style Categories. This gives you a GOOD opportunity to enter a non-specific beer into a non-specific category, like “Belgain Ale.” If the comp only has specific categories like Dubbel or Tripel, they may not except a beer that’s not in that category. In that case, don’t enter if your beer doesn’t fit the category, you will be quickly removed from the first round tasting.
Belgians are great beers to put into competition, I know I enjoy the diverse offerings… ;-} Here’s a quiet hint…. If the beer fit into a style, make sure it’s balls on to that style. If it’s not to style, be vague on what type of beer it is…. make sure the beer has some intense Belgian characters. If it tastes like it’s brewed with Belgian malts, but has no Belgian Yeast taste, it could be judged as “Not within Style.”
Don’t be afraid to put a Belgian Pale Ale into an American or British Pale Ale category! I’ve had some award winning Pale Ales that were made with Belgian Grains! ;-}
After 20 years of judging, I can tell you…. There’s an art to winning a HB comp and some of that doesn’t come from your brewing skills… ;-}
“Inputs do to flavor” Are you talking what grains, yeast and hops will give what flavors?? If so, go to my DR Wort web site and email me, I’ll send you a list of which grains will add which flavors and some other insites…. like…. High Lovibond Crystals combined with certain other grains will give you a nice Rum’Raisin flavor…. Roast and Black patent don’t taste the same. A little 6-row will help increase mash efficiency. Some British ales need a little Corn to dry out the beer… and so on….. ;-}