The Yet To Be Named Belgian/Flemmish/Idahoen/Chicago Sour Ale....

So this is my second brewing this weekend (first was my hardened Cider, seen below) and was also a batch that I have been looking forward to cranking out for a while now. It all started at my local homebrew store when I started discussing Flemmish Sour Reds and it was revealed to me that they had one smack pack of Wyeast Roeselare Ale Blend (a seasonal Brett and Lactic culture which saw a seasonal release earlier this year..in spring..so I cant believe I found it!) which was ordered but never picked up...so I picked it up :)

My goal was to do a soured beer, started in a glass primary for 1 month, then moved into a brand spanking new plastic bucket (food grade of course), and laid down on some French oak for a good long while (at least 6 months until bottling...and even then I'm not sure if I will). The gravity however would be higher than a standard Rodenback, or Dutchess De Bourgogne and would be loosely based on an existing homebrew recipe that I went over at the brew shop.

So after a started and failed attempt last week to brew this up (crashed out my 400ml starter in the fridge when I found that I would be sitting on it until this weekend) I was right back in the saddle this morning at 5:30am..thanks to Higgins the Wonder Pooch. So after taking her out, and cleaning up things that..well have no place being mentioned with soured beers. I was heating up my mash water and dumping grain into the ole mashtun.

Mash started at 7am, and was held for 90 minutes, target starting mash temp was 154F which I narrowly missed with 155F. Final mash temp was found at 149F..evidently I'm losing a bit too much head somewhere...but I'm not all too worried about it.

You know what had never happened to me while brewing previously? A stuck sparge that's what! Yes I was living the dream..brewing and never having any sort of sparge issues...well that definitely came to a screeching halt this morning...

So after trying every little maneuver I could muster with my mash paddle, then moving on to blowing into the vinyl tubing, I was about to put one to the mash tuns side and then finish it off in true Mortal Kombat style by screaming "GET OVER HERE" and then proceeding to chuck a butter knife attached to my fly fishing line at it I decided I should first attempt to move all of the contents out, and into a bucket.

Well after moving all contents I found that my vinyl tubing had come loose so nothing was moving from under the false bottom, I quickly reattached and proceed to move the grain and water back into the mash tun..

Did you see what I did there? I still feel like slapping myself.....

So..yes the tubing was disconnected BUT that should not halt all flow, what would halt all flow was if there a blockage somewhere. I realized that somewhat quickly after letting fly a string of vulgarity that likely had our neighbors thinking I have terets...and at that point all grain was back in the mash tun.

So..back we go-all grain back into the bucket, false bottom and all parts removed and rinsed (oh, and guess what? There was a blockage!), mash tun rinsed to ensure no grain was trapped under the false bottom when reassembled, grain goes back into mash tun, I go rinse the bucket as that is where I am collecting the wort and then I'm back in business!

With the slowest f'ing sparge I have ever seen..seriously it took an hour and then some..but eventually I was left with 5.75 gallons of wort..and a promise to myself that I would never brew again without using some rice hulls.

So to wrap an already long post up I ended up boiling for 90 minutes, cooled and pitched. The Roeselare is already churning away as the starter was in good shape when it was pitched, so I've got that going for me..which is nice.

Fermentables:

Grain:

-17lbs Belgian Pale Ale

-1lb Flaked Wheat (or "that grain that fucks up your sparge if you dont use rice hulls")

-1lb Belgian Biscuit

-1lb US 6 Row

-1/8lb Belgian Aromatic

-1/8lb Belgian Special B

Other:

-1lb Belgian Dark Sugar (hard, not liquid)

-1/2oz Bitter Orange Peel

-1/2oz Sweet Orange Peel

-1/3oz Juniper Berries (crushed just prior to addition)

Hops:

Bittering:

-2oz Czech Saaz 2.5%AA-90 minutes

-1/8oz Amarillo 8.2%AA-90 minutes (not traditional but only used for AA content)

Flavoring:

-No hops added-orange peels, juniper berries, and Dark Candy added-15 minutes

Aroma:

-None

Yeast:

-Wyeast 3763, Roesalare Blend

Stats:

90 minute mash. Water to Grain Ratio 1.2 : 1

-155F at mash in

-149F at mash out

-Sparged with 20qts @ 168F

-90 minute boil

-Final Volume 4.75 gallons

Original Gravity: 1.080

Hardened Cider...

Howdy! Well this weekend saw the kickoff of my first hard cider, why make a hard cider you ask? Well because it seems that I am the only person online and with a few carboys who has not done this yet is why...it is also a tasty beverage.


After doing some homework on Northern Brewer (as you can see my research process off to the right consists of reading forums and drinking Saisons) I ended up deciding to utilize raisins, and Turbinado sugar to supply the yeast with some additional nutrients (raisins) and to give the concoction some amber hues while raising the ABV a bit (Turbinado sugar).

Process was very straightforward, which was much appreciated, I steeped the raisins in approx 1.2 gallon of the cider at 160F and held for 20 minutes just to be sure they were pasteurized. After doing so I put all 3 gallons (raisins included) into a glass carboy and pitched my yeast. The yeast I settled on was the Lalvin D47, which is intended for use with Chardonnay and Rose wines, neither of which are easy to find in a box (..okay..okay...so my wine appreciation does not stray far from the boxed variety...I'll work on it), seriously though this yeast looked great because it would not attenuate that highly (not as high as Champ. yeast anyway..) and also will work well in a wide range of temps (50F-85F), which suits me well in my climate controlled brewing operation (aka my office..on the ground next to my cpu). It has been 1 full day since then and the airlock is bubbling happily away...

I plan on letting this guy sit in primary for 2 months or so, then its off to secondary for another 1 or two months. I'm undecided if I will attempt to back sweeten at all..but I doubt I will.

Cheers!

Bottling and labeling of a Barley Wine-Episode I

After racking over my pumpkin ale this morning I thought I would take the bottled barley wine (brewed back in August and bottled this past week) and wax the bottles (wax was ordered from Northern Brewer-www.northernbrewer.com).

The process was pretty simple, after giving these bottles a few days to start priming and pushing out any residual O2 as the fresh Wyeast 1056 got working (this is just my hang up, not necessary as far as I know) I took a can of Coke, cut it in half and submerged with about 1.4lb wax into an old pot..which by the way is now part of my brewing equipment according to the wife :) filled with approx 1.5 inches of water and boiled until the was melted.

From there I'm sure you can figure out what happened, I dipped and let the wax run down naturally. What you can see in the pic to the right is the standard 22oz bombers which I bottled the bulk of the b.wine in, and next to it is the Champagne bottle used (originally a Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu) and poured the remaining was over the top to really give it an unique look. This is the bottle that we will age for 5 years..now I've got a reason to look forward to turning 35..kick ass! In the background you can see my loyal brewing assistant kicking it in her crate wondering just why the hell the "male one" is sitting on a floor taking pictures of bottles.

Next up I'll be designing labels for this bad boy with my wife.