Taste Test - Angry Dwarf Holiday Ale

Christmas has come and gone.  I was sick but found enough time to go to the family gathering and do a taste test of the Angry Dwarf next to some Mad Elf.

First up was the 2013 Mad Elf - Cherry flavor was more in the background.  Pretty sweet flavor overall.  String alcohol taste though.

Next was the 2012 Mad Elf - The cherry flavor really came out in the older version. This one tasted more like booze though.

Finally was my Angry Dwarf. You know what I think of it based on my previous post. So here is what the general thoughts from the rest of the family are.  Everyone thought the cherry flavor - both tart and sweet - was more prominent and made it something a bit more special than the Mad Elf.  The reduced ABV due to the BIAB method was a happy accident.  Coming in at 9.5% its still a big beer but it does not taste boozy like the Mad Elf.

Overall this was huge success.  My friend Speedy is the one I brewed this for so we will see what he says this weekend.

Looks like this will be the new holiday brew.

On another note, I got a lot of gift certificates and the new Dark Star Burner.  It's time to brew.

Tasting Day: Angry Dwarf Holiday Ale

I cracked open a taster bottle for the Angry Dwarf Holiday ale last week when we were trapped in our new house due to the ice storm.

What better time to enjoy a holiday ale with a big punch to help combat cabin fever?

It will head out to the Vorp holiday party tomorrow to see how the crowd likes it.

Appearance - Deep ruby red with a thin beige head.

Smell - Sweet Cherries, hint of the honey may be some of that sweetness smell. Alcohol. Clove. Banana. Maybe even "cough medicine" could be used to describe the smell. No hops.

Mouthfeel - Medium mouth and medium carbonation. Seems to be right for the type of beer.

Taste -Big strong cherry and honey flavor with the traditional trappist yeast flavors in the background. Very easy drinking.  As it warms the alcohol flavor shows up and the Belgian yeast flavors start to take over.

Overall -  I tasted this on Saturday and then a Mad Elf on the following Tuesday. They are clearly different as mine has more sweetness fruit flavor than the Mad Elf.  I find it to be just as good - if not better - though.  I don't know if I would really change anything.  I think it's a great beer.  We will do some side by side tasting tomorrow.  Maybe I will post the results.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Wood Barrel Sours - Updates

Last weekend I found some time to transfer beer out of the wooden barrels into some plastic buckets to age with some fruit.  Here is a rundown of what happened.  This first batch of sours was a quick soured wort and then aged for 4 months with some Roeselare Yeast/Bugs.  Dregs from other bottles where added along the way all in an attempt to inoculate my barrel for future long-aged sours.

I collected 5 gallons from the barrel.  0.3 gallons must of been lost to the angels share or soaked up by the oak - or both.  Here is how I broke it all down.

1 Gallon - Straight
2 Gallons - On 2.5 lbs of tart cherries to create my version of a kriek
2 Gallons - On 2 lbs of Zante Currants.  Copying the idea of Consecration by Russian River

Another thing to know is that this is the same wooden barrel that stored one batch of Cab Sauv.

All three vessels got one last shot of Brett with White Labs Brett Trois and some more Lacto to hopefully add a bit more of a punch in the sour department.

If you go back and read some of my other quick sour experiments a lot of the times the beers seemed to be coming up a bit short in the complexity department.  This is why I decided to add the majority of the beer with fruit.  I hope this will create that next layer of depth it has been lacking - not to mention aging in a used wine barrel for 4 months vs a glass jug for 3 months.

I will let this age another month an begin to take gravity readings. I want to be at 1.008 or lower.  I was at 1.010 when i moved it over so hopefully the fruit and added Brett will stir up another round of fermentation and take it down a few more notches.  Once I read the desired level I will bottle with some red wine yeast and age for at least another month.


Meanwhile, after the barrel was emptied I transferred the batch that has been aging since the creation of my blog.  Back in November 2012 I created a batch of a Red Flanders ale and it has been aging ever since.  It is now taking some time in the barrel while it ages some more and picks up some of that oak flavor while hopefully getting hints of the Cab Sauv.  I will also add some more bottle dregs as I finish a few sours I have been saving for this sole purpose. 

I just added dregs from a Hill Farmstead Brewery Elaborative #1 bottle from last night.  I have a few sours from The Bruery that will also have the dregs saved and added to the barrel.

This beer was already down to 1.007 which is in the target range but I may let this sit for 3-4 more months and dose it with more Brett.  I will sample some in a month and see where it is at.

Next up - Angry Dwarf tasting...

Wyeast Labs - French Saison Yeast - Farmhouse Saison Ale Update

So back in late April or early June I brewed a traditional Saison from the Farmhouse Ale book.  See previous post here.

So I felt I needed to do a follow up because after our move I found two bottles of this Saison left.  Cracked one open and didn't even know what it was at first smell and taste.

This beer completely changed.  And it has changed for the better. Way better. I am going to let the other one age another two months to see how that tastes but at 6 months in the bottle this beer is amazing for a Saison.  Crystal clear.  Perfect carbonation and the funky flavor associated with the typical Saison is just so much more refined.

If you are using White Labs French Saison keep a few bottles and let them sit in the bottle 6 months before you crack one open. If you had the success that I did you wont regret it.  If the 8 month version is better I will post some more notes on it.

New Brew Place

It's been over a month without any updates.  That means no tastings, no brew days or bottle days.  The reason for the delay is I have a new brewery... I mean house.

It has been a hectic month and it does not look like it is going to slow down.  I hope to be brewing by mid to late December once the dust settles at our new place.  In the meantime there will be some activity.

1. I will be bottling the Red Sour Ale that is aging in my oak barrel that is currently at my parents house.  This was only supposed to be in the barrel for 3 months as this was supposed to be a "quick" sour.  I soured the wort and then added Roeselare Yeast to the barrel to infect/innoculate my new barrel.  With the purchase of a home getting in the way it is now 4 months in the barrel.  More funk maybe?  This will hopefully happen next weekend so I can crack a bottle for the Vorp family gathering for Christmas.
2. Once the barrel is emptied at my parents place it will get transported back to my new place and the Sour Red that has been aging for 13 months will go in the oak for a month or two.  We will taste and see how it goes before determining a time frame.
3. The Angry Dwarf is in bottles aging away.  These wont be cracked until right before Xmas.
4. The first beer to be brewed will be my Pitchfork Black Stout.  I will brew this once I get time and the sanity for a brew day.  This will go into primary in the standard bucket and then we will age this one in my other oak barrel for 2-3 months.  By the time this is done aging the Tart of Darkness clone - a soured stout - will be ready to take up residency in the barrel.

My new brewing storage and space is unfortunately smaller than where I can from. I now have a nice garage that I can use for brew day but actual climate controlled storage is less.  I will not be able to do as many beers but instead focus on the few recipes that I really enjoy while throwing in a lot more 1-2 gallon sized batches of experimental or "standard" beers.

Update next week on the Sour Red Ale as it goes into the bottle.  Cheers.

Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale - Update

The Angry Dwarf has finished primary fermentation.  It went quick and fast going from Saturday through Thursday morning. It slowed Thursday morning and then by the evening there was no activity in the airlock.  I let it sit Friday and Saturday and just moved it to the secondary carboy.  All looks well.  It smells great too.  If it tastes half as good as it smells we should be in business.

I added another 1.5lb of sweet cherry in the secondary since I was short on brew day.  There should be a short burst of fermentation until the remaining yeast chews through the sugars in the sweet cherries.  

I took a quick taste and it currently is very alcoholic with some honey and cherry flavor really coming though.

I will let it sit for two weeks and then bottle and mature until Christmas.

Tasting Day: Pumpkin Pie Ale

So today it was time to taste the Pumpkin Pie Ale.  I had some serious sparging issues with this one as I outlined in my earlier Brew Day post.  This was also part of the batch that was infected.  It seemed to have done pretty well showing no real signs of infection so I decided to bottle this and at least get a taste.

I knew something was wrong when I got a final gravity reading of 1.004!  It dried up like a cider.  As you can see from the photo to the left it is very light with no real body or head.

After 3 weeks in the bottle I noticed a small white ring on top of the bottles.  Signs of a small infection.  With all of these things telling me it is probably not right I still needed to taste it.

In the end I am glad that I tasted it.  It is not sour yet from the infection so I think I am getting a good taste of what it could be if I had a more successful brew day.

The main thing about this is that the recipe seems to be right on.  Even though it was 1.004 it was still sweet and had the perfect amount of spices (in my opinion).

I can only imagine that my stuck sparge probably caused a chain reaction of how the sugar was converted and thus fermented.  Maybe it resulted in nothing but simple sugars which fermented completely out causing the 1.004 reading.  I dont focus too much on science of brewing and treat brewing more like I do cooking.  I try, taste and adjust while following general rules.

I am pretty confident that my new brew-in-a-bag set up with my cooler mash tun can handle the tricky sparge for this beer and create a quality pumpkin ale.  The sad part is that we will have to wait until next year to find out for sure.  I only have a small window for pumpkin beer and it is quickly closing.  If I brewed a batch today it wouldnt be ready until the end of December.  We should be in full blown stout season by then!  So we will revisit this next August.

Brew Day Update: Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale

Quick update on the Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale - The new fresh yeast took hold and the airlock is firing away.  Figure it will go for a week.  Go into the secondary and get another shot of sweet cherries. I was about one pound short on brew day and the store was out of frozen sweet cherries so I will add the additional lb in the secondary.  After two weeks in the secondary it will have at least one month to bottle condition before potential holiday parties.  It will be in the bottle for 6 weeks for the annual Vorp holiday Christmas Eve party. 

If this ages similarly as my Chimay Blue clone it should be pretty good at the 6 week mark but really be in great shape by the 2-3 month time period.  This will be the first batch to see if I can add this as my new annual holiday beer.

Brew Day - Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale

Sweet and tart cherries added to the last
15 minutes of the boil.

It's been a while since I posted.  It's because I have been dealing with purchasing a new spot for me to brew... a house.  It has consumed a few of my weekends so I am a bit behind on my Christmas ale.  Last year I brewed a Red Ryder ale that was a hoped red with some bitter orange peel. This year I wanted to go big.

The Angry Dwarf Christmas Ale is named after Hank the Angry Dwarf from the Howard Stern show and one of our friends who gets this nickname when he has had one too many.

It is a clone of Troegs Mad Elf.  I used their website for the grain and hops and then used a recipe from Lancaster Homebrew as my baseline.

This beer actually had two brew days.  The first day was a disaster.  I had a stuck sparge.  In four hours I was only able to collect roughly 1.25 gallons of wort.  I was so frustrated I just pitched it and bought a new batch of grain.  This time I bought the large brew-in-a-bag mesh bags.  This way if I get another stuck sparge I can just lift the bag out and collect all of the wort that way.  They way I used this was just like any other batch with my 5 gallon cooler and pot.  I put the bag inside the cooler that also has a false bottom.  Added my grain and water and mixed and let it sit for an hour.  When it came time to batch sparge not only did it not get stuck again but it cleared a lot faster than without using the mesh bags.

This photo shows the red color of the
beer better.  Looks very festive

Once the wort was collected I added the hops and then the cherries and honey directly to the boil for the last 15 minutes.  With 5 minutes to go I added the final hop additions then cooled the wort and added the yeast.

It smelled delicious as it was boiling and cooling.  The sweet and tart cherries used in the boil added some nice red color while really increasing the aroma.

But again bad news happens. I check 18 hours after added the yeast and no signs of life.  Let it go a few more hours and we are now past 24 hours.  No signs of life.  I had to go to work - yes work getting in the way again - and come back and still no signs of life.  I open the bucket and know from my experience with sours that the yeast probably died and my wort was just sitting there slowly starting to sour.  Thanks for the hops that probably slowed it down.  I tasted the wort and it wasnt bad at all.  I raced to the homebrew store with only 30 minutes before it closed and bought new yeast.  Boiled the wort again - just like I would with my quick sour - and then re-pitched the yeast.  Let's hope this one takes hold.  I checked the vial on my first yeast and noticed it was well past it's best by date.  I should of looked prior to adding to the wort.

Let's hope it ferments cleanly and we have a great beer in time for Christmas Eve.  It sure smelled like it would be a great beer.  Until the sleigh bells are ringing...

Chocolate Pumpkin Stout: Final Update

Very sturdy pellicle on the beer.  Infected city.

R.I.P. Chocolate Pumpkin Stout.  We never truly got to know you.

I went to bottle the pumpkin stout and it had a very firm pellicle resting on top of the beer.  This beer was too far gone.  It was not just some fatty acids but most likely bacteria present from the cocoa nibs that infected the beer. 

Sure, I could of added some Brett and just let it go to make a Sour Chocolate Pumpkin stout but I have other plans for my carboys this winter and didn't want to hold one up with a beer that may or may not turn out.

Lesson of the day: Sterilize your cocoa nibs in some vodka prior to putting into your precious beer.

Brew Day: Apple Pie Ale / Cider

Apple Juice with brown sugar and
3 varieties of cut apples

Last year I created an apple ale.  This year I created an apple ale that may be more like a cider.  One thing I thought that could improve from last year is the amount of apple flavor.  It was there and it was good.  I just wanted more.

After brewing the hard lemonade I thought it would be a great way to try another type of apple ale.

Here is what I did. 

Same exact process as the hard lemonade.  I took concentrated apple juice and brought it to a boil.  The one thing I did differently is added three different type of apple to sit in the mixture during the boil.

Once it came to a boil I added dry malt extract.  The lemonade only used 1lb of plain light malt extract but since I wanted the beer mixture to be more of a beer I used 2lbs.  One lb of amber and one pound of dark.  Hoping the more flavorful dark and amber extract will bring in some more beer flavor.

I finished it off with a very small dose of hops and about 2lbs of white sugar and apple pie spices.

What I am hoping to get is a very dry cider that has a strong beer flavor – or a beer flavor with a very strong cider flavor.  Either way it should be interesting.  We will find out how it turns out in about 2-3 more weeks.

Chocolate Stout and Pumpkin Beer - Update

A few days after adding the cocoa nibs to the chocolate stout I checked in on it to find a gnarly surprise.  It looked as is a lacto bacteria infection had taken place as a huge pellicle laid across the top of the beer.  I opened the mixed batch of chocolate and pumpkin and the same thing.

I got pretty upset and decided to just pitch the chocolate.  As I was pitching the beer down the drain I put my finger under the stream of beer and took a sample.  It tasted great. 

Realizing I may have been throwing away good beer (less than a gallon) I decided to research cocoa nibs some.  I read on another blog that someone had the same experience.  The responses on sites like Homebrewtalk.com suggest one of two things may have happened:

1. The fatty acids and the oil from the cocoa nibs are leeching out into the beer and interacting making a pellicle looking mess.
2. There is a bacteria on the cocoa nibs that should of been sterilized by placing the nibs in some vodka prior to pitching them.

With this in mind I decided to  save the mixed batch of pumpkin and chocolate stout to see what happens. I will be bottling this week if I feel it was OK.  Maybe a sour chocolate pumpkin stout?

Brew Day: Chocolate Stout

A few days after I brewed the Pumpkin beer I brewed up a chocolate stout.  The idea is based on mixing a Southern Tier Pumpking and Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  I find this combo to be much better than straight pumpkin beer.  The sweetness from the chocolate stout cuts the spices in the pumpkin beer and makes it have a more desert-like flavor you would expect from a pie.

Brew day was super smooth - except for one thing.  I forgot to take the OG reading.  So, other than that I am hoping it turns out great.

I have since transferred both beers to the secondary vessel.  I made two-gallon batches for a total of 4 gallons.  I have one gallon of straight pumpkin, one gallon of straight chocolate stout and then a two gallon batch of the two beers mixed.  Cocoa nibs have been added and they are set to age for two weeks before bottle day.

I will follow up on bottle day with the FG readings and any tastings prior to hitting the bottles.  The beer should be ready to taste in the second week of October.  A perfect week to start drinking pumpkin flavored beers – NOT August.

Cheers.

Brew Day: Pumpkin Ale

Me and pumpkin beers have not gotten along.  4 years ago was the first time i made one.  It was a simple fall type of ale with some pumpkin spice.  No pumpkin was used in this first batch.  It tasted OK but it just didn't have that pumpkin flavor I was looking for.

Next year I tried making the pumpkin porter kit from Brewers Best.  I used their kit but added pumpkin to the secondary.  It smelled great.  Only after two weeks in the bottle though it was basically a bottle bomb in the waiting.  They gushed foam like I've never seen.  Maybe the pumpkin has some sugar in it that was not done fermenting... who knows?

After the gushing beers, I decided to not make it last year.  Instead I made my Pajer's Apple Ale.

So this year I get the latest Zymurgy magazine and see the article written by Scott Jackson – The Quest for the Perfect Pumpkin Beer.  There was a very detailed outline on how he makes his award winning pumpkin beer.  I figured to give it a go.

Unfortunately, this may be my last pumpkin beer ever.  A stuck sparge like the one I had last night will do that to you though.  I followed the process as he outlined with one exception.  I just use a single infusion mash tun and he states that a protein rest at 120 degrees for 10 minutes will help break up the gumminess of the pumpkin.  I just did not know how to do this with my set up and it looks like it is a very important step.

My sparge essentially turned into concrete.  I was able to drain the mash tun on the first pass collecting about 1.25 gallons of pumpkin infused wort.  The batch sparging is where things got ugly – real ugly.

I added my sparge water for the first batch sparge and it was running fine for the first half gallon.  After that nothing. I checked blogs and other sites for advice and tried it all.  None worked.  It basically made my grain bed a solid concrete block.  I had to scoop out the water on top of the grain bed with a cup and put it into my pitchers. I then took some of the grain and put it over a strainer that was over my boil pot and then washed the grain cup by cup to try and salvage my brew day.

The wort that I had collected was way more cloudy than I ever wanted it to be but I didnt see how to solve the problem.  So I boiled away for an hour and filled up my carboy and left a good bit of the wort hoping that I grabbed more of the cleared up wort.

I amazingly was right on point with my gravity reading.  I sligtly tweaked the recipe since my HBS did not have the Melanoidin Malt in stock.  I just left it out and my target gravity was 1.058 and that is what I hit.

Here is hoping that it works out in the end.  I will follow up with any other comments as the fermentation process continues.  It is already underway only after 11 hours so I will take that as a good sign.  The recipe and process is after the jump.

Update:  The krausen on this beer never really settled back into the beer like all of my other brews have.  It just sat on top.  Looking like a disgusting sea foam.  It smelled OK so it has since been transferred to the secondary.  This is the first time I am using the East Coast ale from White Labs.  I wonder if the yeast just stays in suspension a lot longer.

Tasting Day: Hard Lemonade - AKA Yeti Juice

Potential label design if we feel the recipe
is worthy of repeated batches.
I would get thefancy reusable cling labels.

This Friday I cracked open the first Hard Lemonade - or Yeti Juice as it will be called around here.  The friend I made it for has the nickname Yeti.  He has be slugging Mike's Hard Lemonade all summer and I wanted something better for him.  So I made a home-brewed malted lemonade that clocks in right around 7% ABV.

I hate to say it, but this turned out really well.  I really enjoy how crisp and clean it tastes and how easy this is to drink.  At 7% I can after 4 of them on Friday I was in a good spot.


Appearance - Crystal clear, super pale yellow.  It looks like someone took a full lemon and juiced it into water.  It shows great signs of carbonation with Champagne-like bubbles coming from the bottom of the glass.

Mouthfeel - Cider/Champagne like.

Taste - If I had to sum it up in one phrase it would be "Lemon Cider".  The Champagne yeast fermented it to a nice dry flavor profile.  Just a hint of lemon flavor and just a hint of malt.

Overall -  The only thing I may do to improve this is to add more sugar - either table sugar or honey for a bigger punch and to add a bit more sweetness on the back end.  I used a half tablespoon of Splenda per bottle.  I think its pretty near perfect but so far everyone has commented on how dry it is.

Only one thing left now. What to see what the Yeti has to say!

Catching Up on Some Brewing Days

Sour Red bubbling out of the barrel after the bugs
and yeast are added

I have fallen behind on my posts. Biggest thing is that I brewed a new batch of Sour Red using the quick sour method.  Based on how the original batch tasted I knew I wanted to adjust two things. 

The first thing I wanted to do was to add complexity to the beer.  The flavor was like sucking on a sweet tart.  Good sour flavor but not much else. The biggest thing I did to add some complexity was to cut down on the sour flavor that was created from the sour mash.  I split the batch and brewed one batch with the sour mash method with regular American Ale yeast and then brewed a clean batch with the Belgian Golden yeast from White Labs.  It had some comments on their website that made it seem like a good fit for a soured red.  Overall, I hope that the reduction of the sour mash flavoring along with using a more flavorful and distinct yeast with the other half of the beer will produce a more complex and interesting beer.

The second thing I wanted to improve upon was giving the beer a bit more body.  I just switched my setting in Beersmith from Light Body to Medium Body.  Essentially I just mashed at a higher temperature.

Transfer of beer from the primary to
the secondary barrel.

These two batches fermented for 5 and 6 days in the primary and then they got moved into the newly emptied wine barrel.  The barrel was then inoculated with White Labs Sour Belgian yeast strain and bacteria.  I plan to let this sit for 3-4 months and then see how its doing at that time.

Of course after emptying the barrel I needed to bottle the wine.  I ended up getting 12.5 1.5L bottles of Cab Sauv from this little 5.2 gallon barrel.  Not too bad.

In the end I hope the changes I made along with the use of a wooden barrel will help take this beer to the next level.  Now all I need is 3-4 months of time to go by so we can try it and see if the work has paid off. 


During this past week I also bottled up the hard lemonade.  I used some Splenda to back sweeten the lemonade.  I tasted the lemonade a day prior to bottle day and it was like sucking on a lemon.  Super Tart and just not too great to drink.  I added just a bit of the Splenda to help cut the acidity just a bit.  I will crack open a taste bottle on Friday and see if I can help my friend out by giving him a sure fire recipe for a better
(and stronger) hard lemonade.

I will do a tasting on Friday and follow up with a post.  Also coming up will be my Autumn Beer which will either be a Quick Soured Brown Pumpkin or an Malted Apple Cider. 

I will also be adding Raspberries to the quick soured blonde to make a fake Frambroise.

More to come as it happens.

Hard Lemonade - Easy Brew Day

All you need to make hard lemonade.

My friend is currently on a Mike's Hard Lemonade kick.  It's a little concerning how much he likes them. I figure it would be a bit more tolerable if he was drinking home brewed hard lemonade. So, as a thank you for making the wine in my wooden barrel that will soon be aging Flanders Red Ale and for 2lbs of FREE raspberries from his backyard (those berries are expensive fresh!) – I figured I could make him a case of Hard Lemonade.

I've never made it before and thought it would be really easy.  But, after reading up on the brewing blogs, it seems it can be somewhat difficult due to the acidity in all of the lemonade you need to use.  The yeast can get stressed out from the acidity an leave some nasty off-flavors or the must (juice) will just take a very long time to ferment out the sugars since the yeast is struggling in that highly acidic environment.

I decided to go for it and brew a straight lemonade with no additional fruit juice or fresh fruit added for additional flavoring.  Here is the recipe I ended up with:

1.25 lbs Extra Light DME
1.25 lbs Cane Sugar
4.5 oz Malto Dextrine
4 jars of frozen Lemonade - no preservatives

Putt all of your ingredients into a 1.5 gallon of boiling water and boil for 15 minutes.
Cool the wort down to about 100 degrees and then add to your primary bucket with another gallon of cold water.  Top off to three gallons as needed.    Measure the gravity.  You need to make sure that your gravity is within the range of the yeast you plan to use.  This recipe with the lemonade I used came in at 1.064.  This will come in at least 7% and probably even higher once it's finished.

I used regular dry ale yeast - Safale US-05. I did not want it to ferment all the way out so I decided against the Champagne yeast.  I also added yeast energizer at 1tsp per gallon of lemonade.  This is to help the yeast battle through the acidity.

After about 18 hours the airlock was firing away and it went strong for about 4 days.  I will be moving it to a secondary for a quick rest before bottling.  More to come once I have the final gravity and it's in the bottle.

Bottle Day: Dark Belgian Strong Ale

It has been almost three months since I brewed this Dark Belgian Strong Ale.  The recipe is based on a clone recipe I saw for Chimay Blue. I hope the extra time in the secondary helped mesh together all of the complex flavors. 

The smell was awesome going into the bottle so I can only hope it tastes just as good as it smells.  It finished out a bit drier than expected and fermented down below 1.010 and finished around 1.007.  It bumped the expected ABV from 9% up to 10%.

The thread that contained the recipe on Homebrew Talk stated that this was a pretty excellent beer after one month in the secondary and two weeks in the bottle.  With that in mind I will taste this at the two week mark in the bottle - especially since it sat for 3 months in the secondary.

I will follow up in two weeks.

Tasting Day: Sour Golden Pale Ale

The first beer is ready from my three batches of Sour Pale Ale made from a Belgian Blonde/Golden ale recipe was ready to drink last week.  This was a pretty basic recipe that where Pilsner, Wheat and Aromatic malt made of up grain bill.  The mash was then inoculated with some a home grown lactic culture to sit for 2 days and then boiled as normal.  This particular batch was fermented with a Belgian Wheat strain.

ABV = 7.0%
IBU = 18
SRM = 4

Appearance: Nailed it.  Nice golden color.  Bright yellow where the light slips through with a deeper orange color on the edges.

Smell: Smells like the lactic bacteria starter and nothing else.  No fruity or lemon smells.  Just the funky lactic sourness.

Mouthfeel: Good carbonation on this one but the mouthfeel is still a bit weak and thin.

Taste: Fail. This one tastes exactly as it smells.  Nothing but the lactic funkiness from the starter.  Since the grain bill is so basic there is nothing else in the grain bill to complement the lactic funkiness.  My original thought was the lemon tartness from the Wyeast Belgian Wheat strain would compliment the lactic sour from the bacteria but I am barely able to get the lemon flavor.  I knew that without the addition of some specialty grains that this beer was going to rely heavily on the lactic sour starter and the yeast.  The yeast in this case was just not strong enough to overcome the lactic starter.

I have better hopes for the remaining two batches - which will actually turn into four batches.  The remaining batches are fermented with Brett and some are fermented with Brett, Pedio and Lactic cultures.  Here is the remaining beer to try from this batch.

1. 100% Brett Lambic Yeast - 1 gallon
2. Roeselare Yeast - 1 gallon
3. Roeselare Yeast with Raisins - 1/2 gallon
4. Roeselare Yeast with Raspberries - 1/2 gallon

My hope is the stronger yeast flavors from the Brett Lambic and the Roeselare will help pull this beer back from the dumps.  I also think the beer I tried here with the Belgian Wheat yeast could of been something if I added fruit to the secondary.  It just seemed to be super one dimensional.  I learned from the Flanders Red "Funk with Less Fuss" experiment that it is easy for these to taste one dimensional so you need to add some extra ingredients to help balance that lactic sourness created from the starter.

Till next time.

Tasting Day: Farmhouse Ales Saison

Today is the first tasting for the Farmhouse Ale Saison that I made a while back. I really let this sit in the secondary until I felt it was as clear as it was going to get.  Surprisingly the beer is not nearly as clear as I thought it was going into the bottle!

This is the recipe from the Farmhouse Ale book by Phil Markowski. Nothing more than Belgium Pilsner and American Wheat for the grain bill along with some Styrian Goldings and East Kent Goldings hops.  A bit of table sugar was added for an extra punch and to help dry it out a bit. I used the Wyeast French Saison yeast hoping for a nice dry beer with a lot of that funky farmhouse flavor that most Saisons have.

ABV = 6.8%
IBU = 29.5
SRM = 4

Appearance - Golden color that leans towards an orange color.  Has the appearance of a standard American wheat beer. Yep the one those crazy kids put oranges in.  The large white head fades pretty quickly and there is minimum lacing.

Smell - It has that traditional Saison yeast smell.  It smells like there is some sweetness to it – like honey. Slight hay or grass smell that would remind you of a barn. Orange or lemon also makes an appearance.

Mouthfeel - The carbonation is not prickly enough for a Saison.  When you think of a Dupont you think of a light bubbly refreshing beer.  This one is currently lacking that "sparkle". Wyeast says on their site that the yeast unexpected silky and rich mouthfeel.  I wouldnt call it rich but I can see where they get silky.

Taste - Not too bad.  I think if the carbonation was higher and it had more of a prickly mouthfeel it would be right in line.  My basement might not be warm enough.  Saisons are fermented at higher temps and bottle conditioned at higher temps as well. I get a bit of hay, a bit of bubble gum and even a small hint of banana from the yeast.  The bubble gum flavor is more fruity than some of the other Belgians that I have had.  Slight citrus flavor.

This seems to be lacking the pepper flavor that saisons are really known for.  

Overall - If this beer had a bit higher carbonation levels and a bit more prickle to it, I think it would be a keeper. It is a very easy to drink beer with some complex flavors from the yeast that keep you coming back for more.  It just falls a bit flat and none of the flavors tend to shine.  For example I would love for the citrus to come forward some more or even some more of the hay flavor.  When I brew again maybe a does of orange bitter peel or fresh orange zest – or even lemon – will bring this beer from a good beer to a great beer.

For now I plan to try to move the bottles to a warmer spot in the my place to see if that helps with the carbonation issue.

I will follow up if something happens after the move to a warmer temp.
Till then...

UPDATE:
I let the beer sit for two additional weeks and the results are pretty great right now.  Seems that maybe this beer needs 6 weeks in the bottle to fully mature.  I still don't have the full crispness of a Dupont Saison but this is a pretty excellent beer for my first stab at a traditional saison.

Belgian Blonde Sour Pale Ale

Just a quick update on the Belgian Blonde Sour Pale Ale - I bottled the beer which came out to about 0.875 gallons which was four 750 ml bottles.  I waited an extra week just to ensure fermentation was complete since I have had some bottles gushing a bit lately so I figured the extra time to ensure everything has done its job wont hurt.  I will let them sit in the basement for two weeks and then test a bottle to see how the pale ale soured.

Funk with Less Fuss - Flanders Red - Final Recap

Three months have passed and the Flanders Red edition of Funk with Less Fuss experiment has come to an end.  I made a three gallon batch of beer and split it three ways with three different yeast.  A standard ale yeast, one with 100% Brett and the mixed fermentation with Roeselare yeast that contains Brett, Peddio and Lacto along with standard brewers yeast.

Keep in mind my goal was to create a sour as quick as possible.  I did not let them age in the bottle or secondary any longer than was required from any of the resources I used.  These beers may get better with time as most standard sours do.  This will be for another test down the road.

I saved a bottle from each and did a "vertical" tasting of all three in one sitting. Here is the final recap from the three batches.

#1 Flanders Red - Sour Mashed - California Ale Yeast: 
This was the cleanest of the three beers. With no wild yeast and all of the flavor coming from the sour mash this was to be expected.  The sour level was pretty nice.  Not as fruity as the others probably due to a lack of the Brett.  With the clean flavor the oak cubes really came through on this one more than the others as well.  Maybe a bit too much.  Overall a really solid beer that was ready to drink in 5 weeks.

For the next batch I would work on the following: 
The body of the beer was a bit weak.  I mashed at a lower temp to get a drier beer. Next time I will mash a bit hotter so there is more body to the beer.  I would also explore using a more expressive yeast to add some more character.  Maybe a Belgian Ale or Belgian Wheat.I will also reduce the amount of sugar used at bottling since I had a few slow gushers

#2 Flanders Red - Sour Mashed - 100% Brett. Brux:
What I really liked about this one was the sour flavor.  It was just like a sweet tart.  Some other flavors that people used to describe it included green apple and cherries.  This was also one thing I did not like about it.  The sweet tart flavor really over powered the rest of what was going on.  The Brett did not add too much other funk and just added to the sour flavor.

For the next batch I would work on the following:
Again I need to reduce the sugar used at bottling so the slow gush does not happen.  I also need to balance out the sweet tart flavor.  If using only Brett as the primary yeast maybe I need to use two different strains and reduce the amount of time that the wort sours to reduce the sweet tart flavor and let some more of the Brett character show through.  Maybe mashing at a higher temp to give the Brett more sugars to munch on would help while also giving a more rounded malt and "beer" flavor to balance out the sweet tart taste.

 #3 Flanders Red - Sour Mashed - Roeselare Yeast Mixed Fermentation:
To my surprise, this beer was not too different than batch #2.  It had a bit more funk, but only a little. (This is why I did not do a tasting post on this one).  That extra funk might of made it a bit better than batch #2 but not so much better that justified the extra month in the secondary.

For the next batch I would work on the following:
Same as #2.  The other thing I would do is let this sit for 3 months in the secondary and then bottle.

Final thoughts:
I think the first two batches have the most range to fit within the "Quick Sour" category.  A more expressive yeast in the first batch may take that beer to the next level and another Brett strain along with a shorter sour mash may balance out batch #2.  A bit more body on all of them could really help as well. As of this moment I am considering the following for the next batch.

Go with batch #1.  Choose a more expressive yeast and mash a bit hotter so there is more body.  Once it comes out of the secondary add one or two strains of Brett to "dirty-up" the beer and let it sit for one month in the secondary and bottle with less sugar – OR – Do all of the same as listed above but instead of moving to a secondary carboy I would dose the bottle bucket with Brett and bottle condition without any added sugar and let the Brett referment in the bottle with the remaining sugars.

Whatever I decide this next batch will be a five gallon batch and it will be going into the wine barrel once it has been bottled. 

The Funk with Less Fuss is a great way to create some quick sours.  They will not have the complexity of the traditionally aged sours but you may be surprised. 

Le Singularite - Tasting Update

I took some homebrew to a small get together last night.  I had the final batch of "Funk with Less Fuss" red (which I will write up a full recap of the experiment in another post) and a bottle of Le Singularite.  This is the beer that was brewed from the "Wild Brews" book with a single strain of Brett Claus.  A simple pale beer that will let the character of the yeast shine through.

You can read the original tasting notes here.

This was about 5 weeks ago.  How time has changed!

This is no longer a beer I would enjoy.  When it first cracked open you can smell the funk.  It was a very strong barn flavor.  You could also see a difference in the beer.  It looked to be very effervescent with small bubbles crawling to the top of the glass one after another.  The after the first sip you get hit with how bone dry this beer is now.  No longer a medium mouth feel.  Light and dry as the Sahara. So far this may sound like a good beer.  Similiar to Duvel with some funk right?

Wrong.  The taste was pretty terrible.  It moved into the band-aid flavor realm.  According the Wild Brews this is from the ester 4-ethyl-phenol which is a volatile phenol.  Descriptions in the book are listed as:

• Band Aid - Big check on this one
• Antiseptic - A bit.  So check here as well.
• Stable - Horse Blanket / Hay flavor?  If so check.
• Barnyard - Big check.

The question is whether or not the flavor will subside after some time or if the beer is beyond saving.  I will probably pitch the remaining few bottles and save 2-3 and open one every few months to see what is going on.

Cabernet Sauvignon Barell

Today I moved the Cabernet Sauvignon that my buddy made for me into my new wooden barrel.  It is just a 20L barrel and the goal is to age this wine in the barrel for about two months - maybe longer - so my barrel will have a bit of a wine coating to it.

The idea is from Russian River and their sour "Consecration" which is aged Cabernet Sauvignon barrels.  They describe the beer as:

Dark Ale aged in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from local wineries. It is aged for 4 to 8 months with black currants, brettanomyces, lactobacillus, and pediococcus added to each barrel. Rich flavors of chocolate truffle, spice, tobacco, currants, and a bit of Cabernet. 

I will be adding a Flanders Red to the barrel after the wine has aged and has been bottled. The beer will have a blend of Brett and Lacto.  Not sure about the Peddioccoccus yet.

The barrel was filled with water to seal it up.  Once it was sealed we added some cleaner to the barrel that is meant to reduce the tannin levels.  After it soaks for three days it is drained and then rinsed out three times with hot water.  After the final rinse we added the wine through a funnel as seen in the photo to the left.  It had a very strong charred oak smell while flushing out the water.  Reminded me of whiskey.  I will update the status one the wine has been bottled and the new beer added to barrel for the first batch of barrel aged sours!

Golden Blonde Sour Ale - All into the Secondary

It took 17 days to get the gravity down to 1.014 or lower but the Roeselare and Brett Lambicus are both now in the secondary for a bit of aging.  Brett L will sit in the secondary at least a month.  It may take longer since it seems to be a slower fermentation compared to the Brett B in my quick red.  The Roeselare will sit for two months.

Here are the gravity readings from today:

Brett L - 1.014
Roeselare - 1.012

Keep in mind the Belgium Wheat Wyeast was down to 1.010 in a week.

I will add some Riesling soaked oak cubes when they are about 2-3 weeks away.  I learned in the Quick Red experiment that 8 weeks was a bit too long as the head from the beer really carried a big oak smell and flavor.  Hopefully this will be a better balance.  Also the beer is a lot lighter and less to hide behind. 

Coming Up in the next 2-3 weeks:

1. Bottle Day - Roeselare Quick Red
2. Inoculating my first 20L wooden barrel with 20L of Cabernet Sauvignon which will then hold the winning recipe from the quick red experiments.
3. Tasting Day - Farmhouse Ales Saison
4. Tasting Day - Roeselare Quick Red
5. Bottle Day - Chimay Blue - Trappist Clone 
6. Brew Day - 100% Brett Trois Golden Blonde Sour
7. Brew Day - Berliner Weisse

Follow Up: Golden Blonde Sour Ale

It has been one week since primary fermentation started. All three started on the same day - roughly 30 hours after the yeast was pitched.  The Roeselare and Belgian Wheat yeast versions seemed to have a more vigorous start than the Brett L.

About 36 hours after I saw signs of fermentation being under way, the Belgian Wheat was very vigorous and almost needed a blow off tube as some of the fermenting beer was shooting into the airlock.  It seemed to calm down about 24 hours later and for the past 3-4 days little to no airlock activity.  I measured the gravity on Monday and it was at 1.010.  Pretty impressive for the Belgian Wheat yeast.  The sample I took was a bit lemony with some tartness while having a small trace of the Belgian Wit flavors you would probably associate with the yeast.  It was transferred to the secondary tonight and oak cubes that have been soaking in Riesling wine were added once the transfer was complete.  It may take a bit longer for this one to clear up but the current plan is to let it sit in the secondary for 2 weeks.  If more time is needed it may sit up to a month.  Remember, the target timing for this "quick" sour is 5 weeks so I do not want to stray too far from this just so all of the testing is consistent.

The Roeselare seemed to really slow down after about 4 days.  I have not seen much airlock activity in the past few days so on Monday I decided to test the gravity.  It was at 1.020.  Still a bit high.  I will let this sit in the primary for another 4 days and recheck the gravity to see if it is moving.  I will agitate the carboy once or twice a day to add some carbon dioxide which seemed to help my last quick sour that was stubborn to finish. I did not sample this one at this time so I am not sure of the flavor at this time.

The Brett L. carboy has been a pretty slow fermentation so far.  It was the last beer to take off and  never really created too big of a krausen or never really caused the airlock to fire away.  Since I checked the other two for a gravity reading I checked this one as well.  It was also at 1.020.  Again, the plan now is to let it sit for 4 more days.  I am also going to agitate this one for added CO2. I did sample this one and it was pretty intense.  A lot going on.  I guess this should be expected since the Brett is a slower working yeast and that the Lambicus creates the "strongest" Brett flavors.  It was sour.  That's for sure.

So far the fermentation cycle is a 180 degrees of how the Flanders Red went.  The 100% Brett B fired off first and was a ferocious - making the airlock click at a high pace for a solid 4-5 days.  The Brett L. in the Blonde was the last to start and has showed the slowest fermentation to this point.  Also, the Flanders version of the "clean" yeast (Saccharomyces only) took 3 days before any airlock activity was present and was a bit slower on the fermentation than the others.  This Belgian Yeast has been the strongest ferment so far with the Blonde Sour.

More to come once the Brett L. and the Roeselare versions switch over to the secondary.

Brew Day - Golden Blonde Sour

Just a quick update on the Golden Blonde Sour.

All three batches are now showing really good signs of fermentation. The Belgian Wheat is very active.  Roeselare is going along at a steady pace and the Brett Lambicus is moving along a lot more slowly.

These beers have all taken off with fermentation with little to no lag time.  The Bruin batch had some lag as all three batches last time started up on a different day up through 3 days after brew day.

Brew Day - Golden Blonde Sour Ale

Last weekend I made a lacto sour starter and pitched it into some fresh wort made from pretty typical Belgian Blonde mash.  I let the wort sour for 48 hours and this is what awaited me when I got home for brew day.

I drained the mash tun that was keeping the mash as warm as possible.  It drains from the bottom so most of the remains from the lacto fermentation are left behind. After it was drained into the boil kettle all hell broke out.

A huge thick foam from the soured wort built up as the temperature raised towards 212.  It was like the thick ocean foam that you see on the beach after a bad storm.  I had to keep skimming that off.  This foam trapped a lot of heat and once the air hit the wort I had an instant boil over.  I dont think I lost too much but it was still not fun to deal with.

After I got it under control it boiled for 30 minutes before the first hop addition.  After the hops were added it was a mountain of green hoppy foam.  I was constantly watching it and adjusting the temprature.  After 20 minutes I finally hit the right temperature that I could let it rip through the final 40 minutes of the boil. 

At flame out I added just a bit of aroma hops and set it aside to cool some before chilling it with my immersion chiller.  Call it my "coolship".  Otherwise known as my basement sink.

Once the wort cooled to 72 degrees it was time to pitch all the yeast.

I split this batch into 3 different batches. 

Batch 1 - 100% Brett Lambicus Strongest of the Brett in regards to the earthy and barnyard flavors

Batch 2 - Wyeast Belgian Wheat
Description in some reviews say it creates a tart wheat beer with some nice fruit flavors.  Sounds pretty good for this test right?

Batch 3 - Roeselare.
The traditional Wyeast pack for mixed fermentation.

About 18 hours after I pitched the yeast here is the updates:

Batch 1 - little signs of fermentation but not much going on yet.
Batch 2 - a good size krausen.  Just no airlock activity yet.
Batch 3 - full steam ahead. Airlock firing away.

We will see in 5 weeks how the Belgian Wheat one tastes, followed by the 100% Brett L. at 7 weeks.  And then 2 months later the mixed fermentation will be tasted.

The mixed fermentation batch has 1.8 gallons.  I will split the .8 gallons into two growlers and add some fruit - Raisings and Peaches to see how those tatse.  Hope to just get one  750ml bottles of those ones.  I will age those on fruit two weeks longer than the regular Batch 3.

Next up - bottle the French Saison and the Chimay Blue clone I have in secondary storage.

Until next time...

Tasting Day: Funk with Less Fuss - 100% Brett Brux

Last night I tasted the second beer out of my three sours made with the "Funk with less Fuss" method.  Previously we had the sour mashed beer fermented with California Ale yeast.  This time, it's fermented with 100% Brett Brux.  All I can say is these tastings are getting better and better.  The California Ale version took 5 weeks to complete.  This Brett B version took 7.

Overview: Flanders Red inspired beer that used a home-grown lacto starter to sour the mash prior to fermentationand fermented with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis.
   
SRM = 4 ABV = 6.5% IBU = 18 

Appearance: Deep ruby red.  Almost a brown ale color.  White head dissipates pretty quickly and leaves some weird looking bubbles in the glass.
Smell: Strong lactic sour nose. This is really different from the California Ale version that almost smelled clean.
Taste: Very sour.  Lemonade-like tartness with a bit of sweetness popping through - but not much.  A bit more complex than the California Ale version but not nearly as barny as I was hoping for.  I expected a sour beer that had some hay or leather flavors from the Brett B.
 
Mouth:  A bit prickly in the carbonation which I thought worked well with the strong sour flavor.
 
Overall: This brew confirms that you can make some great sour beers with the "Funk with Less Fuss" method.  We will see how this beer ages and see if any more barn yard flavors show up or if the classic cherry pie flavor shows up to create some more depth.  

Only complaint I have about this beer is it is still a bit one dimensional.  If I can get some more barnyard funk or fruity flavors from the yeast to show through while keeping the sour level where it is - or toned down just a bit - this would be a great beer.  After drinking most of the bottle I added a tiny bit of sugar syrup to see how it would taste if there was some sweetness.  Just that tiny bit of sweetness really added that extra dimension to the beer.

Here are my initial thoughts on how to take this beer to the next level.

1. Add some sweet fruit to the secondary for a week or two prior to bottling.  Sweet Cherries is at the top of the list for a twist on a kriek.
2. Use a stronger Brett (Lambicus) with a fruitier Brett (Claus. or Trois) to create different flavors for a more complex flavor to go along with the sour flavor created from the sour mash.
3. Add some kind of non-fermentable sugar during bottling to increase the sweetness to balance the sour.

I couldn't be much happier for how this one turned out in the end.  Next up is the final installment owhich uses the mixed fermentation yeast from Wyeast - Roeselare.  This has Saccharo, Brett, Pedio and Lacto cultures in the packet and is brewed and stored at warmer tempratures for 2 months.

I will be doing a "vertical" testing when this one is ready and drink all three styles at the same time to see how they differ from one an other.

Already in the works is a quick sour test with a pale ale or fake lambic.  More to come on this in the next week or so.   

Tasting Day - Two Funky Beers

My carboys have been busy the past month and a lot of beer is starting to get to the point where I can finally get some tastings done.  This past weekend I had Le Singularite - a recipe from the Wild Brews book by Jeff Sparrow - and the first of my "Funk with Less Fuss" beers created with the method outlined by Matt Lange in his article in Zymurgy.

First up: Le Singularite

Beautiful golden barnyard funk beer.

Overview: A very basic pale ale fermented with 100% Brett Clausenii.The grain bill is 88% Belgian Pilsner, 8% Wheat and 4% Acidulated malt.  The acidulated malt is used to lower the pH so the Brett yeast can get to work ASAP.

 SRM = 4
ABV = 6.5%
IBU = 18

Appearance: A brilliant golden color.  The photo does not do it justice. One of the better looking beers I have made.  Pretty clear.  Pours a 2 finger head and then dissipates slowly to a thing white layer as shown in the photo to the left. 

Smell: Traditional Belgian smell with some barnyard funk to it. Slight tingle from an almost spice smell.  Biggest smell is a fruity yeast smell.  Maybe like an over-ripened tropical fruit. 

Taste: For how simple this beer is, the flavor is very complex.  Each sip I get something different.  I get hops in the back end on some sips.  Some taste very fruity while others have that very traditional Brett character that has hay-like or "earthy" flavors.  I even get a slight bubble gum flavor that is traditional for some Belgian yeast strains in some sips.  I was expecting a bit more acid flavor from the acidulated malt, but it is a very minor player in the flavor.  You really got to look for any tartness. Overall a great beer.  It is not an easy beer to drink because of the layers of flavor that the yeast contribute but one of my favorites to date. 

Mouth:  Medium to light.  Kind of like a normal American Pale ale. 

Overall:  One of my favorite Belgians that I have brewed to date.  Its complex while not going overboard in any of the flavors that I outlined above.  It seems to be pretty well balanced. I would definitely make this again.  Maybe the next batch can be split between Brett C, Brett B and Brett Trois for a side by side tasting.

Next up: Funk with less Fuss - California Sour Red Ale

The first of the Funk with Less Funk
beers - California Sour Red Ale. - which
got great reviews at the initial tasting.

Overview: A "Quick Sour" Flanders Ale using the wort souring method as described in previous posts from the Funk with Less Fuss article by Matt Lange.  As a reminder the main batch was split between 3 different yeast. The goal for this specific beer is to see how good a sour can test after only 5 weeks from brew day.  It was fermented with a clean yeast - California Ale from White Labs. 

SRM = 17
ABV = 6.2%
IBU = 20 

Appearance: A deep ruby red - almost chestnut brown.  Pour a great head the disappears quickly. 

Smell: Here is the funny thing about this beer.  It had little to no funk smell what so ever.  It just smelt like a very clean red or brown ale with minimal hops and minimal malt smell coming through.  A faint smell of the oak cubes comes through but its very minimal. 

Taste: Wow. With the smells being so nondescript, I was expecting this to be a failed experiment.  I was 100% wrong.  It had a lot of the characteristics of a traditional sours - just not as much layering.  It was really tart.  Reminded me of sucking on a sweet tart.  You even get a bit of the oak flavor which is a nice compliment.  The one thing this was missing is that sweetness that some sours get with the use of sugar or fruit.  It also had a slight metallic flavor that I experienced in some of the other quick sours I have tested.  It is very minimal and the tartness really takes that way down in the end. 

Mouth:  Medium and a nice puckering effect after you swallow.  Really impressive for a beer that only aged for 5 weeks from the brew day. 

Overall: Surprising.   That is the only way I can describe it right now.  It had no aroma and then punches you in the face with the tartness of a sweet tart candy.  It has minimal off flavors which I expect while doing this sour wort method.  They are very minimal though.  I expected this to be the weakest of the three that I will be trying.  Up next is 100% Brett B and then the Roeselare blend.  My hopes are high for those after tasting this which makes this beer a 100% success.  This has a chance to move to a full 5 gallon batch that will go into the wooden barrells for its next test run.

Here is a quick overview of what is happening in my homebrewery

1. Farmhouse Ale Saision is going to be bottled in one week. 
2. Funk with Less Fuss - 100% Brett B version will be ready for tasting in one week.
3. Chimay Blue Clone will age in the secondary for about another month.
4. Golden Sour Pale Ale Batch #1 - the sour starter is ready to go and I will mash tomorrow and sour the wort for 48-60 hours after innoculation.  It will be split into two batches.  One with Roeselare and one with Brett Lambicus.
5. Golden Sour Pale Ale Batch #2   - I will start the sour starter for this in about a week or two and go through the same steps as Batch #1.  These ones will be brewed with Brett Trois and Belgian Wheat yeast.
6. I am finalizing my recipe for my Peach/Apricot Berlienerweiss and hope to brew that by the end of May so it's ready for the hot summer days of July and August.