Le Singularite - 100% Brett Update

Small krausen showing with first visible sign
of fermentation 30-40 hours after pitching.

Just a quick update.  I brewed on Sunday evening with the yeast going into the carboy around 11pm.  I pitched the White Labs Brettanomyces claussenii yeast directly from the vial – no starter.  I used the claussenni because the anomalus is no longer being made and according to the White Labs website the claussenii is similar to the anomolaus.

There was no visible sign of fermentation before I left this morning for work.  12 hours later there is airlock activity and a small krausen.  The smell is pretty standard right now.  Temperature is currently 72 degrees.  I will provide another update once some new info is available.  

Brew Day: Le Singularite

This past Sunday I brewed up a 3 gallon batch of Le Singularite.  This is a recipe pulled from the Wild Brews book previously mentioned.  Wheat, Pilsner and Acid malt made up the grain bill and one strain of Brettanomyces. 

Since Brett yeasts create the acid and esters commonly found in sours I am expecting this to have some earthy esters with a slight tart finish.  I do not think it will get to a full tart and dry sour beer since the recipe states that fermentation should only be about 1-2 months (depending on the temprature)

Mash was low temperature and longer - 90 minutes.

The mash had some trouble straining on the first pass and it looked like a wet sandy beach.  The batch sparge runs after the initial drain were fine.

I collected 4.5 gallons of wort for the boil.  I figured 1.5 gallons of evaporation in a 90 min boil.  I actually ended up with 2.5 gallons of wort after the boil.  I added another half gallon of clean water to the carboy and measured the gravity at 1.060.  Only 0.01 off from what BeerSmith was predicting.

All in all, I think everything went smooth.  Now it's time to watch the fermentation to see how long it takes this Brett to get going.

Updates as they happen.

Tasting Day: Wallonian Nights

Dark Saison after a pour in a Belgian Tulip glass.

Time to taste the new brew – Wallonian Nights.  This is a dark saison that uses dark candi syrup for the color.  I used a Belgian Saison yeast from White Labs.  So let's get to it.

Overview:  Dark Saison brewed with a Belgian yeast strain and dark candi syrup.
OG = 1.068
IBUs = 38
SRM = 28
ABV = 7.6%

Appearance:  Dark black beer that pours a small cream color  head. The head disappears quickly after the pour.  Small lacing is present while drinking the beer.

Smell: It actually has a very clean smell to it. It has a slight pepper smell which you smell in most Saisons. Pretty minimal all around though.

Taste:  I'm not sure what to make of the taste.  I think the color tricks you into what it should taste like.  Its a very clean tasting beer with some nice sweetness and has a bit of the "Belgian" taste from the yeast on the font end. On the backend there is a pepper/alcoholic finish.  The alcohol finish sits in the back of your throat for a while after you finish.

Overall:  It's an interesting beer.  For as crazy as the fermentation was I was expecting some crazy beer.  It's not nearly as complex as I was expecting.  Clean easy drinking beer upfront with some complexity on the back end.  It's still only two weeks in the bottle so maybe it will mature some more in the coming weeks. It's a beer worth exploring some more in future brews.

Cheers.

Brew Updates

So - it's been a while but I figured I would update where I am on some things

1. Wallonia Nights - After a month in the secondary I decided it was time to bottle my Dark Saision.  It went in the bottle two weeks ago.  I will be cracking into that one this weekend for a taste to see if it needs to sit longer and mature in the bottle some more.  I will most likely do a tasting post on that one later this week.
2. Nugget Warrior (working title - I will most likely change this based on how it tastes since it didn't turn into the Nugget Nectar clone I hoped for) -  This was in the secondary for 9 days and then I dry hopped it for an additional 6 days.  I will say this much - the color was not what I was looking for but the aroma and hop presence is large.  Can not wait to try this one.
3. Test Sours- I found out the hard way...  I had my original batch of soured wort and I brewed a clean batch to mix the two into different proportions and BOOM! I open up the 2 gallon bucket I had the clean beer in and to my suprise lactic bacteria took over. No wonder my gravity stopped dropping. I know some people say it is possible to clean plastic after having a sour in them but you should just save yourself the trouble and get separate equipment.  So, now what?  I mixed some of the soured wort into the 2 gallon batch of now soured red ale and decided that it is probably going to have enough twang that I am just going to pitch the dregs from a Monk's Cafe Flemish Ale and a bit of the Belgian Sour Blend from Whitelabs and just let it sit for a month or two. I will bottle it into some 750 ml bottles and see what happens.  Who knows... maybe something good will come of it.

Wild Brews book from Amazon

Good news is I will have two beers ready to taste very soon and report back on.  The bad news is that I need to restart my sour testing.  I'm off to the LHBS to get some more carboys (girlfriend is going to love that) and make a 2 gallon batch of soured wort and a 3 gallon clean batch.  So here is whats on deck:

1. Quick Sour Tests
2. Singularite Brett - A pale ale
   fermented with only
   Brettanomyces Claussenii.
   This is a recipe pulled from the
   Wild Brews book
3. Sour Stout

Lots of Brett cultures flying around in the basement now.  Hopefully I can do a good
job and keep things separate. 

Brew Day: Nugget Copper Ale

Draining the wort after a 60 minute mash

Tonight I brewed up a batch of Nugget Copper Ale - a beer inspired by Nugget Nectar from Troegs Brewing Company.  Unfortunately I ran into some issues and I dont think this beer is going to turn out nearly what I hoped for.

Problem Number 1
After the first draining of the mash pal I noticed that color was way off.  It was running a lot more on the yellow side and not nearly enough amber was showing through.

After the boil the color was a copper-yellow orange.  I'm hoping once the sediment settles out and everything starts to clear it will be a bit more of a true copper color.

Problem Number 2
My original gravity reading is way too low.  I got a measured reading of 1.055 after my temperature adjustments.  My recipe called for 1.070.  After a closer look at my recipe in BeerSmith I noticed one reason it was lower - I did not boil for 90 minutes!  This would of made a more concentrated wort so this is one reason the beer will be a bit weaker than I was hoping for.

So the question is what went wrong?  I thought my mash temperatures were within range.  Is the SRM of the grain I used from the LHBS different from what I put in BeerSmith?

Next time I am in the shop I will have to ask the specifics and figure it out.

Bottom Line
I like hops.  And this beer has a lot of hops.  It just may be a bit weaker than I was hoping for and the color is a bit off.

We will find out in about 8 weeks if this was a failed night or if not.
Till then...

Tasting Day: Rooster Red - 25% Sour Wort - Version 1

So I'm finally getting around to writing up a tasting day post about the Rooster Red.  Just to recap I am doing a full wild bug fermentation of the same base recipe that will be done around November 2013.  In the meantime I am trying the method of souring a portion of the wort to create a quick sour.  In this version, 25% of my wort was soured and then added back to the clean beer.

Overview:  See above.  Basically a quickly soured Flanders Red inspired beer.

ABV is at 6% and the IBUs come in at 16.

Appearance: Very nice amber color.  Reminds me of Elliot Ness.  Zero head and zero lacing.  This is one of the bigger concerns from this tasting.  More to come on this in the conclusion

Smell: Mission accomplished in one way!  This beer smells sour.  I was wondering how sour a beer with only 3 days of souring time.  When you crack this open you know that you are about to drink a sour beer. Lemonade like tartness smell with some of the tart cherries adding to the aroma.  No toast flavor from the oak. No malt aroma.

Taste:  Well, this is where it gets promising yet disappointing. The sour flavor is there but not much else to support the beer.  It has a bit of a metallic-like fruity flavor and no oak flavor whatsoever.

Overall/Conclusion:  No other way to put it – this beer needs some work.  I don't know for sure, but this beer would of been a lot better with SOME carbonation.  If these flavors had some of the benefits of the carbonation I think it would of helped over all.  No carbonation gave no mouth-feel made the beer one dimensional.

The beer was one dimensional because some of the other characteristics I was hoping for didn't shine through either. Below are two things that didn't really come through.

Oak - I asked the guy at the LHBS and he recommended the cubes vs the chips for the oak.  He also said to let them go for at least 8 weeks for maximum benefits.  Next batch will have cubes in place of the chips and instead of one month in the bucket I will go up to two months.  I know that I set out to create a sour beer in two months but it seems I may need some more time just for the oak alone.

Fruity Flavors - I got some of the tart cherry flavor but I now think I need to use sweet cherries to counter balance the strong lactic acid flavor.  I also need to figure out why the fruity flavor had a metallic flavor to it.  I pitched the cherries in directly from the can (Oregon Tart Cherries) and wonder if I should of brought them to a boil and then cooled them before adding to the secondary.

Overall Complexion - Sour beers are some of the most complex beers in the world.  Not this one.  I have some Belgian Candi Syrup left over from a Saison I just brewed.  I already have the 100% soured wort going so I cant change much for that batch.

Here is the new plan. Take 2-3 bottles worth of the 100% sour and bottle it and increase my carb levels pretty dramatically.  See if this beer is better with just more carbonation.

The rest of the beer will be mixed with a clean beer that will be made with some Belgian Candi Syrup.  I will mix it so I have a few bottles that have a 50-50 split and a few that are 75% sour with 25% clean beer.  Maybe the mixing will add some sweetness/complexion and help balance this beer out.

Good thing about this is that all of my testing will be complete with this next batch.  Look for results in about 2.5 months on the 100, 75, and 50% soured wort beers.

Till next time.

100% Sour Update

Seven days in the primary an I am still stuck at 1.02. Wonder how long this will take? I've seen a few posts on some other blogs that suggest using champagne yeast? Guess I will go to the LHBS on Thursday after the holidays and see what they think.

Update:  After 2 days with some Champagne yeast the beer if finally on the move. Down to 1.01.  I will let is sit for a week.  In the meantime I am brewing a clean beer to mix with this one.  Hoping this will add a bit of complexion to the final taste and round out the beer better than the straight lactic sour beer.