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.