Brew Update - Peach Berliener Weiss

After two weeks of primary fermentation with Brett Trois and Belgian Golden Yeast my Berliener Weiss has move over to the secondary.  I added 4 bags of peaches (12oz) to the 3 gallons of brew.  I hope to get a nice 2-2.5 gallons of a great summer weiss beer. 

I tasted the beer as i took the hydrometer reading and it had a slight acidic bite.  It was very mild and hopefully the sweetness from the peaches will meld wit lactic sour to give me something similar to Dog Fish Peche.

It already a very dry beer at 1.008.  Maybe the secondary fermentation with the fruit can pull it down another notch or two with the Brett Trois still lingering around in the secondary.  I plan to age on the peaches for one week and then bottle and serve ASAP.

Tasting Day: 100% Brett IPA

I am finally getting around to the tasting notes for my 100% Brett IPA that was essentially the recipe posted over at Mad Fermentationist.

I tasted this when it was very young - two weeks in the bottle.  At that time it was super cloudy/dirty.  The flavor was all over the place and it was not the beer I expected.  The beer got great reviews from Mike over at Mad Fermentationist and I was expecting a bunch more. 

So when a beer does not taste like you expect the best thing to do is wait.  I put two bottles in my fridge.  I wanted to lager them with the hop that the yeast would settle along with the massive amounts of hop particles still floating around.

Two weeks of being in the fridge have made a HUGE improvement.  This beer is now one of my favorite - if not the favorite- that I have ever brewed.  The nose, the depth of the flavor, the body - everything is where I wanted it.

Appearance:  Bright sunshine yellow.  Pretty beer.  pours with a two finger head that dissipates once you take a sip and break the seal of the foam.  This then leaves a sticky hop lacing after each pull.

Smell:  It smells like hops and juice.  Specifically mango, pineapple and citrus with a hit of pine-tree earthiness.  As the beer warms you start to realize something is different with it.  The dank basement aroma starts to show up just as you finish the glass to let you know this was brewed with Brett.  Its in there but it shows up late to the party and adds another level of the aroma.

Mouthfeel:  Very light and refreshing.  Dry. Very dry finish for an IPA.  The hops and yeast combo fool you and you dont notice how dry it is until the end.

Taste:  I find it to be perfectly balanced.  Not too hoppy but very assertive. Citrus, tropical fruits are everywhere.  There is a sweetness to help balance it all together.  Is it the malt?  I dont know.  I think it could be the tropical yeast flavors that the Brett Trois is providing.  The very first hit on the tounge is almost like mango juice that quickly gets taken over by the citurs and flower power of the hops.  It ends with a dry bite that I found unique.  Again - I think this is the Brett letting you know something is different

Overall: Fantastic use of 100% Brett fermentation.  I may never brew an IPA with out Brett Trois.  The combination is phenomenal.  Only thing I would change is how much I brew.  I only brewed a 2.5 gallon batch and that turned out to be a dumb idea.  After two weeks of bottle fermentation I would add all of hte beers to the fridge to let them clear and settle out.  After another two weeks you would be well rewarded.

Brew Day - Berliner Weiss

I decided this summer I was going to try a Berliner Weiss.  I was inspired by Dogfish Head Peche.  Fifty-fifty split on the wheat and the Belgian Pilsner with a bit of Golden candi syrup for extra depth.  I guess it is more of an Imperial Berliner Weiss since it should come in around 5.4%.

For this batch I used the sour wort procedure that I used in some of my other quick sour beers.  This process didnt work out for those beers because it lacked the depth those types of beers usually have.  For a Berliner Weiss you are just looking for a nice clean acidity from the lacto bacteria that should remind you of lemonade with no hop flavor.  I am hoping that the golden candi syrup will add a bit more flavor to make it a slightly more complex Berliner Weiss.  Flavors that can be associated with that syrup are fresh plums and raisins along with white wine grapes.  

Here is step by step of what I have done to this point:

1. Mashed in all of my malts which was a 50-50 split of Belgian Pilsner and German Wheat
2. Once the mash was completed and I completed the batch sparge I brought the wort to a boil to kill any bacteria present.
3. I chilled the wort down to 110 degrees
4. Once at the proper temperature I transferred it over to an insulated cooler.  The cooler will keep the wort warm for the next few days.
5. I added White Labs lacto culture to the wort and sealed the cooler
6. 60 hours later I moved the wort back into a boil kettle and boiled for 75 minutes.  I added a small amount of Hallertauer hops 15 minutes into the boil for a 60 minute hop addition.
7. The last half hour of the boil I added the 5 Golden Candi Syrup.
8. Once the beer was cooled to pitching temperature I added White Labs Belgian Golden yeast
9. Two days later I added Brett Brex Trois.
10. I will age the beer in the primary for about 2 weeks.  Rack to a secondary to clear it out some and then bottle.

As you can see in the outline its a Berliner Weiss with Belgian twist.  Again this is all to see if I can get a bit more depth while still being a nice clean, slightly sour summer beer.  We will see where it ends up in a few weeks.

More to come...

Sour Stout - Update

It has been about 14 months since I made my stout that I soured with the mixed culture from Wyeast.  It has been sitting in the plastic bucket this whole time.  I checked on it around the 11 month mark and it didn't even have a pellicle  yet.  I figured I would let it go a few more months.  What a difference those months made.

Large grainy looking pellicle along with a huge dank aroma.  To be honest, I was afraid it went too far at first.  The smell was pretty bad.  Once i punctured the pellicle to draw out a sample though I realized all was right.  The smell was perfect and the taste was mouth-puckering tart.

I took two carb tablets and put enough into a champagne bottle to see how it carbs up over the next three weeks.  If all goes well I plan to bottle by the end of June or early July.  The idea is to have these ready for consumption late August or early fall.

Super excited to see how this one turns.  I will also know if I need to brew a new batch and have it ready in another 16 months.

Check back later for the tasting day.

Bottle Day - 100% Brett IPA

I have been having some stomach issues which means no alcohol.  I have not done much with home brewing the past week or so but I did finally get around to bottling my 100% Brett IPA.  It was only supposed to be dry hopped for 3 days according to the recipe I was using but it ended up being a week.  Hope there is no bad side effects from this longer dry hopping.  I tasted it while going into the bottling bucket and my goodness!  Greatest tasting IPA I have made.  Very tropical and full of citrus flavors.  Pineapple juice flavors with bright grapefruit flavors.  Amazing.  Can only hope that the finished product tastes as good.

It seems like this 100% Brett Trois IPA could be a beer that I need to make more and more of.  Fingers crossed.

Flanders Red Sour Currant Ale - Tasting Day (Early)

So I wanted to test and see how carbonation worked with pitching new yeast prior to bottling.  The sour cherry version did not carb up well without any additional yeast added at bottling so the thought was if I put fresh yeast - in this case red wine yeast - in with my sugar solution it would carbonate a bit quicker and fall into the two week range.

This week was the two week mark so I opened up a bottle and only got a small "pffft" sound from the bottle.  Surely not carbonated to where it should be.

I tasted the beer and it is much better than the sour cherry version that was full of oak.  The currant version had a much more wine-like flavor going into the bottle and it seems to have held on to that much better.  Still a stronger oak presence than I wanted but keep in mind I am breaking in a smaller barrel that will impart its flavor much more quickly.

When I grabbed the bottle from my beer chamber (a small storage space under the stairs in my basement) I noticed the bottles were pretty cold already.  I am going to move the case upstairs for another two weeks and revisit.  More detailed notes at that time.

100% Brett Trois IPA - Follow Up

Just a quick follow up about the Brett Trois IPA.  After about 8 days in primary the gravity is down to 1.010 and possible even down to 1.009.  It smells like super ripe fruit and has a very over ripe fruit taste.  I get a pineapple juice flavor.  Maybe a hint of mango.  Hop flavor is still pretty strong and it will get even better once I dry hop with even more Citra, Centential and Chinook.

It is a very bright cloudy yellow with the yeast still in suspension.  Looks great.

Cant wait to bottle and taste the final product.