First Tasting: Barrel Aged Flight By Night

For my first attempt at barrel aging I figured I would start with something simple. The barrel that I used was a bourbon barrel from Ranger Creek Brewstillary in San Antonio. Since I did not have options on the type of barrel I had the ability to choose the type of beer to put into the barrel. I decided to go with an Imperial Stout, which is a combination that is often utilized. Since it was a fresh barrel I wanted something that could stand up to the bourbon and oak. 

Appearance: It pours black with no noticeable head. If there was one thing I would change about the beer it would be the head retention. 

Aroma: The aroma is great. Chocolate, vanilla, bourbon, coffee and oak with only a hint of alcohol. I’m very pleased with the aroma, it’s a little muted but I think that’s fine. 

Taste: chocolate, oak and bourbon are the predominate flavors with an alcoholic warming sensation on the back end. It’s a touch boozy for me but I think it will age nicely. I’m not sure if the booziness comes from the bourbon or from the beer itself. This was the last beer that I brewed before I had fermentation temperature control. 

Mouthfeel: I’m slightly disappointed with the mouthfeel. The beer is relatively thick but I think it’s a touch undercarbonated. I wanted it to be on the low end of the carbonation spectrum but I think I under-anticipated the amount of priming sugar to use. It has a slightly prickly mouthfeel but it will lose the carbonation before the end of the glass making it seem flat and uncarbonated. 

Overall: I’m very pleased with my first attempt at a barrel aged beer. There are a few aspects that I would like to improve upon but those aspects are related to brewing or bottling and not to barrel aging.

Wedding Saison

This was the second beer that I intended to brew during my holiday break. I wanted to brew a beer as part of our wedding favors. The plan is to use Belgian 750 ml bottles and wax dip them. I also would like for my fiancée to use Photoshop to create labels for the bottles. 

On to the beer…I wanted something that was approachable, yet complex, yet still something intriguing. I finally decided on a Saison. Saisons are one of my favorite styles because of their broad range of interpretations, as well as, their yeast driven nature. For this particular beer I decided to use the dregs from a bottle of Fantôme Noel. In my opinion Fantôme is the quintessential Saison producer. I love the combination of aromas you get from their beers and the subtle tartness. I also wanted to go a little untraditional and brew a Saison that was reddish, trying to make a beer that was intriguing to look at. I want people to look at the beer and expect something different. I think Saisons are a great beer for people that are new to the craft beer world because they are dry and refreshing and usually low hopped. 

I haven’t fully decided if I’m going to do anything else with this beer i.e. dry hopping. If I love the aroma when it’s finished then I’ll probably leave it as is and bottle. If not I think a fruity or spicy hop would be a nice compliment. This batch also ended up being a 10 gallon batch since I needed to make enough beer to have 750ml bottles available to every guest. Hopefully I brewed enough.  All I have to do now is determine a name for the beer. Any suggestions?

As far as the brew day is concerned everything was going fine. I had to brew in the garage this time since it was raining. It wasn’t bad except I had to figure out the logistics of my set up. I probably should have placed the burner closer to the garage door so I didn’t spray water all over the garage while I was cooling. The only problem that I encountered was that I forgot to add the Belgian Dark Candi syrup during the boil and was forced to boil it separately and then add it later.  The two batches when split came within 0.002 points of each other. I plan on blending them at bottling so the difference will not matter.

Stats:

OG est: 1.048

OG measured: 1.050

FG est: 1.006

SRM: 15^o

IBU: 30.6

Grain Bill:

64% - 12 lbs – Belgian Pils

14% - 2 lbs 10 oz – Vienna Malt

11% - 2 lbs – Dark Munich Malt

4% - 12 oz – D80 Belgian Candi Syrup

3% - 8 oz –Flaked Wheat

3% - 8 oz – Special B

1% - 3 oz – Roasted Barley

Hop Bill:

2.5 oz – East Kent Golding – 75 minutes

0.5 oz – East Kent Golding – 30 minutes

Yeast:

Fantôme Noel dregs (from a starter made a week and a half earlier, stepped up twice)

Mash Schedule:

149^oF single infusion saccharification rest for 60 minutes

Notes: 

(12/31/12) – Brewed by myself. Chilled to 80F and was about to pitch the yeast until I noticed the candi syrup still sitting behind me. I let the wort chill further in the carboys for a few hours while I was at the store. Then I boiled the candi syrup for 5 minutes and added it to the carboys. I was finally over my anticipated gravity and back to my normal efficiency. I think the double crush helped. Added the yeast in the evening, shook to aerate and moved the carboys upstairs to ferment in a warmer environment.

(1/13/13) - Very acidic. More then likely infected. I'm going to have to brew a different beer for the wedding. I think I'll hold on to this one a little longer and see how it develops. Worst comes to worst I'll dump the batch.

(2/18/13) - It has definitely changed from when I last tried it. It is no longer sharply acidic, still acidic but no longer bittingly sour. It has developed more cherry notes then it previously had. Originally I was worried about acetobacter, but it might not be acetobacter. I might add some Brett dregs and let it age a little longer. I might also add some cherries to accentuate the cherry flavor. I'm not sure yet.

(11/3/13) - Four pounds of blackberries added to secondary carboy.

(11/7/13) - Signs of refermentation have started.

(3/2/14) - Blackberry sour bottled.

(6/29/14) - First tasting of the Blackberry sour

(8/9/14) - Seven pounds of red plums added to the other half of this beer.

(8/10/14) - Signs of refermentation have started.

First Tastng: 100% Brett-B IPA

This beer was the second 100% Brett beer that I have brewed. This time I decided to up the ABV and the bittering hops and make it more of an IPA then a pale ale session beer then the first attempt. I also used a different yeast strain, which some people say produces more funk. I was very happy with the way this beer turned out. 

Appearance: The beer pours a hazy golden yellow with orange hues and a dense white head that slowly fades and leaves a nice lacing over the top of the beer and along the sides of the glass. I’m really happy with the appearance of this beer. 

Aroma: A big nose of citrus, grapefruit, peach and pineapple. The dominate aromas are different citrus and peach. This is the second best dry hopping job I have done. I think the water chemistry has really helped me with my dry hopping aroma. 

Taste: Citrus and grapefruit are the predominate flavors with a touch of Brett-y funk. The bitterness comes off smooth and assertive without being overwhelming and abrasive. I was worried that it would end up being grassy again since I had to dry hop with pellet hops. No grassy notes to be found. 

Mouthfeel: Personally I think the perfect level of carbonation for this beer. A medium level of carbonation that is refreshing and tingly without taking anything away from the beer. It finishes dry with a nice lingering bitterness. I’m glad that it doesn’t feel watery, which can happen with Brett because it does not produce a lot of glycerol and that is a fear I have with 100% Brett beers. 

Overall: Although I do not brew IPAs often (I would prefer to only keg them due to their rapid fall off rate) this is easily the best IPA I have brewed and easily one of the best beers that I have brewed to date. The bitterness comes off perfect, aggressive, without being overwhelming and pallet stripping. I think my biggest improvement in dry hopped beers has come from my usage of water chemistry. This is something I want to continue to improve on as I continue to brew.

Cuveé des Chatsworth

Having the entire week off during the holidays gave me some time to get some long overdue brewing done. I was able to finally finish my keggle, although it still needs a little work so it is not so sharp, and brew two beers I’ve needed to brew. The first was the sours that I had planned to brew during the summer when I collected dregs from our tasting one night. Well once we decided to move and buy a house I didn’t want to brew anything and have to move it. Then when we moved I was too busy to brew at first and wanted to brew some other things that I would be able to drink right away. Long story short I should have brewed these sooner but I finally got around to it. 

The dregs that I had been storing in growlers may or may not still be usable. I did top them up with fresh wort every now and then, but when I decanted the top the day before brewing they were incredible sour. I think due to the warm temperature and extended time the Pediococcus produced too much acid and may have killed everything in there. But on the plus side by waiting so long I was able to obtain some Cantillon dregs from a Cuveé des Champions from our Night of the Sours Pt. 2 tasting. I was hoping to have two different sours, one from Beatification dregs and the other from Drie Fonteinen Zomer. But if they are not still viable then I should still end up with two different beers if I barrel age one carboy and not the other. 

I decided against doing a turbid mash for this beer but did try to stick to the basic Lambic recipe. I used about 2/3s Belgian Pale malt and about 1/3 Wheat Malt. Since I’m not doing a turbid mash I did not get unmalted wheat. I also used the aged hops that I purchased a few months ago for bittering hops at the rate specified by Jean van Roy (5 grams/liter).  

I came in slightly under gravity, I’m pretty sure I have discovered the reason I have been lately, but this time it was because I accidently spilled some of my first runnings. The brew day was uneventful and the keggle preformed beautifully. The only issue I experienced was chilling 10 gallons of wort without a pre-chiller takes a long time. After I collected the wort I used the yeast from my 100% Brett-B IPA to trigger fermentation and the yeast from my BA RIS (WLP001). Oddly enough it took about 3 days for fermentation to finally take off, I was about to use some of the Saison yeast I had to trigger fermentation until I noticed it had started. After two days of fermentation I poured the dregs of the Cantillon into each carboy. 

It’s nice having the option to brew ten gallons if I need or want to now. My plan is to let the beers ferment out and then rack one of them into my barrel for extended aging. 

Stats:

OG Est: 1.042

OG Measurement: 1.035

SRM: 4^o

IBU: 28.5

Grain Bill:

66% - 10 lbs Belgian Pale Malt

33% - 5 lbs Belgian Wheat

Hop Bill:

6.75 oz – Willamette – 3 years old – 60 minutes

Yeast: 

Brett-Brux Trois, WLP001, Cantillon Cuveé des Champions bottle dregs

Mash schedule:

156^o F for one hour – single infusion

Notes:

(12/27/12) – Brewed by myself. Easy brew day aside from getting used to my new equipment. Chilled to 90^oF degrees and racked to carboys. I placed the carboys into the chest freezer at 59 degrees and left them to cool for 3 hours. The bottle I saved from the Brett-B IPA was added to each carboy.

(12/28/12) – Dregs growlers added separately to each carboy. 

(12/29/12) – Still no activity, bottle dregs from the Ranger Creek RIS added to each carboy. 

(12/30/12) – Activity finally started; there is a nice fluffy white krauzen on top of the wort. In the evening I added the dregs from the Cuveé des Champions evenly into each carboy.

(1/13/13) - Racked one carboy into the barrel that recently held the barleywine. I cleaned the barrel by pouring boiling water into it.

(4/3/13) - Moved the carboy from the chest freezer to the beer room upstairs while I'm cold crashing the IPA. I'll leave it up there a while then maybe move it back down to the chest freezer.

3/26/14 - Bottled the barrel version using 4oz of table sugar.

7/10/14 - First tasting of the barrel version. 

First tasting: Chocolat Pompoen

It's been for ever since I brewed this beer. It took me so long to do a review for it mostly because I was not pleased with how it came out. For better or worse here it is

Appearance: Dark black with a bubbly off-white head that quickly dissipates. Not an unattractive looking beer, but I do wish the head would last longer. My suspicion is that the pumpkin killed the head.  

Aroma: a touch of lactose, no real gourd aroma. The Belgian yeast melds very well with the chocolaty overtones. Sweet burnt sugar and spicy yeasty notes which give the impression of clove and cinnamon. 

Flavor: This is the most disappointing part of the beer. There is very little to no gourd flavor and surprisingly little chocolate flavor. The flavor is slightly tart and milky, which is not a very appealing combination. 

Mouthfeel: I would say the mouthfeel is the second most disappointing part of the beer. It’s thin and watery with medium carbonation. 

Overall: I’m pretty disappointed with the way this beer came out. If I would do it over again I would probably skip the lactose and brew a higher gravity beer. The lower gravity is a big part of the weak mouthfeel. I think I might try this beer again next year since the pumpkin party was on hiatus this year with the wedding, but next year I’ll target 1.08ish for the OG and skip the lactose.

Spontaneous Fermentation

Ever since I developed a taste for sours, dare I say it, craving, I’ve admired the traditional process. There are very few breweries left in the world that produce sours in the traditional sense. Probably the most famous is Cantillon. Sours can be produced in many ways, as evident by American sour producers. I’m lucky that I live in San Antonio and am close to Freetail, one of two sour producers in Texas, the other being Jester King in Austin. With Texas’ weird beer laws I’m able to buy Jester King at a retail store but I can only buy Freetail at Freetail. This is why I’m lucky to be here; those living outside of San Antonio only have access to Jester King for sours.

Traditionally sours or wild ales are produced by allowing the natural microflora in the air to inoculate the wort while the beer is cooling in a large trough called a coolship. As the beer cools the wild yeast and bacteria in the air cause the beer to “spontaneously” ferment. After a 24 hour cooling period the beers are racked into barrels, which themselves are home to “bugs” from previous successful batches to ignite fermentation. The prevailing thought was that the traditional style of wild ale, Lambic, could only be produced in Lambeek, Belgium.  It was believed that the microflora in the air in this region has the right concentration to produce Lambic and that no other region in the world can replicate this. We know now that the bacteria and yeast in the air in Belgium is nothing special.  The Belgian Lambic producers are able to produce world class beers because their brewery has an established microflora and they have many years of batches that they can use for blending.

There is a group in Belgium that formed a coalition, whose name escapes me, that believes Pajottenland is the only place that Lambic can be produced. It is a group of traditional Lambic producers, Girardin, Boon, and a few others. Arguably the most famous producer of Lambic, Cantillon chose not to participate because they believe that Lambic is just a process and can be produced anywhere. There are a few breweries in America that have tried their hand at spontaneous fermentation. Jolly Pumpkin, Russian River, and Jester King have all inoculated some of their beers from a stepped up batch of spontaneously fermented wort. Allagash actually has installed a coolship and has been producing wild ales with it.

Most spontaneous fermentation producers agree that the best times to ferment beer is fall through spring. This is when they say the right balance of microflora is in the air. During my last brew day, Brett-Brux IPA, I had some left over wort from the mash tun and decided to try my hand at spontaneous fermentation. I collected the wort and boiled it with some old hops, mostly to keep the lacto in check. After the boil finished I poured the wort into a sanitized Pyrex baking dish and covered it with a sanitized cheese cloth and placed the “coolship” under our rose bushes in the back yard elevated by a bucket. I left the beer over night to cool and poured it into a sanitized carboy the next morning. The only aeration came from pouring into the carboy. I then capped the carboy with an airlock. It took about 2 or 3 days for fermentation to show. Currently there is a nice pellicle on top of the wort. I’m going to let it sit and ferment for about 3 weeks then give it a smell test. If it doesn’t smell awful I’m going to try a taste. You never want  to taste spontaneously fermented beer early because there are other types of bacteria that could be living in it early, ie e.coli. After a few weeks the alcohol and acidity will kill any pathogen.   If this works out then I’ll step the bugs up and use it to inoculate a full size batch. Who knows maybe in 2 years I’ll be able to drink my own Lanbintonio. If the starter doesn’t work out then I didn’t invest a lot of ingredients or time and I’ll learn what didn’t work.

Brett-Brux Trois IPA (C3PA)

I finally got around to bottling my sour ale. I wanted to give the beer some fresh yeast but I didn’t want to use champagne yeast. I decided to use the tube of Brett-Brux Trois that I bought a couple of months ago. I made a starter about a week before I bottled. I didn’t need all of the yeast from the starter for the sour so I was left with yeast that needed to be used. With the left over yeast I decided to brew another 100% Brett beer.

I’m making this an IPA since I thought the Brett-C and Citra combo was amazing. I decided to up the ABV, it is winter after all, and in doing so I also upped the hop content. The strategy was to use one hop for bittering at the beginning of the boil and then a bunch of flame out hops and dry hop like crazy. Instead of using 100% Citra, since I’m low and I can’t find any fresh Citra, I’m supplementing with Chinook and Falconer’s Flight. For bittering I decided to go with a staple of IPAs, Centennial

I ended up under-gravity again and I’m starting to think it’s not my process that has changed. I used to pretty much always hit my target OG and often be too high. The only change besides moving is the new LHBS. I think that they might not be crushing my grain correctly, just one more reason I need my own barley crusher. Other than that the brew day was uneventful, which is a nice change of pace from my last few brew days.

Stats
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity:
Estimated IBU: 70
SRM: 3^o
ABV%:
Efficiency Est: 65%
Boil Time: 60 min

Recipe

• 70% - 9.5 lbs –Two Row
• 22% - 3 lbs – Wheat Malt
• 4% - 0.5 lbs – Carapils
• 4% - 0.5 lbs – Acid Malt

Hops

• 60 minutes - Centennial – 2oz
• Flame out – Citra – 1oz
• Flame out – Falconer’s Flight – 1oz
• Flame out – Chinook – 1oz
• Dry hop 14 days – Citra – 2oz
• Dry hop 14 days – Falconer’s Flight – 1oz
• Dry hop 14 days – Chinook – 1oz

Yeast

• WLP644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois

Mash
Mashed single infusion for 60 minutes at 153^oF, single  sparge at 170^oF
Notes:

(11/24/12) – Brewed by myself. Easy brew day. Chilled to 80F and placed the carboy in the chest freezer. Three hours later I pitched the 1 liter starter a week before. For the mash I added 3 tsp of gypsum and 1 tsp of Calcium Chloride and 2 tsp gypsum and 1 tsp Calcium Chloride to the sparge water. I didn’t shake or add any additional aeration to the wort except during transferring from kettle to carboy. Set fermentation temperature to 57F targeting 62F.

(11/9/12) -  Added all but one packet of Falconer's Flight to the dry hopping.

(12/21/12) - Bottled with 0.5 cups of table sugar. 

(1/9/12) - First tasting. Great results.