Brewing and Bottling: The 7% Solution

This beer started off as a Belgian Tripel recipe, but things took a different turn after my brewing efficiency did not extract as much of an original gravity as expected, and the beer came out a little lighter.  The yeast was lagging after 3 weeks in the primary fermentation, so I raised the temperature to 75, then 80 Degrees and drove the gravity another few points, greatly improving the flavor as well.  I had set out wanting to make a Belgian Tripel, which according to the style guidelines needs to be at least 7.5% ABV…but based on the flavors I ended up getting, and the slightly lower ABV, it is really technically a Belgian Blonde Ale – some honey-like sweetness, a little spiciness from the yeast, and a golden hue.  And when I decided that a beer is only as good as it tastes, and style guidelines are really just a framework for that to happen in, the idea came to me to call it The 7% Solution – both in reference to the final ABV of this beer (which is after all, just a solution of barley) and in a roundabout homage to Sherlock Holmes.

14# Belgian Pilsner Malt

.5# Belgian CaraPils Malt

1 oz Fuggles Pellet Hops 5.1% AA, @ 60 Mins

1 oz Saaz Pellet Hops 3.0 % AA, @ 15 Mins

1# White Table Sugar @ 30 Mins

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey II

2/3 Cup Natural Honey for Bottle Conditioning

O.G. : 1.060

F.G. : 1.008

ABV: 7%

 

The sugar and aroma hops, ready to be added.

 

Always try to enjoy some of the previous labor when brewing…Today I was enjoying a pint of my Misery Mountain Abbey Ale, an appropriate choice for the Belgian yeast and also an excellent fall beer, with hints of chocolate and amber malts.

 

On bottling day I continued to try a new system of siphoning, giving up on the auto-siphon approach I have used for 2 years and instead just hooking a racking cane up to a rubber blow-off cap and some tubing.  this way, by blowing through the second hole in the cap (through wet sanitized paper towels) the beer fairly quickly flows up the racking cane and into the bottling bucket.  I like this setup because you can set the racking cane height pretty close to the trub at the bottom of the fermenter, and extract more beer without disturbing the yeast.

 

Here is a shot of the beer, and in the carboy still- you can see how much the color changes, from deep orange in the fermenter to golden hay in the glass.

 

Initial tasting at bottling gave me hints of bubble gum flavor, which I attribute to the last minute high temperature, as well as a nice variety of spicy yeast flavors, with a background flavor of bready malt.  My initial comparison was to the Pilsner I brewed last winter, which makes sense since the malt bills are very very similar.  But whereas the Czech Pilsner yeast highlighted the malt flavors and heavier Saaz hopping came out in the Pilsner, this beer is more about the unique flavors that the Belgian Yeast brings to the table.  I had used this yeast before for my Dubbel Dutch, and had been very pleased with the results, getting more dark fruit flavors that blended with the darker malts.
More notes on tasting to follow. Happy brewing out there

 

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Big Buck Brown Ale

This beer was my first run on a new and developing all-grain system, which was largely facilitated by getting some hand-me-down gear from my brother-in-law Michael.  I am waiting to fire up the 15 gal Keggle until I get my hands on a stepped bit, but I did do an all-grain mash-in start to finish.  The Recipe is loosely based on John Palmer’s “Oak Butt Brown Ale” from How To Brew, that ever-reliable resource for all things brewing.  As for the name…it is in honor/celebration of the Buck I got lucky with this hunting season.  I have already confirmed via my own kitchen lab testing that it goes very well with venison steaks and hot dogs.

8 lbs Maris Otter Malt

.5 lbs Crystal 60 Malt

4.75 g Pale Chocolate Malt

.5 oz Chinook (13%AA) Pellet hops @ 60 mins

.5 oz US Fuggles Pellet hops @ 15 mins

Safale S-04 English Ale Yeast

Here is the new setup in all its glory…most of it is stuff I already had lying around, such as the big cooler.  The turkey fryer is on loan for now, and works great.  The keggle is 2-3 times bigger than the pot shown here so it will be a very confortable boil once I get a hole tapped for the brass fittings I got from Michael.

For the benefit of those who have not all-grain brewed before, here is a picture of the “mash-in”, where I add several gallons of hot (155 deg.) water to all the crushed grain listed above, and steep it together at this high temperature for about an hour.  This is the mystical process of “mashing”, or using hot water to convert the starches present in malted barley into sugar.  This sugar can then be eaten by yeast during fermentation.

Essentially, by adding this step, I did not need to use Malt Extract (which comes in a syrup or dried powder form), and truly made the beer “from scratch”.  Malt Extract is just a boiled down version of what’s going on in the above picture- the Mashing is just happening in a professional brewhouse instead of your kitchen or garage.

After I collected the mash (about 6 gallons of liquid at the end of the process) I was ready to bring the whole thing up to a boil and proceed with hop additions as usual.  It is a little more time-and equipment-consuming than extract brewing with specialty grain, but there is potential here to have more versatility in what I’m making, control over the process, and oh man does it smell good!  Plus I really enjoyed brewing outside, even if it was a but cold out there.

Next beer I will have more pictures walking through the process of sparging (rinsing the grain bed to extract all the sugars possible) and chilling after the hour-long boil- since I am still getting used to the equipment this was kind of a learning session and I didn’t have the camera with me for documentation.

Here is a picture of the beer fermenting happily away in the cellar.

And finally…Tasting!  the fruit of labors.  This beer is a session-strength beer with a big malt body, and some hop aroma to balance it out.  I am excited to see what  a few weeks of aging in the bottles will do for it.

Happy brewing/tasting out there!  Thanks for reading.

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