This beer was supposed to be the Barley Wine equivalent, but poor execution appears appears to be to blame. While this beer is not bad, its not exactly what I was going for and I think it was a bit overzealous to try and work in a parti-gyle without any real planning.

Let me describe the beer and get to the lessons learned at the end:

Appearance: Dark brown with hues of red in the light. Darker than I planned for sure. Head cascades through the beer when poured, but this could be because it was just force carbonated. Moderate size bubbles and excellent lacing.

Aroma: Slight spiciness presumably from the rye and bit of astringency. Has an interestingly sweet smell that feels off too me, but not sure what it is.

Taste: a bit of spicey malt on the front, smooth center, and growing astringency at the end that lingers. Definitely missing some sweetness to balance out the astringency, but overall smooth drinking.

Mouthfeel: Decent body but still drinks fairly smooth. Could use a tad more carbonation to beef up the effect.

Notes: Nothing really stands out in this beer as excellent. I was hoping for a bit more rye flavor coming through because not much is apparent. Things I would change next time:

• Do a full beer and skip the parti-gyle. This beer needed more gravity so the achohol could balance out the astringency and bring out the flavors of the rye. Another 20 gravity points would have been perfect.
• Mash higher to get sweeter wort. This beer is just too dry (1.013 sg) to really draw the flavors out. I wonder if the sugar in the rye is more fermentable for some reason.
• Use a different yeast. The California Ale yeast is awesome, but it feels too clean. I’d like something spicier to complement the rye.
• Stop the runnings at 1.020 sg. The rye seems overly astringent and I was certainly topping of my kettles to save sugar when the gravity was low towards the end of the sparge. This was likely a mistake and indicates that maybe rye has some artifacts that you want to avoid.
• Don’t do a beta-glucan rest. Not sure on this one because we had not sticking problems, but I can’t help but wonder if the long rest at 110 caused some negative side affects in the end.

Hopefully with some age this will improve. I was planning on bottling some of this on Brett, but now I’m not so sure.

The first of my Lost Abbey Sinners club beers has arrived. In this shipment I got two bottles each of Red poppy Ale and Angels Share. Both were packaged in the new 375 ml bottles, so there just the right amount for one person.

The first one I tried was the Red Poppy Ale poured into a stem-less red wine snifter.

Aroma:
Light oak and sour notes. Hint of cherries.

Appearance:
Dark mahogany with significant turbidity. Pours smooth with little to no head. Some light carbonation is apparent on the edges of the glass. After some time sediment drops to the bottom of the glass.

Flavor:
Light sourness up front, with stronger lingering sourness on the finish. Feels mostly like acetic acid with a touch of lactic mixed in. Cherry sourness mixes with the strong acetic feel on the finish. Light oak is present in the midrange and as the sourness fades on the back of the tongue. Somewhat non-complex coming straight from the fridge but is getting more complex as it warms.

Mouth-feel:
Very appropriate mouth feel for the style. Not light in any way, but lingers on the tongue with just enough body to hold the sour and oak flavors in your mouth.

Overall Impression:
Very nice mild sour beer. I would like to see some more notes from the malt and a little more oak flavor, but its still very enjoyable. Maybe a hint of Brett C. or A. might go nice with the oak/sour combo. Mouth-feel seems to be about perfect.

John came by for a growler of the Bier De Garde and we had a chance to sample all of the beers in storage. All are very promising.

Old Ale

4 weeks into fermentation, 2 weeks into secondary (2 oz oak chips and brett started added). Gravity is 1.022 sg.

Aroma: Slight maltiness with a small amount of brett and oak apparent.
Appearance: Dark amber red. No carbonation. Few small floaties at the bottom of glass
Flavor: light malt flavor that is well balanced with subtle maltiness.
Mouthfeel: Light front end with more full backend due to flavors
Overall Impression: The balance on this is already very nice. It could use a bit more oak age because that is barely present. The brett is apparent and probably at the right level now. With a little more oak, it could take more brett. Has a mild sweetness from the malt and treacle that will also develop nicely with age.

Schwarzbier

This stopped primary a week early (due to under pitching). The gravity was about 8 point higher than designed, but it works because its a tad too atringent. It's has 1 week of lagering so far.

Aroma: Deep roastiness with a subtle lager yeastiness
Appearance: Dark brown with a bit of red on the edges. No carbonation
Flavor: Deep roast astringency hits you immediately. Probably too much. You get used to it after a few sips and its nice once your past the initial shock.
Mouthfeel: very light on the front, but no too watery. Feels like a lager
Overall Impression: This is definitely too astringent for a lager, but hopefully after a few months this will mellow out a bit. The drink itself is nice because it has a good roasty flavor but is not very heavy or alcoholic. Very session-able beer if you can get over the initial bitterness.

Lambic #1

This has been aging for a year now. I needed to get a sample for next weeks brew, so I figured why not. Siphoned off 15 oz from the carboy we didn’t sample last time. Enough for a sample and a 12 oz bottle for the brew.

Aroma: Smells just like a lambic. Lactic sourness mixed with brett very apparent on the nose.
Appearance: Light straw to rich golden in color. Slight haze.
Flavor: Slight lactic sourness mixed with oak. Fishes with an oaky brett taste that lingers on the tongue as it dries. Little to no sweetness, fairly dry.
Mouthfeel: Very light, but not too bad because of the flavor. Could have a little more body but very drinkable.
Overall Impression: Very happy with the aroma and flavor. I will like to get a little more sour, which should happen with age. This carboy doesn’t seem as oak as the other, but still plenty of oak. It seems to be more sour than the 8 month tasting but don’t know if this is due to age or because its from a different carboy.

I picked this one up at Perfect Pour when I saw it hiding in the seasonal section partially because I have been trying all the Bruery beers, but also because I wanted to compare it to my berliner weisse.

Style: Berliner Weisse
ABV: 3.1%
IBU: 2
SRM: 2

Aroma:
Slight detectable sourness. Considerable wheat smelled present (though it probably didn’t help that I stuck my nose in it )

Appearance:
Light straw, almost light pilsner like in color. Slight cloudiness with consistent stream of CO2 with both large and small bubbles. Pours with a small amount of head the disappears almost immediately.

Flavor:
Immediate mild sourness, followed by a stronger sourness in the back of the throat. Finishes with strong wheat flavors that linger. Not much else comes through.

Mouthfeel:
Extremely light. Sour and wheat give it a nice flavor and feel initially, but feels very watery in the middle. Not much body at all.

Overall Impression:
A nice light but sour and refreshing drink. Probably a little to light on the body and flavor. To get away with such a light and watery middle this beer should add more sourness or maybe some fruit to give it more character. A little more carbonation would also help. The character of this beer only gets worse as it gets warm and looses carbonation.

This is a good attempt at the style but think some of the traditional styles have a bit more character. Definitely worth trying if you like this style and want something REAL light.

This past Thursday (Nomvember 5th, 2009), was the 3rd anniversary of my homebrewery. On that day three years ago I brewed my first beer with the help of a experienced homebrewer. To celebrate this occasion I decided to start an annual event, to be celebrate every Novemebr 5th (or maybe the first Saturday after that) in honour of my breweries humble beginnings.

To celebrate this event I decided it was time to sample my 20th beer (19th brew session), my 10 month old Lambic. In addition to this we sampled some 22 month barley wine (brew 11) in addition to many of my more recent beers (Wild Levitation, Berliner Weisse, Bier De Garde, Random Hop IPA). We even sampled the 2009 Allagash Interlude (more on that later).

Lambic

This is my first lambic so you can imagine how hard it has been to wait 10 months before sampling. Plus you can see by the picture to the right it isn't the most pleasant thing to look at with all of that bacteria growing on the surface. Though, this is what lambic is all about.

For those not familiar with lambic, its is a traditional style of beer made in Belgium from the natural yeast and bacteria found in the air. Typically a lambic is brewed with 60% malted barley and 40% unmalted wheat using a special mash called a turbid mash. The point of a turbid mash is to extract a significant amount of dextrins in the final product so that the wild yeast and bacteria has something to eat. The finished wort would generally be pumped to a big flat tank on the top floor of the brewery for cooling and inoculation. The windows surrounding this vessel (called a cool ship) are opened so the local winds can carry in wild yeast and bacteria from the local fauna. Once cool, the wort is then placed into oak barrels previously used for lambic and aged for years. Lambic aged 1 year and served is considered to be young. Some young lambic gets fruits like cherries and raspberries and is aged an additional 6 months or so to make a kriek or framboise. Other lambic is aged an addition 2-3 years and served as old lambic or blended to make a Gueuze (blend of 1, 2, and 3 year old lambic).

The lambic I made tried to follow the traditional guidelines wherever possible. I used traditional ingredients and did a turbid mash. The differences are that I used cultured strains of yeast and bacteria that included only Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus. Additionally I used glass carboys with a oak stick inserted to provide some oak flavor and help the lambic diffuse a comparable amount of oxygen to a 50 gallon wine barrel.

My lambic was split across two 6 gallon carboys. I was able to take a sample from the second carboy using a wine thief after removing the oak stick. The first carboy could not be sampled because the oak stick swelled so much that it could not be removed. We can try and sample this at a later date.

In sampling we took about a half of a snifter full from the second carboy (see picture below). The picture below shows the color much more orange than it actually was. The color was more like the straw color that is common with lambics. The beer was fairly clear with only a little haze. Presumably attributed to the significant amount of wheat in the beer. The aroma smelled just like a lambic or gueuze (hints of sour, oak, and wheat). The taste is very smooth, watery even, which definitely signifies it is still young. Oak flavor is definitely apparent, mixed with a small amount of brett barnyard character with maybe just a touch of sour. Absolutely amazed that this has turned out so well. It does need more agedand sourness but it is still very much like a traditional lambic.

Next time I think I will not pitch any extra sacharomyces yeast as I previously did and try to keep it warmer. This should help with the development of character sooner. I may also consider using oak piece instead of the dowel so that samples are easier to take.

Barley Wine

The second tasting of the night was my 22 month old Barley wine (our 11th brew). This beer goes back to the days when I was still trying to figure my system out and a few of the beers made in this era haven't aged too well.

The appearance was too be expected, a dark reddish brown color. The aroma is full of malty sweetness and a little bit of fusal alcohol. Taste is very pleasing and warm. Gives of nice malty flavor, a considerable amount of sweetness, matched by a decent level of alcohol. If there is any defect I would say that maybe it is a little too sweet. This would certainly be better with some hop bitterness, but most of that has faded with age. Once warmed, some bitterness comes through but it was mostly masked by the malty sweet combo. Overall very pleased with how this has aged.

2009 Allagash Interlude

We finished the night with a commercial bottle from allagash. I will leave the description to Allagash, here is a snippet from there page:

The first release in our new experimental series, Allagash Interlude pushes the limits of beer. An innovative brewing process, special fermentations, and French oak barrel aging all contribute to a beer that has remarkable wine-like qualities. Two yeast strains were used to create this unique 9.5% ABV Belgian style ale. The first, a Belgian farmhouse yeast, establishes the flavor foundations of a classic Belgian-style ale. The second, a house strain of Brettanomyces yeast, brings it to the next level contributing an intriguing myriad of flavors including pear, apricot, graham cracker, and bread crust. Finally, a portion of the Interlude is aged in French Merlot and Sirah oak barrels, which impart a distinctive vinous plum character and a drying, almost tannic finish. Try complementing its audacious character with food pairings such as sausages, salami, smoked meats, and bold cheeses. True to traditional Belgian-style brewing, we bottle condition the Interlude. Just prior to bottling, a fresh dose of sugar and yeast is added to the ‘still beer’ (at this stage there is no carbonation present). After bottling, the beer is aged in a warm room, where the fresh dose of yeast ferments the sugar and naturally carbonates the beer.

I was very impressed by this beer. It had a distinct brett character but also sourness, which is unusual for a beer without some bacteria. The wine barrel aging shines through and may be at least partially why there is some sourness. The vinous flavor from the barrels does come through and balances nicely with the rest of the beer. I'm not actually sure how to describe it, but the fruity flavors reminded me a little of sour cherries mixed with red grapes. Just checked corridor and they don't seem to have anymore :(. I have an extra bottle bot would love to have more for aging

Its been one month since we bottled this beer so I figured it was time to do an official tasting. I’m also very tired from working in the yard and one of these seemed like they best thing to have.

Recall that we brewed this on 7/11/09 and bottled in 7/31/09. It was brewed from 40% malted wheat and 60% French pilsner. It was started with a strong lactobacillus starter for a full day before pitched any sacharomyces yeast. A full peck of local peaches was added to the primary fermentation.

Aroma:

Smells of a mild lactic acidity with just a hint of tartness. Not sure if that’s the peaches or just the lactobacillus.

Appearance:

Straw yellow with a glow green when backlit well. It has cleared a bit since my first and second tastings but there is still a little bit of wheat protein haze. Pours with a lot of carbonation action, but head quickly drops leaving streams of CO2 shooting from the bottom of the glass.

Flavor:

At first it delivers a mild wheat flavor mixed with a subtle sourness and mild tart flavor. Hints of peachy tartness, but its barely noticeable. The acidity is smooth and not over pouring. This tastes and drinks very light, but has a wonderful summer flavor. Reminds me of a light pilsner with wheat notes, accept for the sourness

Mouthfeel:

Very light and bubbly. Fills the mouth wonderfully and has sufficient levels of carbonation, but wouldn’t hurt to have more. Just enough body.

Overall Impression:

Overall I am very happy with this beer. Its light, has a very smooth lactic sourness and basic tartness. I would love to see the lactic acid develop a little more to provide even more sour and tart notes. This is extremely drinkable now, but should only get better in the next month or two.

Aroma:

Has a mild winey aroma with notes of wheat and slight astringency

Appearance:

Dark golden brown with decent protein haze. Not as much as a Hefeweizen but definitely shows its made from wheat. No real head on this one, but does have a steady stream of carbonation coming up from the bottom

Flavor:

Tastes a little sweet initially, then hits you with wheat flavors along with some alcohol astringency. Leaves a mild stickiness in your throat due to the thickness of the beer. Tastes a little like a barley wine with the strong winey and alcohol flavors, but  the use of wheat gives it a different edge. Some clover notes come through presumably because of the wheat malt.

Mouthfeel:

Has a very thick body for a what ale but pretty much what you would expect from a 12% beer.

Overall Impression:

It has some nice flavors, but could use a little more emphasis on the wheat. I think the alcohol is overpowering the wheat flavors a bit, but its a nice one and done to try. I would guess that this will taste better with age, helping to dull the astringency and heighten the wheat notes.

I have been seriously neglecting my posting duties, so I decided to post today in the hopes it will jump start me. Nothing to long or detailed, but its a start…

After a long day in the yard yesterday I decided to try my Avery Brabant. Bill picked two of these up for me at Rodmans in DC and I had one chilling, waiting to be consumed. These were pricey bottles ($10 for 12 oz) because they are special release, part of Avery’s “Barrel-Aged Series”. Brabant is the first installment in that series and the bottle says only 694 cases were produced, so definitely rare indeed.

The beer was bottled on 2/10/2009 and Avery lists the details of the beer as follows:

Beer Style: Barrel-Aged Wild Ale, not brewed to any known style
Malt Variety: Two-row barley, dehusked carafa, honey malt, carafa 3, chocolate malt
OG: 1.074  ABV: 8.7%   IBUs: 25
Barrels: Red Zinfandel barrels from Norman Vineyards in Paso Robles, CA.
Color: Dark brown with ruby corners
Availability: One and done.  694 cases produced. Bottled February 10th, 2009.  Grab it if you can find it!

Experimentation. Ales and lagers that defy styles or categories. This is what we are about: our driving force, our passion. To further facilitate this innovative spirit, we've developed our Barrel-Aged Series where anything, and we mean ANYTHING, goes! Brewed for those as adventurous as we are! 

No. 1, Brabant, is a luscious dark ale fermented with two strains of wild yeast (Brettanomyces) then aged for 8 months in Zinfandel barrels. We hope you enjoy sifting through the vast layers of complexity in this mysterious ale.

 

I enjoyed this beer very much. It definitely has a very subtle barrel flavor that goes well with the moderate but flavorful brett character. The brett flavor is balanced, not overpowering but very tasty. I could sip on this beer all day. The brett was mostly what I noticed, which I feel is shame now because I wish I had paid more attention to other aspects of the beer. It didn’t have much head when poured, maybe a 1/4 inch that fell quickly, but it seemed like enough to suite the beer style.

I would recommend trying this if you are a brett head because its excellent.

Aroma:

Strong brettanomyces aroma with mild fruit flavors

Appearance:

Dark golden to orange brown in color. Slight amount of chill haze. Head pours with small to medium size bubbles and stays put for 1-2 minutes after pouring.

Flavor:

The flavor is very unique. Seems to be a mixture a brett flavors that are mild but well balanced. There is an aftertaste of brett but is very weak and pleasing. This beer almost has a bready or cracker hints to it mixed in with brett flavors. The bottle says it has a hop spiciness in the finish but, I’m not sure I taste it. There is a very mild spiciness I guess, but I wouldn’t have associated with hops had I not read the bottle

Mouthfeel:

Light to medium body. Again seems appropriate for this style of beer.

Overall Impression:

I am enjoying this beer very much. The 8.5% seems to be the right level for this beer. No astringency detect at all. The mixture of bready flavors and brett are very smooth and well balanced. You might even be able to say it has a mild sourness when compared to other brett only beers. I would have to give this a grade of A, it is that good.

I’m not going to do a traditional tasting post for this one because I drank this last night with a few people and didn’t have time to make notes on each item at the time. I will do my best to recall everything.

First off I must say that I am thoroughly disappointed with how this turned out. It started ok with a champagne style cork popping that went across the room with lots of power. My first inkling that something was wrong was during the pouring. The notes from the Michael Jackson book “Great Beers of Belgium” 6th edition, indicated the head was thick, almost meringue like. This head was more champagne like with large bubbles that quickly dissipated.

The smell was about the same as the taste. I’m not really sure how to describe it but I know I have tasted it before. There must be a name for the flavor because it is very distinct. The best I can do is describe it as rotten buttery apples. I did not get any crisp flavors or any other fruits, just a really weird middle flavor that must have been wrong.

I shared this with two others and at first we thought we liked it but after many drinks it just did not sit very well. The taste was not enjoyable in my opinion. So much so that I poured out my second glass despite my insistence on drinking it all because of what I paid for it.

I almost think that maybe I got a bad batch or bottle because there are very few drinks I don’t like or cannot drink. Sure, I used to think Big Foot was the grosses thing ever, but that was more than 2 years ago and my tastes have greatly changed. I have tried and enjoyed at least 100+ base and hybrid styles of beer and well over 600 unique beers I’m sure, but I didn’t not like this at all. I enjoy just about ever lambic, sour, brett beer that I try so I don’t understand why I could not drink this.

Overall this beer just sucked for me for some reason. Not work the $1 let alone the hefty $30-35. For sake of my wallet I will presume there was something wrong with this batch or bottle.