Kaberne Fran Rye Saison

November 30, 2014January 28, 2016 / thedudeimbibes / Leave a comment

Back in March of 2014 Gregory & I collaborated on a Ginger Kumquat Saison that turned out great and received an honorable mention at our first homebrew competition, the 2014 Aroma of Tacoma competition (I’ll eventually get it posted up here). Based on the success of that brew, we began kicking around ideas for other Saisons we’d like to someday brew. In late September we decided on a dark rye Saison suitable for the winter months which would incorporate the other half (12-13 lbs.) of the Cabernet Franc grapes we bought from the grape crush.

We brewed this beer a week after our Kaberne Fran Sour Pale Ale and it should be ready to keg or bottle around December 17th 2014, along with our 100% Brett. IPA, and the Chanterelle Belgian Strong Ale detailed in earlier posts. Here is our recipe:

Kaberne Fran Rye Saison

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 5.5
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.38
Anticipated OG: 1.055
Anticipated SRM: 17.0
Anticipated IBU: 37.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain

39% – 4.5 Lbs. Belgian 2-Row Pilsner
17% – 2.0 Lbs. Rye Malt
13% – 1.5 Lbs. CaraRed
13% – 1.5 Lbs. Flaked Rye
04% – 0.5 Lbs. Caramel/Crystal 40L
04% – 0.5 Lbs. Brown Malt
04% – 0.5 Lbs. Flaked Wheat
01% – 0.19 Lbs. Carafa III
01% – 0.18 Lbs. Rice Hulls

Hops

0.75 oz. Perle (Pellet, 8.5% AA) @ 60 min.
0.75 0z. Perle (Pellet, 8.5% AA) @ 30 min.
1.00 0z. Perle (Pellet, 8.5% AA) @ 1 min.
0.50 oz. Perle (Pellet, 8.5% AA) @ 0 min.

Extras

1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
12.50 Lbs. Cabernet Franc grapes

Yeast

White Labs WLP072 French Ale (starter)
White Labs WLP644 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois

Water Profile

Seattle
1.00 tsp Calcium Chloride
1.00 tsp Gypsum

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion – 75 min @ 152F

Notes

10.06.14 – Made a stir-plate 2L starter with 1 White Labs WLP072 vial. Brewtoad suggests 210 billion cells to ferment 5.5 gal. Cold crashed and decanted morning of brew day.

Brewed 10.08.14 with Gregory

10.08.14 – Chilled wort to 70F before pitching yeast starter.

10.08.14 – Put fermentor onto brewbelt and holding steady at 70-75F.

10.18.14 – Transferred to secondary fermentor and added the Cabernet Franc grapes.

11.19.14 – After 32 days in secondary on the grapes, we transferred to a tertiary fermentor and put it back onto the brewbelt.

12.29.14 – Brewed a second batch of the base saison to blend with the grape version.

01.16.15 – Transferred the second rye saison to secondary after 18 day primary fermentation.

01.28.15 — Blended the two saisons to taste (roughly half and half, leaning a tad more heavy on the regular version).

02.18.15 — Bottled the finished beer in 750ml cork and cage bottles.

Tasting Notes — 01.27.16 (bottle pour)

Slightly over carbonated with a reddish-brown color and billowy white head. Nose is reminiscent of minerals and cherry pits with some fruit still left on them. An initial sharp carbonic bite requires the imbiber to let the brew warm on the tongue where juicy vinous notes are revealed, followed by some light rye spice. There are some astringent phenolic notes from the French Saison yeast that aren’t unpleasant. It finishes very dry and akin to mineral water due to the brett., with a slight alcohol note and a faint fruitiness that makes me think of dried fruit leather.

Calculated OG: 1.056
Calculated FG: 1.004
Approx. ABV: 6.83%

100% Brettanomyces IPA

November 29, 2014April 5, 2015 / thedudeimbibes / Leave a comment

What do you do if you have an abundance of hops to use up and wish to make something a little more interesting than a standard IPA? Craft a 100% Brett. IPA of course.

This brew follows a basic IPA recipe but utilizes some acidulated malt which drops the PH slightly and helps the Brett. along during fermentation. We loaded this brew up with generous additions of Centennial, Columbus, Chinook, and Ahtanum hops for their wonderful floral and citrus notes as well as some herbal and piney undertones.

We originally pitched only Brett. Brux. Trois but had poor initial fermentation even though we had made a pretty hefty starter so we added a vial of Brett. Claussenii and fermentation picked up noticeably. We think this will turn out to be a happy accident as (if all goes well) the Brett. C. will contribute more fruity aromatics to compliment the dry-hopping while the more aggressive Brett. Brux. Trois should add a mellow tartness and some fruity funk. All was tasting on point at the time of transfer to secondary.

100% Brettanomyces IPA Variant 01

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 5.5
Total Grain (Lbs): 13.25
Anticipated OG: 1.065
Anticipated SRM: 7.0
Anticipated IBU: 45.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain

75% – 10.0 Lbs. U.S. 2-Row Pale
07% – 1.0 Lbs. Carapils
07% – 1.0 Lbs. Acidulated Malt
05% – .75 Lbs. Crystal 40L
03% – .50 Lbs. Honey Malt

Hops

0.50 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 10.5% AA) @ 90 min.
0.20 0z. Columbus (Pellet, 15.0% AA) @ 60 min.
0.40 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 10.5% AA) @ 15 min.
0.50 0z. Columbus (Pellet, 15.0% AA) @ 10 min.
0.50 0z. Ahtanum (Pellet, 6.0% AA) @ 10 min.
0.25 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 10.5% AA) @ 05 min.
0.50 0z. Ahtanum (Pellet, 6.0% AA) @ 01 min.
0.50 oz. Chinook (Pellet, 12.0% AA) @ 01 min.
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 10.5% AA) @ 0 min.
0.50 0z. Ahtanum (Pellet, 6.0% AA) @ 0 min.
0.50 oz. Chinook (Pellet, 12.0% AA) @ 0 min.
1.00 oz. Chinook (Pellet, 12.0% AA) @ 5 days dry hop
1.00 oz. Centennial (Pellet, 10.5% AA) @ 5 days dry hop
0.50 0z. Columbus (Pellet, 15.0% AA) @ 5 days dry hop
0.50 0z. Ahtanum (Pellet, 6.0% AA) @ 5 days dry hop

Extras

1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.

Yeast

White Labs WLP644 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois
White Labs WLP645 Brettanomyces Claussenii

Water Profile

Seattle
1.00 tsp Calcium Chloride
1.00 tsp Gypsum

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion – 75 min @ 155F

Notes

All late hop additions of “Centennial” are a 60%/40% Centennial/Columbus blend from Fremont Brewing.

10.15.14 – Made a stir-plate 2L starter with 1 White Labs WLP644 vial. Fed it for two weeks to build cell count but never saw much activity.

Brewed 10.29.14 with Gregory

10.29.14 – Chilled wort to 70F before pitching yeast starter.

11.03.14 – After 5 days without much activity, we pitched a vial of White Labs WLP645 with temperature holding steady at 65-68F.

11.20.14 – Transferred to secondary fermentor after 17 day primary fermentation with noticeable uptick in activity after the addition of the Claussenii.

Currently planning to let it condition for 27 days with the addition of the dry hops 5 days before kegging.

12.12.14 – Added dry hop additions.

12.17.14 – Kegged IPA with additional dry hops and carbonated and tasted it shortly thereafter.

Tasting Notes

This beer did not turn out. Unfortunately it presents extremely grassy vegetal notes and a bracing, unpleasant bitterness. We’ve brewed 100% Brett. IPAs before, so in our troubleshooting we have ruled out the usual suspects (old or bad ingredients, missed targets, wrong fermentation temp., uncleanliness & poor sanitation). We were initially convinced that is was due to the stalled primary fermentation, however, when we transferred the beer to secondary it was tasting fine. We now believe we simply had too many hop additions and the dryness that Brett. imparts accentuated the apparent bitterness. This is our best guess even though the beer only clocks in with approximately 45 IBUs and a ratio of 0.71 IBU/OG, which is fairly low on the range of the IPA scale. Next time we’ll stick to a simpler hop profile. If anyone can come up with something we didn’t think of, leave a comment!

Calculated OG: 1.066
Calculated FG: 1.012
Approx. ABV: 7.1%

Kaberne Fran Sour Pale Ale

November 22, 2014February 18, 2017 / thedudeimbibes / Leave a comment

In late September Gregory and I started talking about doing a new sour ale. Based on the success of his Chenin Blanc grape sour pale and with the annual Mountain Homebrew & Wine Supply grape crush on the horizon, we started discussing brewing a sour to showcase a red wine grape. Lately I have been gravitating toward the firm tannins and notes of leather, tobacco, pepper and earth found in many French and American Cabernet Francs (if you stumble upon a bottle of Watermill’s 2010 Cab Franc snatch it up, it’s impeccable). It may come as a surprise to those who know me well (since I’m usually imbibing a beer of some style), but I am also a fan of great wine and worked intensively around Italian wine for three years shortly after I moved to Seattle. So with little deliberation, we put in our order for 25 Lbs. of eastern Washington Cabernet Franc grapes.

We split the grapes in half and used 12-13 Lbs. in the creation of this sour and we used the remaining grapes in our Kaberne Fran Rye Saison. This beer is almost two months into an approximately year long process, so check back as I will be updating this post periodically and documenting the progress. Below is our recipe and process:

Kaberne Fran Sour Pale Ale

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 5.5
Total Grain (Lbs): 13.75
Anticipated OG: 1.069
Anticipated SRM: 4.0
Anticipated IBU: 14.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain

80% – 11.0 Lbs. Belgian 2-Row Pilsner
07% – 1.0 Lbs. U.S. Vienna
05% – .75 Lbs. U.S. Munich – Dark 20L
07% – 1.0 Lbs. U.S. Wheat

Hops

0.35 oz. Magnum (Pellet, 13.0% AA) @ 90 min.

Extras

1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
12.50 Lbs. Cabernet Franc grapes

Yeast

Wyeast 3763 Roeselare Ale Blend (starter)
Yeast cake from homebrew Framboise (Roeselare + The Lost Abbey Red Poppy bottle dregs)
The Ale Apothecary Rum Barrel & White Peach La Tache bottle dregs

Water Profile

Seattle
1.00 tsp Calcium Chloride
1.00 tsp Gypsum

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion – 60 min @ 155F

Notes

09.29.14 – Made a stir-plate 2L starter with 1 Wyeast 3763 smack pack. Brewtoad suggests 260 billion cells to ferment 5.5 gal. Cold crashed and decanted morning of brew day.

Brewed 10.01.14 with Gregory

10.01.14 – Chilled wort to 65F before pitching yeast starter.

10.03.14 – Steady fermentation and holding steady at 63-65F.

10.18.14 — Transferred to secondary fermentor and added yeast cake from Gregory’s Framboise.

11.19.14 — After 32 days in secondary on the grapes, we transferred to a tertiary fermentor and added the bottle dregs from The Ale Apothecary’s Rum Barrel & White Peach La Tache.

04.??.15 — At some point in April 2015 we pulled a sample and noticed some diacetyl notes present so we pitched the brett slurry from a funky pale ale we brewed with The Yeast Bay’s Funktown Pale blend with the hopes that the brett would clean up the beer.

02.11.16 — Sampled from carboy and happy to note that the brett devoured the diacetyl. Very sour and big acidity. Grape juice and cherry notes. Took final gravity reading, transferred to bottling bucket, added champagne yeast and corn sugar for 2.2 volumes of CO2 and bottled the entire batch.

Tasting Notes — 02.18.17 (bottle pour)

Lovely burnished red-orange color and well clarified. Perfect spritz of carbonation with a white head that dissipates quickly. Great horse blanket-funk brettanomyces esters dominate the nose with hints of straw, red fruit, and tobacco in the background. No diacetyl detected. Deep red grape juice and cherry notes on the front of the palate with a hint of alcohol. Delicious, assertive black pepper flavor from the Cab Franc grapes in the middle with a round, velvety acidity and gripping tannins bringing this beer to a drying, leathery finish. Moderate brettanomyces funk melds with notes of oranges and firm lactic acid tartness akin to citric acid which lingers and dries out with delicate notes of booze. Very red wine-like!

Calculated OG: 1.074
Calculated FG: 1.006
Approx. ABV: 8.9%

Transfer Day

November 20, 2014November 30, 2014 / thedudeimbibes / Leave a comment

Yesterday Gregory and I transferred three different beers that have been working for some time now — (from left to right) 100% Brettanomyces fermented IPA, Cabernet Franc grape rye saison, & Cabernet Franc grape sour pale ale. I also transferred the Chanterelle Belgian Strong into secondary and added the mushrooms today. I’ll get individual posts and recipes for the three brews we transferred yesterday up very soon!

The Cherry Ghost – Cherry & Kumquat Berliner Weisse

November 9, 2014February 15, 2016 / thedudeimbibes / 2 Comments

“A sour wort Berliner weisse aged 8 weeks on cherries and kumquats with a ghost of an ABV.”

Berliner weisse is a classic tart German wheat ale that is traditionally fermented with a mixed culture of top-fermenting yeasts and lactobacillus. Examples of the style can range from mildly tart to bracingly sour with firm acidity and notes of lemon and other citrus fruits. In Berlin it is available “straight” but is often served with sweet raspberry or woodruff syrups to blunt the acidity and sourness. At only about 3-4% alcohol by volume this beverage proves to be an excellent thirst quencher and has become quite popular during the summer months in the U.S.A.

There are different methods of souring a berliner weisse, each with its own involved process and merits. Briefly, you can pitch pure strain lactobacillus, or lacto with an additional yeast culture; or you can do a sour mash with pitched yeast, or a sour mash with pitched yeast and additional lacto. If you’d like to read more in depth about these methods, Derek Dellinger has done a great job of explaining them on his Homebrew and Beer Blog, Bear Flavored. Additionally, you can conduct a normal mash and pull some or all of the wort, pitch your lacto starter at this point and perform a sour wort.

The base for this berliner weisse is extremely minimal. Gregory and I decided to do a four day sour wort with a lactobacillus starter made from yogurt followed by a 15 minute boil after which we pitched Wyeast 1007 German Ale along with Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis.

As the tag line that begins this post suggests, not everything went as planned for this brew. Although some might consider 3-4% a ghost of an ABV already, the base beer only ended up being about 1%! How did this happen, you ask? Well I have a few theories though I’d love to hear others if you’ve got them. First of all, while hot holding the sour wort at around 100F for the four days, it began to ferment creating some alcohol that would later be boiled off (since we only boiled for 15 minutes to kill the lacto/other bacteria I’m unsure if this had much of an affect on the finished product). Additionally, I forego a starter for the German Ale yeast (this was brewed at a time before I always made a starter) and assume that the PH was too low, disrupting the ale yeast’s fermentation.

Regardless of the reasons for the lower than usual ABV, the beer went through a 16 day primary fermentation followed by a 56 day secondary on cherries and kumquats. In addition to the final refreshing brew tasting fantastic, the “sessional” aspect of this already session style beer allowed it to be entered into Xbrew — the Mount Si Brewing Society’s annual homebrew competition that accepts session and imperial versions of each traditional BJCP style. I am honored that this little beer took the silver medal in the fruit beer category. I plan to brew this recipe again although I haven’t determined which souring method I’ll experiment with. The recipe is as follows:

Cherry Ghost Berliner Weisse

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs): 8.2
Anticipated OG: 1.047
Anticipated SRM: 2.0
Anticipated IBU: 6.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
Wort Boil Time: 15 Minutes

Grain

43% – 3.6 Lbs. Belgian 2-Row Pilsner
43% – 3.6 Lbs. White Wheat
12% – 1.0 Lbs. Acidulated Malt

Hops

0.50 oz. US Cascade (Pellet, 7.0% AA) @ 15 min.
1.00 0z. Columbus (Pellet, 15.0% AA) @ 3 day dry hop.
0.40 oz. Galaxy (Pellet, 14.2% AA) @ 3 day dry hop.
0.25 oz. Amarillo (Pellet, 9.3% AA) @ 3 day dry hop.

Extras

1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.
9.00 Lbs. Pie cherries
2.00 Lbs. Kumquats
0.50 Lbs. Rainier Cherries
0.50 Lbs. Red Cherries

Yeast

Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis
Wyeast 1007 German Ale

Water Profile

Seattle
1.00 tsp Calcium Chloride
1.00 tsp Gypsum

Mash Schedule

Single Infusion – 60 min @ 150F

Notes

04.05.14 – Made a lactobacillus starter from yogurt (but didn’t give it enough time to culture up)

Mash & sour wort 04.07.14 with Gregory

04.07.14 – Hot held wort @ 100F for 4 days

04.09.14 – Temp drop to 80F, pulled some wort, brought it to boil and added back into water cooler mash tun to raise wort back to 100F

04.10.14 – Noticed signs of lacto fermentation

04.11.14 – Brought wort to boil for 15 minutes to kill lacto/other bacteria

04.11.14 – Chilled wort to 65F before pitching German Ale yeast and Brett.

04.27.14 – Pasteurized 9.0 Lbs. frozen pie cherries by adding them to water and raising to 165F, used StarSan on 2.0 Lbs. kumquats

04.27.14 – Transferred beer to secondary and added the fruits

06.09.14 – Added 0.5 Lbs. Rainier cherries & 0.5 Lbs. red cherries

06.20.14 – Transferred beer into bottling bucket and dry hopped for 3 days

06.23.14 – Bottled Berliner weisse with 6.2 oz. corn sugar @ 3.45 volumes of CO2

Tasting Notes

Great summer quencher — light and crisp with a slight mineral note announcing itself after the tart finish. The fruit is spot on; big sour cherry flavors and some citrus from the kumquats. It actually seems that the kumquats have become more apparent over time. I’m excited to make this one again.

Calculated OG: 1.014
Calculated FG: 1.006
Approx. ABV: 1.05%

Randy Mosher’s Chanterelle Beer Via Denny Conn

November 7, 2014April 5, 2015 / thedudeimbibes / 2 Comments

Nothing says fall in the Pacific Northwest like the chanterelle mushroom. Easily identifiable and among the most popular of the edible mushrooms, the golden chanterelle is prized by amateurs and restauranteurs alike for its fruity, earthy, sometimes spicy fragrance and flavor. Some of my friends enjoy foraging for these fungi in and around Seattle and Eric The Barter offered to trade me and Gregory some in exchange for a home-brewed beer that would incorporate the chanties.

We did some research and decided that we’d brew a clone of Randy Mosher’s Nirvana Chanterelle Ale (found in his book Radical Brewing) but made some adjustments to the basic recipe. We also researched different methods of adding the mushrooms to the beer and chose to follow Denny Conn’s advice in chopping up the chanties, vacuum sealing them, and freezing them until primary fermentation is complete. We will then transfer the beer into a secondary fermentor and add the thawed mushrooms, conditioning for about two months before bottling. We brewed the base beer on Wednesday 11.05.14 and will give it a two week primary fermentation on the brewbelt. Our revamped recipe is as follows:

Chanterelle Belgian Strong Ale

Recipe Specifics

Batch Size (Gal): 5.0
Total Grain (Lbs): 15
Anticipated OG: 1.065
Anticipated SRM: 5.0
Anticipated IBU: 22.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain

63% – 9.5 Lbs. Belgian 2-Row Pilsner
13% – 2 Lbs. American 2-Row Pale
10% – 1.5 Lbs. Munich 6°
10% – 1.5 Lbs. White Wheat
3% – 0.5 Lbs. American Aromatic

Hops

0.75 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.2% AA) @ 90 min.
1.50 0z. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.2% AA) @ 30 min.
1.50 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 3.2% AA) @ 10 min.
0.50 oz. US Cascade (Pellet, 7.0% AA) @ 0 min.

Extras

1.00 Whirlfloc @ 15 min.
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 15 min.

Yeast

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes (starter)

Water Profile

Seattle
1.00 tsp Calcium Chloride
1.00 tsp Gypsum

Mash Schedule

Protein Rest – 30 min @ 113F
Step Infusion – 30 min @ 145F
Sacch Rest – 45 min @ 156F

Notes

11.03.14 – Made a stir-plate 2L starter with 1 Wyeast 3522 smack pack. Brewtoad suggests 284 billion cells to ferment 5 gal. Cold crashed and decanted morning of brew day.

Brewed 11.05.14 with Gregory

11.05.14 – Chilled wort to 65F before pitching yeast starter and put it onto brewbelt.

11.06.14 – Vigorous fermentation and holding steady at 75-78F.

11.09.14 – Fermentation has slowed and krausen has dissipated. Holding steady at 74-76F. Replaced blow-off tube with airlock.

11.20.14 – Transferred base beer into secondary fermentor and added the thawed chanterelle mushrooms and their liquid; brewbelt no longer used.

12.17.14 – Transferred off of mushrooms into tertiary fermentor to condition.

01.07.15 – Bottled chanterelle beer with 3.5 oz corn sugar @ 2.2 volumes of CO2.

Tasting Notes 04.05.15

Cracked a bottle tonight nearly three months after bottling; the beer is perfectly carbonated and has a slight haze to its russet brown color. It has a lovely aroma featuring a sweetish apricot-like fruitiness from the chanterelles, underlying spicy phenolics from the Belgian yeast, and hints of alcohol. The beer starts out fairly malty with a round honey-like sweetness on the palate which gives way to fruity yeast esters and the fruity, earthy qualities of the chanterelle mushrooms. It finishes on the dry side with moderate warming from the alcohol which also balances the initial sweetness. A lovely beer.

Calculated OG: 1.089
Calculated FG: 1.010
Approx. ABV: 10.3%