Wood Aging Project

For awhile now I've been aging pre-boiled oak cubes in white wine and red wine.  Pre-boiled oak cubes are preferable to leech out some of the harsher aspects of the fresh wood.  I've mostly used these cubes in saisons and wild beers.  (I've also used a 3-gallon whiskey barrel for my Vesuvius Imperial Stout.)  I've had moderate success with this method, and have decided that I'd like to expand my use of these cubes.

Inspired by beers that use more exotic barrels, I decided to pull some things out of our liquor cabinet and will eventually try some of the new oak variants in small batches of beer.  First, I've restarted a bourbon jar.  The bourbon cubes can be used in stouts, but I also plan to use them with some dark saisons, inspired by beers such as Tired Hands Guillemot Nebula and Prunus, as well as Stillwater Barrel-Aged Existent.  Another option would be a wild quad with fruit, along the lines of Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme.

I also went with brandy, which will initially be used in a gallon of my whiskey barrel aged imperial stout.  I'm interested in how the double barrel character will work out.  Aside from that, I'm thinking it could also work well with a dark saison, or even with a portion of Citrine.  This would fall along the lines of the cognac barrel-aged lambics that Cantillon has done, 50N4E and LH12.

After that, my choices are a little more obscure.  I went with some oak cubes in Tanqueray gin.  I think a blonde saison with lime peel could be a nice twist on the gin and tonic concept.  I think the level of gin cubes would need to be lower than other beers, or could perhaps be split with some white wine soaked cubes.  Upright in Portland has had success doing gin barrel saisons, e.g. Sole Composition Jaune Quatre.  I think a key to this would also be to use a relatively mild saison strain at a lower temperature.

Finally, I'm aging some oak cubes in Jagermeister.  This isn't traditional at all, and I'm not aware of any breweries using this, but I thought the anise/black licorice character could go well with a stout, or perhaps even with a dark saison or wild ale in small doses.  Since I'm not sure what else I might do with the Jagermeister that's been sitting around since college, this seemed like it'd be worth doing a single gallon experiment with at some point.

Orval's Brewmaster to Retire

Orval's brewmaster, Jean-Marie Rock, is set to retire after nearly 30 years at the brewery. He will be opening his own brewery, producing a beer utilizing "a method that brewers today have forgotten." An English translation of the interview (not that there are clearly some errors):

BROTH - Jean-Marie Rock is a little Elvis Trappist. It is he who in effect since 1985, gives the Orval taste we know it.He now wants to open a brewery. 

At nearly 65, he intends to make her childhood dream to create his own brewery Noirefontaine (Bouillon) and recreate a beer with a recipe forgotten all the brewers. The man, who has over 40 years of experience, develops a secret beer that Americans and the British were able to test and they are already fans. 

Jean-Marie Rock, why embark on this "adventure" when the time of retirement will ring?
I believe that as long as there different brewers, beer remains a flagship product of Wallonia. If I break my head to start this business, it is because I want to do something for our region. 

When your brewery open she? 

It takes six months to build. I hope that in a year and a half, we can drink the first beer.The project is on track for a long time. I am associated with a friend 15 years my junior.It sells equipment for breweries. We want to install on the N89, on the set of Noirefontaine, adjacent to the garage Arnould. 

This road is a beautiful showcase.At peak times, we calculated an hourly flow of 6,000 vehicles. Because of red tape, we lost a year. 

Your beer will she with a remote Orval? 

No. I'll just say this will not be a lager, but a special beer. I once made brews with a method that brewers today have forgotten.

UPDATE: Orval's new brewmaster will be Anne-Francoise Pypaert (link), who has been in charge of Orval's lab for the past twenty years.

Ambrosia Demeter Sinis: Recipe

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 57
Brew Date: January 21, 2013
Bottle Date: February 10, 2013

Batch Size: 5 gallons

OG: 1.061 (est.)
FG: 1.006 (est.)
IBU: 0
ABV: 5.2% (est.)
SRM: 23.2
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 151 F.
Boil: 60 minutes

Fermentables

5lb 0oz French Pilsner
3lb 0oz White Wheat Malt
2lb 0oz Wheat, Flaked
0lb 8oz Red Wheat, Torrified
0lb 8oz Rye, Flaked
0lb 4oz Carafa II
0lb 4oz Roasted Barley
0lb 4oz Special B Malt
0lb 2oz English Chocolate Malt

Hops

1.5oz East Kent Goldings (5.8 AAU) at 60 minutes
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (4.5 AAU) at 5 minutes
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (4.5 AAU) at Flameout

Other

14g Lavender at 2 minutes
0.75g Black Cardamom at 2 minutes
1.5oz Red Wine-Soaked Medium Toast Hungarian Oak Cubes during primary

Yeast

Hill Farmstead Blend (Dregs from Hill Farmstead Arthur, Clara, and Vera Mae).  This is the third generation for this blend, after previously having been used in Repeating Numbers and then Demeter Auran.

Notes

01.22.2013 - Fermentation is active after approximately 12 hours.  At 24 hours, the airlock is bubbling away.  Used approximately 4 large spoonfuls of the cake from Demeter Auran, which was still showing a bit of activity after 9 days.  Fermentation is at approximately 65 F ambient.

02.10.2013 - Bottled approximately 5 gallons with 150 grams of table sugar, aiming for 3.0 volumes of CO2.  Tastes great out of the fermenter.  The cardamom was a bit strong a week ago, but has faded, and should be at about the right level by the time carbonation is complete.

Ambrosia Lucky Charm (Batch 3): Recipe

This is my third time brewing Lucky Charm, my Berliner Weissbier series, the name of which comes from the fact that my wife, Amy, loves woodruff syrup in Berliners and thinks it tastes like the marshmallows from Lucky Charms.  I can't say that I disagree.

For this batch, I decided to do a sour "mash" for the first time.  Mine isn't traditional in that it's not really the mash that's being soured.  Instead, I plan to sour the runnings.  The procedure is to mash as normal, run off from the mash run into my pot, chill to ~100 F, and then fill two CO2-purged corny kegs.  From there, I put a grain bag filled with a quarter pound of pilsner malt in each keg.  Those are placed in a chest freezer using FermWrap to keep the kegs at 85 F for about a day, at which point I then remove the grain bags and pitch starters of White Labs Berliner Blend.  This "mash" is done to allow the lactobacillus that naturally resides on the raw grain to start to acidify the beer.  From there, the Berliner Blend goes to work.

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 56
Brew Date: January 21, 2013
Bottle Date:

Batch Size: 10 gallons

OG: 1.029 (est.)
FG: 1.004 (est.)
IBU: 0
ABV: 3.6% (est.)
SRM: 2.6
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 150 F.
Boil: None

Fermentables

5lb 8oz French Pilsner
5lb 8oz White Wheat Malt

Hops

None

Yeast

Lactobacillus (present on raw grain)
Berliner Blend

Notes:

01.21.2013 - Brewday.  After mashing, transferred straight into two corny kegs, and also into a single gallon jug.  All three vessels were placed in a chest freezer with dual stage temperature control, which was set between 85 and 90 F.  The cornies each got a bag with 4 ounces of pilsner malt to soak overnight as a sour mash.

01.22.2013 - After 16 hours, each of the corny kegs had a layer of white film when opened.  I removed the grain bag from each, pitched from a starter of White Labs Berliner Blend, and lowered the temperature range to 68 - 72 F, which is White Labs' recommended range for the blend.  At the 28 hour mark, both kegs and the jug were showing plenty of fermentation activity.

02.16.2013 - Added the juice of 18oz of blueberries (~500mL) plus the juice of one lemon (~50mL) to the jug, along with 1/2 Tbsp of lemon zest.

02.24.2013 - Added fruit to one of the kegs, which contains approximately 4.5 gallons.  I added the juice of 72 ounces of raspberries plus the juice of three limes.  I also added 3 Tbsp. of lime zest.

Ambrosia Citrine (Batch 4): Recipe

This is the fourth batch of Citrine that I have brewed. Citrine is my blonde wild ale. The first three batches were all inoculated with dregs, so I wanted to take this one in a different direction and bring a bit of spontaneous fermentation to this batch. With that in mind, I decided to brew an 8-gallon batch. The first five gallons were chilled and went to a 6-gallon Better Bottle, and then received dregs and oak cubes from Citrine batches 1-3.

For the spontaneous portion, the plan was to use lasagna pans from a grocery store. After brewing, I laid out three in our screened in porch to sit overnight. The next morning, I transferred each to 1-gallon jugs. There was quite a bit of evaportation overnight, so I ended up with approximately two-thirds of a gallon in each jug. One jug would ferment without any assistance. The other two would receive dregs that I had built up from bottles in addition to whatever was picked up from the air.

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 55
Brew Date: January 20, 2013
Bottle Date:
Batch Size: 8 Gallons

OG: 1.047 (est.)
FG: 1.000 (est.)
IBU: 28.9
ABV: 6.0% (est.)
SRM: 3.5
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 156 F.
Boil: 90 minutes

Fermentables

7lb 4oz French Pilsner
7lb 4oz French Pilsner
3lb 4oz Flaked Wheat

Hops

4.5 oz Liberty (Aged) at 90 minutes

Yeast

Citrine Dregs (5 gallons)
Spontaneous Yeast and Bacteria (1 gallon)
Spontaneous Yeast and Bacteria + dregs of miscellaneous wild saisons (1 gallon)
Spontaneous Yeast and Bacteria + Allagash Coolship Dregs (1 gallon)

Notes

01.20.2013 - Brewday. Brewed 8 gallons. The first 5 gallons went into a 6-gallon Better Bottle and got the mixed cake from batches 1, 2, and 3 of Citrine, which had been in a growler in the fridge for a few months. It also got the leftover oak cubes that were included in that growler.

The other three gallons were split evenly between three aluminum lasagna pans and allowed to sit out overnight after being filled around 3 PM. The high on January 20 was 61 F, and the overnight low was 37 F.

01.21.2013 - Each pan was racked separately into a one gallon jug. There was a good amount of evaporation loss, so each jug ended up with approximately 2/3 of a gallon. The first jug is being left as is for a completely spontaneous fermentation. The second jug received the grown up dregs from some "wild" saison bottles. The third jug received the grown up dregs from bottles from the Allagash Coolship series. Those dregs had been sitting at the bottom of a starter for several months.

01.22.2013 - The spontaneous plus Flora jug has really taken off and has a nice krausen. I had to add a few drops of Fermcap to be safe. The other two jugs have some spotty foam on top as of 8 AM. The 5-gallon portion is not showing any real activity at this point. At approximately 30 hours, the 5-gallon portion now has a nice foamy layer atop the brew. Some foam atop the Spontaneous + Coolship jug, but nothing in the purely spontaneous jug. Fermentation for all is occurring at approximately 65 F ambient, though this will fluctuate with room temperature as fermentation continues through the next year or more.

01.24.2013 - This morning there is now a bit of foam on top of the 100% spontaneous portion, and the Spontaneous + Coolship portion has a very light layer of bubbly foam covering almost the entire top of the wort.

01.26.2013 - The Spontaneous + Coolship has a very nice krausen, and the 100% spontaneous has a layer of foam on the top.

01.27.2013 - The 100% spontaneous portion is started to krausen.




10.06.2013 - One gallon of this batch was taken from the main, non-spontaneous portion of the batch and used to blend with 4 gallons of Farmhouse Mild.


11.23.2013 - Put the keg in the kegerator to start carbonating.

Demeter Auran: Recipe

"Demeter Auran" will be my second use of a mixture of saison yeast and bugs. It was originally my intention to name my saisons as part of the Demeter line, after the Greek goddess of the harvest, so I'm getting back to that. Auran is the beginning of the Latin word for orange. I know I'm crossing over a bit there, but I liked the sound of it, and -- at least according to Google Translate -- there is no Latin word for clementine.

The first time I used this blend was a "clone" of the Stone 02.02.02 Vertical Epic that I switched up to saison yeast because I didn't want 5 gallons of an imperial witbier.  Based on how the aforementioned "clone" -- aptly named Ambrosia Repeating Numbers -- is doing, this blend creates a nice, expressive saison profile along with mild funk, citrus, and tartness. 

Aside from the yeast, this beer is spiced with rose hips and clementine zest, and contains a not inconsequential amount of Citra at 20 minutes and flameout. I'm hoping the citrus, tropical, and floral notes will combine well with the yeast. I'm also going to ferment the batch on medium toast Hungarian oak cubes that were pre-boiled and have been soaking in white wine since Thanksgiving. The amount of zest should lead to roughly 500 International Citrus Units ("ICUs") based on Embrace the Funk's interview with Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead. 

The remainder of the batch will be split into separate one gallon portions. The first gallon will get some reused Wyeast 3725, and the second gallon will get a "funky blend" of dregs I've saved from Russian River Sanctification, Russian River Temptation, Fantome Saison, Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza, and Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 53
Brew Date: January 12, 2013
Bottle Date: February 2, 2013
Batch Size: 7.5 Gallon
OG: 1.050 (est.)
FG: 1.005 (est.)
IBU: 28.9
ABV: 5.4% (est.)
SRM: 3.6

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 148 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

8lb 10oz French Pilsner
3lb 0oz White Wheat Malt
3lb 0oz Flaked Wheat

Hops

1.5 oz Citra (12.4 AAU) at 20 minutes
1.5 oz Citra (12.4 AAU) at flameout

Other

1 Tbsp 5.2 buffer in mash
14.2 grams of clementine zest at flameout
5.25 grams of rose hips at flameout
White-wine soaked medium toast Hungarian oak cubes (amounts below)

Yeast

Saison Blend (5 gallons; 1 ounce of oak cubes)
Wyeast 3725 (1 gallon; 3 oak cubes)
Random Funky Blend (1 gallon; 3 oak cubes)

Notes

The main 5 gallons were transferred into a bucket for fermentation. The other two portions each went into a one gallon jug. The main portion of the batch got 30 seconds of oxygen, and the smaller portions each got ~8 seconds. They were left to ferment at ambient, which was around 65 F.

UPDATES

01.15.2013: Each of the batches has been very slow to start fermenting. After about 36 hours, I placed the 3 vessels into the chest freezer with fermwrap set at 72 F.

02.02.2013: Bottling day. Estimated that there are 4.25 gallons of beer in the fermentation bucket accounting for what will be lost to the trub and cake. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2, I'm adding 105g of table sugar. Beer racked into flushed keg on top of sugar. Headspace flushed with CO2 and then gently shaken to mix in sugar. Filled with Beer Gun. Ended up with 22 750mL bottles.

I also bottled the 3725 and "Funk Blend" portions. Each of these was estimated at 3/4 of a gallon. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2, each one got 17 grams of table sugar. Ended up with 8 375mL bottles of each.

Strange Wit (Batch 02): Recipe

RETRO: Post written on November 13, 2014, but set to publish on the date of the original brew session to maintain order within the blog.

This was my second batch of Strange Wit, a wild witbier inspired by Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 52
Brew Date: November 24, 2012
Bottle Date: Not recorded
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.045 (estimate)
FG: 1.002 (estimate)
Fermentation Temperature: 65-70*F (room temperature throughout)
IBU: 16.6
ABV: 5.6%
SRM: 3.4

Mash: Single infusion at 152*F for 60 minutes

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

4lb 8oz Pilsner Malt
4lb 0oz Wheat, Flaked
1lb 0oz Oats, Flaked
0lb 4oz Munich Malt

0lb 4oz Rice Hulls

Salts & Water

At this point I wasn't doing anything besides filtering the water and adding 5.2 buffer, so that's probably it.

Hops

0.5oz Citra (pellet, 12.4 AAU) at 15 minutes
0.5oz Citra (pellet, 12.4 AAU) at 5 minutes

Other
Whirlfloc
Yeast Nutrient

0.25oz Coriander at 5 minutes

0.25oz Dried Orange Peel (Bitter) at 5 minutes

Yeast

Wyeast Belgian Witbier (WY3944)

Dregs, as identified below

Notes

11.24.2012: After pitching the starter yeast, I also added dregs from bottles of Cantillon Gueuze (2011) and Ambrosia Citrine (Batch 1).

11.26.2012: Added the dregs from bottles of Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek (2009) and Tilquin Gueuze (2012).

12.03.2012: Added the dregs from a bottle of Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca (2011).