Smoked Porter, Cherry Blondes, and Water

The Cherry Blonde Ale turned out very well. It’s dry and tart, with a clean finish, and I think it is remiscent of champagne in a way. I asked my brother to give me some notes on it, and he found the hops to get in the way of the beer. I used noble hops, and I added them early, but I wonder how the beer might have turned out if I had boiled them longer, or, as my brother suggested, used aged hops like they do in the Belgian Lambics.

Here is what Joe had to say about the cherry ale:

“The beer pours a pink-tinted amber. Nice head but I'm not wild about the color. The nose is something like sweet cherries, but the flavor isn't sweet -- it's somewhat tart with mild bitterness. Nice lively mouthfeel, slightly dry. Not as refreshing as it could be since a bit of alcohol shows through. I think the bitterness and alcohol get in the way of that nice tart cherry a little bit... they clash instead of complement. I suspect it could benefit a lot from months of aging, as the bitterness mellows. Damn interesting homebrew that tastes pretty good, but it might get better.”

He later amended it, probably to spare my feelings:

“About the cherry tart homebrew I should have added that Kelly really, really liked it. She thought the cherry flavor was perfect and subtle. So I'm probably nit-picking about the conflicting flavors in there.”

My Fiance is also a huge fan of the cherry beer, and thinks we should keep as much on hand as possible for New Year’s. It would definitely be a good beer for drinking on the occasion. I’ll also be enjoying some with Thanksgiving Dinner, I think.

So, there you have it. It probably will get better with age in the bottle, as the hops diminish a little more and the cherry flavor comes through. The Wyeast Belgian Strong Ale Yeast really made a fantastic, dry finish in the beer, helped a bit by the addition of about a pound of turbinado sugar. (I like the Turbinado, as it doesn’t leave a chemical-like taste that table sugar can add, and it’s less expensive than buying Candi Sugar.)

I think if I brew another batch of this (assuming I can somehow lay hands on that many cherries again), I will definitely leave the cherries in the fermenter for far longer, possibly lagering the beer with the cherries in it after the initial fermentation.

The Smoked Porter is another interesting beer, which I have been waiting to try very anxiously. It tasted lovely with a nice, subtle, smoke flavor before it was bottled, but I’m wondering what a little carbonation will do to the smoke. It may bring it out a bit more, and subdue some of the maltiness, but I think it will still be very present, and will go well with the turkey I will be smoking for Thanksgiving. I’ll know for sure tomorrow, as it will be ready to taste tomorrow. A little more time in the bottle will do it good, but I’m happy it will be ready for Thanksgiving.

Tha porter came about as another of Joe’s somewhat experimental ideas. When he came into town last, he mentioned brewing, and I asked him what he wanted to brew. He suggested a long list of ideas, but the one that intrigued me the most was the smoked porter. On his list, he included “[a] smoked porter. I was reading about old British and American porters, and how they probably were a bit smoky from the wood fires that kilned and roasted the malt. Also both smoked beers and porters can be nice with various foods. Should be very drinkable, maybe a faint residual sweetness, chocolate-roasty but not too coffee-roasty, moderately bitter, subtly smoky but not TOO subtle. You should be able to taste the smoke without the beer tasting like bacon I think. Very dark color with tan or brown head.” Judging by what I tasted BEFORE bottling, I think we most likely hit this recipe on the head. It will be about 6% alcohol, but I don’t know exactly because my hydrometer shattered in a tragic stupidity-related incident on my part. It has a nice malty flavor without being sweet, and the smoke is subtle, but present in the lingering taste. I’ll write some final tasting notes after I try it, but that is the impression I got from the beer before it was bottled.

The next hurdle in my brewing career is one of water. I recently moved into a new house, and am moving my brewing operations with me. That way, when I am having a lazy Sunday at home, I can also be having a brewing Sunday AT THE SAME TIME!!! In the past, it was one or the other, as I lived a few miles from where I brewed.

The problem I am going to run into is that I am moving my brewing water source from a well to city water, which will contain either Chlorine or other chemicals which may cause some off-flavors in the beer. Since I am not yet an all-grain brewer, it is not considered to be a major drawback, but I can definitely tell a difference, and I don’t like it. Some brewers will say that to boil the water for 15 minutes before beginning your brewing is sufficient, but it really isn’t in some cases. For instance, a lot of water treatment facilities no longer use chorine, but use a more stable form of chlorine (I believe it’s called Chlorimide, but I may be mistaken), which will not be removed by boiling. So, I am shopping for a water filter.

There are a lot of things to consider about the water filter. Activated Charcoal seems to be the best option for removing the nasty chemicals and anything else, so I’ll most likely be looking for one of those. It is the same type of filter used for Brita filters and the like. I also need to consider whether to get an in-line filter or a tap filter, or, if I had my choice, a whole-house filter that would take the chlorine out of all of the water of the house. It’s probably overkill, but a man can dream, can’t he?

At any rate, I’ll be posting more on the search for water later. In the mean time, I have a smoked porter to try this weekend...

Smoked Porter, Cherry Bier in bottles, Blonde Review

Well, my bro and I brewed on Tuesday (another rainy brew-day), and we decided against the Barley Wine. Instead, he suggested a smoked porter, the basic idea of which is to have a malty, delicious porter with a smoky quality that would compliment barbecue or smoked foods (pretty much any meat will go well with it, I think). He suggested it Monday, so I had about 16 hours to do some research and write the recipe.

There aren't a lot of recipes like this to find online. I basically looked around for some smoked beer recipes and then some porter recipes and then kind of cobble the general sense of them together to make a hybrid of the two. I was pretty excited about this idea, though, because before this was suggested, I had wanted to make a German Rauchbier, anyway, but lacked the lagering capabilities. This seemed like a good choice of an ale style to add smoked malt to.

I went for a robust porter recipe with limited bitterness and no aromatic or flavor hops, and added a half-pound of peated malt (malt slow-smoked over peat moss). Since the recipe is only 5 gallons, this will provide a enough smoky flavor to be obvious without being overwhelming. Still, this beer will be very unique. The boiling pot smelled like a campfire the entire time we were brewing. We tasted the wort before we put the lid on the fermenter, and it seems like it will be a very good beer. With a little tweaking, this could possibly become one of my favorites to brew.

Speaking of favorites to brew, the blonde ale I brewed not too long ago is almost gone. It is easily one of my two favorite beers produced in the history of St. Ange, so I will definitely be brewing that one again. It came out light and spicy with a dry finish that makes your mouth immediately want another drink. It is a very good beer.


I used Wyeast's Belgian Strong Ale yeast, so the flavor profile came out spicy and complex, even without any addition of flavor or aromatic hops. Joe's tasting notes include that he thinks my blonde came out better than a lot of the Belgian blondes he has found in Brussels, as, while there are many better than mine, there are many more that are far, far worse. Not bad for an amateur from Missouri. If I were to start my professional brewery tomorrow, I would definitely include this beer in my lineup.

The Tart Cherry Ale was ready for bottling on Tuesday, as well. It was still very, very tart, but had a bit more cherry to it, and the bitterness had mellowed some, which kind of got it out of the way of the rest of the flavors. It was still a little unpleasant, but I think the real unpleasantness came from the fact that it was warm and flat, not that the beer itself was unpleasant. Joe's advice on the beer was to serve it chilled in champagne glasses to get everyone's mind out of the "beer" mode ad make them think of it as something uniquely delicious. We'll have to try that. The jury is still out on whether the experiment is a success or failure yet, but it may only be a mismatching of beer style with the cherries. If this doesn't taste delicious, maybe I'll do different kind of cherry ale next year, or simply reduce the amount of hops to allow more of the cherry to stand out. There's time to decide that later, though.

If you read my blog, drop me a line and let me know. Just add a comment to a post or email me. It might inspire me to write more often, or at least in a more timely fashion.

Cheers.

Saturday Night is not for Blogging.

And yet I am blogging anyway. I'm pretty excited, as my offer for my new house has been accepted verbally, and will, in all likelihood, go through without a hitch. That's right. I'm buying a house.

Now, on to business. My brother is coming into town this week, and we are having a brew day in honor of the occasion (like we need an excuse). Now, Mr. Thirsty Pilgrim has not yet told me what style of beer we will be brewing, which will present a unique challenge for me if I need to formulate a recipe. If I knew for sure it would be cool enough, or if I could evict enough of the wine from the alcohol fridge at the farm, I may try a lager of some sort, perhaps a Rauchbier. I may still figure out how to do it, but I think I may just pull a good recipe out of my book of untested recipes, or I may play it by ear.

Right now, I'm celebrating my prospective home purchase with an 11 month-old barley wine, and it is DELICIOUS.

Have a righteous night.

Master of my Domain

I have added a new domain name to the site. Now, you can visit stangebrewing.com and you will end up here, reading this very same blog. I'm pretty happy about it, really.

Tomorrow, I will taste and probably bottle the Cherry Blonde Ale, and will try out the Non-cherry Blonde that has been bottle conditioning for 2 weeks. I think it will be delicious. Of course, I am quite biased. I'm also donating a sixer to my sister's work party she's attending tomorrow. I imagine her coworkers will not be as biased, since none of them knows me. I'll let you know about the feedback.

I'm starting on a recipe for barley wine to make when my brother comes to town. While researching the other day, I found a recipe that looks pretty similar to what I want to do, but I think I'll adapt my own. I am aiming for about 13% ABV and 44 AAU.

I wish I currently had the ability to lager a beer. I would love to make a rauchbier. Maybe I'll try for that this winter and actually place the beer in a garage or shed where it will be allowed to get pretty cold. I'll have to find an ideal spot, though, as I don't want the temperature to vary too much, or for it to get too cold. Once I get myself a chest freezer with a thermostat attached, it will be easy. Of course, I have to have a house to put it in. First things, first, I guess.

Too bad I don't have a sandstone cellar like the one I visited in Forcheim, Germany last year. That kellar brewer made quite a delicious lager. Somehow I don't think having a sandstone cellar is even possible in Missouri. Limestone, yes. Sandstone, not a chance.

In the picture, you can see they lit candles in the kellar for us to see where we were going. You can really only see anything in the photo because I was using a flash. One of the things I found most interesting about the kellars was the trench dug all the way down the side. These inventive brewers would cut the trench in the kellar so that, when the snows started melting, they could pack the trench with snow to keep the kellar colder longer, effectively lengthening their brewing season by a number of weeks. Not a bad way to do it, if you don't have refrigeration.

Update on the Blonde and the Belgian Tart.

The cherries were put into the beer in my little experiment last weekend, and I bottled the other half as a straight up Belgian Blonde. I used Turbinado sugar as a substitute for cabdi sugar, so it's not QUITE authentic as a blonde, but it's very close. I even ended up using the Wyeast Strong Belgian Ale Yeast.

I tasted the blonde at bottling. It was light and slightly spicy, but not overpowering. I think it is going to be a very good beer. I then cleaned and sanitized the fermenter, and crushed and added 10 pounds of tart cherries to the clean, sanitized fermenter. I had stored the cherries frozen for a few months, but last week, I put them into the refrigerator instead. Now that I have done some additional reading, I have discovered that this kind of thing can occasionally lead to bacterial contamination, but I think that risk is acceptable. I don't think it will be contaminated, as they were all refrigerated the entire time, and the beer is a big beer, weighting in at 7.3% ABV. Hopefully, that will keep the bacterial growth to a minimum. Besides that, a little sour tinge to the beer might be a plus, since the beer is loaded with tart cherries. The Belgians do it all the time with their Krieks, right? Spontaneous fermentation is approximately the same thing.

Anyway, the Blonde ale is looking good, except it was a little hazy at bottling. I imagine a few weeks in a refrigerator will straighten that out, and then I'll have a nice, clear, light, but strong, ale. Just in time for my brother's next visit.

The Cherry beer, or my little Belgian Tart, as I like to call her, won't quite be ready by then, since I won't be bottling her until next weekend, but she'll be in bottles by the Pilgrim's visit, and he can take some home with him should he so choose. With the Saison, the Blonde, and the Tart all in bottles, it will be hard for him to decide how much of each to pack, I think. I'm sure it's these types of choices that make life so hard for him, though.

He'll be cruising into town in the first half of October, and I'll have to plan a good brewing project for a weekday that week. Maybe I'll have him help me with a barley wine. It's been almost a year since I've made one, and it might be a good thing to do soon. I'll start some research and let you know what I come up with.

The story of the Belgian Blonde Tart Part II

On Saturday, September 6th, I brewed my Belgian Blonde Ale under the shelter of the garage. It was raining off and on all day, but I was successful in my venture. It is raging right now in the fermenter. I know this because when I last checked on the fermenters, they were bubbling like crazy and had blown the little caps off the airlocks. I think it should be ready to bottle by next weekend.

I used the Wyeast Strong Belgian Ale yeast, instead of my original idea of mixing an ale yeast and a champagne yeast. I should still get a high attenuation and a nice dry finish, and I think it makes the Belgian Blonde a little more authentic.

The plans for this beer might be a little grand, but what is a home brewer if not experimental? As soon as the final gravity is reached, I will bottle half of the beer. This will be just a Belgian Blonde Ale. I believe the recipe I came up with is pretty standard for a Belgian Blonde, except for the use of Turbinado Sugar instead of Candi Sugar. Really, sugar is sugar as far as the yeast is concerned, but Turbinado sugar is better than table sugar for the purpose of brewing because it doesn't produce the off-flavors associated with the over processing of cane sugar.

In case you are wondering the identity of my beautiful assistant brewer, it's my fiance. She supports my brewing wholeheartedly, and loves to go with me to brew. It helps that we brew at the farmhouse, where we can wander through the orchard and gardens and find beautiful and sometimes delicious things. Saturday, I picked a few apples and ate them. Maybe next year I'll make a cider out of some of them. There are always tons of beautiful flowers everywhere, too. It's an amazing place to be able to visit, and the energy is fantastic. Brewing there is a great thing.

I expect the Belgian Blonde will be delicious and strong, at 7.3% abv. The color looks appropriately light, and the clarity looks fantastic.

The other half of this batch will then be siphoned into a secondary fermenter on top of 10 lbs of tart cherries picked on a farm in New Haven, Missouri. By the way, a special thanks must go out to Steve and Judy for their cherries, and for sponsoring the production of 10 gallons of pale ale for their event earlier this year. They are true patrons of the art of brewing. Steve's lessons in marketing my product to a crowd will be much appreciated if they give me the microphone again next year. (I'll remember that, in advertising my beer, I shouldn't refer to the other beer available as "swill." I should focus on the positive points of my beer, not the negative points of mass-produced domestic lager.)

Anyway, the other 5 gallons of blonde will sit on the ten pounds of cherries for about a week, or until I decide it's enough, whichever comes last. Then, I'll rack and bottle the cherry beer.

It should be pretty tart and flavorful, and I'm hoping the blonde will be subtle enough not to mask the cherries or try to mix with it. Hopefully, the cherries will take the forefront and we'll have ourselves a very good beer.

Check out the huge spider I saw while I was brewing. He hung out all day and never moved. Belgian brewers see spiders as good luck. I think I do, too. Especially one as big as this one. He's seen some action, too. He's missing a leg.

Until next week, I guess...

I almost forgot! The White Wedding Ale went over very well last week. It was delicious, and I received SEVERAL comments as to its high quality. Unfortunately, we didn't get to drink it all, and I still have 5 gallons in a keg at the farm for later consumption. (By unfortunately, I, of course, mean Awesomely.) I was also pleased with the results of the ale, and look forward to sharing the rest of it with whomever is around when we break it out again. I think it will age well in the keg, so I'm in no particular hurry to drink it. Maybe we'll have a White Christmas...

White Weddings and Cherries in Beer

The White ale for the Lairdalee wedding is in the Kegs, and I know I promised pictures of it, but believe me, pictures of kegging aren't really that interesting. They didn't come out that well, anyway. Maybe next time.

I'll let you know how the White Ale went over after we drink it next weekend. (It was kegged 2 weeks ago, and I am just now getting around to writing about it. I know. I'm lazy.) Right now, it seems like it is going to be very good. It's a little dark, but I expected it, since I used "light" malt extract instead of "extra light." It will still be delicious, but it just won't look like a Hoegaarden.

In the works right now is another fine idea brought to you in part by The Thirsty Pilgrim. This time, it is an ale inspired by a tree on a farm in New Haven, MO. The bounty of this tree? Tart Cherries.

There are two major types of cherry beer that I can remember trying. The first is the kriek biers in Belgium, which are amazingly delicious, and have a style and flavor that you simply cannot duplicate without starting with a lambic bier. The tartness of the wild yeasts mixes extremely well with the tartness of the fruit, and the flavors blend amazingly well. The only real problem with making this kind of beer is getting a similar result using domestic yeasts. Of course, you can buy specific strains of Brett and Lactobacillus from commercial yeast producers, but that's cheating. Its result is also not as good as the real thing, in my opinion.

The second kind of beer I think about is hard to describe. It seems to happen all the time, though. The beer starts with a cherry flavor, and it seems like it will finish clean and dry, but then the malt and hops find it, and it finishes like a beer. The best are usually wheat-based beers, but even then they can be a little overwhelming for the poor cherries. I'm going to try and avoid this trap.

With a little meditation on the subject and some ruminations from the Thirsty Pilgrim, I've decided to avoid the trap of trying to create a lambic, and, more importantly, avoid the trap of trying to balance the beer aftertaste with the cherry flavor. I am trying to think of a way to have the powerful cherry presence, but make the beer finish very dry, with a clean mouthfeel.

The solution? Use two yeasts. I plan on brewing a clean American Ale, using the ever-reliable SafAle American Ale strain and a light malt bill. I'll use bittering hops only, to keep the hops out of the way of the cherries. the resulting base beer might seem bland by home brewing standards, but it's supposed to be that way.

The real flavor will come from the cherries, added in the secondary fermenter. I'll use a full 10 pounds for the 5 gallon batch, and it will be flavorful. In addition, I'll be pitching a champagne yeast to try and dry out the mouthfeel. With any luck, it will make for a full-on cherry flavor with a very clean finish.

I'll let you know how that works out for me.

Nice Day for a White Wedding Ale

On Sunday, I brewed the new beer, Lairdalee's White Wedding Ale. It's a bit of an nonstandard Belgian Wit. It's a bit darker, but the Orange and Coriander are present. It was a broiling 90 something degrees, and I was using an outdoor burner that puts out quite a few BTU's. I was sweating my face off, but I got the job done, and it's in the fermenter.

I had intended to take many photos on Sunday when I was brewing, but, to be quite honest, I forgot. I'm terribly sorry, if there's anyone out there who has stumbled across this blog and would actually care to see the process, but I promise to do better in the future.

In the mean time, I guess I'll make up for it by giving you the recipe I created for it. Don't get used to it, because I like to keep my cards close to my chest, but I figure I can give you this one, in case you decide to try it out. Keep in mind that I haven't tried it yet, as it's still in the fermenter, but it looks like it'll be a good one.

1/2 lbs.	White Wheat Malt info
5 lbs.	Muntons Dry Wheat info
1 lbs.	Oats Flaked info
1 oz.	Hallertau (Pellets, 3.7 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1 ounces	Coriander (not included in calculations)
1 ounces	Bitter orange (not included in calculations)
Yeast :	SafAle SAF05 American Ale Yeast info

Steep the wheat malt and flaked oats in 4.5 gallons of 160 degree water for 20 minutes. Rinse the grains with 1 gallon of 160 degree water. Remove the grains and add the malt extract. Bring to a boil, and add the hops. This will begin the 60 minute boiling process, so start your timer. While this is boiling, and you are diligently watching for boil-overs, crush the coriander. I used a mortar and pestle, but I have used a ziploc bag and a rolling pin before, and it worked fine. Whatever method you use, make sure you crush it as well as possible. When there are 15 minutes left out of the 60, add 1 tsp of Irish moss, the hops, and the coriander and bitter orange peel. Finish out the boil, and cool the wort to 70 degrees as quickly as possible. Pitch your yeast, and seal it up in your fermenter to go. It will take 5-7 days to ferment, and then it'll be bottling time.

Bottle with 3/4 cup corn sugar or 1 1/4 cup wheat malt extract. I will be kegging mine, so I will be using 3/4 cup wheat malt extract.

Let it condition in the bottle for at last 2 weeks, and try a bottle. Hopefully, this recipe will make you think I am the greatest homebrewer of all time. I'm not, of course, but maybe you'll think I am.

Tasting the Saison; Designing a Wit...

The Saison brewed with my brother is finally ready. Its color is fantastic, and it tastes even better.

The Gasket-style bottle is a donation from my brother to bottle the Saison. I was worried about the high attenuation of the yeast causing excess pressure in the standard American 12 oz. bottle, so I bottled all 5 gallons in the gasket-top bottles.

The head on the Saison was very white, and was kind of rocky due to the malted wheat used as a specialty grain. The aroma was very appealing, with a lot of spicy notes and a very slight banana aroma.

I was also worried that it wouldn't be fully carbonated by this point, since the fermentation took extra time, but I was dead wrong, as the beer was very carbonated, with a nice, sharp mouthfeel.

The flavor was very up-front, and was spicy, with notes of all the yeast qualities you'd expct in a farmhouse ale. This is definitely a Saison. My brother will be pleased.

The hardest part of having a beer like this in your cellar is keeping a beer like this in your cellar. I will be tempted to drink it whenever I can, but I kind of want to save it for special occasions.

I know I plan on having some of this left for Christmas, just in case Joe makes it into the country for the Holidays. I'll be sending him as much as I can as soon as I can. Keep watching the Thirsty Pilgrim for him to taste this beer and write his review. He's a bit more practiced at describing what he tastes in a beer.

Tomorrow, I'll be brewing a beer for my friends' wedding, which is at the end of the month. I've decided on a Belgian Wit. I contacted the boys at The Homebrewery in Ozark, Missouri, for a couple of tips, since their Wit Kit is absolutely delicious. Even before I contacted them, though, I had decided on an all-wheat extract beer with coriander, bitter orange, and some flaked oats. I also decided to add a little bit of malted wheat as a specialty grain to make the head retain a little better and make the head a little rockier.

All in all, my Belgian Wit will be about 5.5% ABV, about 16 IBU, and will be a bit darker than the standard Wit, but I anticipate a delicious beer. I will take a few pictures of the brewing tomorrow for you. Look for a post about it on Sunday.

Oh, yeah. I'm calling it the Lairdalee White Wedding Ale. I'm so clever.

The Thirsty Pilgrim

St. Ange Brewing was featured on The Thirsty Pilgrim when I brewed a Saison with my brother. Joe’s as big a beer nerd as I am but in a completely different way. While he is Hell-bent on enjoying beer in the deepest, most fulfilling ways possible, I am Hell-bent on providing beers to be enjoyed in the deepest, most fulfilling ways possible.

This here stainless pot contains the 10 gallons of sweet, sweet wort which became two fantastic beers. One was a refreshing pale ale which was enjoyed off the tap at a local 4^th of July festival, the other is a Saison farmhouse ale, which is still in bottles, conditioning in the farmhouse’s garage. The yeast used is a bit finicky, as it is an authentic Saison yeast, and it requires some pretty high temperatures to get the job done. The result, however, is a spicy, flavorful beer with a very high attenuation and a really great body.

Sometimes, the hardest jobs have the best rewards. This Saison tasted fantastic at bottling, and will probably taste even better when it has bubbles.

And, yes, I do feed all my spent grains to the farm’s livestock. They’re a hungry lot, and there’s no use in tossing out special treats for the chickens.