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...