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.