The Heifer, The Bullocks and the Runt [Blonde Biere De Garde | Sour BdG | 100% Brett BdG]

I've been wanting to brew a Blonde Biere De Garde ever since reading about them in the Farmhouse Ales book by Phil Markowski.

Biere De Garde is a classic farmhouse style ale similar in some ways to the French Saison Farmhouse Ale.   Where Biere de Garde's differ from Saison is that Bieres de Garde were meant to be cellared for a period or "laid down" and were maltier and higher in gravity.  Since these beers where typically lagered for months in corked champagne or belgian beer bottles they also picked up a distinct cellar aroma brought on by the cork.  Saison's where typically smaller beers, 3%, and drank a bit more fresh to be consumed by the farm-hands in replace of water throughout the summer months.    Here's a nice post on the differences between Biere de Garde and Saison.  I've had a few fantastic examples of the style..Castelain Blonde Biere de Garde, and Jolly Pumpkin Biere de Mars.   Castelain being brewed with an Ale or Lager yeast (not sure) and Jolly Pumpkin brewed with Souring yeasts and bacteria.   I wanted to replicate both versions so I decide to do a 10 gallon split batch.  I ended up doing 11 gallons (The Jeffrey Crane method of experimentation!) and pitched the 1 gallon with 100% Brett Drie as another little side experiment!

Often times I've read that Biere de Garde is fermented with lager yeast and that the yeast isn't an important part of the beers characteristic in modern examples of the style.  I tend to lean towards how they probably were brewed way back in history and I can only imagine that they were brewed with similar yeast strains as Saisons.  For my Ale version of Biere de Garde I went with a relatively unknown yeast called Belgian Shelde which presumably comes from Brouwerij De Koninck in Antwerp, Belgium.   This yeast seemed to be a perfect fit.  Slight sulfury (like a lager) yet retaining Belgian yeast characteristics (clove, fruity, but hopefully no banana as I hate banana in beer)

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
55%	15	0	Pilsner Malt	38	2
22%	6	0	Vienna Malt	36	3
7%	2	0	Candi Sugar, Clear	38	0
5%	1	8	Caravienne Malt	34	22
5%	1	8	American Crystal 20L	34	20
5%	1	8	Aromatic Malt	36	26
	27	8

Batch size: 11 gallons
Protien Rest at 127 for 15 minutes
Beta rest at 148 for 1 hour
Alpha rest at 158 for 30 min
Sparge at 168 for 15

Original Gravity:  1.059

Final Gravity:  1.012  

Color:   9° SRM   (Gold to Copper)

Mash Efficiency 58%

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	60 mins	2.0	Hallertauer	pellet	4.8
boil	15 mins	2.0	Tettnang	pellet	4.5

Bitterness:  23.5 IBU

Alcohol:  6.3-7.3% ABV

Calories: 193 per 12 oz.

The Heifer (Young)
5 G's on Wyeast Belgian Shelde Ale yeast (Brouwerij De Koninck yeast)

2nd Place - Belgian, French, German

Pitched a smack pack at 65 degrees
 and fermenting at the same
5/28/12 - Bottled from Keg
10/13/12 - 2nd place in the Belgian, French, and German category of the Nordeast Big River Homebrew Competition!




The Bullocks (Old)
5 G's on ECY02 Flemish Blend
Siphoned from Sour Saison fermentor (second generation)
pitched at 65 degrees fermenting at 70 degrees.










The Runt (the little one)
1 G on 100% Brett Drie / Avery 15
Pitched at 80 degrees fermenting
vigorously within 18 hours at 65 degrees
5/28/12 - Bottled: I bottled and use carb tabs for carbonation.  I got 5-12 oz, and 1 -750 ml bottles.   Saved the yeast for pitching into a 5 gallon Saison type beer.

Saison/ Bier de Garde Hybrid and Yeast experiment

I'm a huge fan of Belgian beers, in particular, the farmhouse ales. Both Saison's and Bier de garde are amazing beers in my opinion. Saison's being more hoppy, and yeasty and many times spiced, and Bier de garde's tending toward the malty side with a typical 90 minute boil to give it it's signiture caramel characteristic. I decided to do an experiment with a split batch. It's a great Saison recipe from Northern Brewer and I had done it in extract and loved it last summer. I fermented it last year at upwards to 78-80 degrees and the French Saison yeast is amazing at this temperature with fruit and peppery spice flavors. This year I'm going to let the yeast hang back a little bit by fermenting it at the lower temperatures to see how that effects the Belgian yeast flavors. Start at around 65 for the first couple days and then slowly bring it up to 70 is what I'm thinking. My two yeasts are the Wyeast 3711 French Saison yeast, and Safbrew T-58 (6 gallons split into 3 gallon batch's). The safbrew Belgian ale is one that I got for free from NB at the AHA Surly event. I figured I'd split the batch and taste the difference. I did a long boil, 90 minutes. I'm a big malt head and love the caramel, malty flavors in Bier de garde style, and I typically boil my first runnings when I'm sparging anyways. This tends toward the bier de garde, but since this is a nicely hopped Saison, a malty backbone should work well, hopefully. These will be tasty, and very sessionable summer ales!

The grain bill is Belgian Pilsner, Vienna, and Torrified Wheat.
The hops consist of East Kent Goldings, Styrian Goldings, and Saaz.

I mashed at 150 for an hour
Boiled my first runnings while sparging
Sparged at 165 for 45 minutes
With the very last of the runnings, I boiled a gallon of that down until it was practically a caramel and lightly poured that back into the main boil.
Full 90 minute boil.

Pitched the yeast at 70 degrees and both had nice vigorous fermentation's. I'll let them sit for a couple weeks and then bottle in big bottles!


Salute!

Fermentation and tasting results of this Yeast experiment