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.

ECY 03 Farmhouse Brett and ECY 02 Flemish Wild and the Brewday from HELL!

So I started off my Sunday all bright eyed and ready to go.  I'd finished one complete week of p90X!  I'd recommend p90X to anyone who's gotten a little loose around the edges from brewing and drinking.  To reward myself (for this small accomplishment) I decided that I deserved a Brew Day!  Remember.... 90 is for 90 days...and X is for Xtreme!  Bring IT!!!

The Disappearing Yeast
In my head I wanted to do a 10 gallon batch of what I had planned on being a Saison Brett experiment that could be drank next summer.   I was going to pit WLP 670 American Farmhouse Blend (presumably The Lost Abbey strain (brett. b.) against the ECY 03 Farmhouse Brett.   I know at one point a few months ago I had that damn vial of WL hanging out in my keezer but for the life of me I could not find it, and it probably was a little old any ways.   That throw a little monkey wrench in my plans.  Luckily I had another vial of East Coast Yeast sitting in my fridge, ECY 02 which is a flemish blend.  I didn't think the Flemish blend would be appropriate for the Hoppy Siason Brett I had been planning so I ended up boiling two separate pots and leaving out the 60 minute hop addition for the Saison turned Flemish Wild Ale (too many IBU's can restrict Lactobacillus).   What started out as a Saison Brett experiment turned into a East Coast Yeast experiment and I can't wait to taste that ECY02 eight to twelve months from now!  So... I had that yeast/changing up my recipe at the last minute issue.

The Stuck Mash
Then I had the whole stuck mash issue.  This was a fun one to deal with...really fun.  I have never had a stuck mash or sparge before in almost 50 beers.  I've heard of them, dreaded them, learned to deal with them from horror stories, but had somehow eluded one for almost 3 years.   This was a 10 gallon batch so it wasn't exactly a small issue.  I don't know why I had a stuck mash since I've used unmalted wheat, wheat, oats, spelt, and lots of gelatinous stuff in my mash's before and never used rice hulls.  My guess is because I threw in a pound of unmalted wheat at the last minute.  I knew that I needed to either do a more complex mash schedule or do a cereal mash on the side if I really wanted to get much of anything from them, but I decided to just throw them in and hope that they create some long chain sugars that would be available for the brett, pedio, lacto, and whatever else is in these yeast blends from Al Buck.   Anyways, as I tried to run off my first runnings the grain bed would get so compact that it would slow my run off to a trickle. Since I usually batch sparge, I ended up switching it up a bit.  As the wort would slowly drain off I would pour some of my hot sparge water in the top and stir it up to hopefully thin out the mash some.   Then I'd vorlauf again and continue the process.  I did this a few times, and eventually it started flowing a little better.   I ended up eventually doing my first pseudo fly sparge as I trickled sparge water over the top of the grain bed.  I ended up with 10 gallons of sugary water in the end so I guess everything worked out.   I made it happen and that's all that matters.

The Truth Will be Told
I heard this quote (not word for word) from one of the brewers on the Surly website at one point and it stuck with me.  "Any brewer can make a fantastic beer under perfect conditions, but it takes a great brewer to make a fantastic beer when everything goes wrong."  Hopefully I prove to be the latter.

My original recipe was a sort of, psuedo Boulevard Saison Brett clone so the Saison portion should be something similar to that.  The Flemish funk portion should be something like a barrel aged Lambic type version of Boulevard Saison Brett.  And then I had an extra couple of gallons of 2nd runnings and added about .75 ounce of 3 year old Celiea hops.  Hopefully I'll be able to pour the dregs and propagate Boulevard Saison Brett yeast for future batch's!

The Wedge - Saison Brett

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
60%	8	0	Rahr Pilsner Malt	34	2
26%	3	8	American White Wheat	39	2
6%	0	12	Corn, Flaked	37	1
4%	0	8	Belgian Candy Sugar Light	36	0
4%	0	8	Wheat, Unmalted (Wheat Berries)	34	5
0%	0	1	Carafa III	32	525
	13	5

Original Gravity

1.052 measured

Final Gravity

Color

8° SRM / 15° EBC

(Gold to Copper)

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	60 mins	0.7	Simcoe	leaf	13.0
boil	20 mins	0.6	Simcoe	leaf	13.0
boil	15 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
boil	10 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
dry hop	10 days	2.0	Amarillo	leaf	7.0

Boil: 6.5 avg gallons for 90 minutes

Bitterness

41.3 IBU / 23 HBU

ƒ: Average

BU:GU

0.77

yeast

ECY03 Farmhouse Brett ale yeast in liquid form with low flocculation and 90% attenuation

Alcohol

6.4% ABV

The Great Divide - Flemish Golden Wild Ale

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
60%	8	0	Rahr Pilsner Malt	34	2
26%	3	8	American White Wheat	39	2
6%	0	12	Corn, Flaked	37	1
4%	0	8	Belgian Candy Sugar Light	36	0
4%	0	8	Wheat, Unmalted (Wheat Berries)	34	5
0%	0	1	Carafa III	32	525
	13	5

Batch size: 5.5 gallons

Original Gravity

1.060 measured

Final Gravity

Color

8° SRM / 15° EBC

(Gold to Copper)

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	20 mins	0.6	Simcoe	leaf	13.0
boil	15 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
boil	10 mins	0.5	Amarillo	leaf	7.0
dry hop	10 days	2.0	Amarillo	leaf	7.0

Bitterness

15.8 IBU

yeast

ECY02 Flemish Ale ale yeast in liquid form with low flocculation and 90% attenuation

Alcohol

7.3% ABV

 ***I mashed high, in the 158-160 range
 
3.20.12 - Sampled it and took a PH reading.   PH is at 3.8.  The taste is a nice funky saison with wheat and hops and tartness all intermingling nicely.  Fruity brett with a little musty brett in the nose.  Very fruity and refreshing in the taste.  

5.18.12 - Added 1/4 ounce Medium Toast French Cubes to both ECY03 and ECY02 versions. 
5.28.12 - Bottled ECY03 Saison Brett version with 7.1 ounces of corn sugar in Champagne and Belgian (750's and 375's) to reach 4 volumes of Co2.

French Saison Brett: Brettanomyces Experimentation...the funky train!

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Dank Funk: get your freak on people cause we about to get extremely funky up in this shit!

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Most of the beer world thinks beer is beer and for the most part...yellow fizzy beer.  When I explain Lager yeast, and Ale yeast to a non craft beer drinker I typically get a "does not compute" and overwhelmed look on their face, or they just don't care.   Talking Lager and Ale with an unknowing person will certainly put you into "beer geek" status in a lot of peoples minds.   Obviously this is very basic shit in brewing and in the craft beer industry.   With Ale's and Lager's now you have Brett.

Just so you now...

Brettanomyces is also yeast!

 I'm about to make another beer in the ever expanding Dank Funk series line up.   My first one in the line up is my Flanders Style Red Ale that is currently getting funkier and funkier by the day!   

Now....I'm looking to try some isolated Brett strains to understand their capabilities as funktifyers!   I'm a huge fan of Goose Island - Sofie, and Boulavard - Saison Brett...so I thought I'd give it my best shot at creating a funky saison like this.

I do have White Labs Brett C in my fridge though so that will definitely be one of the experiments.  I've read from Michael at the Mad Fermentationist that Brett C can give Pineapple flavors to a beer and I think that may work really well with this Saison.    Ryan over at Ryans Brews has recommended Brett L. as a nice fruity Brett that I think will also work extremely well with this recipe!  

I don't know a ton about Brett, but what I do know is from reading those two "funky" blogs, and also tasting a bunch of commercial funky beers over the last couple of years.   Some of these beers have been fantastic, some good, some not as good, and some down right nasty (IMO).  

Here is my recipe.  10 gallon batch.  5 Gallons with Brett C, and 5 gallons with Brett L.

French Saison with Brett (C and L)

Batch size: 10 gallons

malt & fermentables

%	LB	OZ	Malt or Fermentable	ppg	°L
58%	9	8	Belgian Pilsner Malt	34	2
33%	5	8	Vienna Malt	36	3
9%	1	8	Wheat, Torrified	36	1
	16	8

Original Gravity

1.040

Final Gravity

1.000

Color

4° SRM / 7° EBC

(Yellow)

Mash Efficiency 71%

hops

use	time	oz	variety	form	aa
boil	60mins	2.0	Goldings, East Kent	pellet	5.0
boil	10mins	0.5	French Strisserspalt	pellet	2.6
boil	10mins	0.5	Czech Saaz	pellet	5.0
boil	1 min	1.5	Czech Saaz	pellet	5.0
boil	1 min	1.5	French Strisserspalt	pellet	2.6

Dry Hop with 1 oz of Amarillo and 1/2 oz Citra hops

Boil: 13.0  for 90 minutes

Bitterness

26.8 IBU

Alcohol

5.25% ABV

I'll mash at around 149-150 degrees so I have a highly fermentable wort.  I want this to finish really dry!


Here is my plan for fermentation.   Create a small starter of Wyeast French Saison to be pitched with the equivalent of one smack pack into each 5 gallon batch.  Create a large starter of WLP645: Brett C. and a large starter of Wyeast 5526: Brett L.   Oxygenate as usual.   Pitch each 5 gallons with a small amount of WY French Saison and the large starter of Brett.  I want these to come out funky, and I think that this is the best way to go about it.   I'll let these both ferment in primary for about 2-3 months at around 65-68 degrees.   Sample and bottle them when they are ready.   I may dry hop them depending on how the flavor is at bottling time.

Bottle with sugar to have medium to high carbonation, and bottle condition to age for as long as possible. 

3.27.11 - Brew day went really well.   Beautiful spring day in Minneapolis.  Brewed in the garage with assistant BrewDog - Nala.   March pump worked awesome with the shut off on the 'out' side!   Mashout, Sparge, all worked great!   Evaporation rate was pretty huge and I ended up with only 9 gallons so I split it into 4.5 gallon portions.   I had created a yeast starter of French Saison yeast from one smack pack.  I like to under pitch this yeast.   (basically the equivalent of one smack pack per 4.5 gallons)  I also did starters for the two Brett strains but I don't think I got much activity out of it in the two days it had before brew day.   Hopefully it woke them up a bit so that they are ready to start eating away at the sugars.  Mashed in at 151 and after 70 minutes it was at 149.  Sparged at 167 for 20 minutes.   70 minute boil.  Didn't take a gravity reading but it's most likely around 1.045.   I really hope that this turns out!
 ***only thing that I'm worried about is that I strained the keggle right after the boil into two Ale Pales with out chilling it first. Then I brought them downstairs and chilled them with the chiller like normal.  It only took like 20 minutes to chill both of them!  My only worry is that I may have introduced some O2 into them while the wort was hot and draining.  I did my best to keep the tubing at the bottom of the Ale Pales and it should be all good!
4.20.11 -  Brett L. batch is smelling extremely sour.  Brett C. batch is much more restrained.  I might blend these in the end.  We shall see.
4.27.11 -  ONE MONTH since BREWDAY.  I smelled my Brett L, and C Saison's last night, and the Brett L is much more complex  with fruity, tart, sour smelling, and the Brett C is more barnyardy right now, and not a ton of fruit, citrus, or tartness in the smell.  That Brett L Saison is going to be amazing!
5.23.11 - Both have finished at 1.000!  Pellicle forming on the Brett L.  It smells amazingly fruity and tart with a little bit of barnyard.  Tasting the Brett L and the flavor is not as much fruit but more brett and finishes very dry and thin.  Brett C. batch doesn't have any pellicle, and has a pronounced barnyard, horseblanket brett smell too it but the taste and flavor is more sweet pineapple and tropical fruit with some funk in there as well.  Finishes more sweet then the Brett L.  I'm wondering if I should bottle them, and let them sit in the bottle for a long time until they "finally come around" or if I should just dry hop the shit out of them with 75% Amarillo/ 25% Simcoe, and bottle it up!
6.21.11 -  Sampled both again.  Brett C batch definitely has some tropical fruit, pineapple going on as well as some brett funk.  Brett L has massive pellicle now and mixed that up with the dry hops which should help to create a barrier for the oxygen.  Not quite sure about this Brett L yet.  Definitely funky brett going on.  I decided that the orange spicyness of Amarillo would be a good dry hop mix as well as a little bit of Citra which will complement the tropical fruit.  Citra smells like pure Mango and I think it'll complement this.  Bottling in champagne bottles in 10 days and carbonating to 3 volumes. 
7.12.11 - Bottled primarily in champagne bottles to 3 volumes of Co2.  Plastic champagne caps seemed to fit extremely tight as well as the cages so I'm hoping for great results and proper carbonation in a couple of weeks.   They will carbonate and condition at 75-80 degrees in my upstairs attic until they are ready to drink! 
7.27.11- First Sample of the Brett C. version -  Fully carbed after 2 weeks in the bottle.  Funky cheese in the nose to start off with.  A little bit of citrus and fruity hop aroma getting through but not a ton.   I did dry hop it with Citra and Amarillo but the brett seems to have overpowered it.  The taste is fantastic in the beginning through the middle with caramel, bread, wheatyness and hits you really dry and fruity on the end.   Not a ton of brett in the flavor.  It finish's a bit weird, maybe astringent (I really don't know what astringent means though)  It's got some kind of twang on the very end of the sip.   It'll be interesting to see how this ages.  

1/29/12 - Only about half of the cheap plastic corks have help the carbonation.   These corks from Midwest brew supply don't work consistently for bottle conditioning.  They do work for force carbonation though.  I pulled All the plastic corks out.  About half of them had held their carbonation.  For those that were flat, I dropped 3 sometime 4 coopers tabs in them.   I had experimented with 2 coopers tabs but they were way under carbed.   For those that were still carbonated, I simply pulled the cork out, and crimped a bottle cap on really quickly.   These are going to be fantastic in the summer!

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Funk (music): funk is a state of mind...."Mother Earth is pregnant for the third time, cause y'all have knocked her up. I have tasted the maggots in the mind of the universe...I was not offended, for I knew I had to rise above it all, or drown in my own shit."- George Clinton of P-funk

Funk (smell):  a usually objectionable musky odor emanating from human underarms and genitalia, especially in the male but to a lesser extent the female, resulting from glandular secretions and bodily functions. Infrequent washing and rapid bacterial growth intensify the odor. 

Funk (general): Soul + drugs = Funk

Dank: an expression frequently used by stoners and hippies for something of extremely high quality.

St Anthony Shifty Eyed Clucker- Farmhouse Ale

With the chill of Fall in the air I decided to brew one more Farmhouse ale to finish off the summer brew season right.  It's fun relying on the ambient temperature on different levels of my house for my fermentation, which right now means I can use all kinds of crazy Belgian farmhouse yeasts that love the high temps in my upstairs!   I decided to try something a little whacked out, a little out of the box, yet very simple.   This beer is supposed to be representative of something a small Farmhouse may have brewed back in the day.  You know the type of French country house that has barley, wheat, and spelt for feed.   Yeah, spelt for feed.  Well, on some of these farmhouse breweries inevitably they'd use a portion of this spelt in their grain bill.  Not sure if they added 20% like I did though.  Man o man.  It should act a bit like adding wheat to a beer which adds some body, mouthfeel, and head retention.   I learned about this type of traditional rustic Saison while reading Farmhouse Ales recently and then ended up doing a google search for spelt trying to find some for this brew.   I came across this recipe from Ryan's Brew and decided to use that as a base, and then mess with the hop bill and yeast to my own liking.   I ended up going with a mix of American, German, and French hops.   I picked up the flaked spelt from Whole Foods and it cost a pretty penny.   I'm excited to see how this turns out as it's probably the most traditional Saison I've brewed to date.

I can honestly say that my house in NE Minneapolis used to be exactly where my neighbors Chicken coop used to be around 65 years ago.   Back in the day my neighbor Bill used to live on his parents farm in the city, on the outskirts of Minneapolis near St. Anthony.  These chickens must have had a shifty eye towards the progress and expansion of this city when house's were being build up around their farm 60 years ago.   Not sure what else went down on Bill's farm, but I do know that I'm brewin beer where those cluckers used to roost. 

St Anthony Shifty Eyed Clucker- Farmhouse Ale

60% Belgian Pale

20% Belgian Biscuit

20% Flaked Spelt

10 SRM

39 IBU’s

OG: 1.051

Mashed at 149 for 75 min
Sparged at 166 for 30 min

FG: 1.003 on 8/31/10

Abv: 6.3%

1 oz (fwh) Kent Goldings

0.5 oz Strisselspalt and 0.5 oz Sterling at 15 min.

0.5 oz Strisselspalt and 0.5 oz Sterling at 5 min.

1 oz Amarillo at 1 min.

¼ tsp Irish Moss

¼ tsp yeast nutrient

Wyeast  French Saison 3711

Tasting notes: 3.11.11-  Only have a couple of bottles of this left.   This is a very unique saison that seems to be more approchable to the typical non-saison drinker.   Sampled this out to people at the NE Homebrew club February meeting and many people comment on liking it.  Bree specifically said, I don't usually like Saison but I like this.  (I wish I would have axed for more details.)  The French Striss.  hops are still coming through nicely although the Amarillo dry hops have certainly faded a bit by now although there is a hint of orange in the nose as well anise and some bready malts, even saltine crackers (presumably from the biscuit malt).  I'm also getting a little earthy, funky stuff in the nose that either comes from the Goldings (FWH) or the F. Striss. hops.   Although this should be a rather dry beer because the yeast ferments out so low it still has a medium mouthfeel from the yeast and the spelt.   The flavor is a bit spicy  (maybe anise),  from the French Striss. hops as well as from the yeast.   Finish's spicy with a little bitterness and then your mouth waters for another sip.  After a minute the mouth does dry out.  Wyeast French Saison - 3711 seems to start out fruity and accentuates fruity hops, but then over time becomes more spicy.  

Conclusion: Next time I brew this I'll probably decrease the Biscuit malt to 10% and sub that other 10% with Vienna.  I think that would balance this beer out nicely.

Brother Levonian Saison Ale

With the high temperatures in my upstairs fermentation chamber....IT'S BELGIAN SAISON BREWING SEASON! As many of you know, Belgian Farmhouse Ales are one of my favorite type of beers... to brew, to drink, to talk about, to think about. They are so simple, yet sooo complex. Many brewers love this style because of the unique yeast character that you can express from stressing it at high temperatures, and the complexity you can create with simple ingredients. In my quest for knowledge of what makes a great Saison, I came across some information that really touched me. The story I came across is about a man in San Diego who lost a short battle with cancer a couple years back. Apparently Dave Levonian was a Saison brewing master, and had a philosophy not so different then mine about Saison's. He believed that a well brewed Saison is complex and spicy from the Yeast you use, and the spices you add, but you must add them conservatively, and you must have enough Vienna malt to give it a nice orangish hue. You don't want the drinker to be able to taste one specific spice or flavor, you just want all the flavors to blend nicely together to create a satisfying complexity to a simple beer!

This recipe came from Dave's very own brewing journal and has been passed down for everyone to share, and now I share it with you!


Dave Levonian - Saison Du Mont

For a 5.5 gallon (21 L) yield:

O.G.: 1.056
F.G.: 1.008 (1.004 actual!)
IBU: 21

Fermentables
7.25 lb (3.3 kg) 2-Row Pale Malt
2.0 lb (0.91 kg) Vienna Malt
8 oz (227 g) Flaked Wheat
8 oz (227 g) Flaked Oats
8 oz (227 g) Honey, added after boil

Hops
1.0 oz (28 g) Golding, (4.75% AA), 90 minutes (If Golding is unavailable, substitute Willamette hops for 17 IBU.)
0.5 oz (14 g) Hallertauer, (4.0% AA), 15 minutes
0.5 oz (14 g) Hallertauer, (4.0% AA), at 0 minutes
¾ tsp (3 g) Irish moss, added at 15 minutes

Spices
0.5 oz (14 g) crushed coriander, 0 minutes
0.5 tsp (2 g) grains of paradise, 0 minutes
0.25 oz (7 g) Curacao (sweet) orange peel, 0 minutes
0.25 oz (7 g) Valencia (bitter) orange peel, 0 minutes

Yeast
Two (2) packages Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison Yeast, or two (2) White Labs WLP550 Belgian Ale Yeast, or an appropriate yeast starter
NOTE: Saison should be a dry beer. If your attenuation is not enough, you may need to add a secondary yeast such as Champagne yeast (White Labs WPL 715, or Wyeast 4021) or an attenuative ale yeast (White Labs WLP 001, or Wyeast 1056) to achieve the correct attenuation.

Directions for All-Grain Recipe
Mash grains at 156°F (69°C) to 150°F (65.5°C) and hold for 60 minutes. Mash out at 160°F (71°C) and sparge with 173°F (78°C) water. Collect enough runoff to end up with 5.5 gallons (21 L) after a 90-minute boil (approximately 7.1 gallons, or 27 L). Bring to a boil and add the first hops. Boil for 75 minutes before adding the second hops and the Irish moss. Boil 15 minutes more, and then turn off the heat and add the honey, the finishing hops and the four spices. Next chill to 73-76°F (22-25.5°C), transfer to a fermenter, pitch the yeast and aerate well. Continue fermenting at 76°F (25.5°C) for a total of one week. Rack to secondary for another week. Rack to keg, or if you are bottling rather than kegging, add the bottling sugar and then bottle as you normally would.

Carbonation
Force carbonate at 3.0 – 3.5 volumes of CO2.
or
Bottle condition using 5.4 – 6.6 oz weight (153-187 g) corn sugar

The all-grain recipes assume 75% efficiency unless otherwise stated. Adjust the grain bill to match your system.

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This is basically what I brewed last night with the help of Assistant Brewer, Steve Mittelstaedt, and Assistant to the Assistant Brewer, Adam Luckeroth. We didn't have any Bitter orange peel so I just left that ingredient out. I also added a pound of 2-row because my mash efficiency is lower then what Dave's was. I also decided to use the Wyeast  fermented much like they may have fermented in the olden days at high temperatures, upwards to 85 degrees at some points. My upstairs would probably fluctuate between 74 and 80+ degrees from day to night. My initial tasting was extremely flavorful with peppery, orangey notes in the finish and a little sweetness from the honey, and the FG was at 1.004. It's extremely balanced as is, and it definitely is complex to the point where not one ingredient is distinguishable.I dry hopped  with 1 oz. Amarillo for 10 days to add complexity to the citrus notes since I didn't have bitter orange peel.

Cheers and remember....Live Every Day!

Bottled 8.11.10 - Smelled of honey and spices.  Nothing overpowering at all!  We shall see.  Will condition it for 4 weeks in 75 degree fermentation chamber to maximize the yeast as does Dupont.
Sampled last Bottle 5.30.11 - 9 months after bottling and I'm sampling the last bottle that I had hiding in my cellar.   It's mellowed quite a bit but is extremely fruity in the nose and in the flavor.   This yeast has been working and working for 9 months and it's absolutely beautiful right now!  I wish I would have aged it all until right now actually.   Pours a brilliant apricot color.  Flavors are extremely fruity and sweet, but not too sweet.   Medium carbonation, could have gone higher in the carbonation.  Amazing beer!  I will brew this again and again and again!

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Rant: ***Not everyone in the brewing industry agrees with Dave and I about this philosophy about taking simple beers and making them taste complex. Some brewers seem to be over doing it in an effort to be extreme, and to get noticed in the muffled din through the deep waters that craft brewing is becoming. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that breweries are pushing the boundaries and am eager to sample these efforts whenever I get a chance. I encourage you to make up your own mind on what tastes good to you.