Russian Imperial Stout | French Oak Red Wine Barrel

My club is starting to brew beers for our four(4) French Oak Red Wine barrels that we acquired from a dude who brought them back from Lodi, CA!   Currently all of the barrels are at another dudes cellar filled with an acid wash waiting the day when 30 brewers in the Nordeast Brewers Alliance gather with primary fermented beers to fill them all up.  That time is nearing and this post is about on of the first installments of this series that I brewed recently.  The Russian Imperial Stout...to be aged in a French Oak - Merlot Barrel!!!  We smelled all of the barrels and tried to come up with beers that would complement the characteristics in the nose.    The barrel that we chose for the RIS had notes of dark berries, vanilla, and cocoa and so we though that would complement a RIS very nicely.   We plan to let this age in the barrel for 6-9 months, but completely dependent on what the beer is telling us.  If it gets too oaky we will pull it out immediately.

Here's my portion of the recipe.  There are 13 or 14 of us brewing 5 gallon batch's.  The recipe designers actually created two similar yet different recipes that we will be blending together when we fill up the barrel.  I chose the recipe that did not include adding cacao nibs.  I also didn't follow the recipe as close as I maybe should have.   I couldn't find any Warrior hops for bittering and I couldn't find the Northern Brewer hops for flavor.   So, I went Nugget through and through.   I also mixed in a little Scottish yeast for good measure.

I ended up collecting a ton of wort pre-boil, almost 9 gallons and then boiled it down over a long period to get almost 6 gallons.  This allowed me to achieve a respectable efficiency as well as additional caramel flavors!

Batch Size: 5.75 gallons
Mash Efficiency: 70 %
Specific Gravity: 1.104 OG

Final Gravity: 1.028 FG

Color: 45° SRM Black

Bitterness: 60.9 IBU

Mash Temp: 152 degrees for 90 Minutes

Boil: 2 hours

Ferm Temp: 65 degrees

Alcohol: 10.1% ABV

Calories: 344 per 12 oz.

Malt & Fermentables

	%	LB	OZ			°L	PPG
	72%	16	~	Pale Malt, 2 Row, US	Mash	2°	37
	4%	1	~	Briess Roasted Barley	Mash	300°	34
	4%	1	~	Belgian Chocolate Malt	Mash	5°	34
	4%	1	~	Brown Sugar, Dark	Boil	50°	46
	4%	1	~	Brown Sugar, Light	Boil	8°	46
	2%	~	8	American Crystal 120L	Mash	120°	34
	2%	~	8	Flaked Oats	Mash	2°	33
	2%	~	8	Belgian Special B	Mash	220°	30
	2%	~	8	British Black Patent	Mash	550°	25
	1%	~	4	Flaked Wheat	Mash	2°	34
		22	4

Hops

	Usage	Time	OZ			AA » IBU
	boil	90 min	1	Nugget ~ pellet		13.0 » 32.1
	boil	60 min	½	Nugget ~ pellet		13.0 » 15.0
	boil	45 min	½	Nugget ~ pellet		13.0 » 13.8

Yeast

Burton Ale (WLP023) yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 72% attenuation

Edinburgh Scottish Ale (WLP028) yeast in liquid form with medium flocculation and 73% attenuation

****I'm a little nervous because I've never had a Red Wine Barrel aged RIS before and figure that if it is a good marriage, then someone would have done it before.
****I'm also a little nervous that the barrel will have some bugs in it and it won't turn out to be a clean beer like we want it to be.  The wineries that we got these barrels from employ "native fermentation", essentially letting the grape juice ferment naturally from the yeast that has gathered on the skins of the fruit.  Could there be Brett?  Yes.  Could there be other critters? Yes.  We shall soon find out.
****Sampled this 2 months into the barrel aging process.  It's actually very dry, and not juice and thick like I expected.  A little hot and definitely some vanilla coming through in the nose from the oak.

Trepidation - Belgian Tripel DIPA with Brett Drie and Wyeast French Saison

I wanted to brew something big for a yeast cake I had of a Session Saison Brett.  Because I  loved my first version of a Belgian Tripel/DIPA that I brewed a year ago that was inspired by Houblon Chouffe.   In addition to that, I also loved the Anchorage Brewing Bitter Monk when I had it in La Crosse at The Bodega a year ago.   I decided that I'd try my shot at something similar.   Anchorage Brewing Bitter Monk is a Belgian-Style DIPA aged in Chardonnay barrels with Brett.   It had a whole lot going on and the Chardonnay character was maybe a little too much, but the idea of it was amazing, and the execution was phenomenal and so I decided I must try and create something like this.   I paid $18 for a 750 ml of this beer and if I can create 5 gallons of something similar... I'll be living like a king!  

I took a pretty traditional Belgian Tripel grain bill, and then hopped it up with a mix of hops to reach a balance of earthyness in the flavor and then the piney, fruity aspects in the aroma.   The brett drie and Saison yeast should give a fruity flavor to the beer as well as spicyness on the nose. 

My brett of choice for this beer is brett drie for hoppy beers where you want more fruit and less funk.   Brett drie is an amazing bretta strain in that it has little "tradional" brett characteristics like barnyard, horse hay, cat piss, and more of the spicy fruity ones, like POG or tropical fruit.   In fact it's very similar to Wyeast French Saison in my opinion.   That all being said, I thought it would be a great complement to this beer. 

Both Wyeast French Saison and Brett Drie will help to attenuate this beer to an extremely high level.  For that reason, I mashed really high at 157 degrees as to not dry this out too far! Since Wyeast French Saison is similar to Wyeast Belgian Ardennes, I thought it could be a good idea for this beer!   I've always wonder how dry Wyeast French Saison would get when mashed high and now we'll find out! 

I'll sample it in a couple weeks a see where it's headed, and may add a tiny bit of oak chips that have been soaked in chardonnay.  That is completely up in the air right now.

Batch Size: 5.75 gallons

Specific Gravity: 1.073 OG

Color: 7° SRM Gold to Copper

Mash Efficiency: 65 %

Bitterness: 56 IBU

Alcohol: 8.7% ABV

Calories: 236 per 12 oz.
Mash Temp: 157-158 degrees
Fermentation Temp: 72 degrees

Malt & Fermentables

	%	LB	OZ			°L	PPG
	91%	17	~	Rahr Pilsner Malt	Mash	2°	34
	5%	1	~	Belgian Candi Sugar - Clear	Boil	0°	32
	2%	~	6	Belgian Biscuit Malt	Mash	24°	35
	2%	~	6	Belgian Aromatic	Mash	23°	34
		19	12

Hops

	Usage	Time	OZ			AA » IBU
	boil	60 min	0.6	Columbus		13.5 » 21.8
	boil	10 min	1	Columbus		13.5 » 13.2
	boil	10 min	1	Sterling		6.3   » 6.2
	boil	10 min	2	Styrian Goldings		3.6   » 7.0
	boil	1 min	1 ½	Amarillo		7.0   » 1.2
	boil	1 min	0.3	Apollo		19.7 » 0.7
	boil	1 min	1	Columbus		13.5 » 1.6
	boil	1 min	1	Simcoe		11.0 » 1.3
	boil	1 min	0.3	Summit		18.0 » 0.6
	dry hop	10 days	2	Amarillo		7.0   » 0.0
	dry hop	10 days	0.5	Simcoe		19.7 » 0.0
	dry hop	10 days	1	Sterling		6.3   » 0.0

Yeast

French Saison (3711)

WLP644 Brettanomyces bruxellensis Trois My only worry is that this beer will dry out too much.   My related worry is that the beer will be too bitter. My only other worry is that the hops I used won't mesh with the Saison and Brett. My only other worry is that I'll add oak and chardonnay to a perfectly good beer and make it too complex and muttled. My only other worry is that, I need to Stop Making Sense! ***Name inspired by Russian River, beer inspired by Houblon Chouffe and Bitter Monk, recipe created by me.

Sour Rye Stout with ECY20 Bug County

After about two years of brewing beers with mixed fermentation (sacc, brett, pedio, and lacto) I've actually started bottling and drinking a few of these beers and have been pleasantly surprised by the results.   Saison Bretts can be done in a relatively short period of time (3-6 months), but the sour beers with pedio and lacto take anywhere from 9 months to 2 years or more.    With bottling my first sour beers, Flanders Red, and my Kriek, I sort of discontinued my Flanders series by unintentionally not brewing Flanders beers regularly.    Looking at my line up of beers in carboys I have a whole bunch of light sour beers.   I have 3 or 4 sour Saison's, a Sour Blonde Biere De Garde, an Ithaca Brute Clone, a Lambic, but nothing at all with any color or roast.    I decided that I need to make an effort to brew up some darker style sour beers so that I can get a good understanding of how dark malts hold up to the onslaught of funky mixed fermentations.  

Because Flanders Reds are the most common style of dark sour beer, that is the obvious choice, but recently I had the pleasure of sampling The Bruery Tart of Darkness which is a soured Stout.   I say pleasure, but really it was a challenge for me to drink this beer as it was so extremely tart that I had trouble getting it down.  It took me about 30 minutes to drink a pint, and luckily I shared it with my bro Pawl.   Despite it's extreme-ness, I was definitely intrigued and thought that with a little less sourness, this could be a really amazing drinkable Stout.   The Bruery is now selling this homebrew clone kit on Morebeer.com and so I looked at that recipe and tweaked it a little bit.   Instead of flaked oats I opted for flaked rye.    I've never used rye before but I've always loved what it brings to the table in a Saison, an IPA, and Porters and Stouts.   I thought that if it will help retain a little bit of body in this beer as well as add some spicyness, that could be a really great thing.  This is essentially a Tart of Darkness clone, but with Rye and fermented with East Coast Yeast ECY20- Bug County!   Here is the description of the yeast from the Love2Brew homebrew supply website which is where I bought it..."The mother bugger for sour ales. Contains ECY01, ECY02, ECY03, ECY04, and ECY05. Also includes: Brettanomyces lambicus, bruxellensis, anomulus, clausenii, custersianus, nanus, and naardenensis. Various Lactobacilli and Pediococci were added to round out this LIMITED RELEASE sour blend for 2011."  (maybe a little TOO much going on, but the verdict is still out on ECY20)

Here is my recipe.   I mashed high at 158 degrees and sparged at 168 degrees.

Batch Size: 5.5 Gallons

Specific Gravity: 1.058 OG

Color: 35° SRM  -  Black

Mash Efficiency: 67 %

Bitterness: 10.3 IBU

Alcohol:  6.9% ABV ?

Calories:  187 per 12 oz.

 

Malt & Fermentables

%	LB	OZ			°L	PPG
79%	11	~	Briess Organic 2-Row	Mash	2°	34
7%	1	~	Flaked Rye	Mash	3°	36
7%	1	~	Breiss Organic Crystal 60L	Mash	60°	34
4%	~	8	Roasted Barley - 550L	Mash	550°	34
3%	~	6	Bairds Chocolate Malt	Mash	475°	33
	13	14

Hops

	Usage	Time	OZ			AA » IBU
	boil	60 min	0.8	Styrian Goldings ~ pellet		3.8 » 10.3

Yeast

ECY20 Bug County yeast in liquid form with low flocculation and 90% attenuation

Berliner 3191 | Saison 3726 | 3 Brett Strains | 11 gallons

I have some very exciting news for all of the Bretta freaks out there.  I had a baby boy and I named him Brett! 

Just kidding, I had a baby and I named him Benjamin although my homebrew club thought for sure I'd name him Brett Lambicus Pederson.   Actually I would have preferred Brett Claussenii Pederson or Brett Drie Pederson, but Benjamin it is!!!

With baby Benny on his way into the world, I didn't have time for anything but an extract brew, but hear is what transpired...

I acquired 3 NEW strains of Bretta a few weeks back.  Okay, they aren't new strains of brettanomyces as they came from a bottle of Cantillon Iris, but they are NEW to ME!   A few weeks back I saw a post by BKYeast where he said he had issolated 3 strains of Brett from a bottle of Cantillon Iris, as well as issolated the Brett strain in the Wyeast 3191 Berliner Weiss blend.   He then went on to say that he cultured them all up separately and those that emailed, he would sent them out for FREE!  All I had to do was pay for shipping!   What a generous guy...right!   Really cool!

So, I ended up getting some Wyeast Brett 3191 Brett issolate, as well as C2, and C3 as he was out of C1 already.  I'm assuming he called them C1, C2, C3 to show that they were issolated from (C)antillon.  

Also in my fridge I had a smack pack of Wyeast 3191 Berliner Blend, and some Wyeast 3726 Farmhouse Ale.  (I'd never done a Berliner, and I'd never used this specific Saison yeast).

Because I wanted to test all of these strains out and get some nice yeast cakes to build up a nice supply of these special strains of Brett, Yeast, and Lacto I decided to make a really simple "starter beer". From this I'll be able to get to know Wyeast 3726 and see how I like this strain that I've heard so much about, as well as I'll have some idea of what the different Brett Strains will contribute to whatever beers I decide to put those in.   Also I'll have a variety of bugs to "accidentally" spill into the 2 Red Wine Barrels my club is about to fill up! 

Here are my "Extract Starter Beers" of Funk!

• 3726 Farmhouse - 5 gallons
• 3191 Berliner Weiss Blend - 3 gallons
• 3191 Brett isolate from BKyeast- 1 gallons
• C2from BKyeast - 1 gallons
• C3 from BKyeast - 1 gallons

Berliner Brett Saison

Batch Size: 11 gallons
Specific Gravity: 1.026 OG

Color:   3° SRM  Yellow

Bitterness: 5.9 IBU  ƒ: Tinseth

Alcohol: 2.9% ABV

Calories: 84 per 12 oz.

Malt & Fermentables

	%	LB	OZ			PPG
	75%	6	~	Briess Wheat LME	Boil	34
	25%	2	~	Briess DME Golden Light	Late Boil	43
		8	0

Hops

	Usage	Time	OZ			AA » IBU
	boil	60 min	0.67	Goldings, East Kent ~ pellet		3.8 » 5.9

Basque Cider | Native Fermentation of Cider | Graff

Cider is an amazingly refreshing drink and I think that it can appeal to people that like wine, and also people that enjoy sour beer.   Wine and sour beer are typically dry, acidic, fruity.  These are all similar characteristics that apply to cider.

Last year I did a French Style cidre that was brewed with a French yeast and then back sweetened to give it additional apple aroma, flavor, and also sweetness. Through the summer drinking my French Cider I found myself mixing it half an half with a Brett IPA I had on tap.  This "Graff" was fantastic and I decided that I preferred a cider that was dry, but also more complex then the cider's I've tried in the past.  With my desire for more complexity, of course,  I decided that making a dry funky complex cider was the direction my 2012 cider project would go.

With my allotted 10 gallons of 2012 fresh pressed unpasteurized cider I decide to create a Farmhouse style cider that not many people know about.   It's easy to make a dry Cider because the simple sugars are easily fermented to terminal gravity.   What I don't like is how boring, and one dimensional these dry ciders can be when fermented with a wine, cider, or beer yeast.   They typically have very little apple flavor or aroma left.   In doing some research online and talking with fellow members of the Nordeast Brewers Alliance I came across a funky style of cider that is produced in the Basque region of Spain.   The most commonly found Basque cider in the US is Isastegi.  Basque cider is naturally fermented and there are definite similarities between Basque style cider and sour beer as Basque cider has a pronounced Brettanomyces component to it when allowed to age.    For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Basque region of Spain, it is on the northern coast of Spain right near where Spain borders France.   There is an amazing town right in this region called San Sebastian that is an absolute must visit if you ever go to this region.   I've spent some time in San Sebastian and they have a great surf break, a beautiful beach for laying around, and also enough little pubs to satisfy your thirst for days. 

Here is going to be my process with my Ciders this year.   All 10 gallons are currently fermenting away using the native yeast that was present in the unpasteurized apple cider.  This is Native Fermentation and it is definitely already producing something very nice and clean.   The Native fermentation is in somewhat of a revival in the wine industry and is suppose to reflect the terroir as well as produce a rounder more full finished product.   My apple juice started out at OG of 1.050 on Sunday and in three days it had dropped to1.035.   I also took a PH reading and it started at 3.6 PH.  I heard from the organizer of the cider buy that last year his portion that was naturally fermented came down to 1.004.    In a week or so I plan to add some Brettanomyces to 5 gallons of the cider and plan on leaving the other portion normal with only the natural yeast.   I'm considering trying to use that yeast cake to ferment some wort, but I'll probably try it with a starter before pitching a full 5 gallons with this local apple yeast.    My guess is that it will have trouble with the complex sugars in malt.  We shall see. At some point I will look at adding a small amount of french oak cubes to this. 

***Graff is not an official term for beer/cider mixture.  It's actually a fictional beverage created by Stephen King for The Dark Tower series (one of my favorite series of books).   There is actually not a lot of actual information on the style although it makes for a very tasty beverage.   I particularily found that apple cider enhances many different types of sour beer!   Mixing my Kriek with Cider was a beautiful marriage of flavors!