It has been over six weeks since bottling Arrogance IS Brett. I have been "sampling" a bottle a week for the past few weeks and have finally noticed the brett character showing itself more. It has started taking on the characteristics of the Rayon Vert more as it ages and I assume will continue to do so for quite some time. It has a very nice pineapple aroma to it along the same line as with GI Matilda. I do however regret dryhopping. I think the dryhops cover up much of the brett character and will omit this step during my second attempt at the recipe.
I am still in the process of updating and moving into my families new house so brewing has come to a stand still but will resume in full force shortly.
It most recent news, I had my American Brown take first place in the Garage Brewers Society Champion of the Pint last month and my first place in category/second place best of show IPA will be featured as the festival ale at St. Louis' Heritage Festival. A handfull of the local breweries around town will brew the grain bill and then single hop it to educate the crowd on the different characteristics of the various hop varietals.
Stay Tuned!
One man's journey into funk
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Bottling Day
This project started out as an attempt at cloning Stone Brewing's Arrogant Bastard and using brett, but it has evolved into something entirely different and has really helped open my eyes to 100% brett fermentations. I believe most "beer geeks" or "nerds" out there usually associate brett'd beers with being funky/barnyardy/horse blankety/so on & so on, but this only occurs with specific strains of brett and under certain conditions. I can say this because I use to be one of those "geeks", but now having done an all brett beer, I know otherwise. What I am looking for in this beer is for the fruity characteristics of the Brett B to shine through as the beer is young and fresh and then as it ages, "funk" to start developing. Again, my fingers are crossed.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Blood Sausage & Stout
First, a little about the stout:
This is one that was recently entered into a local competition (the same one where my IPA won second place in best of show). This recipe was still fairly young when entered. It was brewed in June and then bulk aged until late October at which point it was bottled. It was entered into competition in late December and received a 36. Not the best I would have hoped for, but still high scoring and a beer of this stature requires long aging periods to fully develop. It now has more age in the bottle and is coming together quit nicely. Being that it was my first "big" beer, I did not know how the efficiency would react with such a large grain bill, now I know to expect poor efficiency.
 |
| Delicious! |
Brew Type: All Grain | Date: 6/23/2011 |
| Style: Imperial Stout | |
| Batch Size: 5.50 gal | |
| Boil Volume: 6.50 gal | Boil Time: 60 min |
| Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % | Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) |
| Actual Efficiency: 66.78 % |
Amount
The blood sausage I am pairing with the stout is of Eastern European origins. It is referred to as kaszanka. Unfortunately, I do not have any pig or beef blood readily available, so this sausage was purchased already made from Global Foods in Kirkwood, your one-stop-shop for that hard to find food. The dark malt flavor matches perfectly with the rich, creamy, fatty flavor/texture of the blood sausage. The stout was mashed at a low temperature (151 degrees) so it's not an overly thick/sweet stout. This works out well with such a fatty/rich food. I would definitely suggest this pairing! Any commercial American Stout or Russian Imperial Stout would be a good substitute for my recipe. I would however avoid any sweeter style stout, like the obvious milk stout versions. ENJOY! |
Monday, February 20, 2012
My Best Brown
UPDATE: Even after many months in the bottle, this recipe just won 1st. place in Garage Brewers Society's Champion of the Pint. Very Exciting!
It's always a pleasant surprise when you uncover a hidden six pack of a brew you thought was long gone. Lately, I have been setting back a six pack or two of my brews so they don't disappear too quickly. Tonight, I uncovered my version of the American brown that I bottled back on December 1st. The hops on the nose have dropped out slightly, but not on the tongue. It has also developed, what I perceive to be, a slight sweetness to it. This was a nice surprise as I had just recently thought of adding 1# of dark brown sugar to it.
Aroma- slight chocolate and biscuit-ness balanced with sweet maltiness tangled up with slight citrus/pine from the dry hops that have dwindled off.
Appearance/Mouthfeel- light dark brown/almost porter-ish with a medium mouthfeel. Mashed fairly low so this was to be expected and perfect match for this recipe.
Flavor-medium maltiness and bitterness. No diacetyl or fruit esters, clean with malt,chocolate,hops shining through and slight sweetness.
Overall-excellent stronger American brown ale. Does have slight alcohol prescense in taste, but none in the nose. When fresh, it had a very large and pleasurable citrus/pine/resiny nose and flavor. It is still very enjoyable to drink over 2 months later and absolutely stands up to time. I will re-brew and the only change so far planned is to add some dark brown sugar at the end of the boil.
I did hit 83% efficiency with this recipe. That would account for the higher gravity and ultimately, increased alcohol.
Starting gravity was 1.063 and final gravity was 1.010. I stuck with my usual 4 week primary fermenting schedule on this one.
The moment you've been waiting for...
Taste Rating (50 possible points): 0.0
Mashed at 152
It's always a pleasant surprise when you uncover a hidden six pack of a brew you thought was long gone. Lately, I have been setting back a six pack or two of my brews so they don't disappear too quickly. Tonight, I uncovered my version of the American brown that I bottled back on December 1st. The hops on the nose have dropped out slightly, but not on the tongue. It has also developed, what I perceive to be, a slight sweetness to it. This was a nice surprise as I had just recently thought of adding 1# of dark brown sugar to it.
Aroma- slight chocolate and biscuit-ness balanced with sweet maltiness tangled up with slight citrus/pine from the dry hops that have dwindled off.
Appearance/Mouthfeel- light dark brown/almost porter-ish with a medium mouthfeel. Mashed fairly low so this was to be expected and perfect match for this recipe.
Flavor-medium maltiness and bitterness. No diacetyl or fruit esters, clean with malt,chocolate,hops shining through and slight sweetness.
Overall-excellent stronger American brown ale. Does have slight alcohol prescense in taste, but none in the nose. When fresh, it had a very large and pleasurable citrus/pine/resiny nose and flavor. It is still very enjoyable to drink over 2 months later and absolutely stands up to time. I will re-brew and the only change so far planned is to add some dark brown sugar at the end of the boil.
I did hit 83% efficiency with this recipe. That would account for the higher gravity and ultimately, increased alcohol.
Starting gravity was 1.063 and final gravity was 1.010. I stuck with my usual 4 week primary fermenting schedule on this one.
The moment you've been waiting for...
| Brew Type: All Grain | |
| Style: American Brown Ale | |
| Batch Size: 5.50 gal | |
| Boil Volume: 6.50 gal | Boil Time: 60 min |
| Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % | Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) |
| Actual Efficiency: 83.58 % |
| Amount | Item | Type | % or IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.00 lb | Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 86.21 % |
| 0.60 lb | Chocolate Malt (347.0 SRM) | Grain | 5.17 % |
| 0.50 lb | Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) | Grain | 4.31 % |
| 0.25 lb | Biscuit Malt (22.0 SRM) | Grain | 2.16 % |
| 0.25 lb | Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) | Grain | 2.16 % |
| 1.00 oz | Citra [12.00 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) | Hops | - |
| 0.50 oz | Magnum [13.10 %] (60 min) | Hops | 20.1 IBU |
| 0.50 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (Dry Hop 7 days) | Hops | - |
| 0.50 oz | Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] (15 min) | Hops | 7.8 IBU |
| 0.25 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (15 min) | Hops | 5.4 IBU |
| 0.25 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (5 min) | Hops | 2.2 IBU |
| 0.50 oz | Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] (5 min) | Hops | 3.2 IBU |
| 1.00 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (0 min) | Hops | - |
| 1.00 oz | Amarillo Gold [10.30 %] (0 min) | Hops | - |
| 0.50 items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) | Misc | |
| 1 Pkgs | Safale American (DCL Yeast #US-05) | Yeast-Ale |
Mashed at 152
| Estimated Original Gravity: 1.057 SG (1.045-1.060 SG) | Measured Original Gravity: 1.063 SG |
| Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.010-1.016 SG) | Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG |
| Estimated Color: 21.5 SRM (18.0-35.0 SRM) | Color [Color] |
| Bitterness: 38.6 IBU (20.0-40.0 IBU) | Alpha Acid Units: 15.2 AAU |
| Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 5.39 % (4.30-6.20 %) | Actual Alcohol by Volume: 6.92 % |
| Actual Calories: 280 cal/pint |
Monday, February 6, 2012
Arrogance Is Brett
Finally got around to brewing up my clone of Stone Brewing's Arrogant Bastard. Except for some alterations, like all Simcoe instead of Chinook and all Brett instead of regular sach. yeast, and the acid malt, it is the same recipe that the Brewing Network determined to be the closest of their clone attempts. I built up quit a nice size starter out of dregs of Rayon Vert and O'dell's Sabatuer. Needless to say, within 7 hours, I had some nice activity and it smells great!
I mashed at 153 for 60 minutes and added the acid malt after the mash was complete, so not to alter the mash pH. The final gravity was 1.067, so higher than expected.
I think I'm hooked on harvesting bottle dregs and stepping them up. I still have a bottle of O'dell Friek and a bottle of some recent Cantillion that I will probably add to my sour blonde that is only 4 weeks in.
I mashed at 153 for 60 minutes and added the acid malt after the mash was complete, so not to alter the mash pH. The final gravity was 1.067, so higher than expected.
I think I'm hooked on harvesting bottle dregs and stepping them up. I still have a bottle of O'dell Friek and a bottle of some recent Cantillion that I will probably add to my sour blonde that is only 4 weeks in.
| Brew Type: All Grain | Date: 1/30/2012 |
| Style: Specialty Beer | |
| Batch Size: 5.00 gal | |
| Boil Volume: 6.00 gal | Boil Time: 60 min |
| Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 % | Equipment: Brew Pot (7.5 gal) and Igloo Cooler (10 Gal) |
| Actual Efficiency: 82.33 % |
| Amount | Item | Type | % or IBU |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10.00 lb | Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) | Grain | 86.96 % |
| 1.00 lb | Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) | Grain | 8.70 % |
| 0.50 lb | Acid Malt (1.8 SRM) | Grain | 4.35 % |
| 0.50 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (60 min) (First Wort Hop) | Hops | 25.3 IBU |
| 2.00 oz | Cascade [5.50 %] (Dry Hop 5 days) | Hops | - |
| 0.25 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (60 min) | Hops | 11.5 IBU |
| 0.50 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (20 min) | Hops | 13.9 IBU |
| 2.00 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) | Hops | - |
| 1.00 oz | Simcoe [14.10 %] (10 min) | Hops | 16.7 IBU |
| 1.00 items | Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 min) | Misc | |
| 1 Pkgs | My Brett Yeast Culture [Starter 0 ml] | Yeast-Ale |
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