What's Brewing-June edition

Belgian patersbier with the help of @PortLargo . 100% weyerman pilsner, saaz and styrian goldings in the boil, fermenting with 3787 at 72. Gonna spund this one and give the freshest sample to the judges, hoping for a winnnerrrrrr

 

Would this be the same thing as a 'table beer'? I had one of these made by one of our smaller local breweries (Benchmark), and I really liked it. Great warm weather Belgian.

 

IMO close, but not really the same thing. Table Beer (tafelbier in Dutch) would typically be even lower in alcohol than a Patersbier. Patersbier implies a low-ish ABV beer specifically made by monks for their own consumption. Table Beer could be have been (and is) made by anyone. I suppose an argument could be made that Patersbier would be a subset of table beers, and I would agree if "table beer" was meant very generically, and not as tafelbier.

Then there's the old British "table beer" designation, which was tied to price, for taxation purposes.

I'm tagging @patto1ro, who I'm sure knows more about this than I.

 

Busy brew day:

1) sending off water to Ward Labs

2) bottling my Nelson Pale Ale (sample is very promising)

3) brewing APA with Citra and Galaxy.

Was planning to brew up a milk stout tomorrow, but just realized I'm out of enymes....booooo.

Here's a pic of my grist. Thought u guys might get a kick out of it...

Pale Millet Malt
Buckwheat Malt
GF Flaked Oats
Biscuit Rice Malt
CaraMillet Malt
Rice Hulls

 

And if the brewing plan falls through today, I think your grist would be well received if you put it in a bird feeder

 

Sadly, this is true. But it does actually produce good beer (I would have never believed that a year ago).

 

Add some speise from a highly hopped higher gravity wort to the keg to carbonate it...

Great way to give it more Hop presence and give it more body/better mouthfeel in my book

 

Transferred 2.5 gallons of dark mild (Lallemand London ESB) to keg.

Remaining 2.5 gallons added to 5.25 # sour cherries, one quart sour cherry concentrate, and 2.5 gallons of wine-yeast fermented unhopped wort/ cherry juice blend with lactobacillus from Good Belly. Talk about your mixed fermentations. I had a quart of the latter blend left over, so that is what I am drinking. It was all low original gravity, at least it was before the cherry concentrate. I rather like it, so far.

A little worried about cherry-stained blow off, so have it in secondary containment and crossing fingers. And it is in an under-utilized closet. And I need new carpeting anyhow.

After giving the yeasts time with the fruit, I'll re-evaluate. Maybe top off with the Old Ale that I fed to some Brett c.

And if I hate it, that's OK, because I'll never be able to recreate it anyhow.

 

Brewing this weekend, hopefully the temp stays in a reasonable range.

Two mashes - 3 brews. First mash will be mostly wheat and I'll split it, half will get a quick boil and chill and be used to top off my two sour soleras. The other half will be a banana forward hopfenweiss with Galaxy, Simcoe, Citra. The second mash will be a hazy IPA - Galaxy, Simcoe, Citra).

I have to stop trying to jam so much into one brewday....

 

Brewing up the averagely perfect dubbel tonight. Tomorrow I'll be moving my stout I made a couple weeks ago into the maple bourbon barrel. Tasting quite nice right now so excited to see how it turns out!

 

I very nearly bottled the elderflower saison this evening, but remembered just in time to check whether I've got any crown caps, which I haven't, so I didn't.

 

Emptied my whisky barrel full of my Imperial Stout into the keg, which I will chill/carbonate for the next few weeks before tapping, probably end of July or in August. Absolutely love what this barrel offered to the beer, it came out REALLY good. Was in the barrel for 3.5 months total. It’s a rich, decedent stout in terms of mouthfeel but not overboard on sweetness where there is enough bittering to hold it back. FG is in the 1.020’s somewhere if I recall (don’t have notes in front of me). Can’t wait to tap this one!


Once that barrel was empty, did a boiling water rinse to remove any residual beer and yeast and then immediately filled with my smoked wheat beer that was sitting in primary. This one I will keep in the barrel for 3-4 weeks just to pick up some oak notes to pair along with the smoke. This beer was 70% Weyermann Oak Smoked Wheat, 20% Pilsner and Munich/Caramunich to round it off. Flavor is incredible at this point, I am excited to see what the barrel offers.


Lastly, my yeast starter I got going on Wednesday night is being very sluggish… Expectantly so. Used two vials of both London Ale III and WLP029 (Kolsch) which were around six months old, so if no activity by tonight or tomorrow morning at latest, will have to go grab some backup yeast to use in my Pale on Sunday. I thought, why not… Let’s mix these yeasts and utilize in a pale to see what they can do together!

 

what size barrel did you use? I have had my RIS stout in my barrel for 5 weeks (first time using a barrel) and I didn't get any notes of the barrel/bourbon yet. My barrel is 15 gallons.

 

Tomorrow I will be brewing my first saison.
6 gallon batch
8lbs Pilsner malt
1lb flaked rye
1lb flaked wheat
Czech saaz hops(33 IBU)
WLP670 (American Farmhouse blend)
I have some coriander and dried orange peels laying around from some other beers I made, so I might add some or one of those last 10 min of the boil.

 

5-gallon barrel, which supposedly people have noted only take a few weeks to get the same effect as say, a 15-gal or larger barrel, but tasting along the way I just waited until it hit the flavor profile I wanted which was the 3.5 months. I can pick up the whisky notes in the beer, for sure, without being too strong. It came out really nice.

 

Thanks for the reply! I figured I will give mine a taste every month to monitor it and keep samples at a minimum to lower oxygen exposure. I am guessing it will need to stay in there about 6 months or so, but tasting it will be the true test of when its complete.

 

Spunded my Belgian single at 1.012 with a targeted final gravity of 1.009. For being only three days since yeast pitch it tasted pretty good. I have high hopes this will do well in competition.

 

Don't worry too much about oxygen. I mean, placing a beer in a barrel basically oxidizes it on purpose. I added a stainless nail in the bottom to draw samples from.

 

I also just put a Vinnie nail in mine last weekend to draw my first sample.

 

Brewed up my berliner last night. Sitting at 100 degrees with goodbelly lacto for the next 36 hours.

50/50 wheat / pils

will add a tropical fruit mix in secondary -- aiming ofr 12-15 lbs for 5 gallons - love the fruit in the summer

Will be doing a czech pilsner (first lager) this weekend and I added 3 ounces of ground coffee beans to my maple stout