Sorry for the randomness of this post, but an earlier posting (I can't find it now) made me think. I remember how excited I was when I finally tracked down Stille Nacht for the first time in a bottle shop in St. Louis. From what I'd read of it (in 'Beer Captured' or 'Clone Brews' or one of those books and elsewhere) it was beguilingly complex and slightly wild/tart brew. Imagine my surprise when I opened mine, and found a rather normal (if quite delicious) Belgian Strong Pale Ale. In another post today, I saw that De Dolle used a variant of the Rodenbach yeast (or its commercial version, Wyeast Roselare Blend) for their beers, but recently stopped using it. Can anyone corroborate this, provide any information on why this happened (wouldn't that completely change the nature of all a brewery's beers?), or give some historical background? Cheers!
They didn't stop using the Rodenbach yeast recently. It was 10-20 years ago. I am sure others can chime in on the exact dates but I had a early 1980's bottle side by side with a mid 1990's bottle and they were totally different beers. Color, smell flavor. The 1980's bottle was dark sour and funky. The 1990's bottle was much lighter not sour and tasted like an aged version of what they brew today. The 1980's bottle was amazing stuff. I'll let the De Dolle experts chime in on the specifics of when and why...
Like tender, I've got a bit of information myself, but I'll yield most facts to jedwards. This collection of information will give you your answer and more: http://jonahedwards.com/beer/dolle/ The last Rodenbach year I've had that has been tart was the 1999 bottling. From 2000 - 2005, a new, non-sour yeast was used. In 2005, some bottlings of Oerbier and Stille Nacht used a re-cultivated sour yeast strain. The 2006 - present are all using sour yeast strains. Unfortunately, this is not a flavor that is immediate. In a 2008 I'd opened a couple months ago, I was just beginning to find notes of sourness. You really need to be patient with that beer if you wish to experience what it is fully capable of presenting.
Hah, thanks for the plug! I really need to get the last few notes written up and take a few more photos. Everything claaark13 said is correct by my understanding. 90s bottles are definitely tart, though to varying degrees (I've had a few from the early/mid 90s that were quite mild in comparison to the 80s/late-90s bottles I've tried). The very early 80s bottles are a darker beer (see the section of my page on the Speciaal Brouwsels for more detail) ... I will have a more direct comparison closer to the holidays. Opened a 2006 SN recently and it's definitely starting to develop a nice sour component... hopefully with time the new bottles will mature into something like the 80s/90s version. BedetheVenerable -- do you happen to know the year of the bottle you tried? The early-2000s bottles have never developed the complexity of the others, and it's also generally my experience that very new bottles don't have much of it either. If you are interested in trying the beer you read about, I'd seek out a 2006-7 bottle and cellar it for another couple of years, or pick up a few newish bottles and put them away for 5-10 years. It's worth the wait.
I've got 2 bottles of 2005 Spec capped Stille Nacht out of 3 I found on the shelf this Spring. I'm going to try and coax the yeast back to life when I drink them, but not expecting to succeed. I believe the current De Dolle strain is available as wyeast 3942 - misleadingly called 'Belgian Wheat'.
I have brewed three beers with the Wyeast 3942. They were designed to let the yeast shine through in the flavors. Very small amounts of specialty malts and mild hops (hallertau and saaz). I started to ferment at 68 and ramped up to 76. It finish dry and flocculated quite well. I didn't get that classic De Dolle apple/dark fruit aroma. I think those characteristics of those beers have there unique nature from the Kris Herteleer techniques and not so much the yeast. Maybe a combination of the two. Hopefully one day I will be able to produce those wonderful beers!
