Sour Citra Saison - Same Grain Same Style Different Brewers No.1

The OG beer signal 

A few months back Steve J and Daniel F came up with the idea for "a different kind of 'collaboration'". One that involved brewing the same style of beer and the same grist percentages.  After that, every other aspect (gravity, hops, yeast/bugs, spices etc) was up each brewer. The style for what I am assuming/hoping will be the first of many rounds was determined to saisons. The grist percentages were set at 86% Belgian Pilsner, 11% Spelt and 3% Rye As I've mentioned before saisons aren't my favorite style as they tend to have a wide range of flavor and aroma profiles considered to be "in style" however certain saisons, such as Fifth Element from Squatters, are among my favorite all time beers.

I knew right away that I wanted to team up with Shawn O on this one.  My idea for how I wanted to collaborate with Shawn was pretty simple, 1 mash and 2 kettles.  Basically do the mash for around 11 gallons of wort production and split it into two kettles.  This would allow each of us total control on hops, spices etc.   Initially I figured that he would brew a clean to version while I would sour it in some way.  It quickly became apparent that he also wanted to play around with some bugs, which I was in no way surprised by.  

After a couple of weeks of swapping ideas between each other over various conversations, calls, texts and emails we settled on plan of attack.  Each of us would do our own sour starter which we would combine and add to the mash when we got together.  I would take 6 gallons of wort and add 1.5 gallons of RO with a 60 minute boil targeting a 1.048 SG. Shawn would take the balance adding slightly more RO and do a 90 minute boil looking have 1.037/8 SG.

If you are going to brew a sour saison...

To prep for brewday I made a gallon starter with pilsner DME which I split between two vessels.  The first vessel was a quart mason jar with a half a cup of raw unmilled grain. This became my sour starter as lactobacillus is naturally present on the hulls of grain.  I tried my best to keep it at 120°F using an old Polystat Constant Temperature Circular I had rescued from the trash at work.  Unfortunately the reason it was tossed was that it couldn't cool, which at the time I wasn't concerned about, however as I learned this meant that it would continue to drift up over time.  I was able to remedy this by setting an upper limit which shut it off if it was above, this was accompanied however with a nice alarm. The remaining gallon became the start for an old pitch of ECY04 Brett Blend #1

ECY04 Brett Blend #1 - Three individual Brettanomyces isolates from lambic producers combined to give an aggressive brett presence in any beer. Vigorous, funky, and acid-tolerant, the blend can be added at any stage of fermentation and is excellent for priming or re-yeasting. Contains B. anomala, B. clausenii and B. anomulus

A new saison that I approve of

For the hops I decided I wanted a BIG Citra presence so I planned to hop burst with a good amount of at 20 and 0 while keeping the IBUs contrained (more pale ale level than IPA).  For the bittering hop I decided to go with some Cascade given it's dual use potential.

Brewday itself was a blast.  I headed over very early to find the mash water almost at temp and Shawn waiting for me to mill.  After getting everything set to go we tasted and tested our sour starters.  Both had a pleasant sour bite and combined for a 3.63 pH so we tossed the liquid into the mash.  My brother Ryan (who recently moved to Cali from MN) soon arrived to hangout and help me brew.

In the end we both beat our target gravity with me coming in at 1.051.  It was great to brew with Shawn again as every time I do I learn so much.  The beer is currently fermenting in a poor-man fridge and smells absolutely incredible, I can't wait!

Santé 

-SNB

Sour Barrel Ale Project: Update 1

Transferring the beer to the barrel

Two weeks after the initial brewday for the Sour Barrel Ale Project, I headed back over to Shawn's house to help him transfer 65 plus gallons of beer into the used wine barrel.  50 gallons came from the beast of a fermenter we had built out of a water drum. The other 15 had been fermented in 3 5 gallon buckets to allow us to top off the 65 gallon wine barrel.  After brewday the project became known as the Sour Seven as it took seven of us to brew it up.

A few details on the barrel that I didn't originally cover.  Shawn got it (and its sister) from Hogshead Wine.  It's a pretty old barrel and has seen a lot of use with primarily red wines.  To clean and seal Shawn filled it up with sanitizer and kept it filled to keep it sealed. 

To fill the barrel we re-plumbed Shawn's pump attaching one end with a racking cane.  We started by filling the barrel with the 15 side gallons and about 3 odd gallons of a Brettanomyces (bruxellensis and claussenii) starter Shawn had been working on since brew day.  Once everything was emptied we popped the top of the beast and started transferring it.  In total it took us over 45 minutes to fill the barrel.  Not wanting to fill the barrel completely to the top we were left with around 7 gallons of yeast and trub of which we collected 2 gallons into 2 sanitized gallon jugs.  Collecting the slurry took some thinking but in the end we scoop it out with a sanitized cereal container.

The gravity for the 50 gallon batch ended up around 1.013 with the gravity of the 15 gallons and brett starter being high enough to bring the total up to 1.017 when we pulled a sample from the filled barrel.  In addition to the brett starter Shawn also put together a sour starter that he'll let sour for the next couple of months before using it to top off the barrel.

Cheers

-SNB

SNB can be CynicAle

Back in Dec

One of the other beers I might donate to SCHF depending on how my latest plan works out is SNB can be CynicAle.  Marshall helped me brew this beer way back in September.  It was based on a Northern Brewer Pro Series Kit for Cynic and was my first full all grain beer.  Instead of using the recommended yeast I subbed in my favorite farmhouse yeast American Farmhouse Blend (White Labs #WLP670) to guide it from saison to farmhouse.

Unfortunately the beer has been on a journey all its own.  When kegged it 4 months ago it had a pretty decent flavor but an odd slickness to it.  Shawn suggested that it might not be done yet and to set it aside for a while, which I did.  I would occasionally taste it and while the slickness seemed to fad the Brettanomyces really started to dominate.  While the exact strain of Brettanomyces used in WLP670 is not released in a beer Daniel did with it he says the flavors that have started to shine through are very reminiscent of Brettanomyces bruxellensis.

The pink foam

When I last checked it, it had turned very dark and almost muddy in clarity - a great departure from when I'd had it back in December while waxing Imperial Rhino Stout 2011. It was also very carbonated, despite not having been hooked up to a CO2 tank in months.  The flavor was completely different and while not bad, I think Daniel used the word interesting when he tasted it, it was missing something. One trick I've seen used here and there to add flavor dimensions to beer is to add fruit and give the yeast additional time to ferment.  I decided why not and asked my wife to pick up a bag of frozen fruit blend from the store.

Improvised blow-off

When I brewed the split batch porter I pulled out the frozen fruit and dropped it into some warm sanitizer. I then grabbed the keg of SNB can be CynicAle out of the cellar to cleaned and sanitize the top.  I also start the process of releasing the pressure from the keg.  Once it was ready opened the top to find a pretty sizable and fully head on the top.  I then dropped in the fruit... The fruit must have released some additional carbonation as about 3 seconds after I dropped it in the head turned pink and started rising out of the keg.  I quickly put the sanitized top back on and cleaned off the surface with some sanitizer.  Knowing that it would be fermenting for a while I fashioned a blow off tube out of a party tap attached to an air quick disconnect and a flask of sanitized water.   It was fun to watch it continue to degas while I continued on the porter.  I'll check in its progress in about a month or two to see it's worthy of representing SNB Brewing in public.

Cheers

-SNB

My Funky Brother Brett

During the mash

A few months back I stumbled upon an interesting article on brewing beers fermented 100% with Brettanomyces instead of Saccharomyces. The article featured a couple of names that I've started to become familiar with over the past few months since my first read through.  The biggest take away for me was actually the non-use of aeration. It was an intriguing article so I posted it up to my Brewluminati Facebook group. This generated a lot of good discussion and several of us decided to undertake the challenge.

I decided to brew up a Mo Betta Brett inspired recipe which I'd found on both White Labs and the Mad Fermentationist. I named the beer My Funky Brother Brett after both Brettanomyces and my actual brother Brett. For the strain I went with White Labs WLP645 (Brettanomyces claussenii). Brettanomyces claussenii was discovered at the Carlsberg brewery in 1904 and some of the descriptors that I've read for clean fermentations are fruity with pineapple like aroma. For those who note that Mike (The Mad Fermentationist) is using Brettanomyces anomalus and not Brettanomyces claussenii I'd like to point out that according to Chad Yakobson of The Brettanomyces Project and Crooked Stave in a NHC 2011 presentation B. claussenii has since been reclassified as B. anomalus. So they are scientifically the same strain.

The hardest part was actually finding time to brew it with everything else I had going. Looking at my scheduled Bonnie suggest that I brew it on a Friday night. I've been thinking of doing a late night brew session for a while so I agreed and invited some fellow brewers over to assist and hang out.

I brought out the fire-pit so people could stay warm

Ive been hovering in the low 60s lately in my efficiency and this was no exception.  For some reason I calculated the efficiency of the recipe at 65% but ended up 4 points under gravity at 1.056 or 60%. I know some people getting 75-80% from batch sparging but that isn't me. I'd love to get it up but for now I just need to start basing recipes off of what I'm really getting not what I wish I was getting.

One note on working with Brettanomyces, because the size of the cell is so small Brettanomyces can hide in the smallest seams or scratches, so if you start to venture this direction you'll want to keep it isolated. I bought a bucket that I intend to use only of brett-based beers and have an old secondary that I will give to the project. In addition I'm going to mark all hoses and siphons that comes in contact with the brett including keg tubing. I didn't do this with Halvtreds as it used a clean primary and will only be soured in bulk aging in a keg.

It's going to be in primary for a while as I've read the strain can take up to 11 days to really get underway.

Cheers

-SNB

The Bruery Batch 50 GFAR aka Grand Funk Ale Road

The Bruery Batch 50 GFAR aka Grand Funk Ale Road started 2 years ago as the winning homebrew recipe from the Bruery's batch 50 homebrew contest.  Not only did the winning homebrewer Al Buck fly out twice to help them brew it (It's a blend of 1 & 2 yr barrels), but as the founder of East Coast Yeast, he also supplied them with all the bugs.  For those interested he used his ECY04 BRETT blend #1.

ECY04 BRETT blend #1: Three individual Brettanomyces isolates from lambic producers combined to give an aggressive brett presence in any beer. Vigorous, funky and acid-tolerant, the blend can be added at any stage of fermentation and is excellent for priming or re-yeasting.

750 bottle poured into brewery tulip glass.

Appearance: Pours a beautiful golden yellow color. There is absoluly no head and a very low appearance of carbonation. It is very hazy and appears to be filled with small particles. Swirling the glass does nothing to rouse a head. 

Aroma: Smells of wet leather and cat piss.  It's somewhat horsey with lemons and acid. I get a lot of funk on this one. 

Mouthfeel: Very little carbonation detected. Definitely posses the sour slickness I've come to expect from the style. It's slightly prickly as I move it around my mouth.

Taste: Fantastic extraordinarily sour but not to the point of being overpowering.  Pairs really nicely with the aroma. Some citrus like quality to it probably the acid  very reminiscent of most gueuzes is that I've had 

Overall: A great beer make that a good beer as I feel the lack of carbonation is really holding this one back.   It needs that extra dimension as it's far too still.  I'll hold on to my remaining bottles and keep them warm hopefully that'll increase levels carbonation over time.  I also might try to harvest the yeast from the bottle dregs of this one.

SNB can be CynicAle

I'm going to try something new with my brewing posts and include more pictures and a somewhat different layout.

Brew sheet, hops and
wireless thermometer

After a long break from brewing which lasted over 2 months I got back into the swing of things pretty fast.  My first two brews after the break where both StarRaptor, the first one I dumped while the second was during a brewday and very hot.  Between the heat, learning the new system and multitasking as a host I really didn't enjoy either one.  I've always enjoyed brewing so I needed to do another round more relaxed and laid back.  I therefore decided to invite my buddy Marshall over to hang out and assist me in brewing my first all grain batch on my new system.

For this inaugural brew I decided to try Northern Brewer's Surly Cynic Pro Kit.  The story behind how the kits were created and the process they went through is pretty cool as I learned while talking to Todd Haug but that's a story for a different time.  I decided to select this kit for a few reasons.  I wanted to try another one of the Pro Series Kits after the great results I had with the Furious kit and I wanted to do a saison, which Surly Cynic is, using the American Farmhouse Blend WLP670.  After how well BeanyTink's Farmstead Ale came out I was really wanting to use it again so I grabbed I vial while it was still available from Addison Homebrew Provisions specifically to use with this recipe.  As I'm pretty new to the world of all grain brewing so I wanted the first batch to  recipe.

75 minute mash at 150

I have to say the information included in Northern Brewer's all grain kits are completely different from their extract kits which as pretty much a step by step recipe.  The all grain instructions on the other hand were little more than an ingredient list.  While it did tell me the target mash temperature of 148 that was about it.  How much water to use,  water to grain ratio for the mash, water temperature targets, even expected efficiency were left out.  After a lot of research I came up with a 1.3 qt/lb grain ratio and let BeerSmith 2 tell me the rest.  I found the ability to play with the grain and mash tun temperatures pretty useful.

The name is a play on the name of the beer and is similar to the name I gave the Furious version which was SNB is Furious.

The brewday itself was not with out it's issues but overall went pretty smooth and was much more relaxed, it did help that the temperature was a lot cooler than previous days. 

1.3 qt/lb water to grain ratio

Marshall arrived near the end of my 75 minute mash with a growler of 2010 Stone Double Bastard with Chipotle Peppers, just in time to help me vorlof the wort till it was clear.  Later I tossed some sausage on the grill for lunch and used the heat of the boil to warm the tortillas. 

I only had three minor issues; I was slightly above mash temperature, under target efficiency and forgot the flame out hops.  I decide to toss the hops in the primary anyway.  

It felt nice to be back in the swing of enjoying brewing again.

For primary fermentation I started the beer at 68 and slowly raised it up a little each day over the first two weeks to 78.

Currently the beer is still in primary, as I want plenty of time on the yeast, sitting around 1.006.  This weekend I'll transfer to secondary and collect and wash the yeast.

Cheers

-SNB

Updates:
Tossing some berries at SNB can be CynicAle 

Cantillon Classic Gueuze

12.7 fluid ounce bottle severed around 50 degrees poured into a Bruery Tulip.  I obtained the bottle part of the trade I did with Evan (aka optimator13).   

Appearance:  When poured into the bottle a very small head appears, when poured roughly it achieves about ¾ of an inch.  It appears to be almost still with a small a ring of bubbles around the edge of the glass, very low carbonation that leaves no lacing.  It has sort of a gold orange color to it.  It appears slick… Once it warms a little bit do it goes dead clear. 

Aroma:  Sour, funky funk, catty, very catty and somewhat tart like lemons.  Bonnie says it doesn't smell like something she would like as it smells like a sour.  I’m picking up lemons, citrus and oak.  All seem to be balanced in the deep reaches of my nose. Aroma starts the funk up a little bit as it warms.

Mouthfeel: Very slick with low carbonation.  What carbonation there is, dances around my palate leaving a slight tingle on my tongue. Low to medium bodied

 

Capped and Corked

Taste:  Nice and sour with no hops presence whatsoever.   It has a slightly metallic twang it it.  In my opinion it is just yummy at this point in my beer evolution.  The sourness completely washes over the palate.  It has an old hop feel to it leaving no bitterness. The sourness is a very clean.

Overall:  This is a really complex and a completely fantastic sour.  This is the first time I have has it and I can understand why this is regarded as high as it is.  I am very glad to have traded for a small bottle of it.  I received a 750 of it in the Sours BIF 4.0 from Lauren aka ThoreauLikeAGirl that I plan on one day sharing with friends.   Enough review its time to drink.

Russian River Supplication

The smell of farmhouse brett is thick in the air as soon as a pop the cork on this beauty.  Bonnie’s Notes:  oh god I hate farmhouse brett, not another sour you’re going to try to get me to taste.

375 milliliter bottle poured into my Surly Darkness Tulip.  This particular bottle was received as part of Sours BIF 4.0 from Lauren aka ThoreauLikeAGirl.  At the time the trade went down it was on my want list, thanks Lauren for sending this my way.  Bottle was warmed to 50+ before opening,

Appearance:  Dark amber color, I'd say almost a light mahogany color with some warm wood tones.  The very thin head seems to halo the surface of beer around the edges of the glass.  A tan head appears but disappears quickly upon pouring.  Swirling the glass does seem to reinvigorate the head however this too quickly fads.

Aroma:  Grapes?  Wet raisins? Definitely getting some semi-funky nose also there is something very sweet with some farmhouse aromas.  There is something very familiar that I just can't place, maybe a slight stone fruit, like a ripe date or plum. Bonnie’s Notes: There is something sweet like grape jelly.  Then I figures it out cherries, the smell I was picking up was cherries particularly tart cherries. The beer has a slight cherry pie smell to it. 

Mouthfeel:  Very slick around my tongue that also coats my mouth.  It is thin bodied with low to medium carbonation which tingles, tickles and pricks the tongue.   Very much to style as with most of the sour beers I’ve had.

Taste:  Very tart very sour, you can tell by the look on Bonnie’s face when I got her to try it.  There is a very slight amount of wood.  It seems to have a lot of sweetness but not in a cloying way.  It’s a very complex taste, I pick up slight amounts of the cherries, not overpowering, that I picked up in the aroma along with notes of the Pinot Noir barrels Vinnie used to age it.

Overall:  Supplication is one of my favorite Russian River Sours.  I had a glass of it when I visited the brew pub in July and from the bottle it was even more complex than I remembered. It’s very complex in all aspects but also very nicely balance in that no one bug seems to dominate.  I’m glad I have another bottle of this to age as it is just a spectacular beer definitely worth the price point.

Manfish Brewing Comes to Town Part 1 + Beachwood BBQ and Brewing Redux

Welcome to Part 1 of 3 of my Epic Manfish Brewing Comes to Town!  I've had a few other names in mind but settled on that. 

 

A couple weeks ago my buddy Ken from Manfish Brewing drove down from Washington on a business trip.  Ken and I met a while back when we were both pretty active on the Mr Beer Forum when we were starting out in brewing.  We had both received our kits as presents around the 2009 holiday season giving us a shared origin into brewing.

The "brewmasters" of Manfish and SNB Brewing
"hard" at work

That summer he took a road trip south hitting all the classic breweries on his way down.  He posted on the forum some of the big stops and I messaged him that when he was in the area we should get together for a beer.  Not knowing where to go I told him to meet me at The Shop (Addison Homebrew Provisions).   Once we met up we determined we would hit up Bootlegger’s as when I called they had Knuckle Sandwich on tap, this was back before the hype machine attacked KS. 

We had a great time, I’ve mentioned before how brewers seem to just fall into friendships easily and Ken was no exception.  Over the next year I’d send him some growlers (one of KS and one of IPL) and he’d send me the official Manfish pint glass.  When I went up to Washington for Easter we tried to get together but were unable to. Fortunately I knew he was coming down in August.

This time around I decided to schedule out a long Sunday with him and instead seize the opportunity and take him around to some of the best breweries Orange County had to offer. Of course we had to start at Beachwood BBQ and Brewing (update with more pictures) in Long Beach, hey it’s near the border…

Beachwood BBQ and Brewing

Man I love this place, they are really hitting their stride brewing wise. I was able to another complete flight of excellent beers with zero repeats from my previous visits. Ken joined me for the taster flight and this time around we tried...

From Left to Right; Reckless,
Thrill Seeker, The Equalizer and Bulldog

Reckless is a session-ish (sorry but I am pretty rigid on the definition of a session ie 4% or less) pale ale.  Beautiful piney and resiny nose from the Northwest hops Julian used on it.  Overall a really nice pale ale.

I followed that with Thrill Seeker which is clearly a "West Coast-style" IPA in the truest sense. Some of my favorite hops such as Chinook, Summit, Centennial, and Simcoe dance wonderfully together.   I don’t know where he managed to find the Simcoe but I’m glad he did. It has a great classic dry hopped IPA aroma of pine and citrus on it.   Ken and I really liked this on and I’m still on the fence with this vs Melrose.

Next up was The Equalizer, an “explosive” double (thank you for not calling it imperial) IPA. The cool thing about this beer is that the toss whole hops in the serving tank, which worked out ok.  To me I really didn’t love this beer like I have most of the others.  Double IPAs and I have a tough relationship; I either love them or find them tough to drink if they are not well balanced.

I ended my taster flight with the Bulldog a traditional Irish-style stout served on nitro. This one came out really nice, the nitro does wonders for the mouthfeel making it smooth and creamy.  The taste was nice and roasty and reminded me of several good Irish stouts I’ve had.

One of their guest boards

After that I hit the guest taps for a 10oz pour of a Session Ale w/brett from Gaverhopeke Koerseklakske or as I called it the session ale with brett from the brewery I can’t pronounce. This one was ok, it had some good earthy brett character but wasn’t blowing me away.  While Ken and Bonnie enjoyed some of the Melrose IPA.

As for food I ordered some of the tater tot casserole and the smoked buffalo wings for the table and the steak salad for lunch. Ken and Bonnie both had the barbecue chicken salad.  After lunch I grabbed a growler of the Melrose and Ken and I head back into the OC for our first stop Bootlegger’s…

Cheers,

-SNB

BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale – The Review

Seeing as how Wednesday’s update was about the brewing of BeanyTink's Farmstead Ale I figured it would be nice to follow it with a review of finished beer.  Once the site is in full swing and my old content is dried up I will no longer be able to do this so with this in mind I sat down over the weekend and cracked open one of my few remaining bottles. 

Once the beers warms any
haze present dissappears

12 ounce bottles poured into a Bruery tulip. The bottle was filled using the BeerGun approximately 1 month ago. Carbonation is still present and white. I’ll have to open up a bottle of Bourbon Barrel Aged Wookiee for comparison but based on the video review that Don did for it I would say the BeerGun method is good for holding carbonation.

Appearance:  The color is a beautiful golden orange, the head fades quickly.  Small bubbles approach the surface overall killer clarity with very slight amount of cloudiness if any.  It could be just minor chill haze as definitely fades away as it warms.  Swirling the glass causes a very small white had to develop which clings to the glass very well.

Aroma:  The nose on this is gorgeous, you detect the brett character as soon as the bottle is opened.   Really nice overall, it’s definitely funky, with slight amount of cattiness, spicy, lemon, maybe peppery with wet blanket notes on it. There is no hop aroma on this bad boy and swirling this beer creates an aroma that is a thing of beauty.  

After some swirling
Better shot of the clarity the beer
possesses

Mouthfeel:  Slightly tangy with nice tiny bubbles that bounce around at tongue with a little bit of fizzle.

Taste: mmm mmm mmm damn this is what I'm talking about.  This is everything that I want in the farmhouse style ale.  A good amount of funk from the brett character. It’s not too tarts definitively crisp and clean with very little bitterness to it.  The hops are definitely not the star of the show it's the brett.  There is an interesting hard to describe taste the very back of the palate.

Overall:  This might be one of the best beers I’ve ever brewed.  I am really impressed with this yeast (the true start here) and I am very glad I bought another vial it while it was still in season.  I’ve already nailed down what I’m going to use it in.  I'm very impressed by the way this came out, it's very nice surprise.  As a person who is very new to using/enjoying brettanomyces in beers I'm amazed at how well the yeast performs.  This is definitely going to be a candidate for my washing yeast experiments. I'm glad I made it I'm glad people liked this because I love it.  Drinking the last bottle of this is definitely going to be that bittersweet.  Definitely the last couple of months is have treated it well and the BeerGun and hold carbonation well.

BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale

The ingredients

Of all of the things homebrewing has brought me the thing I am most thankful for is all the new friends.  One of the things I’ve been most amazed at is how easily it’s been to get to know other brewers; I think there is something about brewing beer that seems to bring people together. 

Out of this group of people there are a few that I feel very lucky to have met and have the ability to interact with.  One of these extraordinary individuals and BrewBrothers is Daniel Fernandez also known as the feared Beancurdturtle or as I like to refer to him the original beer advocate.  This comes from the fact that Daniel was posting his thoughts and reviews of beer online before the web.

In the pot for 60 minutes at 152

He’s always been very supportive and with his wedding to his fiancé HsiHou coming up I knew I needed to give back to him, so I decided I would launch a top secret beer project for wedding reception.  

Everything fell into place while on a business trip to Mexico. During the flight I caught up on several issues of Brew Your Own, it was in one of those issues I found a recipe for an American Farmhouse Ale fermented with White Labs upcoming platinum series yeast WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend. Seeing as Daniel (along with Shawn) was one of the biggest reasons I’ve developed a taste for sour funky beers I determined this, with some modifications, would be a perfect beer.

From White Lab’s Website –

WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend

Inspired by local American brewers crafting semi-traditional Belgian-style ales. This blend creates a complex flavor profile with a moderate level of sourness. It consists of a traditional farmhouse yeast strain and Brettanomyces. Great yeast for farmhouse ales, Saisons, and other Belgian-inspired beers.

Attenuation: 75-82%

Flocculation: Medium

Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 68-72°F

(20-22°C)

Alcohol Tolerance: 5-10%

Boiling

What is Brettanomyces? Brettanomyces is a type of yeast that is known to impart a funky barnyard aroma and smell. Horse blanket and catty are also common.  A great commercial example that should be easy to find is Orval. I liken brett beers to blue cheese in that they are more of an acquired taste.

Brewing the beer was interesting in that it was somewhat of a modified mash in that the grains were held for 60 minutes at 152F.  Whether or not it was a true partial mash I did end up nailing the gravity.  In total it was in primary for three weeks to give it plenty of time on the yeast before moving it to secondary for an additional three weeks.

In the Fermentation Cube
12 Hours After Pitching

Once kegged and carbed I took it and my picnic basket jockey box to the reception. The beer itself went over well and Daniel seemed to really enjoy it. Saying “Very, very well done.  I didn't get enough only because I was drinking so many other beers. Fantastic Farmhouse Ale with a touch of Belgian funk and nice bittering. Reminded me of Orval, but cleaner and brighter. Thanks a million Scott.”

One last thing I wanted to do was BeerGun and label a few bottle for him to hold on to.  The great thing about the brett is that is should continue to change and enhance the beer over the communing months.

Cheers

-SNB

Completed Primary

BeanyTink's Farmstead Ale
American Farmhouse Ale
Type: Partial Mash
Date: 5/7/2011 (National Homebrewer's Day)
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Brewer: Scott Bennett
Boil Size: 4.08 gal
Asst Brewer: babyRaptor & Brewdog / Haemon for Cool down
Boil Time: 60 min

Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.15 %
Bitterness: 14.6 IBU
Est Color: 5.2 SRM

Ingredients

Malt
3.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract

Transferring to Secondary
and Sampling

0.15 lb Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract

Grains 152 for 60 Minutes
2.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)

Hops
0.60 oz Mt. Hood [4.40 %] (60 min) Hops 8.0 IBU
1.00 oz Mt. Hood [4.40 %] (15 min) Hops 6.6 IBU

Other
1.00 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc

Yeast
1 Pkgs American Farmhouse Blend (White Labs #WLP670) Yeast-Ale

The Label

Let's talk really quick about some of the design elements of the label and the thoughts that went into it.   The label itself is the third in my story label series and the first non-collaborative version of it. As they met on a gold fish forum I wanted it to have a water/pond theme.  The background was part of a larger fish pond computer background found online and trimmed to fit a 5in x 3.5in label.  I decided to include both Daniel’s turtle avatar and the logo from the forum they met on somewhat hide behind them. The nice thing about have it be not a collaborative label was that it gave me additional room for the brew stats.  All of my label Easter eggs are also present.  

 From the label –

BeanyTink’s Farmstead Ale all started with goldfish… a goldfish forum actually when Daniel (Beancurdturtle) and HsiHou (Tinkokeshi) were setup by their friends and paired to be Secret Santa exchangees.

After a period of dating they got engaged and were married on June 3, 2011.  Around this time they also bought a house together.

This beer was created to in part celebrate both of these events.

Balanced and funky with a moderate level of sourness.  This farmstead ale is inspired by the great farmhouse ales found in Europe and brought across the pond.

Cheers

-SNB

The Final Product

La Choulette Framboise

I decided on the night of Bonnie and My anniversary that I needed to get a review on the site sooner than later.  So I went out to the beervault and pulled out one of my newer procurements, La Choulette Framboise, that I picked up at The Bruery Provisions the day before.   While drinking it I used the voice to text feature on my phone to send myself an email with my notes and impressions.

12 ounce bottle poured into a Bruery tulip, served at around 44-50. Label lists it as a French farmhouse ale brewed with raspberry juice.

Appearance: Purple-red with a slight garnet tint in head. Reflective light off the glass is a very deep red color. The frothy head clings well to side of glass with some lace lacing which barely sticks to the side of the glass

Aroma: Slight funky with tart raspberry. Bonnie detects an almost metallic smell, it’s very subtle and only something her super sniffer would pick up.  I can barely detect it, it similar to the difference between stainless steel aged chardonnay and chardonnay aged in oak barrels.  Somewhat of a “clean” smell in the back in my nose, by clean I mean the way a room smells after a thorough cleaning.  Not as much funk as I would've hoped for in a “farmhouse” ale but the aroma is very enjoyable and improve slightly as warms.   Swirling definitely helped bring out the raspberry character.

Mouthfeel: very small bubbles, some twang, bubbles pickle my upper lip. It has a very raspberry juice and champagne feel 

Taste: It’s definitely a raspberry beer, this is by far the most predominate flavor in the beer however it is not overpowering like some fruit beers.  The raspberry is very much in balance in this beer not overly raspberry.  It does have very little funk and is not as complex as I would've hoped

Overall: A decent beer but nothing extraordinary. Still it’s very clean very well brewed.  I went in wanting a nice funky soured beer and that probably clouded my review.  While I’ve stated a lot that I would have preferred more funk I am a lot happier with this beer than if it were listed as a farmhouse saison.  A little too fruity of a beer for what I would like in a farmhouse but to me farmhouse means a beer with a great funky bretty character smell and taste.

Cheers,

SNB