New Years Dubbel (#36)

Belgian Dubbel

Pretty standard Belgian Dubbel here.  I always try to do something crazy with Dubbels, make my own candi sugar, separate sugar/yeast additions, multiple yeast strains...  All those things are great and with time and patience I imagine you can learn to make a great beer with those techniques.  In my case however my beers have been confused.  Too much going on and not enough of it was done consistently well.  I'm going back to the basics on this one and sticking to a fairly straightforward Dubbel recipe.  I'm even using brown sugar instead of the pricey candi sugar.  I know its not exactly what the Belgians use, but if it was what they had on hand we'd all be begging the homebrew store to carry that instead of the fancy candi sugar.  Anywho, on to the recipe.

Grain Bill

• 10.00 lbs Pilsner
• 1.0 lbs Caramunich
• 1.0 lbs Special B
• 0.5 lbs Brown Sugar
• .25 lbs Chocolate Malt
• 1.0 lbs Wheat Malt

Mash

• Single infusion mash for one hour @ 148, fly sparge.

Boil

• 60 mins - 1 oz Czech Saaz
• 20 mins - 1 oz Czech Saaz

Fermentation

• Wyeast 1762 - Belgian Abbey II
• Pitch @ 70
• 1 month in the primary
• 1 month in secondary

Additional Stuff

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Updates

• 12/29/12 - Primary
• 1/31/13 - Secondary
• 3/30/13 - Keg
• This came out pretty tasty although I think its a tad underattenuated.  I'm not sure where that came from but its been a recurring theme with my dubbels.  I may make a starter yeast next time or ferment at a slightly higher temp, but I think the grain bill was solid.  I may up my boil next time also and shoot for 75 minutes instead of 60.

The Saison is too Damn High (#37)

Belgian Golden Strong Ale/Strong Saison

Time for a Belgian Golden Strong Ale.  I love saisons, it's my absolute favorite style, but in the case of this beer I was ready to venture out into something a tad different.  I wanted to make a strong saison.  Being the purist that I am I opted to take a Trappist Rochefort approach and use a recipe very similar to my standard saison but more of it.  If my standard 4.0% abv saison is the 3 Storms #6.  This is the #10.  

Grain Bill

• 12 lbs Pilsner Malt
• 1 lbs Rye
• 1 lbs Wheat
• 1 lbs Cane Sugar

Mash

• Single infusion mash for one hour @ 148, fly sparge.

Boil

• 30 mins - 2 oz Styrian Golding(Pellet)
• 5 mins   - .5 oz Cascade(whole)

Fermentation

• White Labs WLP566 - Saison 2(2 Vials)
• Pitch @ 70
• 1 month in the primary
• 1 month in secondary

Additional Stuff

• So this was supposed to be a full hour boil, but as I just learned, one tank of propane lasts me about 3.5 batches on my bayou classic SP-10.  Fortunately I ran out of juice after completing a 30 minute boil.  This certainly won't help hop utilization but the beer should otherwise be fine.  

Updates

• 3/20/13 - Primary - 1.075 OG/18.2% Brix

Olde #34

Oaked Bourbon Stout

On to my 34th batch.  I make a lot of beers on the lighter side, pale ales, saisons, any number of belgian farmhouse ales, but come winter I like to get one or two dark beers under my belt.  Something that is damn near a meal on its own.  It needs to have the color of used 10w-30.  A light tan head.  The aroma is toasty with a bit of nuttiness and chocolate.  It also needs to go well with a nice warm fire, a beautiful Christmas tree and quiet night in.  Maybe a cigar if you're into that sort of thing. 

Anywho, on to the recipe.  This is still in the primary fermenter.  I'll post more notes on flavor after this is kegged and I actually get to taste it.  Hopefully all that stuff I said before ends up being true.

Grain Bill

• 8.00 lbs Marris Otter
• 2.5 lbs Munich I
• 1.5 lbs Flaked oats
• 1.0 lbs Carahell
• .5 lbs Roasted Barley
• .5 lbs Chocolate

Mash

• Single infusion mash for one hour @ 148, fly sparge.
• I was shooting for 150 and ended up just a tad on the low side.  I'm assuming that the temp in the center of my mash tun was a tad warmer and that this will hopefully balance out.  I think it will turn out fine in any case, just was off target.

Boil

• 60 mins - 1 oz English Fuggles 5.8% alpha
• 20 mins - 1 oz English Fuggles 5.8% alpha
• 15 mins - 1 whirlfloc tablet
• 5 mins   - 1 oz Hallertau 3.8% alpha

Fermentation

• Wyeast 1469 - West Yorkshire
• Pitch @ 70
• 1 month in the primary
• 1 month in secondary

Additional Stuff

• Soak 6 ounces of heavy toast American oak chips in Redemption Bourbon.  I put it in a mason jar until all the oak was covered and gave it a good shake every two days or so.
• When transfering to the secondary, add oak chips and bourbon. 

Updates

• 11/2/12 Primary
• 12/10/12 Keg
• 12/24/12 - Update
• This one turned out great.  The first time I tasted it pre kegging, I was a little leery.  It was a little hoppier than I wanted and I couldn't taste much oak.  So nothing of course was wrong at this point and I went ahead and kegged, carbed and gave it a good shake.  After about a week I gave it its first taste as a finished product.  It was phenomenal.  The hop flavor had mellowed a bit and was well balanced with the oak and maltiness of this yeast.  The oak flavor was also noticable but mild.  There is not a strong woody flavor here, there's a slight smokey vanilla taste that with the chocolate malt and roasted barley meld together just right.  It's not a huge stout mind you, it's in the 5-7% alcohol range, but has a nice chocolate/vanilla/toasty flavor.  This came out well balanced and tasty.  It's great on a cold night by a fire, but its not so strong that the only next thing you can do is take a nap.  If you're considering making an oak beer I'd recommend this one. 

Chimay for everyone!

No not really. But there is a video tour of the brewery on the youtube. It's been around for a while but it is interesting. It's always good to see how people who put so much attention to quality and detail do what it is they do best.

BrewDog

Has my vote. Absolutely. I was dabbling with the idea of getting and oak barrel to age and condition some good homebrew when I realized I had never had an oak aged beer. Sooooo.... Seeing as I didn't know whether or not that flavor would be something I'm into I had to try it. Off to the bottle shop I went and after a bit of perusing I decided to go with the BrewDog Paradox, aged in Glen Grant barrels. This entire series of beer is aged in oak barrels from the US that have already been used to age some fine whisky. It turns out that oak aged whisky beer is fantastic. My initial impression is man is this dark, and at %10 alcohol its pretty darn thick too. Head is lite and a dark brown color. The beer hits your mouth like any other fine dark stout. Very smooth and malty with a hint of chocolate and coffee. As it makes its way down you get a nice smokey aftertaste. The only way I can describe it is Scotch-Whisky without the burn. I give it 5 out of 5 beers. Try it out you won't be dissapointed.

First Post

First post to the ole blog. Lets see how it turns out. I h0pe to keep updates about what beers I've got going on here. Info about how they turn out and get some folks on board and maybe share this a bit more.