brewing in maine

We tried some cider before it fully carbonated and man is it alcoholic, to the point that it overwhelms the other flavors and completely takes over the cider. I’m thinking the quantity of Maker’s Mark might have been too much, or maybe the yeast didn’t finish their job properly and convert some of the more solventy alcohols down to their final forms.

I’m hoping that given some time the flavors will mellow and with cold and carbonation things will even out a bit.

As for the Framboise I dumped half of it (a full case!) before I said, “maybe I should just try one of these, just to be sure.” It was spectacular! Any hint of the cardboard oxidized flavor of the one previously tasted bottle was gone completely – these were great beers. A lucky break – I saved the rest for storage.

The Tripel is still in the fridge cold conditioning. I’ve been waffling between bottling it in Belgian bottles and just kegging the damn thing so I can drink it. I don’t have quite enough bottles, nor corks or corker, so I haven’t done anything yet.

Also there’s a Porter in the future, someday.

Happy new year.

The Tripel has been racked to its secondary where it will live for a week and then head into the fridge for a week of cold conditioning. I was shocked to find it had fermented all the way down to 1.008! That’s the best attenuation I’ve had yet, assuming I hit my OG which I’m not sure about, practically 90%.

It smells great and tastes good too, all kinds of clove, fruit and not much of an alcohol-heavy flavor at all. Looks like I survived my fermentation temp rise so far.

This one should come in around 9.5% ABV once all is said and done.

The smells coming from the Tripel as it ferments have been pleasantly fruit-like but subtle. Once the cane sugar went in, however, the room nearly filled with a banana ester flavor. It must be something to do with the way the yeast process the cane sugar. Since we’re doing a renovation on the house my brewing books are boxed away in storage so I can’t do much for research.

I’m concerned that the esters will be too powerful, or linger too much, but maybe a lot of it will be reabsorbed as the yeast go dormant. Either way it’s to style from what I’ve read.

So I took a reading on the Tripel tonight, three days into fermentation, just as the yeast was slowing down (a bubble every 10 secs or so). The beer was starting to clear up a bit on the top couple of inches, with a settling yeast cloud below.

I roused the yeast first, then added the cooled syrup I made with 2.5 lbs of boiled table sugar.

Before the sugar was added, the gravity read 1012. That’s incredible for three days even with the large starter, and I think tells me my mash went as poorly as I thought. Although it’s consistent with the lower mash temps yielding a more fermentable wort. Since I forgot to take my original gravity measurement, I can only guess based on the recipe what my starting point was, but according to ProMash it’s 1061.  That’s 80% attenuation – more than Wyeast even specifies for the strain. So I’m naturally suspicious my OG was really in the 1052-1055 range.

Either way this beer seems to be very busy even a scant 15 minutes after the sugar addition – should be cranking tonight.

The Tripel is down from a high of 78 deg last to about 72 thanks to the window left open and a box fan blowing air across the carboy all night. Not sure I can cool it much further – it’s still very active.

Here’s a video of the Tripel fermentation, 24 hours in. We’re up to 76 degrees on the carboy thermometer-strip. Yikes – no good!

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I woke up this morning to the Tripel fermentation lock bubbling every second – no churning yet but things are definitely getting started. My starter seemed a little slow but this guy’s getting going. My only worry is temperature…I had it cooled to 64 degrees in the kettle according to the thermometer I trust, but the carboy temp strips said more like 67-68. They are reading 70 now so hopefully this means the fermentation is really in the 66-67 range and we’re on track. It’s going to heat up fast.

The gamble is whether I can find my blowoff hose before things really get roaring.

I shared a Chimay White with some friends today during our Tripel brew session, which went somewhat awry in a few respects but might have resulted in quality wort now beginning fermentation in my living room. And now, the day finally come to its close, I am enjoying an Allagash Tripel. In my opinion, the superior of the two – though mine still holds some vague future promise.

With a head that hangs in spots on the side of the glass, a face full of fruity esters from the yeast with a smooth mouthfeel and full body, this is a spectacular beer.

My own Tripel, however, is at risk. Missed the mash temp – hit 146 instead of 149. Had way too much water in the mash – practically nine gallons in the mash tun grain included, so I only sparged for a short while. Forgot the Irish Moss, leaving all the loose proteins uncoagulated and swirling around. Boiled off too much, only got 4 gal in the fermenter and had to top off. Whirlpooled and siphoned my wort instead of pouring through a strainer and a funnel, thereby gathering nearly all the crap into the fermenter. Went outside to pull the honey supers off the bees while the wort was oxygenating and came back to foam pouring all over the counter. Then, forgot to take an OG reading before pitching the yeast so now I don’t know my OG, nor can I evaluate the efficiency of the mash. Oh well.

Let’s just say this beer had better be good, but if it isn’t I’ll know what to do. At least I made a huge starter of Chimay yeast (Wyeast 1214).

Here’s some video of the Helles fermentation. The huge starter made a big difference – it was starting to bubble this morning, and fully churning by tonight. It’s unfortunately still at 62 degrees but the basement was around 55. I’ve opened the basement window to bring it down to 48-50ish, hopefully the beer will drop gradually over the next day or two with the towel around it.

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