brewing in maine

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.

Last year we did two ciders, one straight up with wine yeast, another with British ale yeast. The Brit ale came out better, slightly less dry and with more complex flavor. The wine yeast cider was good, but very dry.

This year it’s going up a notch. The initial plan (likely to change) is as follows, for a 7 gallon batch:

7 gallons apple cider (~60 lbs.)
1 lb. molasses
1 lb. local honey (from our bees, thanks ladies!)
4lb. table sugar
1 cup pureed raisins

Wyeast 4766 Cider
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale

Ferment the cider first with the 4766. Then add sugars, raisins and Belgian yeast. After fermentation is wrapped up add 4oz medium toast bourbon-soaked French oak cubes along with the bourbon. Might try to use finings as well to clear it up.

The goal is a complex, strong cider that doesn’t ferment all the way down to dry, ready in time for the holidays. Might do it this weekend…maybe next.

So I’m going to try something new here on the blog. In addition to writing about homebrewing I am also going to review some beers, bars, etc. while I’m at it.

First beer on deck, Achel 8 Brune – the Dubbel.

Tasted in an Achel goblet. Chilled the bottle from room temp for maybe 15 minutes in the fridge so it might have been a touch warm, but it seemed about right.

Appearance – Deep reddish-brown in color with big head, both in quantity and size of bubbles. Didn’t lace much at all. Slightly cloudy appearance but mostly clear – probably some yeast knocked loose from the bottom of the bottle. The head subsided quickly.

Aroma – I was surprised to find not much of one. No hop presence I could detect, caramel and nut and a wonderful slightly funky/musty farmhouse kind of yeast smell.

Taste – Warm but without any solventy or alcoholic flavor. Caramel aftertaste married to more bitterness than expected. No hop flavor. Some tarty sour/farmhouse but proportionally not much compared to the aroma.

Mouthfeel – Silk. Absolute silky smoothness assisted by the fizz of high carbonation.

Drinkability/Experience – A strong but smooth beer that represents the style well. Smoother than some other Dubbels out there, Chimay included – possibly due to Achel’s use of Westmalle yeast and a step mash that results in good balance of dextrins.

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.

I did rock, paper, scissors with myself and the Tripel won out. It’s off to Maine Brewing Supply (where’s your web site content dude?) later today to pick up ingredients. I’ll be kegging the Oktoberfest tonight so it’s ready to drink by Monday’s brew session.

Recipe for Monday is Jamil’s Tripel, potentially with some changes from the BYO Allagash Tripel clone recipe:

14 lb Pilsener
2.5 lb Cane Sugar (in boil at 15 minutes remaining)
0.25 lb Aromatic malt

Mash at 149 for higher fermentability, 90 minute boil.

2.3oz (65g) Tettnanger @ 60 min. – 4% AA
0.5oz (14g) Saaz @ 15 min. – 3.5% AA

WLP530 Abbey Ale x 2 in a 1L starter for ~275 billion cells

Ferment at 68 and let rise into the 70s as things get rolling…not that I have much control over this.

Brew video to follow.

So I’m thinking about brewing labor day weekend, potentially a Tripel or some kind of strong beer for the holidays. Time to crack open Brew Like A Monk and review some of the classics. I’ll need to get a 2L Erlenmeyer for this baby if I’m going to get the proper pitching rate.

On a side note the Oktoberfest is still in secondary to be kegged any day now, the Helles is not yet gone but going fast. What a great summer beer – I’ll make that again verbatim next year.