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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.