The State of the Brew-ion

Just thought I'd get up a quick update on all the beering, seeing as how my last mention of hombrew was over a month ago after I had made the Rochefortesque beer.

So, Rochefortesque has been in the bottle for about 3 weeks now. I am not in a hurry to open one for a few reasons: 1- it is a pretty strong beer at around 9% booze by volume and will probably need another month or so to really come into its own; and, 2 - it was somewhat under-attenuated finishing at 1.019 - which would be nice for a barley wine or even a huge double IPA, but for a delicate Belgian beer I would have liked to have seen 1.015 -at most. Also, while I didn't taste it during bottling (I was WAY too hungover to even sip any of it) it still smelled strongly of the syrup I used, which in my experience takes 3-6 months before it starts to fade into the background, even then almost grudgingly so. I plan to throw one in the fridge tonight so we can try it this weekend.

And yes, I did brew that Belgiany-IPAish sort of beer to which I made a passing mention. Really the only reason for this brew was that we were running low in the house and I needed to make something immediately, but it was still just too warm (early August) to ferment with American yeast. But I took an American approach to this, aiming for a sessionably hoppy beer. The Achouffe yeast was selected based on its kick-assitude and also how it drops wicked bright right away. Domestic malts took me to about 1.048 and then generous whole flower Summit, Liberty, and Crystal hops got involved at all points. Looking at about 40 IBUs for that one...it has been in the bottle for 2 weeks and should be ready now. And because I'm a dork, I named it "Houblon Belgique." I'll throw a few in the fridge tonight as well, hopefully this weekend will see 2 new drinkables for us. That is, once I finish my first major exam for brew school (no drinks until I get this thing done - it's a BEAR).

Once we finally saw some cooler temperatures in Boston towards the end of August, I got in another session ale, this one featuring all whole Crsytal flowers and my standard American yeast. It's about to be racked and dry-hopped tonight. I plan to harvest and "wash" some of the yeast from the fermenter bottom for use in the next batch:

Black Forest Ale

I've long wanted to make a black beer with that de-husked caraffa stuff, which is supposed to give you nice color and chocolate-like aromas WITHOUT the harshness or astringency usually associated with the dark roasted malts. We shall soon see for ourselves! I've ordered some on the internets!! It ARRIVED VIA UPS!! Why all the excalmation points?!?!? I DON'T KNOW!

I'm planning on a Maris Otter base, up to about 1.060, with some Munich and perhaps a touch of regular old chocolate malt (depending on how things look in the mash tun), and hopping will be super-minimal as I plan to subject this base beer to a mad scientist-type flavoing regime: In secondary will go several* ounces of cocao nibs, and a touch* of vanilla bean for balance, and then several* pounds of sour cherries. Have you ever had Black Forest cake? Well, there you go. The key to the whole thing either sucking or kicking ass will be the requisite sweetness of the base beer, as I adamantly refuse to use lactose sugar to sweeten this brew (I'm talking to YOU, Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout) I'll keep everyone posted - this should get boiled at the end of the week current.

Also somewhere on the horizon is another batch of Mead; this time probably a Cyser to celebrate probably some sort pagan harvest kind of thing that may not even really exist but does in my head each year at this time. Basically I dance around my apartment wearing a burlap bag, making batch after batch of chili, drinking brandy in ecstatic enjoyment of cooler weather and fresh autumn produce. For two months. I might dump in some peaches into secondary on that bitch as well, just because I like to party.

PS: If you talk to RyToy, ask him how The Boss is doing. Just ask him.

-Wrence

*These are of course, incredibly accurate measurements - NEVER question the brewer