2011 Kriek Tasting Notes

The first Lambic I ever brewed was back in 2011.  After about 18 months in the fermenter, I transferred a gallon of it onto 1.4 lbs. of frozen and thawed sweet cherries.  It sat on the cherries for about 2 ½ years.

Over the weekend, I finally got around to doing something with some of the sours I have sitting in bulk in my cellar.  The gallon yielded 9 – 12 oz. bottles of Kriek.  It was a real treat.  The following are the tasting notes from the hydrometer sample that I pulled (which happened to be 1.003 after the original Lambic finished at 1.001.

 

Aroma: The aroma is all about the sour – a lactic aroma with hints of cherry

 

Appearance: Crystal clear with a light pink tint.  Hydrometer sample was still

 

Flavor: A punch of lactic sour hits you right in the face, with a bit of horse blanket in the background.  As it warms the cherry flavor comes forward in full force

 

Mouthfeel: a rather thin mouthfeel and completely absent of carbonation

 

Overall impression: Like a sour cherry pie, I think I’m really going to enjoy this once it carbonates.

Hoptologist Light Session IPA

The third and final beer brewed during the triple-brew weekend was a session IPA.  A couple of years ago, I brewed an IPA patterned after my favorite IPA, Bell’s Hopslam.  It was never meant to be a clone but ended up being a fairly good substitute.  It was probably the best beer I had ever brewed.  The problem was that if I drank more than two, I stood a very good chance of falling over.  She weighed in at 7.5% ABV but drank like a 5% beer.

I set out trying to craft a beer with all of the elements of “B-24 Hoptologist” in a smaller package.  I basically cut the grain bill in half and cut the hops by about 40% and thus came up with B-38 “Hoptologist light”.  This one is heavy on the hop flavor and easy on the booze.

 

Brew Date: 8/8/2014

Beer Number: B38

Beer Name: “Hoptologist Light”

Type: American Pale Ale

Primary Fermenter: 6 ½ gal. glass carboy (76 days)

Secondary Fermenter: N/A

Volume: 5.5 gal.

OG: 1.043

FG: 1.008

Expected IBU: 46

Expected SRM: 7

Alcohol %: 4.59%

Calories: 140/12 oz.

Ingredients:

7 lbs. Briess 2 row pale

1 lbs. white wheat malt

5.6 oz. Crystal 40L

5.6 oz. Crystal 60L

4.0 oz. Carapils

14g Centennial pellet hops (6% AA) @ 60 min

7g Simcoe pellet hops (14% AA) FWH

7g Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) FWH

7g Simcoe pellet hops (14% AA)  @ 15 min.

7g Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) @ 15 min.

14g Simcoe pellet hops (14% AA)  @ 15 min.

14g Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) @ 15 min.

1 oz. Simcoe leaf hops (14% AA) keg hop

1 oz. Amarillo pellet hops (8% AA) keg hop

US05 Yeast

5.7 oz. clover honey

 Step by Step Process:

Wort

1. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher (double-crushed the wheat)
2. Heated 11.19 qts. strike water to @175F and poured into mash tun
3. Allowed tun to settle to 155F
4. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @152F
5. mashed @ 60
6. Poured 0.9 gal. 170F water to tun
7. Recirculated @ 2 qts.
8. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
9. While draining, fired burner and set heat on med.
10. When empty, filled with 2.6 gal. of 170F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
11. When empty, filled with 2.6 gal. of 170F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
12. Collected a total of @ 8.0 gal. wort
13. Brought to a boil and added 14 g. Centennial pellet hops as soon as hot break formed
14. Boiled for 60 minutes, following the hopping schedule above
15. Using wort chiller, cooled to 80F in @ 30 min.
16. Covered and allowed to cool overnight
17. The next morning, OG reading was 1.038 (target of 1.046)
18. Boiled 2 cups water and then dissolved 5.7 oz. in the pre-boiled water and transferred to kettle
19. Transferred to sanitized fermenter and placed in fermentation chamber with frozen bottles
20. Sprinkled packet of US05 yeast onto wort surface at 63F
21. Activity visible within 24 hours
22. Changed water bottles every 1 – 2 days

Kegging (10/24/14)

1. Transferred into sanitized keg
2. Set regulator to 16 psi at 34F for quick carbonation
3. Final target is 2.5 volumes CO2 (10 psi at 34F)

Keg Hopping (10/24/14)

1. Sanitized new large mesh bag in star san and then squeezed out all liquid possible
2. Sanitized a handful of marbles
3. Placed marbles in bag and then placed 1 oz. Amarillo leaf and 1 oz. Simcoe leaf
4. Tied mesh bag and placed in bottom of keg before transferring from fermenter
5. Keg would not pour
6. On 1/10/14, transferred to another sanitized keg and discovered that the mesh bag had sunk to the bottom and was sucked into the dip tube preventing the keg from pouring.
7. Purged head-space with CO2

Lucky Lizard Saison

The second beer I brewed during my bachelor weekend was a saison.  I love saisons, but I have struggled to brew one that I have loved.  This is the third time I have attempted a saison.  The first one was straight-up Jamil’s recipe from his book Brewing Classic Styles. It had a very simple grain bill – Pilsner with a little light Munich and wheat.  It was a decent beer but nothing special.  For my second attempt, I went the polar opposite with a bunch of different malts trying to get some complexity.  I replaced some of the pilsner with Maris Otter, and I added some acid malt and even a little chocolate malt and hit it with some brown sugar and pepper.  This was certainly a step up from my first attempt and I liked the twang from the acid malt, but it still wasn’t there.

At this point I started focusing on my yeast.  I had used White Lab’s saison strain the first two times but I wanted to do something different.  I was able to get my hands on East Coast Yeast’s Single Saison strain (ECY14) and thought this might do the trick.  I tweaked the grain bill once again, substituting US 2 Row for the Pilsner and Vienna for the Maris Otter, but pretty much kept the specialty grains the same.  The ECY did a number on it attenuating it down to 1.003 in 2 weeks.  I have high hopes for it if I can just get it bottled.

 

Brew Date: 8/8/14

Beer Number: B37

Beer Name: “Lucky Lizard Saison”

Type: Saison

Primary Fermenter: 7 gal. plastic bucket (xx days)

Secondary Fermenter: NA

Volume: 5 gal (target 3 gal.)

OG: 1.044

FG: 1.003 (as of 9/5/14)

Expected IBU: 25

Expected SRM: 4

Calculated Alcohol %: 5.38%

Calories: 141/12 oz.

 

Ingredients:

2.65 lbs. Breiss US 2 Row Malt
1.25 lbs. Wyerman Vienna Malt
0.375 lbs. Wyerman light Munich Malt (8.25L)
0.4 lbs. wheat malt
0.2 lbs. acid malt
.03 lbs. chocolate malt
8 oz. rice hulls
1 lb. white sugar
14 g Mt. Hood pellet hops (6.0% AA) @ 60 min
14 g Mt. Hood pellet hops (6.0% AA) @ 5 min
ECY14 Saison Single Stream

Step by Step Process:

ECY14 Yeast Starter (8/8/14)

1. Boiled @ 200g Pilsen DME in @2.0L water for 15 minutes
2. Transferred @ .75L to ½ gallon growler
3. Cooled and pitched bottle of ECY14 Saison single strain
4. Covered with foil and swirled periodically
5. Minimal kreusen appeared

Wort

6. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher (double-crushed the wheat)
7. Heated 6.29 qt. strike water to @170F and poured into mash tun
8. Allowed temp. to settle to 153F
9. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @149F
10. @45 min. added 0.9 gal. 170F water – bringing temp. to 158F
11. Heated 6.25 qt. water to boiling and poured into mash tun to raise temp. to 149F
12. Recirculated @ 2 qts.
13. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
14. While draining, fired burner and set heat on med.
15. When empty, filled with 2.85 gal. of 170F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
16. Collected a total of @ 6.0 gal. wort
17. Brought to a boil and boiled for 60 minutes adding hops per above
18. Placed in an ice bath and cooled to below 100F  in @ 30 minutes
19. Covered and allowed to cool overnight
20. Next day OG was 1.033
21. Boiled 1 lb. white sugar in 24 oz. water and poured into plastic fermenter
22. Siphoned wort into sanitized plastic fermenter

Fermentation

23. Pitched entire yeast starter @ 70F
24. Placed fermenter in fermentation room
25. Signs of fermentation within 8 hours
26. @48 hours – no signs of visible fermentation
27. 10/24/14 gravity reading 1.003

2014 Lambic

The wife and kiddos went to Charlotte to visit family for the weekend, so I knew I needed to take advantage and do some brewing.  And, boy did I!  I brewed a Lambic, a Saison and a session IPA.

The first beer I brewed was a Lambic.  This is the third Lambic I have brewed.  The first version, back in 2011, was one dimensional – all sour with no funky complexity.  The 2013 version, I’ve bottled but I haven’t tasted yet.  This year I was able to get my hands on a vial of East Coast Yeast Bug Farm.  I pitched this along with a pint of the yeast cake from last year’s lambic (WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix).  I have high hopes for this one.

 

Brew Date: 8/8/2014

Beer Number: B36

Beer Name: Lambic 2014

Type: Lambic

Primary Fermenter: 6 gal. glass carboy (?? days)

Secondary Fermenter: n/a

Volume: 5.5 gal into fermenter

OG: 1.049

FG: ?

Expected IBU: 5

Expected SRM: 4

Expected Alcohol %: ?%

Ingredients:

4 lbs., 6.4 oz. Breis US 2 Row Malt
3 lbs., 8 oz. white wheat malt
1 lb., 1.1 oz. flaked wheat
.5 lb. rice hulls
7 g. Mt. Hood pellet hops (6.0% AA) 60 min.
ECY01 BugFarm
1 qt. B32 2013 Lambic dregs
1.75 lbs. brown sugar

Step by Step Process:

ECY01 Yeast Starter (8/8/14)

1. Boiled @ 200g Pilsen DME in @2.0L water for 15 minutes
2. Transferred @ 1L to flask
3. Cooled and pitched bottle of ECY01 BugFarm
4. Covered with foil
5. No Kreusen appeard

Wort

6. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher, double-crushed wheat
7. Heated 11.75 qts. strike water to @180F and poured into mash tun
8. Allowed tun temp. to settle to 170F
9. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @155F at top of mash
10. @30 min. temp had dropped to 153F
11. @55 min. Poured 0.9 gal. of near boiling water, which raised temp to 173F
12. Recirculated @ 2 qts.
13. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
14. While draining, fired burner and set heat on medium-low.
15. When empty, filled with 2.6 gals. of near boiling water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
16. When empty, filled with 2.6 gals. of 190F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
17. Collected a total of @ 7.6 gal. wort
18. Brought to a boil
19. Added 7g. Mt. Hood hops at 60 min.
20. Using wort chiller, cooled to below 100F in @ 20 minutes
21. Covered kettle and allowed to cool overnight (inside garage)
22. Gravity reading the next morning was 1.040 (target of 1.048)
23. Boiled 1 lb. 12 oz. brown sugar in 1 qt. of water and added to wort.
24. OG after sugar addition was 1.049
25. Transferred to sanitized carboy and pitched starter of ECY01 BugFarm and 1 quart of dregs from B32 2013 Lambic (harvested earlier in the day)
26. @ 24 hours, krausen was evident

Secession Brown Ale

I hadn’t brewed in over a year when lo and behold my wife had to accompany my daughter most of the day for dance recital practice.  I thought I’d try to do a “quick” partial-mash English brown ale.  I had only done one partial-mash brew in my life, as I jumped straight to all-grain after that one partial-mash batch.

This ended up being a tasty and very sessionable brown.

With all of the talk of Scotland declaring independence from the UK, I decided to name this Secession Brown Ale.

 

Brew Date: 5/17/2014

Beer Number: B35

Beer Name: Secession Brown Ale

Type: Northern English Brown Ale

Primary Fermenter: 5 gal. glass carboy (77 days)

Secondary Fermenter: N/A

Volume: @ 5.00 gal into fermenter

OG: 1.043

FG: 1.009

Expected IBU: 29

Expected SRM: 14

Expected Alcohol %: 4.46%

Calories: 141/12 oz. 

Ingredients:

1 lbs. UK 2 row pale malt

9.6 oz. Special Roast

6.4 oz. Victory malt

6.3 oz. Crystal 40L

3.2 oz. Pale Chocolate (200L)

3 lbs. Muntons UK light DME (@15 min.)

0.6 oz. East Kent Goldings (7.2% AA) @60 min.

0.4 oz. East Kent Goldings (7.2 AA) @ 5 min

WLP013 London Ale yeast

Step by Step Process:

Wort

1. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher
2. Heated 3.25 qt. strike water to @175F and poured into mash tun
3. Once tun settled to 165F, added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @150F
4. Mashed for @3 hours– with ending temp @138F
5. Added @3.0 gal. 175F water to tun and let sit for @15 min.
6. Manifold came loose – had to empty mash into kettle to re-install manifold; returned mash to tun
7. Recirculated @ 2 qt.
8. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
9. While draining, fired burner and set heat on medium
10. When empty, filled with 3 gal. of @170F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
11. Brought to a boil
12. Pitched bittering hops and boiled for 60 minutes
13. Rehydrated 3 lbs. DME in ½ gal. hot water; added to boil w/ 14 min. remaining along with chiller
14. 14. Lost rolling boil for @3 min. but returned to rolling boil for last 11 min.
15. 15. Added flavor/aroma hops @5 min.
16. 16. Ran chiller for @20 min. with wort temp dropping to @79F
17. Transferred to sanitized carboy in fermentation chamber with frozen water bottles
18. After @12 hours – cooled to upper 58F
19. Pitched yeast directly from vial
20. OG was 1.043, below targeted OG of 1.047 – probably due to higher volume

Kegging (8/2/14)

21. Transferred (approximately 4.75 gal.) to sanitized keg
22. Set CO2 to 6 psi (target 2.18 atmospheres at 34F)

 

Lambic 2013

My “annual” Lambic was the third beer in my triple-duty weekend.  This was the second time I had brewed a Lambic.  I was happy with the acidity in the first Lambic but the funk was lacking.  I transferred this directly onto the yeast/bug cake from the first Lambic and then also pitched a new vial of WLP655.  I’ve yet to taste it from the bottle, but the hydrometer sample was nicely acidic and there was a little more funk in the second attempt, but still not where I want it to be.

 

Brew Date: 4/27/2013

Beer Number: B32

Beer Name: Lambic 2013

Type: Lambic

Primary Fermenter: 6 gal. glass carboy (469 days)

Secondary Fermenter: n/a

Volume: 5.5 gal into fermenter

OG: 1.049

FG: 1.002

Expected IBU: 7

Expected SRM: 4

Expected Alcohol %: 6.17%

Calories: 157

Ingredients:

4 lbs., 3.5 oz. Weyerman Pilsner Malt

4 lbs., 11 oz. wheat malt

1 lb. flaked wheat

.5 lb. rice hulls

7 g. Mt. Hood pellet hops (6.0% AA) 90 min.

WLP 655 – Lambic blend

Step by Step Process:

Wort

1. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher, double-crushed wheat
2. Heated 16 qts. strike water to @168F and poured into mash tun
3. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @150F at top of mash
4. mashed @ 1 hrs,
5. 2 gallons of boiling water was added to mash
6. Recirculated @ 2 qts.
7. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle
8. While draining, fired burner and set heat on medium.
9. When empty, filled with 3.5 gals. of 190F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
10. When empty, filled with 3.5 gals. of 190F water, stirred mash, recirculated and drained
11. Collected a total of @ 10.5 gal. wort
12. Brought to a boil
13. Added 7g. Mt. Hood hops at 90 min.
14. Using wort chiller, cooled to below 100F in @ 15 minutes
15. Covered kettle and allowed to cool overnight (inside garage)
16. Transferred to carboy on top of yeast/bacteria cake from B21 Lambic 2011 that had been bottled/kegged earlier in day
17. @ 48 hours, krausen was evident
18. @4 days krausen had risen through airlock
19. Airlock was removed, cleaned, sanitized and replaced back on carboy

Packaging (8/9/14)

20. Bottled 13 – 12 oz. bottles with 2 Muntons carbonation tabs per bottle
21. Transferred the remaining @4.5 gal. to a sanitized/CO2-purged keg

Vienna-Citra "SMASH"

The second beer in my triple brew weekend was a pseudo-SMASH  (Single Malt and Single Hop) beer.  It was a pseudo-SMASH because I did add a small amount of Carapils to help head retention as well as a small Warrior bittering charge.

 

Brew Date: 4/28/2013

Beer Number: B31

Beer Name: Vienna-Citra  “SMASH”

Type: American Pale Ale / Vienna Lager

Primary Fermenter: 6 ½ gal. plastic and 5 gal. glass

Secondary Fermenter: n/a

Volume: @ 9 gallons

OG: 1.056

FG: see below

Expected IBU: 43

Expected SRM:6

 

Ingredients:

15 lbs. 4.8 oz. German Vienna malt

8 oz. Carapils

21g (0.75 oz.) Citra pellet hops (12.0%AA) FWH

7g (0.25 oz.) Warrior pellet hops (15.0% AA) 60 min.

28g (1.0 oz.) Citra pellet hops (12.0%AA)  15 min.

28g (1.0 oz.) Citra pellet hops (12.0%AA)  5 min.

35g (1.25 oz.) Citra pellet hops (12.0%AA)  1 min.

WLP001 – Cal Ale Yeast (harvested from B23A)

WLP830 – German Lager Yeast (harvested from B29)

Step by Step Process:

WLP 830 Yeast Starter (4/21/13)

1. Boiled @ 200g Pilsen DME in @2.0L water for 15 minutes
2. Cooled and pitched yeast harvested from B29
3. Covered with sanitized foil and swirled infrequently for 4 days
4. Kreusen appeard @24 hours
5. Crash cooled in 35F keezer 2 days before pitching

 

WLP 001 Yeast Starter (4/21/13)

6. Boiled @ 150g Pilsen DME in @1.5L water for 15 minutes
7. Cooled and pitched yeast harvested from B23A
8. Covered with sanitized foil and swirled infrequently for 4 days
9. Kreusen appeard @36 hours
10. Crash cooled in 35F keezer 2 days before pitching

 

Wort

11. Crushed grain in Barley Crusher
12. Heated 20 qts. strike water to @170F and poured into mash tun
13. Added grains to tun and stirred – temp. settled at @153.5F mashed @ 65 min.
14. Added 2 gal. boiling water
15. Recirculated @ 2 qts. and returned to tun
16. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle collecting @ 3.4 gal.
17. While draining, fired burner and set heat on med. and added 21 g. Citra pellets
18. Added 4.5 gal. @170F water to mash and stirred
19. Recirculated @ 2 qts. and returned to tun
20. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle collecting @ 4.25 gal.
21. Added 4.5 gal. @170F water to mash and stirred
22. Recirculated @ 2 qts. and returned to tun
23. Opened valve slowly and then wide open and drained into kettle collecting @ 4.25 gal.
24. Brought to a boil and added 7g. Warrior pellets for 60 min.
25. Followed hopping schedule per above
26. Placed wort chiller in kettle and 1 whirfloc tablet and boiled for @15 minutes
27. Began chilling immediately after knockout; cooled to below 100F in 10 minutes
28. Placed kettle in ice bath with lid on for @1 hour – temp. dropped to below 60F
29. Transferred through syphon (splashing as much as possible)
30. Transferred @ 4.5 gallons into 5 gallon glass carboy and @4.5 gallons into 6 ½ gal. plastic bucket

WLP 001 Yeast Starter (4/27)

31. Decanted liquid from 4/21 yeast starter and allowed to warm on counter for @ 1 hour
32. Collected an extra 1.25 quarts of wort (final runnings)
33. Brought to a boil for @15 minutes and then cooled in an ice bath
34. Once cool, poured into yeast starter – no activity evident before pitching

WLP 830 Yeast Starter (4/27)

35. Decanted liquid from 4/21 yeast starter and allowed to warm on counter for @ 1 hour
36. Collected an extra 1.25 quarts of wort (final runnings)
37. Brought to a boil for @15 minutes and then cooled in an ice bath
38. Once cool, poured into yeast starter
39. Allowed to cool overnight in fermentation room – no activity evident before pitching

Beer Number: 31A

Beer Name: “Citra Ass on Ice”

Type: Hoppy Vienna Lager

Primary Fermenter: 5 gallon glass (48 Days)

Secondary Fermenter: n/a

Volume: @4.5 gallons in fermenter

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.010

Expected IBU: 43

Expected SRM: 6

Expected Alcohol %: 6.04%

Calories: 183

 Shook carboy as much as practical (carboy was pretty full)

1. Placed in fermentation cooler with 1 2l and 2 20 oz. frozen water bottles and allowed to cool overnight
2. Pitched entire 1.25L starter into carboy – Temp 49F
3. Replaced water bottles daily (combination of 3 16 oz. or 20 oz. bottles to maintain temp @49F – 51F
4. @ 24 hours, krausen had formed temp 50F
5. Airlock activity evident for @7 days – max temp. 51F
6. After 3 weeks, added frozen water bottles to drop temp to 33F
7. Changed bottles every day and maintained 33F-35F range for 4 weeks

Kegging (6/15/13)

1. Transferred to sanitized keg with 11 psi CO2 – CO2 target 2.7 volumes

 

Beer Number: B31B

Beer Name: TBD

Type: American Pale Ale

Primary Fermenter: 6.5 plastic bucket (364 Days)

Secondary Fermenter: none

Volume: @4.5 gallons in fermenter

OG: 1.056

FG: 1.002

Expected IBU: 43

Expected SRM: 6

Expected Alcohol %: 7.09%

Calories: 179

1.    Shook fermenter

2.    Placed on cool floor of fermentation room

3.    Pitched entire 1.25L starter into carboy – Temp 59F

4.    @ 24 hours, airlock activity evident temp 62F

5.    Airlock activity evident for @4 days – max temp. 63F

Bottling (4/27/14)

1. Transferred to sanitized keg and placed in 35F freezer with 12 PSI.