7/5/2013
A few days before the brew, I made a pound of Amber Belgian Candi Sugar. If you don't have a Silpat, I highly recommend one. The would-be sticky mess of the Candi Sugar is no match for the Silpat.
Ingredients:
11 lb - Pilsner
4 oz - Aromatic Malt
4 oz - Wheat Malt
1 lb - Amber Belgian Candi Sugar (@ 10 min)
2 lb - Honey (@ 10 min)
1.85 oz - Tettanang Hops (@ 60 min)
1 oz - Saaz Hops (@10 min)
1500 ml Yeast Starter of WLP500 Trappist Ale Yeast
Wyeast 5112 Brettanomyces Bruxellensis
152F Mash Temp
90 Minute Boil
66F - 70F Fermentation Temp
1.075 OG
I pitched the yeast starter and Brett at 65F and fermentation has already started as of this morning. My plan is to let the Brett perform its magic over the next few months and hopefully it will be ready late fall/early winter.
Update 7/31/2013:
I transferred the beer to a secondary vessel to rack off the primary yeast and to add cherries for long term aging.
Notes:
Gravity - 1.016 (I expect this to go down a good bit after the Brett works its magic; the expected FG before conditioning is 1.017 so the gravity was nailed.)
Aroma - The honey is really coming through on the nose along with a pepper and coriander aroma in the background.
Taste - Honey! Lemon Zest, fresh cracked pepper, bread crust and wow... a very velvety mouth-feel. At this point, the Brett is not coming through but that is expected since it has only had a month to work.
As noted, I added 2 lb of sweet dark cherries to the secondary and racked on top of them. I purchased frozen cherries as they are cheaper and the ice crystals do a good job of macerating the cherries so they will impart more flavor into the beer. As luck would have it, two days later Publix put fresh cherries on sale for $2.99 lb.... Oh well..
I do plan on adding more cherries about a month before finishing to boost the cherry flavor and aroma.
I transferred the beer to a secondary vessel to rack off the primary yeast and to add cherries for long term aging.
Notes:
Gravity - 1.016 (I expect this to go down a good bit after the Brett works its magic; the expected FG before conditioning is 1.017 so the gravity was nailed.)
Aroma - The honey is really coming through on the nose along with a pepper and coriander aroma in the background.
Taste - Honey! Lemon Zest, fresh cracked pepper, bread crust and wow... a very velvety mouth-feel. At this point, the Brett is not coming through but that is expected since it has only had a month to work.
As noted, I added 2 lb of sweet dark cherries to the secondary and racked on top of them. I purchased frozen cherries as they are cheaper and the ice crystals do a good job of macerating the cherries so they will impart more flavor into the beer. As luck would have it, two days later Publix put fresh cherries on sale for $2.99 lb.... Oh well..
I do plan on adding more cherries about a month before finishing to boost the cherry flavor and aroma.
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