Big Funky Beers

Recently I have had the pleasure of trying three fantastic beers which were both more than 10% ABV and influenced by Brett and/or bacteria. In each beer the microbes and barrel aging smoothed out the rough edges that often plague “big beers” and added unique flavors that really set them apart from their “clean” counterparts.

It started with De Dolle Oerbier Reserva 2006, a special version of their regular Oerbier aged in wine barrels with microflora that took it from its original ABV of 9 up to 13. The flavors are a spectacular balance of rich malts with cherry funk and subtle acidity.

Next came a taste of an experimental Brettanomyces inoculated version of Barrel Aged Millennium at Old Dominion. It tasted like Gale’s Prize Old Ale on steroids, huge malt backbone with an earthy old leather Brett character to die for. I will be very happy when this one eventually gets released as a packaged beer. I must say that from what I have seen Old Dominion is really stepping up their game since being bought out by Costal/Bud.

Finally came the massive Abbaye De Saint Bon-Chien 2005 from Swiss brewer BFM, the funk was not as strong as the other two, but the malt flavor and thick mouthfeel made it one of the best cold weather sipping beers I have had. At 15% ABV it is truly a massive beer unlike any other funky beer I have tried.

These three drinking experiences have done what all great beers should, inspire me to brew something similar. I have not figured out exactly what recipe I am going to go with, but I think it will be something like an Oud Bruin combined with an Old Ale and ramped up to 1.110 or so.

Now that the Roeselare Blend is back from Wyeast I will probably use that to do this beer, but only after growing it up a couple of generation or to shift the microbe balance more towards the lactic acid bacteria (which can reproduce faster than yeast). The Flanders Red I made by adding the blend to the secondary is very tasty and drinkable, but up against a beer like La Folie it doesn’t have nearly enough acidity. For a big beer it is even harder to get much sourness as the high level of sourness and proportionally increased hopping can inhibit the souring microbes.

At least one of the generations before the big sour beer will be another Flanders Red. Currently, my friend Scott and I are planning on brewing a couple batches of Flanders Red that we will eventually blend together. The idea is to age a few batches varying things like the oxygen permeability of the storage container, amount of oak, microbes, etc… Then after 12-18 months we will taste all of the batches and blend them accordingly.

Here is a draft of what I am considering fermenting with a second or third generation slurry of Wyeast's Roeselare Blend. The malt extract is just there to boost the gravity above what I can fit comfortably in my mash tun.

Big Funky

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 3.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 14.50
Anticipated OG: 1.150
Anticipated SRM: 23.5
Anticipated IBU: 28.2
Brewhouse Efficiency: 66 %
Wort Boil Time: 135 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
---------------------
6.00 lbs. Pilsener
2.50 lbs. Munich Malt
1.50 lbs. Generic DME - Light
1.00 lbs. CaraMunich Malt
1.00 lbs. CaraVienne Malt
1.00 lbs. Flaked Corn
.75 lbs. Dark Candi Syrup (D2)
.06 lbs. Chocolate Malt

Hops
-----
0.625 oz. Galena @ 90 min.

Yeast
-----
Yeast Cake from Flanders Red (US-05 and Red Poppy dregs)

Mash Schedule
-------------
90 Minutes at 150

Notes
-----
Brewed 6/15/08 with Mike and Brian

D2 Candi Syrup added at the start of sparge.

Collected 6 gallons of 1.057 wort, added extract while heating to a boil. 3.30 gallons of 1.120 wort post boil.

Chilled to 80 (took an hour due to warm tap water). Put into freezer at 60 degrees. Pitched yeast/funk cake from Flanders Red (US-05 and Red Poppy) after 5 hours in the fridge. This increased the volume and reduced the gravity slightly. Gave it a light shake to get O2 in, but not too much as there are loads of yeast cells, and Pedio hates O2.

Small krausen by 12 hours, large one by 24.

6/18/08 Fermentation began to slowdown so I upped the temperature to 62.

6/22/08 Still has a decent krausen, gravity only down to 1.065 (7.7% ABV, 47% AA). Upped temp to 65 to help the yeast keep moving.

6/24/08 Added the dregs from a bottle of Beatification 002.

7/04/08 Transferred to a 3 gallon glass carboy for secondary, down to ~1.040 (66% AA, 11% ABV).

8/20/08 The alcohol has mellowed considerably, but there are still almost no sour/funky flavors. This one still needs more time, hopefully the high ABV has just slowed the microbes down and not stopped them entirely.

10/02/08 Update, down to 1.020

12/21/08 Still 1.020, fermentation seems to be finished.

1/24/09 Has really picked up a nice lightly oxidized, dark fruit character since my last tasting. Still at 1.020, so I pitched some EC-1118 champagne yeast. I'll bottle this batch once the yeast has a chance to do what it wants, about a week.

1/31/09 Blended in 20 oz of La Folie (sacrilege I know) and 10 oz of my Temptation clone for sourness and to lighten it up a touch. Bottled with 1 5/8 oz of table sugar.

4/21/09 First Tasting, not carbed yet...

6/14/09 Still no carbonation, so I rehydrated a pack of Premier Cuvee from Red Star (14-16% ABV tolerance) in a 1/4 cup of warm/filtered water. Added a few drops to each bottle, then recapped. Hopefully the yeast will provide carbonation, but not eat any of the residual dextrins (which could lead to bottle bombs).

11/28/14 Opened the final bottle. Ever so faintly carbonated (all it needed). Very port-like, rich, somewhat sticky, mildly boozy. Great depth of flavor: brown sugar, plums, cocoa, subtle fruity Brett. Mildly acidic, but not really sour. Somewhere between an over-the-top English old ale and an over-the-top Flemish oud bruin. I'll have to brew something like this again!

Blending for Competitions

Recently I have been trying to make a more concerted effort to enter the monthly style competitions my homebrew club runs. However, since I rarely brew to style it is hard to get a helpful critique of my brewing. So for the last two months I have been blending two off-style beers together to get something that is closer to the classic style. I simply chill the bottles I want to blend for 24 hours in the fridge (cold liquids hold CO2 better), then pout them into chilled wetted bottles (wetting reduces the nucleation sites), this seems to hold the carbonation pretty well, and oxidation isn't an issue since I'm doing it the night before they'll be consumed (like a growler fill, fine for a few days if kept cold).

In January I blended my Funky Old Ale with a Wee Heavy that I did with a couple of my friends as a parti-gyle brew day. The Wee heavy was about a year old and very sweet with an FG around 1.030. I went with a 2:1 ratio of Wee Heavy to Old Ale. I thought this blend mellowed out the funkiness to an acceptable level and added enough sweetness to make it a more friendly beer. It did alright with an average score of 29. The judges comments are very positive, for example one says "This old ale makes a firm impression of the style." However, clearly the hint of Brett confused two of them slightly, although neither of them identified it. One judge thought the beer was over-the-hill and oxidized, while another thought it had some acetaldehyde and would improve with some age. I think both of these were just a misidentification of the flavor/aroma Brettanomyces contributes. Overall I was pleased with the comments and the fact that I was one of the 4 beers that made it to the best in show table out of 16 beers, pretty good considering neither of the beers could have passed as an Old Ale on their own.

For February I blended my Scandinavian Imperial Porter and a second runnings "leftovers" porter I did with a few friends a couple months back. I entered it as a Baltic Porter, with a 2:1 ratio of regular porter to imperial. Again it did pretty well with an average score of 32. Some of the descriptors used include cherry, prune, chocolate, clean, and roasted. I got dinged for having low carbonation, which I expected because the Scandinavian Imperial Porter is pretty close to flat. The only really confusing comment is that it lacked complexity, and that I should "try more variety in the grain bill," each of the beers contained about 10 malts, probably the two most complex grain bills I have every used. I believe that blending two beers can either grow or destroy complexity, as I saw in my blended tasting subtle changes in the ratio can really change the flavor of the blend.

I wouldn't suggest this method for beers that will sit around for awhile before they are judged, the pouring does oxide the beer which will end up giving off flavors over time. You could certainly do taste tests though, blending a couple bottles and trying one every week or so to see how much of a problem oxidation would be.

My time of poking fun at judges will also be coming to an end soon as I'll be taking the BJCP exam in June. I am lucky that my club is running a prep class, it will be interested to see how much harder blind "flight" judging to style is than drinking something on its own and just determining if I like it or not.

Look for more of these blended reviews as time passes, it seems like a fun way to get something in a competition. This summer I will be doing a large pre-bottling blending of several sour beers that should have enough age on them, really looking forward to that.

How many batches of beer have you brewed?

How many batches of beer have you brewed?

0 11 (5%)

1-10 59 (29%)

11-30 57 (28%)

31-100 52 (25%)

100+ 23 (11%)

Looks like a good mix of experience levels.

The number of beers I've personally brewed is 67 if you count my split batches as only one beer. That's an average of a brew every 2.5 weeks since I started brewing , not too shabby. That doesn't include helping out on other people's brew days, or other fermented beverages. If you want to be generous and count each part of a split batch separately then the number of distinct beers I've made it is about 89.

In my experience the number of beers brewed or time as a brewer isn't an accurate gauge of brewing experience. I think the amount of time you spend researching, and thinking about each batch is just as important. If you are brewing a beer a week, but just using a recipe you found in a book or online without really understanding the why of each ingredient and step, how much are you really learning? If you put a lot of effort into making a beer, but don't take the time to write down what you've done, how much of the experience are you retaining? I'm guessing most of the people who read this blog like to read and think about beers, and half the reason I started this thing was to force myself to take better notes on brew days and tasting which I hope will make me a better brewer.

Hoppy American Tripel

I've always found Tripels a bit boring, big on alcohol, but without the complexity to make it worthwhile. That changed when I tried Xtra Gold from Captain Lawrence, I was blown away by the marriage of a complex Belgian yeast character to the aroma of American hops. There are several other breweries in both Belgium and American doing similar things including Russian River, De Rullés, and d'Achouffe. In my case I kept the bitterness much lower than so called Belgian IPAs, I aimed for a similar balance in terms of bitterness and sweetness to Westmalle Tripel, while trying to enhance the late hop character.

The original yeast I pitched, 3787 (Westmalle) petered out, so I ended up adding some US-05 to get the gravity down. The beer ended up being tasty, but a bit sweeter than I wanted even at 84% apparent attenuation.

If I were to brew this again I would swap out most of the Belgian pale for more Belgian pils as the color was a bit darker than I wanted. I would also lower the Amarillo dry hop to .25 oz, it was just too assertive when the beer was young. To help it dry out more I would lower the mash temp to 148. Finally I would ferment a bit warmer to prevent the yeast from quitting on me so early, I would not go higher than the mid-70's as I don't want the yeast to be too assertive.


Hoppy American Tripel

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 3.75
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.88
Anticipated OG: 1.087
Plato: 20.99
Anticipated SRM: 5.3
Anticipated IBU: 36.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68 %
Wort Boil Time: 93 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
---------------------
6.31 lbs. Belgian Pilsener
3.94 lbs. Belgian Pale Malt
1.38 lbs. Table Sugar
0.25 lbs. Wheat Malt

Hops
-----
All Whole
0.50 oz. Cascade @ 63 min.
0.50 oz. Crystal @ 63 min.
0.50 oz. Sterling @ 63 min.
0.25 oz. Crystal @ 15 min.
0.25 oz. Cascade @ 15 min.
0.25 oz. Sterling @ 15 min.
0.38 oz. Crystal @ 0 min.
0.38 oz. Cascade @ 0 min.
0.38 oz. Sterling @ 0 min.
0.50 oz. Amarillo @ Dry Hop

Extras
-------
0.50 Unit(s) Whirlfloc @ 10 Min
0.25 Tsp Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Min

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity

Mash Schedule
-------------
60 min@ 150
15 min @ 160

Notes
-----
Brewed 10/28/07 with James

Diluted 4.5 gallons of DC Tap with 4 gallons of distilled water. Added 3 g CaCl, 1 g gypsum, and 1 g Epsom salts. Added 1 tsp of phosphoric acid to the sparge water to get the pH down.

6 gallons of runnings collected, 1.061 with sugar added.

Lost lots of wort to the hops, but the gravity came out right about where I wanted it (1.087).

Chilled to 74, strained out the hops and put it into a 62 degree fridge to drop down cooler. After about 5 hours, I gave it 60 seconds of O2, and pitched about 1/2 cup of thick slurry from the dubbel (harvested a few hours earlier and held at 62).

10/31/07 Upped ambient temp to 64 because fermentation seems to be slowing down.

11/1/07 Up to 65

11/02/07 Up to 66, still looks like there is some activity, nice thick krausen.

11/05/07 Took a gravity reading, still a depressing 1.040 (54% AA). Raised the temp to 72. Looks like there is still a good deal of yeast in suspension, and there is still a small krausen. Hopefully the higher temp will help.

11/08/07 Raising the temp seems to have accelerated the fermentation, 1.030 (66% AA)

11/09/07 Added 4 grams of US-05 straight on top of the remnants of the krausen, just to make sure it finishes nice and dry.

11/12/07 Finally getting there, 1.018 (79% AA, 9.2% ABV), may drop a few more points as there seems to still be a good deal of yeast in suspension.

11/15/07 Transfered to secondary

11/17/07 Tastes good after a few days of cold conditioning, FG around 1.016

11/27/07 Temp upped to 57 to allow the Avant Garde Clone to ferment.

12/01/07 Temp up to 60 for Avant Garde

12/02/07 Took out of the freezer and added the dry hops, in another week I'll bottle.

12/05/07 Took a sample, down to 1.014 (84% AA, 9.7% ABV)! Great hop character, dry hops taste very fresh. This should be a winner. Color might be a hair dark, sort of golden-orange.

12/09/07 Bottled with 3.25 oz of cane sugar. got just under 3 gallons of yield

12/15/07 Decent carbonation, great hop flavor, Amarillo has mellowed a bit and let some complexity through.

1/5/08 Tastes a bit too sweet and the hops are still covering up much of the yeast flavor. Carbonation should be a bit higher as well.

Hops continued to mellow and the beer continued to dry out over the next few months.

2/02/09 1st Tasting

------------------------------
Based on Xtra Gold and Damnation 23:

Xtra Gold (10% abv)
Belgian Pils
Simcoe, Sterling, Cascade, Crystal, Dry hopped w/Amarillo
OG 22
IBU 33

Damnation 23 (11% abv)
We turned our regular Damnation recipe into a Tripel. It is bittered with Tomahawk and has Sterling and Cascade in the mid-boil and finish. The beer was then aged on new American oak chips for two to three weeks.

Temptation Clone

Just pulled a sample from a clone of Russian River's Temptation that I mentioned in my post about Vinnie's bugged wood chips, which I was luck enough to get my hands on. This was a hard clone recipe more for the abundance of information rather than the lack of it. I have read from various reliable sources that Temptation is just pale malt, pils and wheat malt, and pils and unmalted wheat, so either Vinnie has changed the recipe or a some people/books/magazines are wrong. Honestly though I don't think the malt bill is as important as the microbe selection and the oak aging.

The beer is reputed to have only Brettanomyces in the secondary, but I thought it was too sour for that and being in Russian River's barrel room with all those other mega-funky brews and being topped off with Sanctification (Brett/Lacto) I figured some lactic acid bacteria made its way in there. Looks like I was right as a recent issue of BYO, after I brewed this, confirmed that Vinnie suggests adding lacto and pedio in place of what makes its way into the beer and the blending he does with Beatification at bottling.

The beer is doing well now, but I think there was not enough residual sugar for the microbes to really get rolling. If I were to brew this again I would up the mash temperature to 154 from 151 so the gravity after primary would be closer to 1.015 than the 1.010 that we got.

I was lucky to brew it with my friend Seth who worked with wine for the University of Maryland and so had the knowledge to pick the right chardonnay and treat the oak with it.

This one won't be bottled for a few months so it will be awhile before I post a full tasting, but already it has a light tartness and a good contribution from the chardonnay and the oak. I will continue to taste this periodically to ensure that the oak does not become overbearing, something that can easily ruin a beer.

Russian River Temptation Clone

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 12.00
Anticipated OG: 1.061 Plato: 14.99
Anticipated SRM: 4.0
Anticipated IBU: 25.7
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar
---------------------
10.00 lbs. French Pils
2.00 lbs. Flaked Soft White Wheat

Hops
-----
1.00 oz. Sterling @ 75 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings @ 40 min.
0.25 oz. Styrian Goldings @ 20 min.

Extras
-------
1.25 Oz Medium Toast French Oak Beans

Yeast
-----
WYeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity

Water Profile
-------------
Profile: Pale, Low Hop

Calcium(Ca): 65.0 ppm
Magnesium(Mg): 7.5 ppm
Sodium(Na): 15.0 ppm
Sulfate(SO4): 50.0 ppm
Chloride(Cl): 96.0 ppm
biCarbonate(HCO3): 23.0 ppm
pH: 8.25

Mash Schedule
-------------
60 minutes @ 151

Notes
-----
10/31/07 Made a funky starter. 4 oz DME 8 oz of water and 8 oz of rye mild added at flameout to give alcohol for a bit of protection. Added another 10 oz of water the next day because I thought the gravity was too high. After a few days there was a good fermentation. Took about another 10 days to start seeing bits of pellicle start to form, after that I put an airlock on.

Brewed 11/17/07 with Seth

Used 5 gallons of filtered DC Tap water, diluted with 4 gallons of distilled to cut the bicarbonate. Added 5 grams of CaCl and 1 of epsom salt. Fly sparged with 180 ish degree water.

Collected 7.25 gallons of 1.048 wort. Good strong uncovered boil. Got a bit more than 5 gallons, almost right on the target OG of 1.062. Added about 1/3 of the slurry left over from the hoppy tripel and a cup of the funky starter. Gave it a shake and 45 seconds of pure O2.

11/15/07 Harvested yeast from the Hoppy Tripel, added it to some starter wort with a bit of yeast nutrient and plenty of O2.

11/18/07 Added a blowoff tube, rapid fermentation and krausen nearly at the top.

Solid Blowoff for 24 hours, very rapid fermentation at ambient temp in the low 70s.

11/23/07 Seems like fermentation is almost done, krausen is falling.

11/25/07 Down to around 1.010, considerably lower than the expected 1.015.

12/08/07 Racked to secondary (5 g better bottle) with 1 oz of oak that Seth soaked in a change of Chardonnay. The second dose of chardonnay also went in with the oak, probably 1/4 cup.

1/21/07 Down to 1.006, very clear with a light funky note, similar to a realatively fresh Orval.

2/27/08 Down to 1.004, still very clear, the oak and wine are begginng to get more assertive. A low sourness is developing as well but not much more Brett character than a month ago. Despite the low gravity it still has a nice mild sweetness.

5/7/08 Bottled with 4 oz of table sugar. Gravity is still about 1.004, so I don't think there is much chance of overcarbonation. The Brett aroma is getting to where I wanted it to be and the oak adds a good complexity.

5/10/08 Passed off the slurry from this batch to a brewer at Old Dominion, hopefully it will result in something fun by next winter.

7/31/08 First Tasting

4/6/11 Final Tasting, solid beer, but still not as sour.  Next time mash hotter and adding more bugs at the start of fermentation
---------------------------
Research:
Per Wild Brews the original is fermented with WL510 @ 72 degrees for 5 days, then cut loose. Then is fined and stored for 3 weeks at 32 before barrel aging.

Looking for 1.015 (76% AA) after primary and 1.006 (90% AA) after secondary.

Commercial Description:
Is it beer, or is it wine? "Aged in French oak wine barrels for twelve months with distinct characteristics of fruit and subtle oak" sounds more like a description of wine than beer. But, of course, Temptation is indeed beer. Actually, Temptation is a Blonde Ale Fermented with a special strain of yeast, then aged in French oak chardonnay barrels. Flavors of wine and oak absorb into the brew throughout twelve months of aging. During this aging process, a secondary fermentation occurs using a yeast strain disliked by most brewers and winemakers called Brettanomyces. The "Bret" gives Temptation intriguing characteristics and a pleasant sourness. Temptation is re-fermented in the bottle to create its carbonation--a process commonly used to make fine champagne and sparkling wine. Spent yeast forms a thin layer of sediment to remain in the bottle.

Single Temp Infusion @ 151 per Vinnie's NHC Speech

Drew Beechum was told by Vinnie that there was no wheat of any kind in this one.

From B Y O:
OG 1.064
FG 1.012 into barrel
IBU 28
SRM 4

ABV 6.7%
Malts:
12 lbs 6 oz Pale 2-row or Pils
10 oz Wheat malt
Mash at 154

Hops:
.76 oz Styrian
Goldings 90 min
.56 oz Sterling 30 min
.56 oz Sterling 0 min

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale

Wyeast 5112 Brett B
Wyeast 5335 Lacto
Wyeast 5733 Pedio
Boil 90 min.

Add 1 pint Brett B starter, .5 pint Lacto, and .5 pint Pedio starter.

Age 12-15 months

3 oz French Oak, Medium Toast soaked in Chardonnay added to secondary.

The lacto and pedio additon take the place of blending Beatification to Temptation post barrel aging to bring up the acidity per Vinnie.

Cider 2007

Not my best effort, but here is the recipe and tasting notes for this fall's batch of hard cider.

Despite the failings of the final product, it did show the apparent limit of the alcohol tolerance of Fleishman's bread yeast, a shocking 8.3%

Tasting:

Appearance – Honey yellow with a slight haze. When I first tappped the mini-keg a few hours ago it put up a momentary white head, but now it appears almost still.

Smell – Big apple nose with a strong whiff of alcohol. The alcohol has a bit of a floral character, similar to that of a mead. No sign of the spices from the apple butter. A pretty good nose overall for a big cider.

Taste – Ultra dry, with a bit of tannic astringency. There is some apple there as well, but it doesn't have enough sweetness to back it up. There is some acidity and alcohol presence as well. The lack of sweetness just throws the balance off of all the other components making them seem out of balance. The bread yeast seems to have been relatively neutral again.

Mouthfeel – Very thin, with only mild carbonation. It needs more of one or the other, as it is I think its too watery.

Drinkability & Notes – I should have back sweetened with apple juice concentrate and left it still. Many people at my homebrew club seemed to enjoy this one, but it just isn't what I am looking for in a cider. On the plus side the mini-keg seemed to work very well, I'll be putting beers into it on a regular basis from now on.

Apple Cider 2007

Recipe Specifics
----------------
Batch Size (Gal): 2.10
Anticipated OG: 1.063
Anticipated SRM: 12.8
Anticipated IBU: 0.0

Grain/Extract/Sugar
----------------------
2.0 gal Cider
0.50 lbs. Muscovodo
0.44 lbs. Apple Butter

Extras
-------
0.50 Tsp Yeast Nutrient

Yeast
-----
Generic Bread Yeast

Notes
-----
Brewed 10/14/07 by myself

Dissolved muscovado in 1/2 cup of filtered water, added the apple butter when the mixture reached a boil. Mixed this slurry with 2 gallons of good fresh cider from a local farm stand. Added 2 grams of Fleishman's Dried highly active bread yeast and placed in a 65 degree freezer.

Mild fermentation by 18 hours, thin krausen.

10/21/07 Gravity down to 1.004 (7.8% ABV), fermentation seemed to last about 5 days.

10/28/07 Bottled with 1.25 oz of corn sugar. Gravity down to a shocking .996 (8.3% ABV)

After about 2 weeks in the bottle a lot of sediment dropped in each bottle.

After a few months in the bottles I got sick of dealing with the sediment and the lack of carbonation, so I dumped all of the bottles into a 5L mini-keg with a bit of sugar and some lager yeast. Sadly, I knocked the pressure pin into the keg and ended up having to dump the cider out to get the pin back, probably causing massing oxidation in the process.