State of the Brew'niun

Thought I would take a quick moment to update on the status of the brews!

'Oak to Joy'  Oak Aged Old Ale
An English style Old Ale that was partially aged in an oak cask.  Not going to let loose on the tasting notes here: you will have to try for yourself; these are Christmas gifts!  I packaged four bottles spiked with Brettanomyces Claussenii as well for a special treat. Labels courtesy of GrogTag.

'FunkleWeizenBock' Dunkelweizenbock with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis and Claussenii
A strong, dark German wheat beer with two kinds of Brettanomyces bacteria.  This is now six weeks old and the brett is really taking over.  Banana and clove notes provided by the initial wheat beer yeast were quickly replaced by tropical fruit brett flavors that are now developing into a funky mushroomy earth tone.  This is going to be interesting stuff when I can finally bottle in another 6 weeks.

'Unnamed' Biere de Garde

A traditional French lagered farmhouse ale.  After fermenting for ten days, this came down to lager temperature.  It has been cold aging for a little over two weeks and has a lovely clean, malty profile.  Nice notes of caramel, toffee, stale bread and a hint of apple sauce.  Will be packaging in corked and caged champagne bottles in two weeks.

FunkleWeizenBock (right) and Biere de Garde (left) samples.  Strikingly similar colors here.  Very, very different flavors.

'Rural Refresher' All Brettanomyces Claussenii Farmhouse Ale

The all brett fermentation here produced some nice light fruit and citrus notes to complement an otherwise very simple tasting beer.  Initially wanted this to be around 4% but the Brett C turned out to be a monstrous attenuator and took the beer from 1.040 to 1.000 in a little over a week (5.2%).  This should be a great thirst quencher when it's all said and done.  Bottling in two to three more weeks.

After these beers are finished I planned a couple of smaller brews to test out the kegging system I will be switching to next week.  A Session Stout (3.6%) and a Simple Rye Saison (with a double inoculation of reused Biere de Garde yeast and saison yeast I plan to harvest from a bottle of 'Dupont Vielle Provision' I've been holding on to) will be next.

GrogTag Labels

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