I was really excited to brew this beer. Not only because I haven't brewed in a month, but it's the first for my new experiment, Bison Head Blog. I also feel this beer will be great to tweek into something very pleasant to drink year around. I made a version of this about a year ago and I enjoyed it very much. Right now it's in the middle of secondary fermentation, but here's a look back at the process to brew it:
This is an All-Grain Recipe with Belgian, English, and German influence. I am going for a nice balance of hoppy flavor and malt sweetness. I used a dry Belgian yeast, I like dry yeast, it's easy to use and I think it makes a nice beer, plus it's a little cheaper than liquid yeast.
I used a single infusion mash. My mash was a little warm at 160 degrees, but I quickly cooled it to 152. I held that for 60 minutes and spargged on the fly for about 40 minutes. The mash had a very roasty smell, more than I expected. It is also just a little darker than I wanted, but I suppose this is in part due to the chocolate malt, this could also be what the strong roasty smell is from.
I boiled the wart for 60 minutes adding one ounce of Norther Brewer at the beginning of the boil. At 30 minutes I added two ounces of Willamette for some flavor, and at 45 I added some Irish Moss for clarity. I tossed in two ounces of Fuggles with 5 minutes left in the boil for some nice hoppy aroma.
Above is my homemade immersion wart chiller. I used 25 feet of flexible 1/2 inch copper piping, two 1/2 inch female thread ends, two plastic male threaded 1/2 inch barbs, and some length of vinyl to connect it to the faucet and a drain to the sink. I cooled the wart in about 12 minutes, aerated the wart, pitched my yeast, and let it sit.
After a week, I siphoned the half fermented wart into a different fermentation bucket to keep it from getting a strong yeasty taste. Here is the flocculated yeast trub in the bottom in my primary fermenter. I will post my taste results when it is carbonated...
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