Last fall, I brewed a Biere de Garde with the same “Wild” Eugene yeast I had used on my Wild Smoked Wheat. After a month or so in the tank, the Biere de Garde wasn’t nearly as wild as I hoped. I still believe there is a lacto strain present in the local culture, but the yeast, then on its’ second generation, tore through the wort so fast, nothing else ever got a foothold. The beer sat around until December, when Mike sent me home from the 16 Tons Week of Wild Ale Fest with Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noire and La Roja dregs. The dregs from both bottles and a quarter ounce of oak chips were added to the Biere de Garde and the beer has been quietly working ever since.

The JP bugs never really formed a pellicle, but they did do a number on the few points of gravity that were left in the Biere de Garde. The JP lacto strain is very aggressive and despite a harsh environment with around 5% ABV and 20 IBUs, did a number on the sugars it found. The beer is now firmly sour and has quite a bit of pie-cherry funk. Unfortunately, I starting with only 2 gallons of beer and, after 6+ months of periodic sampling, there is now less than one remaining. Instead of bottling it, I decided to use the beer to inoculate other sour batches. The first of which was a no-boil, rye Berliner Weisse I brewed a few weeks ago.

No-Boil Roggen Weisse

Batch Size: 5.0 gallons
Boil Volume: No Boil

4 lb 4 oz 2-Row (71%)
1 lb 12 oz Rye Malt (29%)

1.0 oz Tettnanger (3.2 AA%) @ Mash-hopped

Gen. 2 Eugene, OR Wild Yeast
Biere de Garde w/ Gen. 2 Eugene, OR Wild Yeast and Jolly Pumpkin dregs

Estimated Efficiency: 70%
Estimated Attenuation 80%
Estimated OG: 1.031
Estimated FG: 1.006
Estimated ABV: 3.2%
Estimated IBU: 5(?)
Estimated SRM: 3

Mash @ 125(F) for 30 minutes, pull 1/3 of mash for decoction.

Boil decoction (containing some of the mash hops) for 10 minutes, return to main mash to raise temperature to 148(F).

Mash @ 148(F) for 45 minutes.

Infuse with boiling water to reach 170(F).

Sparge from mash tun directly into fermenter.

Pitch one pint starter of gen. 2 Wild Eugene, OR culture and one pint of Bier de Garde.

Ferment ~70(F).

When final gravity is stable, add 1/2 ounce Merlot-soaked oak chips.

So, where to begin…The idea for this beer was inspired by the fantastic Flat Tail Corvaller Weisse I tried during Eugene Beer Week. Corvaller Weisse is immensely sour, with some soft oak and wine flavors in the background. The mash schedule and no-boil method are based on Kris England’s recipe. The change from wheat to rye is another result of my inability to leave things well enough alone. This was my first crack at a no-boil brew and only my second or third decoction. Brewday went well and I overshot my gravity a bit, starting at 1.035. Since I was going straight from the mash tun to fermenter, I didn’t have a way to cool the wort. The fermenter sat overnight to cool before the yeast and Biere de Garde were pitched.

Initial fermentation finished after a few days and the krausen was quickly replaced by a pellicle. Now, about four week in, the pellicle has mostly fallen and the gravity is sitting at 1.000. Here is a shot of the beer I snapped yesterday while I was adding the Merlot-soaked oak chips.

Of course the Roggen Weisse was just the tip of the funky iceberg. I recently picked up a pure Brett Brux culture and worked it up into half a dozen pint starters. The first of these was added to my Black Strap Stout last week, along with some bourbon-soaked oak, while the beer was transferred to secondary. The stout, based on Ron Pattinson and Kris England’s recipe for 1877 Whitbread Extra Stout, gave up the ghost around 1.026. Not sure if it was the high percentage of roasted malts or unfermentables from the molasses, but the gravity wasn’t budging, not even for a fresh pitch of Nottingham. The beer tastes quite good, but the sweetness starts to become overwhelming after a few sips. Definitely not something I want a full five gallon of, so it is now at the mercy of some hungry Brett Brux.

I also brewed a saison last week (post coming soon) which is currently experiencing the infamous Dupont yeast stall. The plan is to dose it with another of the Brett Brux starters at bottling time, a la Orval. I’ll leave you with a shot of Brett starter, waiting patiently for the Dupont yeast to finish up.

Keep the funk alive!
Kevin

A couple days ago, while trolling the interwebs for historic Berliner Weisse recipes, I came across a post claiming that Mumme was the predecessor of both Weisses and Leipziger Goses. Mumme eh? Now, I feel as though I’m a fairly knowledgeable bloke when it comes to beer styles, but Mumme was new to me. Look’s like it’s time to board da learnin’ train.

First off, let’s all say it together, ”moom-uh”. Alright, pronunciation lesson done, gold stars all around. Now what exactly is Mumme? If you consult the less-than-accurate “German Beer Institute“, Mumme is described as a well-hopped, light-brown, medieval ale, 2/3 barley and 1/3 wheat; synonymous with Broyhan and Keutbiers. But a quick fact-check from Ron Pattinson discredits the GBI, revealing that Mumme, Broyhan and Keutbiers are three distinct and vastly different styles, with Mumme being a treacle-like dark beer with a massive starting gravity and very low attenuation. Think 3-6% ABV with a final gravity over 1.200. No, not 1.020, 1.200; we’re talking moderately alcoholic malt syrup here.

So, where can one obtain this oddest of ducks? Well, unfortunately, traditional Mumme is no longer produced. Modern Mumme is a hopped, non-alcoholic malt drink; similar to Malta and often used for cooking, or cutting Pils (pilsners not pills – Say No to Drugs Editor). Mumme Brauerei (Nettelbeck), does make a Mumme Bier, but, from the information my limited highschool German allowed me to glean from their website, it sounds like a sweet Altbier.

Homebrew is always an option, but making a Mumme is going pose a few unique challenges. Producing 5 gallons of wort with a gravity of 1.200 would require about 40 lbs of Pilsner malt and many hours of boiling. The next trick would be trying to find a yeast that will stop at 20% attenuation. And with more residual sugars than any Barleywine starts out with, this would be a keg-only brew. That is, assuming you could push the thick goop through your draft system.

BYO took a swing at the style a few years back, but erroneously stated that the starting gravity should be in the 1.040-1.048 range. The Distant Mirror also has a recipe for a Medieval English Mumm Ale, but it is more of a Keut (Gruit). If I were to attempt a Mumme, I would probably brew a straightforward Altbier, keg or bottle, then blend it with some Mumme drink or dark malt extract at the time of consumption. Of course, a shot of Jager in a pint of Mrs. Butterworth’s would be a quick and dirty test to see if a Mumme is something you should pursue.

In any case, with Beervana’s love for historic brews, like Goses and Oyster Stouts, it should only be a matter of time before we get an Upright Farmhouse Mumme, a Cascade Sour Mumme and a Hopworks CDM. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if Breakside already has one in the queue.

Cheers!
Kevin

Since Jeff decided to revisit the topic of brown malt again yesterday, and was nice enough to toss up a link to my site, I figured I’d post the recipe for a Black Strap Stout I brewed a couple weeks back; a 19th century-esque export stout with a generous portion of brown malt.

Black Strap Stout

Batch Size: 5.0 gallons
Boil Volume: 6.5 gallons

8 lb Great Western Pale Malt (68%)
2 lb Crisp Brown Malt (17%)
12 oz Baird Black Malt (6.5%)
2 oz Crisp Roasted Barley (1%)
2 oz Baird Crystal 135-165L (1%)
12 oz Unsulfured Black Strap Molasses (6.5%)

1 oz Chinook (10.9 AA%) @ 90
0.5 oz Willamette (4.8 AA%) @ 30

Danstar Nottingham Yeast

Estimated Efficiency: 70%
Estimated Attenuation 75%
Estimated OG: 1.060
Estimated FG: 1.015
Estimated ABV: 5.8%
Estimated IBU: 50
Estimated SRM: 50+

Mash @ 154º(F) for 1 hour.
Boil for 90 minutes.
Ferment @ 66º(F).

As I mentioned in the comments to Jeff’s original post, and he further explained in his post yesterday, modern brown malt is a far cry from the stuff used to make the 100% brown malt porters of the 1700s. However, modern brown malt is in the same ball park as the brown malt being used toward the end of the 1800s, when stouts and porters were both made from a mix of pale, brown and black malts.

The grain bill for my Black Strap Stout was heavily influenced by Ron Pattinson and Kris England’s recipe for 1877 Whitbread Extra Stout. I kept their ratios of pale, brown and black malts intact, but did make a few adjustments. I lowered the gravity a bit, sliced the 100+ IBUs in half and of course, added the black strap molasses. The result is part 19th century stout, part homage to the dearly departed BridgePort Black Strap Stout.

On brewday, things went swimmingly. I completely overshot my estimated starting gravity, hitting 1.066, around 80% efficiency. Since nothing in my process changed, I’m guessing I finally brewed with enough dark malts to drive the PH of my city water down into the low 5′s sweet spot. I also got a chance to try out my new HTL, so no more need to beg/borrow/steal a pot from my brew-buddy Jesse each time I make beer.

This beer still has a week or so to go, but based on early samples, it is a world apart from the typical modern stout. The high percentage of brown malt has given the beer a deep, bready, burn-toast flavor. The black malt and molasses add notes of coffee and anise. A portion of this beer will be bottled next week and set aside to hand out at Christmas. The rest will be moved to another fermenter and aged on either chilies or star anise, depending on how the beer is tasting next week.

Cheers!
Kevin

Somehow, amid the indulgences of Eugene Beer Week, I managed to squeeze a homebrew session into the first week of May. After several months working with the Timothy Taylor (Wyeast 1469) yeast, followed by a quick stint with a German Wheat (Wyeast 3333) strain, I decided to return to brewing Belgians. More specifically, I revisited the first beer I ever brewed, a Belgian-style IPA.

Now, being my first brew, my Belgian IPA had several fatal flaws. First, it contained an obscene amount of carapils, crystal and biscuit malts, about 10% of each. And not fully understanding how hop additions affect beer flavor and aroma, I didn’t include a flameout or dry-hop charge. Equally ignorant on the topic of yeast, I let the beer sail into low 80º’s for the better part of its active fermentation. Welcome to bubblegum city. Still, when I cracked open the first bottle, a plastic 20oz Pepsi bottle mind you, I thought I’d created magic. Oh how quickly we evolve.

A little older and hopefully a little wiser, this time around, I wanted something much cleaner, much drier and much hoppier. While the first Belgian IPA was an attempt at Stone Cali-Belgique, Urthel Hop-It, Auchouffe Houblon and fresh De Ranke XX Bitter were all inspiration for this brew. 

Belgian Bitter

Batch Size: 5.0 gallons
Boil Volume: 6.5 gallons

4 lb 11 oz Great Western 2-Row (44%)
4 lb 11 oz Weyermann Pilsner (44%)
1 lb 4 oz Flaked Maize (12%)

0.68 oz (19 gm) Columbus (14.5 AA%) @ 60
1.0 oz Styrian Golding (3.8 AA%) @ 15
1.0 oz Czech Saaz (5.5 AA%) @ Flame Out (steeped 30 minutes)

Wyeast 3522 – Belgian Ardennes

Estimated Efficiency: 70%
Estimated Attenuation 75%
Estimated OG: 1.056
Estimated FG: 1.014
Estimated ABV: 5.4%
Estimated IBU: 48
Estimated SRM: 3

Mash @ 149º(F) for 1 hour.
Boil for 100 minutes, start adding hops after 40.
Ferment @ 66º(F).

A pretty simple grain bill, mashed low to create a very fermentable wort. A long boil was used to retain a touch of sweetness and give a dash of color to the extremely pale ale. For yeast, I had thought about pulling the Duvel culture from my original Belgian IPA back out of the bank, but decided instead to give the Achouffe (Wyeast 3522) strain a try. From my experience with Achouffe beers, this yeast provides a nice spiciness, along with some faint fruit notes.

To keep the fruitiness in check, I fermented near the bottom of the strain’s temperature range, at 66º(F). The yeast took off quickly, but stalled around 1.030. and fell out of suspension. I ended up having to raise to temperature a few degrees and rouse the fermenter a time or two to get the beer to finish out. At 18 days in the tank, the gravity is now down to 1.012. Using my slightly higher than estimated starting gravity of 1.058, this puts the beer at 5.9% ABV and the yeast attenuation at 80%.

I am still trying to decide whether or not to dry-hop this beer. From the samples I’ve pulled, the Saaz flavor is coming through nicely, but I’d like a little more of it in the aroma. On the other hand, the low fermentation temperature resulted in a soft Belgian yeast character and I’d hate to mask it completely with another shot of hops. I suppose I still have some time to make a decision. I am out of free kegs at the moment and the beer fridge is completely full of bottles. This one will be sitting in a fermenter until something clears up. Yeah, I know, tough situation to be in.

Cheers!
Kevin