Copenhagen Beer Celebration

 On May 3rd, my friend Andrej and I departed for Copenhagen to attend the Copenhagen Beer Celebration, a beer festival organized by Danish brewer and beer freak Mikkeller.  They held the first version of this beer festival last year and I read about it last summer.  From what I read, Mikkeller had attended another larger beer festival in the area and had not been impressed.  Larger beer festivals can feature drunken folks partying like mad, imbibing massive quantities of industrial lager with no clue about the beer.  These can sometimes just be massive parties.  Which I suppose can be okay.  But for me, the least appealing aspect of beer festivals are the people who know nothing about beer, don't care and are just out to get hammered.  It's not like I stay sober, but I'm there to try the beer, to taste something new, to inspire myself as a brewer.

Bikes dominate Copenhagen, and, of course, bike shops!

Mikkeller seems to have decided that this other show was bullshit.  He decided to organize his own festival and have it feature world class craft brewers from around the world.  No big brewers.  No industrial lager.  He decided to limit the tickets to 1000 people.  He decided to get rid of paying for each beer and just have tickets for the door that weren't cheap (around 60 euros per session, three sessions total so 180 euros per person to attend the entire day and a half festival), then have the festival be all you can drink with no tickets, no tokens or money changing hands for beer.  This vastly sped up the process of getting a beer since the servers simply took the glass, filled it and handed it back.  He wanted the brewers to attend and be the ones pouring the beer.  Usually at a beer festival, it's a volunteer who knows nothing about the beer.  At this show, it was almost always someone from the brewery and most often the brewer themselves who poured the beer.  This meant we could ask them highly technical questions and not be met with a glazed look of uncertainty.  We got answers to every question we could think of to ask.

The glass was very, very small, but we could get it filled multiple times with the same beer if we wanted another sample.  We didn't do this, though.  Andrej and I made our way through 110 beers out of roughly 270 on offer at the festival.  There were around 29 brewers there, most of them from America.  There were many, many barrel aged beers, many Imperial Stouts (almost all barrel aged), many extremely strong beers, many Brett beers, many sours, many IPAs and Imperial IPAs.  A beer geek's paradise.  Simply put, it's the best beer festival I've ever attended and I've been to a few.

Andrej was on a mission to drink a lot of hoppy beers.  He loves hops and it was a real opportunity to drink some Imperial IPAs from many different brewers, to try a lot of single hop IPAs to try out some hops he hasn't tried and to enjoy trying a wide range of hoppy and bitter beers we simply don't have access to in Croatia.  For similar reasons, I went on a sort of Brett and sour rampage.  The only Brett beer I have access to here is Orval.  I tried most of the Brett beers available at the show, which was a pretty large number.  I think I only missed a few.  I also tried a number of sours.  I wanted to take the opportunity, like Andrej, to try beers that we cannot get where we live.  I wanted to try to figure out exactly what I do and don't like about wild or wild inspired beers.  I came away from the festival with a pretty good idea in that regard.  I found that I love Brett when it's at a certain level, and that level can be pretty high, but when it goes beyond a certain level of funkiness that it can be too much for me.  I would say I really liked more than 75% of the Brett beers I tried and I loved many of those.  Sour beers were a bit different story.  I found I only liked maybe 25% of those.  I just don't like a really strong sourness, so when they were really sour, I didn't enjoy them.  I had some lambics that I liked, though, and some other wild beers that I also liked.  I came away with the understanding that I like Brett more than I like sour, though, and that's a good thing to have determined as I move forward with my plans for brewing many more Brett beers.

Andrej at Mikkeler and Friends, a bar co owned by Mikkeller and To Ol.

There were a number of really great brewers at the festival.  I found that I had my favorites, of course, and I tried most, if not all of their beers.  The real standouts for me were Anchorage Brewing, Westbrook Brewing, Lervig Aktiebryggerri, Amager Bryghus and Jester King.  These guys were all doing a lot of Brett or wild inspired beers and had many good ones on offer.  My top 2 were Anchorage and Westbrook.  I kept going to them over and over and tried almost all of their beers.  I managed to buy a bottle of Anchorage's beer "Love Buzz Saison" to take home and shared with a friend and we loved it.  8% abv Saison with 40 ibus that uses a regular Belgian yeast for primary, then does a secondary in a wine barrel with Brett.  Amazing beer.  The Brett level is just right.  It's there, it's in your face, but it's also pleasant.

Some of the brewers were also disappointing, however.  Before the show, I had been looking forward to the brewers from more distant locales; China, Japan, Brazil, Australia.  The brewers from China and Japan were actually Americans.  And they seemed to me to be making mostly very mainstream American ales of various sorts, nothing too wild, nothing too experimental.  The brewers from Australia and Brazil had good beer, but nothing extreme, nothing very adventurous and I went to this festival for adventurous beers.

Here are a few beers that stood out as extra tasty or interesting to me:

From Amager Bryghus, a brewery from Denmark:

Showdown in Tourpes.  This is labelled as a US style Saison, but my notes indicate it was hoppy like an IPA.  Tomahawk, Citra and Amarillo hops in this one.

Hr. Papso in Black, a Black APA.  Extremely nice.  Very hoppy with some black grain character.  Dry but full bodied.

Godverdomme, a Flemish Red.  A lovely sour beer.

From Anchorage Brewing, an Alaskan brewery:

The Tides and its Takers Tripel, 9.0% abv, a barrel aged tripel with Brettanomyces.  Nice beer.  Some nice Brett funk here that reminded me of Orval.

Anadromous Black Sour, 8.5% abv.  Belgian Sacch. strain used for primary, Brett from wood aging and a pedio/lactic blend for souring.  Funky beer and a really nice sour.  Maybe the best sour I had at this festival.

Love Buzz Saison, 8% abv, a barrel aged Saison with Brettanomyces and rose hips and peppercorns.  Hugely complex.  Funky with tangy fruit.  Not only hugely interesting, but hugely tasty!

From Brewdog of Scotland:

Abstrakt 12, a Belgian Black Imperial IPA with Scottish berries.

Hello, My Name is Ingrid, a Double IPA that used cloudberries, a type of berry from Sweden.  Bramling Cross, Columbus, Centennial and Nelson Sauvin for the hops.  Some berry notes and some elderflower character from the Nelson Sauvin.  Those hops mixed well with the berries.  Fruit not overdone.  Nice balance.  Complex, interesting and tasty.



From Cigar City Brewing, a Florida brewery:

Dos Costas Saison aged on lemon wood with Brettanomyces.  Soft Brett character here.  A dry, well rounded beer with tangy notes.  Pretty soft and quite nice.

From Firestone Walker in California:

Parabola, a Bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout, 12.5% abv.  Awesome RIS.  Very rich and full of character.

Sadly, I didn't care for any of their other beers and I tried a bunch.  Most were too sweet for me.

From The Kernel Brewery in the UK:

India Pale Ale Double Citra, 9.8% abv.  Wow!  Awesome!  Very hoppy, naturally.  Nice balance.  A touch sweet in the mouth but finishes dry.

From Lervig Aktiebryggeri in Norway:

Farmhouse Stout, 10.6% abv.  They used White Labs WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend in this, which has a Belgian Saison yeast and Brett.  The beer was very nice.  Loads of esters and a touch of Brett.

Chair Beer, 4.0%.  A 100% Brett Trois ale.  Fruity and dry with a slight funk.  Quite nice.

From Mikkeller himself:

Barrel Aged George, the cognac edition.  I just wrote "Oh my god!  Amazing!"

From Siren Brewing in the UK:

Oi! Zeus! An Imperial Stout with vanilla and chili peppers.  This one was amazing.  Peppers gave it some heat but it was very nicely balanced. 

Experiment 366, a Barleywine using a new hop noted to be "Citra on steroids".  Everything perfect in this beer.  Great balance.

From Surly Brewing in the US:

Cynic, a 6.5% abv Saison.  Columbus and Styrian Goldings.  Oats in the grist as well.  Very nice beer.  Good mouthfeel here, dry finish.

From Westbrook Brewing in the US:

Funky Old Time, an 11% abv Black Sour.  Amazing.  Pretty sour!  A lovely lingering grain aftertaste that I adored.

Bearded Farmer Thomas, a Saison with Brett.  Lovely.  Nice balance.  Fruity Brett character with some funk.


Comrade Appleseed, Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Imperial Stout.  Complex and tasty with a touch of apple character.

From Xbeeriment in Denmark:

Black Force One XO, a 10.4% abv Bourbon barrel aged Imperial Stout.  Very nice.  Full of flavor.  Rich with some wood and bourbon character.

Bretty Boop, a nice 100% Brett beer.  Typical Brett with sharp fruit and funk.  Lemony tartness.  I love it.

There were a LOT of other great beers and a lot of other interesting beers, but these ones were the tops for me of what I tried.

And, one brewer was a real disappointment.  Before the show, I saw that he had a lot of Saisons and such and was looking forward to them, but Stillwater Artisan Ales was a disappointment.  I went there early in the show and asked for his "A Saison Darkly".  I assumed it was just a black Saison of some sort.  He poured it for me and it smelled like sulfur.  Not a pleasant smell at all.  I took a drink and the beer was sweet.  It had literally NOTHING in common with a Saison.  It simply was not a Saison.  I am not a style Nazi or anything, but when you see something labelled a certain way, you expect a certain flavor profile.  He had a Biere De Garde on as well, so I thought maybe he just poured me the wrong beer, so I asked and he said that it was the Saison and something along the lines of "well, Saison, Biere De Garde, whatever, those styles are all the same anyway".  That's simply not true.  Saison is a hoppy, very dry pale beer with a ton of yeast character, generally, and Biere De Garde is almost the opposite; a darker, sweet beer with not much yeast character at all.  To add to my disappointment in the foul smelling and not so good tasting beer in front of me, the brewer had a sort of vibe to him that I didn't like.  I avoided his beers the rest of the day.  I tried one more of his beers the next day, another Saison but this one was a bit better if nothing spectacular.  After that, I just didn't bother.  Only tried two, but in a place filled with inspiring beers, his left me uninterested.  I think it's not worth seeking his beers out.

Another brewer that I think is worth mentioning is Jester King, from Austin, Texas.  This brewery uses a lot of Brett in their facility.  I didn't try any beers from them that didn't have Brett.  They had a lovely Imperial Stout called Black Metal.  The brewer said they didn't use Brett in it, but I picked up a touch of Brett there that was quite nice.  He said they use so much Brett that it's possible some got in there.  Not certain on that, but I *am* certain that it was a great beer.

Other than that, they had a lot of beers that were very interesting.  I didn't fully love any of them other than the Imperial Stout, though.  They were very strange, very adventurous and very interesting.  I emptied my glass on every occasion, but I wouldn't want to drink a full glass of any of them.  I would call these beers challenging.  They challenge you to try them, they dare you to accept them.  I did both, but I didn't really love them.  Perhaps they'd grow on me over time if I lived near them and could get their beers regularly.

One of their other beers worth noting was called Salt Lick.  This was a Pecan wood smoked Saison with Brett that was also a touch sour.  Very interesting, but the smoke dominated a strange mix of flavors and aromas that didn't really work well together.  Very interesting indeed, but did they pull it off?  I don't really think so but I would try it again to find out.  This brewery is worth seeking out even if it's only for their sheer balls on what they're brewing.

The festival was awesome, as I said.  They had gigantic water tanks, like a cubic meter plastic tank that they would refill.  We washed our glasses there, drank water throughout the day and stayed hydrated.  There were only two real bummers that weren't so bad.  When the show started, they had no map for the festival, so for the first hour or two, we had no idea which brewers were in what area.  And they also had no signs for the brewers up anywhere where you could see them.  After an hour or two, we figured out where everyone was, so that's not a huge deal.  And then they finally did put up maps on the water tanks so you could check them out while cleaning your glass.  The beers that were available at the stands were listed on a small piece of paper on the table in front of the taps, which was also sort of a bummer.  When there was a crowd or line, which was usually the case, we couldn't see what was available until we got to the front, and sometimes it wasn't something we wanted so we waited in that line for nothing.  We'd try to stick our head in there to see, but this wasn't always possible.  If there were anything I'd change about the show, it'd be that.  The brewers should have signs behind them, even if they're just simple print outs.  The signs should be up high enough so they can be seen and should list the brewery and what beers they have on tap.  That would have made life a bit easier at the show.

Andrej and I raise a glass of tasty beer at the festival.

That said, those are minor gripes.  Everything else was great.  I was concerned about the small glass before the show, but it was no problem.  It was actually enough beer to sample and allowed us to try a lot more beers than if we had had a larger glass.

Oh, and two key questions that beer festival attendees might find
important:

The WCs set up at the show were actually okay.  They had them outside in a sort of trailer, two sets of them.  Inside each trailer was maybe 10 or 15 individual little toilet rooms.  They were decently clean and not disgusting and there were enough that the wait was never more than 5 minutes or so even when the festival was at its most crowded.

The food at the show was decent as well.  Some interesting fish cakes that were pretty tasty.  Towards the entrance was a sausage stand that was pretty good as well.  They had 3 or so types of sausages and you could order a mixed set with some sort of garnish, pickles, onions and whatnot.  I forget exactly, but we ate many of those.  There was other food as well, but not a huge selection.  Good enough for me.  I had some tasty food there.

We also hit a few local pubs, our favorite of which was Mikkeler and Friends, a new pub on Stefansgade with a bottle shop attached.  We hung out there for a long session on Sunday afternoon and evening.  Our favorite beer of that session was Mikkeller's 1000 ibu Imperial IPA.  It was quite tasty.  Strangely, the bitterness was not too much.  A very nice beer worth seeking out.  The bottle shop is also worth a visit.  They have a decent selection of eclectic beers.

Copenhagen, however, is very expensive.  So, be aware of this.

This beer festival receives my highest recommendation.  If you have the money and time, you should go.  It's the best beer festival I've ever attended.  If you like adventurous beers, beers with a lot of flavor, brewers taking huge risks, if you want to taste cutting edge beer then this festival is for you.

Flaked Corn Belgian

Well, what to call this beer?  I've settled on Maizeltov.  Mazel tov on Wikipedia..  Maize on Wikipedia.

Hippy corn flakes from Konzum. Nothing but corn.

I'm basically making a Belgian Golden Strong Ale, but instead of using any sugar in the boil, I'm using flaked corn.  I've never used corn of any kind in my beers.  Corn and rice have a bad reputation in brewing because of crappy industrial adjunct lagers, otherwise known as Coors, Miller, Budweiser.  Or, well, I reversed the order, but BMC in America.  But it's the same shit everywhere around the world.  Whether they are used because they are cheaper or because they lighten the flavor is almost a moot point, though I think it's the price thing.  I mean, let's be real.  These are gigantic corporations and they don't give a shit about flavor as long as it's selling.  They buy the equivalent of crappy cattle feed and use it as a large percentage of their grist when making their beers.

Well, anyway, I've had some beers with corn in them that were great, some Pre Prohibition Lagers with a definite note from the corn that was quite nice.  I didn't really feel like brewing a lager for this, though, so I went with this.  I'm using enough corn here, I figure.  If it doesn't gain any character from this, I will have to consider another kind of corn.  This style might not support this well, but I'll just go for it.  Worst case scenario, I figure I end up with a decent beer with no corn character.  I suspect I will survive.

For the yeast, I went with a very reliable yeast, supposedly the Achouffe strain from White Labs, WLP550.  I've found this yeast to be a very strong yeast that drops bright.  Most alcohol tolerant strains aren't flocculent.  That's what makes them attenuate to a decent percentage.  They don't drop out, so they keep working on fermentation.  But with this yeast, it ferments and drops out, leaving a bright beer and attenuation over 80%.  And it tastes quite nice, giving a tasty mix of fruit and spice.

I went with some noble hops here to give a nice, soft and rounded hop character.  I used enough of them to leave their impression on the beer.  That's the headspace I'm in these days.  I don't want a Tripel with no hop character, I want some meat on them bones, though nothing crazy.  Why not round the Saaz up to 50 grams?  I ran out!  Only had 49 grams.

RIMS brewing system.

Recipe: 176:  Maizeltov
Style: Belgian Golden Strong Ale

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 27.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 22.40 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.00 l  
OG: 1.070 SG
Color: 7.7 EBC
IBU: 28.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 74.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes


Ingredients:
------------
4.75 kg               Pilsner  (3.7 EBC)                                               76.0 %       
1.50 kg               Corn, Flaked (2.6 EBC)                                      24.0 %  
 
26.00 g               Tettnang [5.50 %] - First Wort 90.0 min            17.6 IBUs    
49.00 g               Saaz [3.48 %] - Boil 20.0 min                            10.8 IBUs
 
1.0 pkg               Belgian Ale (White Labs #WLP550)           


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 6.25 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                            
Mash in             Add 18.00 l of water       148.0 F       90 min       
Mash Step         Add 0.00 l of water         168.0 F       15 min       

Sparge: Fly sparge with 16 l water.

Ancient brew computer, about 14 years old.

Water was like so:

83% distilled water, 17% carbon filtered tap water.  Calcium Sulfate, Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate added to achieve these numbers:

Ca 67
Mg 12
Na 1
Chloride 66
Sulfate 76
Alkalinity 52
Residual Alkalinity -46
Chloride to Sulfate ratio of .88, balanced.
5 ml of lactic acid added to mash as well.

Brew day went very well.  I was wondering if the large amount of flaked corn I used would cause a stuck sparge or slow it down, but no.  Very clear runoff, no troubles.  The wort had a definite aroma and flavor of corn.  Very nice.  Yeast was pitched a bit warmer this time, around 69.  I'm gonna crank this one up a bit, maybe end around 78.  I checked on the beer 5 hours after pitching, and it was already extremely active with a big foamy head, heavy bubbling of the airlock and crazy swarms of yeast swimming and swirling.  I love this yeast.  The pack from White Labs was a bit old from 3 months ago or so, so I made a two stage starter.  First stage was 500ml.  It went crazy and fermented that really fast.  Second stage was 1.5 liters and again with the crazy.  Nice and easy to work with and a nice character as well.

Updates:

14-05-2013:   Pulled a sample last night.  SG is at ~1.009, around 87% attenuated.  Pretty clear already.  Tastes very nice, though of course the yeast dominates the character on this one.  Nice mix of spicy and fruity.  Dry finish here.  There's a touch of corn character here, but it's pretty faint.  The alcohol is slightly hot, but not so much for this age.  I will age this one a little bit before bottling, so will rack it likely next week.  So far, so good!  Tasty beer!

Brett Trois IPA

On Sunday, April 14th, I brewed a 100% Brett Trois IPA.  This is my first time using Brett, so I went with Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois, WLP644 from White Labs, which I have read is pretty mild and not so funky.  I am not someone who likes sour beers, but I've been thinking about them lately and wondering what it is that I don't like, exactly.  Is it that they're sour and I don't like sourness?  Is it the funky character, some of which is derived from Brett?  I don't like Lambic or Geuze, for instance.  Never have.  I try a wild beer now and then and have been trying them for more than 20 years.  People always say, "oh, but you have to try this one from Rodenbach or Boon or Fantome".  I've tried beers from all of those places, and many, many more and have yet to encounter a wild beer that I enjoy.  I can sometimes enjoy an Orval, which has Brett, and sometimes not.  Might depend on the age and level of funk. 

Citra hops on the surface at the beginning of the boil.

That said, there's another surge of activity in America with regards to wild or wild inspired beers.  Some of these are 100% Brett beers.  Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to taste any.  So I figured what the hell?  I have nothing to lose other than a little of my time and effort.  I will be heading to Copenhagen in early May for the Copenhagen Beer Celebration and hope that they will have some interesting wild or wild inspired beers to try.

This yeast is reported to not be very funky unless it's aged, and even then, it's supposed to be a pretty mild funk.  Seems like a good place to start.  From reading a ton of info, it sounds like it can give a heavy fruity character including notes of tropical fruit, pineapple and sometimes a slight tart lemon character that can come from acetic acid production by the yeast when it's working in the presence of oxygen.  I went easy on the aeration for the beer that I brewed, only shaking the fermenter and not using pure O2 as I usually do.  When the starter was fermenting, it gave off an interesting rotting fruit character.  I see people describe it online as "overripe fruit", but that seems a bit mild to me.  Mine smelled like rotting fruit during fermentation.  I partially decanted that starter and drank some, though, and it had sadly lost all of that character.  It was pretty mild.  Some slight fruitiness with a soft lemony tartness to it.  It was pleasant and tasty but wasn't as packed with flavor or aroma as I was expecting or hoping for.

Now, 12 days later, I just pulled a sample.  It's 87.5% attenuated, at 1.008, down from 1.064.  It still tastes a bit green with a little sharpness to the grain character, but that's normal for this young of a beer.  It's mostly a very hoppy and bitter beer.  It tastes and smells great but I don't pick out any unusual yeast character.  Very nice, fruity and hoppy IPA.  The yeast works well with hops, but I can't really discern any special character from it.

fermentation at the 14 hour mark

The recipe is as follows:

Recipe: 175:  Brett Trois IPA
Style: IPA
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 37.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 30.60 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 27.00 l 
Estimated OG: 1.064 SG
Estimated Color: 14.6 EBC
Estimated IBU: 49.8 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %

Boil Time: 90 Minutes


 Ingredients:
------------
                                                                           
5.50 kg               Pale Malt  (8.0 EBC)                                 68.8 %       
1.50 kg               Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC)                          18.8 %       
0.50 kg               Crystal Malt - 50 (50.0 EBC)                      6.3 %        
0.50 kg               Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC)                              6.3 %
  
37.00 g               Citra-2012-pellets [14.20 %] - First Wort Hop                   49.8 IBUs    
35.00 g               Chinook [11.80 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min                       
35.00 g               Citra-2012 [15.00 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 m                           
35.00 g               Galaxy [12.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min                       
 
1 pkg                  Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois (White Labs WLP644)           

20.00 g               Chinook [11.80 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days               
20.00 g               Citra-2012 [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days                 
20.00 g               Galaxy [12.50 %] - Dry Hop 7.0 Days                                


Mash Schedule: My Mash
Total Grain Weight: 8.00 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                                           Temp.        Step Time    
Mash Step                                                                   122.0 F       15 min
Mash in                                                                        153.0 F       60 min       
Mash Step                                                                   168.0 F       15 min

Water was like so:

55% distilled water, 45% carbon filtered tap water.  Calcium Sulfate, Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate added to achieve these numbers:

Ca 131
Mg 19
Na 4
Chloride 98
Sulfate 140
Alkalinity 144
Residual Alkalinity 4
Chloride to Sulfate ratio of .70, bitter.

5 ml of lactic acid added to mash as well.

White Labs packages these Brett strains with a very low cell count as they're intended for use in a long secondary, where the Brett slowly eats at the wort.  If you want to use them for primary, you need to make a decently large starter.  I've read that the starter should have a cell count somewhere between a lager and an ale starter, so a pretty large cell count.  That said, I have also read that Brett creates more cells with a smaller starter than regular Saccharomyces yeasts do, so the amount of bang for your buck with starters is larger.  I took an 11 day lead time for mine.  A stir plate was used throughout.  The first step was around 450 ml for two days.  I then added around 600 ml of fresh wort.  After 3 days, I added another 1.15 liters or so, for a total of 2.2 liters.  I left that for 3 days then chilled it for 3 days with the intention of decanting the starter.  It was still milky with yeast in the bottom half, though, so I only decanted down to about 900 ml and pitched all of that.  For the starter, the yeast was pretty quiet on the first step.  Didn't see a lot of activity.  Second step was noticeably more active, and the third step was very active.  I used foam control on that third step, though, as this was about 2200 ml in a 2 liter flask and I didn't want it to foam over.

This was pitched on the cool side, around 64, but I turned on the heater and it was up to 70 within 6 hours and showing activity with some visible swirling.  About 14 hours later it was extremely active.  Fermentation was conducted between 70 and 73 or so, then warmed to 75 after activity dropped off and left to sit there until this 12 day mark I'm at now.

I intend to keg this beer and bring it to a homebrew gathering we will have on June 1st, assuming it doesn't suck.  At this point, it certainly doesn't suck.  So far so good.  For now, I will leave it alone.  I don't think I will secondary this, but I am waiting to dry hop it until it's a little closer to kegging time so I can get some fresh hop character in the beer when it's served.

Updates:

14-05-2013:  I pulled a sample of this last night after 5 days on dry hops to see if I need to use more.  I will not use more.  I actually liked the flavor of the beer better before dry hopping.  It had a rich fruitiness to it before that has been partially covered by the dry hops.  The dry hops have a little bit of harsh edge to them and a bit of grassiness that I don't entirely like.  That said, in my experience, dry hop character will soften up a bit once I pull the beer off those hops, so I'm hopeful that this will swing back into balance with some of the rich fruit character that this beer had before.

This will go into the keg this week and will have 2 weeks to sit in the keg, to carbonate and integrate flavors.  Hopefully that does the trick.  If not, the beer is a very nice beer already anyway.  I just want more of that fruit character that it had before, which I really love.

Also, interestingly enough, it has formed a very thin pellicle across the surface.  I have read that Brett does this in the presence of oxygen.  Perhaps adding the dry hops pushed a touch of oxygen into the beer.  Or, perhaps it's because I was using a foam stopper with aluminum foil instead of an airlock.  Or, just maybe it's a symptom of time and the beer has sat long enough now that the pellicle formed.  Whatever the case, it looks pretty cool.  I put on an airlock just in case, though.

02-06-2013:  We drank the keg of this beer yesterday at our Second Hombrew Competition in Zagreb.  When I tapped it a huge line formed and I was pouring the beer nonstop until it was gone, limiting people to a half cup each so that everyone could try it.  It went quick, I guess in maybe 20 minutes or something.  People loved it.  It went over very well.

This beer came out very nice in the long run.  The dry hops softened a little and the beer had a lovely balance to it.  This one is worth repeating.

Belgian Black IPA, or as I call it Belgian Congo Black Ale.

On April 6th, 2013, a Saturday, I brewed this beer.

I had read a lot online and exchanged some e-mails with some folks about the concept of making a Belgian Black IPA.  Some people are skeptical that the flavors will meld well.  They think that the roasty grains won't go well with the fruity esters and spicy phenols that a Belgian yeast produce.  Some of the people I've seen posting online that have this opinion also think that hops in larger amounts, as with Belgian IPAs, don't go together well with Belgian yeast either.  I don't agree with this opinion.  In addition to the usual suspect, Houblon Chouffe from Achouffe, I've also had a very nice Imperial IPA from Viven.  It's extremely heavily hopped, though I can't clearly recall the yeast character in this particular beer.

I've also made Belgian IPA using various yeasts; Wyeast 3522 and 3711, White Labs WLP530, 545 and 570.  In my opinion, they all worked very nicely with hops.  But, then, in my own Belgian IPAs, I think I don't hop them quite so crazily as some people.  I'm not someone who uses 150 grams of dry hops in a 20 liter batch of Belgian IPA.  I'm more of the mind to use about 40-60 grams of dry hops.

I'm sure I will post more about Belgian IPA in the future as it's currently one of my favorite beers.  So, clearly I don't agree with the people who say that hops in semi large quantities don't work in Belgian beers.  It might simply be that these folks are using too large of a quantity of hops. 

In addition to this, I enjoy the Belgian Imperial Stout Black Albert from De Struise Brewing.  It's quite a tasty beer.  And it has both roast character and fruity yeast character.  They don't clash in this beer.

With all of this in mind, I decided to just go ahead and brew the beer.  I am also someone who doesn't believe in using malts ONLY for color.  I want some character from that dark grain in the beer.  I enjoy when I taste some black grain character in a Black IPA and don't really see the point in trying to totally avoid any character from those grains.  That said, I went with huskless grains; a roasted wheat and a dehusked black malt, and I didn't use unusually large amounts of them.

I used a decently large amount of slurry from a previous Saison using White Labs WLP565, a strain derived from Saison Dupont.  The Saison I made reached over 90% attenuation without the use of sugar, so for this Black IPA, I decided to take a few steps to try to not have a totally dry beer with no mouthfeel.  I used some oats for mouthfeel.  I mashed a bit higher, at 154, to retain some sugars in the beer.  And I used a bit of Crystal.  In addition to that, I aim to ferment this a little cooler than the Saison, which reached 95 F during the ferment.  With this one, I intend to keep it to 85 or under.  I suppose it may sound like I'm working against the yeast here, but I think of it more as understanding what the yeast can do and trying to work with it.  I also went a bit easy on the bittering hops here.  My Belgian IPAs haven't been so crazy with the ibus either, something around .71 to .77 IBU to GU ratio.  This one is a touch lower than even that at .638.

Those are my thoughts going into this beer.  I'll see what the results are.



The recipe is as follows:

Recipe: 174:  Belgian Congo Black Ale
Style: Belgian Black IPA
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 35.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 28.60 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 24.80 l  
OG: 1.071 SG
Estimated Color: 54.9 EBC
Estimated IBU: 45.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %

Boil Time: 90 Minutes


 Ingredients:
------------
                                                                  
6.30 kg               Pale Malt  (8.0 EBC)                                                  75.4 %       
0.70 kg               Cara Gold - 120 (120.0 EBC)                                     8.4 %        
0.50 kg               Oats, Flaked (2.0 EBC)                                              6.0 %        
0.50 kg               Wheat, Flaked (3.2 EBC)                                           6.0 %        
0.25 kg               Wheat, Roasted (900.0 EBC)                                     3.0 %        
0.10 kg               Black Barley Dehusked (1200.0 EBC)                       1.2 %
   
30.00 g               Mosaic-2012 [12.30 %] - Boil 30.0 min                    21.2 IBUs    
68.00 g               Mosaic-2012 [11.80 %] - Boil 10.0 min                    24.0 IBUs    
68.00 g               Mosaic-2012 [11.80 %] - Aroma Steep -5.0              0.0 IBUs

1.0 pkg               Belgian Saison I Ale White Labs #WLP565                               


Mash Schedule:
Total Grain Weight: 8.35 kg
----------------------------
Name              Description                                           Temp.        Step Time    
Mash in           22.00 l of water at                               154.0 F       60 min       
Mash out                                                                     168.0 F       15 min

Water was like so:

100% carbon filtered tap water.  Calcium Sulfate and Calcium Chloride were added to achieve these numbers:

Ca 120
Mg 27
Na 9
Chloride 45
Sulfate 69
Alkalinity 316
Residual Alkalinity 215
Chloride to Sulfate ratio of .65, bitter.

The yeast was pitched at 71F and allowed to rise to 80 over the course of a few days.  It's now 8 days later and activity has slowed a lot.  The beer looks to be in the final stretch of fermentation.  Early in the fermentation, the aroma coming out of the fermenter was amazing.  Too bad that came OUT.  It was a lovely mix of intense hops and esters. 

I pulled a sample today to see how the yeast is performing and it's currently at 1.016 and still showing signs of activity.  I ferment in glass so I can see that it's active.  Anyway, that's more than 77% attenuated.  I'd say if it goes down to 1.010 or 1.012 that that is a good target.  When I pulled the sample, initially the aroma was all yeast character, lots of esters and the taste was pretty harsh and grainy.  I chilled the beer for a few hours while I was brewing and tasted it again.  Totally different beast.  The heavy yeast in suspension had settled out.  And the hops were now dominating the aroma with a heavy grapefruit and tom cat piss aroma.  I had this character from this hop in an IPA recently, though that beer used a lot of different hops so I couldn't be sure it was from this hop.  Seems it was.  It's a very nice character.  The beer also tasted much better, less harsh.  This is 8 day old beer that's still fermenting, though, so it's not good to judge it too much at this stage.  I would say it's shaping up nicely, though. 

Updates:

14-05-2013:  I pulled a sample a couple of days ago to taste it.  The flavors have melded together nicely but there are some harsh fusels in this one, at least at the moment.  I will age it to try to soften those up.  The dark grains, hops and phenols/esters don't seem to me to be clashing, however.  I don't really like fusels, though.  For now, alcohol is dominating the aroma and flavor on this one.  Given that, I will just let it sit for a couple of months at least to see if that can soften up.

Looking at what was done with this one, I assume that the fusels are from over pitching the yeast.  I used the entire washed slurry from a previous batch and that's just too much.  This was fermented cooler than a recent Saison, so I don't think the fusels are from a hot ferment.  Can't be certain, however.