Le Noir Petit Mort


A black white beer. The idea of the beer doesn't make sense, but Quebec brewery's and the Bruery out of Orange County, CA have made sense of what this style can be. To the eye the beer in the glass appears to be a porter or stout, until the aroma surrounds you with the Belgian citrus and coriander. Some confusion and intrigue the first time you try this beer. The taste is dry like the whiter version but with some more body. The dark malts don't overpower this style but play a supporting role to the lead roles of citrus and coriander of the classic white beer. The crystal and dark malts create a chocolate covered orange effect. In this batch we used pale and wheat malt. As well as crystal, aromatic, and dark munich. The color was achieved with debittered belgian black malt and chocolate wheat. Some molasses was added for color and flavor. Lightly hopped to not overtake the spices and malts. A great summer beer that doesn't look like a summer beer. A collaborative recipe between myself and fellow brewer and master mead maker Jon Talkington of Brimming Horn Meadery. We used lots of spices and added more as we tasted the wort during the process. Both being surprised by how much the darker malts masked the normally poignant flavor of white beer, citrus and coriander. Cooled to 70 degrees in thirty five minutes and pitched Fermentis Safbrew T-58 dry yeast.



Houblon Abbey Blonde



To start let's see what wikipedia has to say about this style. "Blonde or Golden Ale. Duvel, a typical blond Belgian ale Duvel is the archetypal Belgian blonde ale, and one of the most popular bottled beers in the country as well as being well-known internationally.Its name means "Devil" and some other blonde beers follow the theme -- Satan, Lucifer, Brigand, Piraat and so on. The style is popular with Wallonian brewers, the slightly hazy Moinette being the best-known example. Delirium Tremens can be considered a spiced version."

Those are some very tasty brews. In my take on the "beer style" I'll be adding a large quantity of hops toward the end of the boil as well as dry hops. Using a melange of American grown hop variety's with Hallertau Mittlefruh parentage. Liberty, Mt. Hood, and Vanguard.

Also using Fermentis Safbrew S-33, been having good results with dry yeast lately and haven't tried S-33 yet. This is what Fermentis has to say about S-33, "A very popular general purpose yeast, displaying both very robust conservation properties and consistent performance. This yeast produces superb flavour profiles and is used for the production of a varied range of top fermented special beers (Belgian type wheat beers, Trappist, etc.). Sedimentation: medium. Final gravity: high. Also recommended for bottle-conditioning of beers. Excellent performance in beers with alcohol contents of up to 7.5% v/v but can ferment up to 11.5% v/v."

In the grist in pale malt, wheat malt, rye malt, Belgian aromatic, honey malt, and toasted rye flakes. Mash rest at 152 degrees right now, about half way through. Then mash out to 168, this will allow beta-amylase to really get in there and create body. Also allowing for a better runoff from the change in viscosity of the wort. Over low to medium heat stirring the whole time, should take about ten to fifteen minutes to raise the temperature to 168-170 degrees from 150 degrees. It sure is tiring though. Just finished. About to start vorlauf. Good brew day. Knocked it out in four hours. Wort cool down took thirty minutes to get to 75 degrees.