La Fin de l'ete Saison
The end of summer. Unless your going south of the equator in the next few weeks then the summer sun is setting. Today's saison brew has Pils malt, wheat malt, torrified red wheat, biscuit malt, and rye malt. Hops are east kent goldings, styrian goldings, and dry hop with saaz. The twist on today's recipe is I'm adding 4 grams of Schinus Molle, more commonly referred to as red or pink peppercorns. Though there is no relation to the true pepper family Piperaceae. These red berry's are sweet with a slight peppery bite, some juniper berry type qualities. The wikipedia page gives this as a description, "Schinus molle is a quick growing evergreen tree that grows to 15 meters (50 feet) tall and 5-10 meters (16-33 feet) wide. It is the largest of all Schunus species and potentially the longest lived."
Good brew day. Cooling the wort down now. Only going to cool the wort to 80 degrees Fahrenheit to promote a very healthy fermentation for the saison yeast. I've heard Saison Dupont ferments up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I'll go for 80's on this one. Planning on dry hopping with saaz and more styrian goldings.
Rye Pale Ale v2.0
Brewed this beer with home brew friend a few weeks back and were brewing it again with different hops and a slight malt bill adjustment this time. The last brew turned out quite nice. A little dark, it was approaching amber. Looking to brighten in up and bring it a pale color. This brew has pale malt, rye malt, dark Munich malt, wheat malt, and crystal rye. For hops let's drop the "C" hop bomb into this one. Yup. That means a little warrior for bittering, then into the cascade, columbus, chinook, and centennial. Some in the kettle and dry hops. These "C" hops are some of the most popular hops in American style pale ales. They contribute a citrus grapefruit character. Well it's three in the morning. Waiting for the wort to cool. Then aerate the wort and pitch the yeast. Four in the morning and all wrapped up.
Green Peppercorn Rye Amber Ale
This is a beer I've been wanting to make for quite some time. I'm using the German ale yeast from last weekends rauchbier. Racking off the yeast and just knocking out right on top of the yeast. Ever since I tasted Dieu du Ciel!'s Route D'Spices I wanted to try and re create the amazing peppercorn flavor in that beer. It is an amazing beer that starts malty and ends witha a nice peppery finish. That demands you to take another sip to have that pepper bite again. The rye malt contributes it's own peppery quality as well. I really like fresh ground pepper, so I'm going for a little more assertive pepper flavor but still not overwhelming. Runoff going well, but it's getting close, yup, stuck mash. No problem, just deep cut, you can feel the grain bed sucked to the false bottom. Re-Vorlauf to clear the wort and start running off again till kettle full. Here is a video of mashing in. I have a grist case that feeds the crushed grains into the mash tun with a knife valve. Works great. Getting ready to start brewing much more into the fall. Sour Shack is being constructed in the catacombs to begin brewing sour beers soon. Looking forward to bringing some funk.
Rauchbier
Been over a month since my last post. I took a little home brewing hiatus. Went home for a week and a half. With only a few weeks left of summer I'm starting to think about the last bbq's of the season so I'm going to brew a German inspired rauchbier today. The BJCP style guidelines say this about the history of the style. "A historical special of the city of Bamberg, in the Franconian region of Bavaria in Germany. Beechwood-smoked malt is used to make a Marzen-style amber lager. The smoke character of the malt varies by maltster; some breweries produce their own smoked malt"
Traditionally the Germans used lager yeast to make classic rauchbier but since I can't brew lagers at home right now I'm going to be using the Wyeast 1007 German Ale yeast and ferment it cool, lower than 65 degrees. Also I'm using the Briess cherry wood smoked malt instead of the traditional beechwood rauchmalz. Fairly simple malt bill with pale malt, smoked malt, amber malt, aromatic malt, munich malt, melanoidin malt and a dash of chocolate wheat malt. Very light hops, just enough to balance the malt sweetness. Smoked bacon is the flavor I'm looking for today. Great brew day. Good to make a five gallon batch again. Got a new toy. An aquarium pump aeration setup. Worked great, only drawback was the foaming over. Just unplugged for minute and all was well. Nice to see oxygen getting dissolved into the wort. This is the first time I've been able to aerate my homebrew. That little stone chugs right along.
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