AG#67 Bière de Garde - 15/04/12 + pics

[crookedeyeboy]

No quantities for obvious reasons:

Pale Ale Malt
Amber Malt
Crystal

Saaz Hops

WLP072

[leedsbrew]

Same principle really, base malt, amber for biscuity dryness, crystal for some residual sweetness and euro hops! a small % of total fermentable extract from table sugar (sucrose) helps to aid attenuation and boost abv slightly, both important for this style!

[crookedeyeboy]

I wondered about candy sugar as I am doing that with my other Belgian beers.

[leedsbrew]

Maybe the clear but I'm not sure the flavour contribution from darker candi syrup is appropriate or this style!

[crookedeyeboy]

Im quite new to this style and other Belgians. ive only ever made one Belgian beer, that had Candy in it, 500g of sugar boiled for 30mins.

[smdjoachim]

Paul
Clear candy sugar is a waste of money .Table sugar will do the same job for a 10th of the price.
Darker candy sugars are good,although making your own is much cheaper.

[leedsbrew]

+1! that's why I used plain granulated sugar!

[crookedeyeboy]

Yeah I made my own last time, enarly burnt my face off too!! Need to get a new sugar thermometer anyway. Ill try this one with some plain sugar to boost the ABV. There is the argument for inverting the sugar so that you dont end up with a (worse!) hangover!

[smdjoachim]

The quickest way to invert your sugar,is to make a sugar syrup ,boil it and add a couple of splashes of lemon juice.The citric acid in the juice split the sugar molecule sucrose and turns that into glucose and fructose.

[crookedeyeboy]

Yeah I did it with Citric Acid from work with the Belgian I made

[leedsbrew]

I was just re-reading the tech specs on the mauribrew lager strain as I'm going to pitch the slurry into a Helles. Found this little gem on the Maurivin website1 I might take it with a pinch of salt considering my experiences with this yeast!

Lager 497 is a bottom fermenting lager yeast that produces highly desirable flavour characteristics consistent with quality lager beer. While producing almost no yeast head during fermentation, it is a rapid fermenter with a low oxygen requirement, generally completing within 5 days. This strain has good settling properties, resulting in a green beer of good clarity.

LB

[leedsbrew]

Had a sample out last night! Down to 1.008 so about 7% abv! I think warming it up for a D rest has let it dry out a bit more which is good! Probably helped along by he sugar and low mash temp, so far all according to plan!

A sneaky taste and I'm well happy! Nice malt presence, toffee and toast edge. Lemon rind, earl grey, along with anise and some black pepper from the aramis! I think these will fade a bit with lagering. The mauribrew lager yeast has turned out clean as a whistle even at the higher temps!

It's getting racked and then banged in the lagering fridge at 1oC

[leedsbrew]

Managed to get this racked and put in the temp controlled fridge yesterday! It's currently sat at 0.5oC! Yeast is dropping out nicely!

I'll leave it to 'garde' for 4 weeks before re-seeding and bottling!

Harvested the slurry from the FV! Think I'm gonna use it for a Munich helles as there is a shit tonne of it!

[jmc]

Sounds great Neil.

I have some Aramis hops set aside for something like this.

You mentioned your largering fridge. How many brewing fridges do you have in your new brewery / brew shed?

[WishboneBrewery]

How many brewing fridges do you have in your new brewery / brew shed?

They breed don't they mate!!