French Hopped Double Brew

[stevetk189]

Ok, first I must apologise for the lack of photos. Truth be told I'm crap at taking pics and a few more blurry grains shots and out of focus hydrometers aren't really going to add anything to this section so....

Brewed a blonde ale, single hopped with the French, Aramis hop. I was kind of expecting it to be a bit crap, French beer being for the most part, a bit crap. BUT! What a wonderful hop, spicy, fruity, noble German type but with some Styrian Golding and just the slightest hint of trendy, US hops in there too.

I really need to re-calc my efficiency as having chased total gravity points throughout the boil (and seeing what was happening upped the hopping too) to end up up bang on 1,043 this gave me an additional 5 litres of wort!

So, I split 8 litres off into a seperate Fv and it's sitting down in my cellar at a steady 12C with a lager yeast in it. Today, the airlock is glugging so things are happening in there. It's my first go at a lager but the Aramis hop shouted out to me to try it.

The rest of the batch is tucked up in the Fv cabinet with SO$ doing its thing. Smelling really, very nicely different BUT familiar.

Point of this post? Give Aramis a try.

[keith1664]

Aramis.... isn't that an aftershave?

[jmc]

I used Aramis for the 1st time in a recent saison and was really impressed.

Lovely noble hop character with a bit more oomph!

[WishboneBrewery]

I think Aramis got some bad press on here, I've tried a bottle of Mallinsons Aramis and I really enjoyed it... as you say its very spicy and made for a refreshing drink.

[stevetk189]

Yes, I'd read something on here somewhere about it being an awful hop. I got a bag to try and was pleasantly surprised. lovely big, green cones too, made for a great filter bed for my boiler run off, crystal clear in less than a litre. I usually have to re-circ the first 4 to 6 litres to get it clearing.

So I'm looking forward to a nice 4.4% session blonde ale and a lager out of it.

[killer]

Glad you said that Steve - I live in France too and I see that you can get 1kg of aramis for about 7 euro @ comptoir-houblon.fr.
I've been hesitating over it, but at that price I could even just use it for bittering. Now I just need somewhere to store it !

[stevetk189]

Glad you said that Steve - I live in France too and I see that you can get 1kg of aramis for about 7 euro @ comptoir-houblon.fr.
I've been hesitating over it, but at that price I could even just use it for bittering. Now I just need somewhere to store it !

Whereabouts are you in France?

I'll have a look at that website too, cheers. I tend to avoid ordering any stuff from here these days, service is mostly crap, often slow, next to no communication, postage is expensive and then most stuff I've ordered in the past has turned up damaged or wrong.

It's a nice place and all that, lovely people too but when it comes to business, sheesh they need a kick up the cul.

[killer]

I'm in Paris - so don't me started on poor french customer relations, but I also spend a little bit of time near Cahors in the summer and winter.
I also order most of my stuff from the UK... not just because of service but because of price. I found that hops website on the french beer forums... Bellebouche from this forum pointed me in the right direction.
I'm following your brewery build thread with interest. Artisanal beer has become a bigger and bigger thing here in Paris - a few caves a biéres have opened recently and a few normal bars with decent "new" french beers too (well - french made american IPA's) - Hopefully I'll be trying yours in a bar here soon.
In fact, another microbrewery just opened up inside Paris - I visited it a while ago. The guys blonde beer is a lot like Castlerock Harvest Pale. But he's not treating his water, which in Paris is a must as it's quite hard.
If you find yourself up here some day we should do a bottle exchange...

[stevetk189]

Sounds great, I concur there is definitely a beer movement beginning here. There are 2 caves a biere in Limoges that have opened in the last 12 months and a group of craft brewers over in the east of France that are crying out for the French to get away from Blonde, Amber and Brune as the sole classification and enjoy wider ranges and styles.

I've bumped into bellebouche on here a couple of times, I don't think he's that far from me, further darn sarf.

[stevetk189]

Hit fg within 48 hours and smells really nice, even picking out a tiniest suggestion of honey alongside the lemony aromas. The lager version down in the cellar is still happy at 12C and down to 1,014 already.

I've never done a lager before, the cellar temp is checked four times a day and doesn't shift from 12C so, do I just leave it down there after primary to condition a while longer? I've read it takes weeks, should I leave it in primary on the yeast or rack to secondary?

The blonde ale version was racked to secondary and moved to chill down, settle out more ready for bottling and a 5l mini keg experiment.

[stevetk189]

Kept between 12 and 14 since last post, gelatined two days ago, bottled and (5l mini) kegged today. Crystal clear, palest brew yet and really nice flavour and aroma. Nothing SMACK in the face just subtle, balanced and I reckon (at 4.4%) nicely sessionable. It's light, fruity and we'll see what happens after it's conditioned.

The lagering version is now at 1,011, i'll keep checking it over the next few days to see if it carries on or if that's about it. I was going to rack it to secondary and move it out into the barn which is fairly stable around 3C at the minute BUT I read that SafLager yeast prefers to hang about around 12C. So, I'll rack to secondary, seal it up and leave it in the cellar at 12C

[stevetk189]

Ok, this thing's (the pale ale not the lagering version) been bottled a week now and I mus say on the first sampler, seriously underwhelming - borderline crap. After all the delightul aromas during the brewday and fermentation then dry hopping I was expecting more than what I got... next to no hop presence at all. Utter shite! I'll give it a month then try it again. If no change then Aramis will be going the way of the dodo in this brewery.

[stevetk189]

Well, 3 weeks or so further on and I retract my above post... It's not awesome yet but very, very nice. I will brew it again but I will dry hop just to bring a bit more aroma forward. It's there, it's just distinctly hiding in the background. Otherwise it's a nice, crisp, tasty beer. (The lagered version remains pisslike however)