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This is a second try at this beer which went a bit wrong due to fermentation temperatures. I've since done two more beers with this yeast that have come out nice and clean tasting so I think this should work nicely.

It's a Biere de Mars which is a spring version of a Biere de Garde, one of my favourite styles. I've done two more of these with the same yeast and I'm getting the hang of it now. The aim is for a very malty beer that's mashed fairly low so it's refreshing at the same time. It should have just enough bitterness to balance and a tiny bit of hop flavour.

French breweries do a really long boil which caramelises some of the wort but I don't have time so I've used the Scotch ale technique of taking a bit of wort and boiling it down to a syrup while I sparge.

Est OG: 1.065
Est IBU: 25.5
Est FG: 1.010
Est ABV: 7.3%
Colour: 13.9 EBC
Style: Biere de Garde
Yeast: WLP011 European Ale

Mash - 75 Mins @ 65C

3kg Dingemans Pilsner
2kg Dingemans Wheat
1kg Weyerman Munich I
20g Carafa Special I

Fly Sparge & Boil 1.3L of first wort to a thick syrup

Boil - 90 mins

60g Brewers Gold (3.8%AA) - 60 mins
12g Hallertauer Hersbrucker (2% AA) - 20 mins
350g White sugar - 15 mins
20g Hallertauer Hersbrucker (2% AA) - 5 mins

Not a bad brewday until I made a bit of a schoolboy error at the end!

The mash tun held temperature all the way through, I pretty much hit my pre-boil gravity and pH was fine throughout the mash. I hit pH 5.6 initially which is OK but then did another small addition of acid to get to 5.5.

My error was that I got to the end of the boil and chilled it to 18C and started draining before realising I'd not sterilised the FV so I chucked a few litres. Nevertheless it should be a solid brew.

The boil went well too and I ended up with OG 1.063 which is near enough. It's been in the FV for a day and one thing I learned to do with the yeast was to cool it down after a day when it really gets going so it doesn't overheat. This has served me well on the last few brews. Despite hearing that this yeast does't finish at low temps I've had no such trouble and found it gets way below the figures on the packet at 17-18C.

On to the pics:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0607.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0608.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0609.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0610.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0611.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0612.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0613.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0614.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0615.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0616.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0617.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0619.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0622.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0623.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0624.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0626.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/780 ... AG0628.jpg

Another one to add to the ever growing list - thank you! Might be my machine, but are the pics ok? Seem really really big to me....

Yeah, look a little large.

Nice write up.

I've replaced with links. A lot of forums tend to resize them but that doesn't seem to work on here

Nice one! Need some advice mate - you know I hanker after a 'plambic' - well I have just inherited some old (2011) hops. I seem to recall the style requires these, have you ever done one? Any thoughts??

I've never seen Brewer's Gold with 3.8% AA before....

Clibit wrote:I've never seen Brewer's Gold with 3.8% AA before....

All the German ones at malt Miller seem a bit low in aa. Apparently fuggles will work as well so I'm considering using that instead.

ManseMasher wrote:Nice one! Need some advice mate - you know I hanker after a 'plambic' - well I have just inherited some old (2011) hops. I seem to recall the style requires these, have you ever done one? Any thoughts??

I've not done a lambic but they're not meant to be that hard. If you aim for 5% ish and use half wheat and half pilsner and a lambic mix from wyeast or white labs it should get you there. Have a look at the mad fermentationist website, that ought to be a good place to begin.

serum wrote:

Clibit wrote:I've never seen Brewer's Gold with 3.8% AA before....

All the German ones at malt Miller seem a bit low in aa. Apparently fuggles will work as well so I'm considering using that instead.

Crikey the 2015 German hop do look alpha deficient. I would have thought the 60 min hop choice was pretty flexible. Pick an English or German hop with decent AA...?

I've just had a look at a post on TBF - I reckon that's the one I'll follow mate, looks good to me!

Down to 1.008 in just under a week. There's a little bit of sulphur but I don't think it's anything to worry about. Last time it absolutely stank but I reckon this will fade by next week and I'll shove it in secondary for a bit.