anyone got a recipe for CH'TI ambere ?

[ColinKeb]

had a fantastic beer over christmas and wondered if anyone had a recipe for it or anything similar? its ch'ti ambere which is very like the belgian brune beers but french

[mysterio]

I know that's a style called Bière de garde with an ABV of 5.9%. If you can find out what hops they use and describe the flavours a bit more I could probably help with a recipe. If not I know a few other good bière de garde recipes that could be tweaked here and there to get close to Ch'ti Ambrée.

[ColinKeb]

hi, yes ive found the details about the hops ;
est une plante grimpante dont les fleurs femelles renferment
des huiles essentielles et des acides amers (lupuline). Les fleurs sont cueillies fin août, début septembre, séchées puis conditionnées dans des sacs hermétiques pour préserver leurs qualités. Les différentes variétés de houblon amèneront de l'amertume en bouche
(houblons amers) ou de l'amertume au nez (houblons aromatiques).

luckily my best mate lives in paris, i will get him to translate it for me. also isnt a memebr of this forum from france? im sure someone was maybe he could do the biz on this one?

[mysterio]

"is a climbing plant whose female flowers contain essential oils and bitter acids (lupulin). The flowers are gathered at the end of August, at the beginning of September, are dried then conditioned in hermetic bags to preserve their qualities. The various varieties of hop will bring bitterness in mouth (bitter hops) or bitterness to the nose (aromatic hops)."

Not much use i'm afraid!

I'll play about in beersmith and make up a recipe, no guarantees it will be completely similar though.

[mysterio]

Here's what I would do for a biere de garde. The ABV% is the same as Ch'Ti and the colour looks similar. I'm guessing at the hops so perle & saaz are just what I like. This would probably be a very clean, malty & rich beer with spicy hop flavour. In fact I may very well brew this!

Biere de Garde

Type: All Grain
Date: 28/12/2006
Batch Size: 5.00 Imp gal
Brewer: Geoff
Boil Size: 5.72 Imp gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 90 min Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.10 kg Vienna Malt (6.9 EBC) Grain 92.4 %
0.30 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC) Grain 4.5 %
0.20 kg Aromatic Malt (51.2 EBC) Grain 3.0 %
30.00 gm Pearle [8.00%] (60 min) Hops 23.6 IBU
15.00 gm Saaz [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.9 IBU
15.00 gm Saaz [4.00%] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs European Ale (White Labs #WLP011) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Est Alcohol by Vol: 5.9 %
Bitterness: 26.5 IBU Calories: 269 cal/pint
Est Color: 20.0 EBC Color: Color

[ColinKeb]

cheers mysterio , im impressed with your french i will use the recipie you suggested , i was taken by the richness of this beer, it was malty ,choclatey, toffee and just plain nice. brought back memories of belgium and france where you spend time drinking your beer with good food and cheese chatting to friends about life etc etc .
i will let you know how it turns out if youve not done it yourself.
cheers
colin

[mysterio]

cheers mysterio , im impressed with your french

Can't take all the credit...

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Obviously feel free to substitute whatever hops you like, but I reckon those will work well. I reckon the key to this one is the Vienna malt which H&G carry for £1.55 a kilo. Or you could even use Munich malt for an even darker, sweeter beer.

[ColinKeb]

finally managed to book another day off work tomorow, im using your recipe mysterio with whitelabs wl0011 yeast which has been gurgling away in a starter for a couple of days now. cant wait till tomorow now

[mysterio]

I'm honoured

Let me know if it tastes anything like it

[ColinKeb]

i have total faith in you mysterio , ive got double quanities of grain so i can make 2 batches of it.

[oblivious]

A number Bière de garde’s are brewed with larger yeast at ale temps and CH’TI is one of them. They are not true lagers, the brewer say it gives greater control over their production.

[ColinKeb]

would i be better using a stepped mash for this one ? its for 90 mins what about 30 mins at 55 then up for the last hour? any suggestions?

[BitterTed]

I don't think a rest at 55º C is needed, but it wouldn't hurt it either!! An infusion mash would work just fine.

[BitterTed]

I think Denny Conn and some other brewers did an experiment comparing step mashed beers against single infusion. The conclusion was there was no discernable difference (iirc).
I'm sure it's mentioned on the Denny Conn interview on the Brewing Network.

Denny Conn!! Oh boy, don't get BigEd started!!
I don't taste a difference when using a step mash either, but Denny will tell you that he doesn't notice any difference after a decoction and finds it a waste of time.

[ColinKeb]

cool , that will save me half an hour then although if ive got enough for two batches i could do my own experiment couldnt i , hmmmm...