Jean-Claudde Van DAYUMM! Brewday 8/15/12

As I was prepared to keg my Belgian Pale Ale last weekend, I had two thoughts.  One was that I should re-use the Belgian yeast, and the second was that with three session strength, pale beers on tap, I could use some dark flavor to mix things up a bit.  So with that, and the fact that I recently drank and enjoyed Allagash Black, I decided to make a black Belgian Stout.

After trying to think of a notable black Belgian to make another celebrity pun-named beer, I realized the only well known Belgian person is the Mussels from Brussels, Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Sure, he's white, but I can bring this thing all together with the following clip that came forward from the depths of my memory:

Since I found an excuse to bring up the great Jean-Claude in a beer blog, I might as well post a clip of his finest work; a fight to the death with a penguin-suited mascot in the 1995 classic Sudden Death:

The Beer:

I wanted this stout to be big at 7.5% ABV but with a dry mouthfeel of a Belgian ale.  The recipe has big stout characteristics with oatmeal, roasted malts, and a high O.G, but is mashed low at 148 and dried out further with table sugar and D-180 Dark Candi Sugar Syrup.

D-180 Dark Candi Sugar syrup.  Taste is really sweet, with a dark, fig-like sweetness that tastes distinctly Belgian.  

For hops, I decided to add a small amount of Serebrianka for the fruity, tobacco complexity I blogged about before.  I used just a small amount, so if I can adjust the level through dry-hopping when I keg it. The yeast is Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey, which I used last week for my Belgian Pale Ale.

Recipe (5.5 gallons):

Malt/Fermentables:

9.5# Belgian Pilsner Malt (67%)

1.5# Torrified Wheat (11%)

12 oz. UK Chocolate Malt (5%)

8 oz. Roasted Barley (4%)

8 oz. Oats (4%)

1# Candi Syrup 180-D (7%)

8 oz. Table Sugar (4%)

Mash:

Single Infusion, 148 degrees, one hour. 1.25 qts/lb.

I always love drinking the first runnings of a dark beer.

Hops (41 ibu's)

.75 oz. Nugget, 15.1% AA @ 90 minutes

.25 oz Nugget, 15.1% AA @10 minutes

.5 oz Serebrianka, 3.5% AA @10 minutes

Yeast:

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey re-pitched from previous batch.  

Belgian Pale Ale Brew Day 7/8/12

This past weekend, I brewed another one of my "experimental" beers that would not be considered experimental by almost any homebrewer.  This was a Belgian Pale Ale, similar to two other recipes I've made, with the major difference between them being the yeast strain.  The idea is a session strength Belgian Ale, with pilsner malt and a bit of unmalted, torrified wheat for the malt bill.  For hops, I've used a moderate amount of a floral hop variety.

The yeast has been the experimental portion.  So far, I've used Wyeast 1762 Belgian Abbey II and Wyeast 3538 Lueven Pale.  The 1762 is a relatively clean Belgian strain, and is the one Rochefort uses in their brewery.  It is distinctly Belgian, but it allows more of the malt and hop profile to come through.  The 3638 is on the other extreme.  It has a very spicy aroma with a more complex and intense flavor.

Today, I'm brewing with Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey.  This is the strain Chimay uses, which feels like the most "classic" of the Belgian yeast profiles.  I'm hoping for the balanced ester and phenol character similar to Chimay's beers, especially the white.

Recipe (5.5 gallons)

Malt:

8.5# Belgian Pilsner Mouterji Dingemans (89%)

1# Torrified Wheat (11%)

Mash:

Single Infusion. 150 degrees for 30 minutes

Hops (39 IBU's):

2 oz. Hallertau Mittlfruh (4.5%AA) @ 90 minutes

1 oz. @ 10 minutes

1 oz. @ flameout

1 oz. dry hop in keg

Yeast:

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey

Brew Day:

It seems like a minor thing goes wrong on most brew days.  Today, it was a stuck mash that was caused by an equipment malfunction. Here's a picture:

At the bottom, in my mash tun is the stainless steel toilet braid I use to run off the liquid in the mash and leave the grain behind.  If you look at where it attaches to the run-off tube, you'll notice it collapsed on itself and got twisted shut.  Nothing came out when I attempted my first run-off.  To fix the problem, I dumped the entire mash into my brew kettle (at the top of the picture), removed the braid, fixed it, and dumped it all back into the mash tun.  

Theoretically, I run the risk of hot side aeration from all the dumping of a hot mash.  There's a lot of info and debate about HSA, but most brewers aren't concerned about it.  When I brew at New England Brewing Co., there is a ton of hot wort splashing into the kettle, and it doesn't cause any oxidation in the final product.  So good enough for me.