ionia ales

I decided to dedicate 2006 to brewing belgian-style ales. I have a pale ale that is great, I may have to brew 10-15 gallons of it sometime, because it was delicious and I’d like to focus on the wide range of beglian and belgian-style brews.

Matt Dinges is a local who I look up to in this style. He was brewing his first batch at his new house this weekend, and we sampled a belg.Pale ale (11%) and it was perfect, in my eyes. Matt has mastered masking the strong alcohol just like some of the big trappist ales. He sent me home with a 22 of an ale fermented with a “farmhouse ale yeast” and a 750ml bottle of a soured ale, fermented with the roselaire blend.Roselaire is a region in NE Belgium, home to “soured’ ales that are very close in complexity to red wines of france- the neighbor to the north/east. There was an acidity and sourness that was quite pleasent. A lingering aftertaste of leather glove. It’s aroma was of the barnyard/leathery- med-to high intesity brettanomyces, I am guessing, but I was under the impression the sour flemmish ales didn’t feature Brettanomyces just Lactobacillius.
In any event I have started off January using Wyeast 3787-Trappist – The yeast from Westmalle in Belgium

“The Tripel is often available at the cafe on draft. Westmalle Tripel is a beautiful beer made with pale candy sugar. It has an alcohol content of 7 percent by weight and 9 by volume according to a bartender. The Tripel definitely produces a warming of the stomach and a glow to the head. It has a very pale color produced from a mash of light pilsener malts. Styrian Goldings hops are used along with some German varieties and the classic Saaz pilsener hop. After a long secondary fermentation, the Tripel is bottled with a dose of sugar and yeast. It is a memorable drink with hints of fruit and pepper. This beer holds up well in the bottle over time and seems to soften with age.

Trappist ales have a large appeal for many people because they make such a pleasant accompaniment to certain foods. The Dubbel and Tripel of Westmalle are wonderful examples. The Dubbel goes very well with a dinner of beef or lamb while the Tripel brings out the flavor of seafood and certain vegetables. “ and here’s their website.. good luck.

If you made a beer with a thimbleful of Westmalle’s yeast, you’ll end up with qts of it in the bottom of the fermenter after it had settled to the bottom. During fermentation, the yeast mixes with proteins and they ride to the surface on CO2 bubbles and a foam called kreusen is visible. Westmalle ferments in shallow(er) vessels and the rake (litterally) the kreusen into big 55gal rubbermade looking barrels and (the commercially unavailable in the U.S.) Westvleteren uses this yeast in their beers which have a different recipe, and they ferment warmer- up to 85 (which would produce terrible results for an english ale yeast) while Westmalle pitches at 64- and ferm temp rises to the upper 60s. – Much of this info is from the Brew like a Monk book by Stan Hieronymus. That book is great.

I plan on using this yeast for a while, playing with warmer fermentations by splitting batches into sepereate fermenters, so the main variable is temp. Tempeture is extremely important in brewing. With the German hefewiessen, temps below 68 produce clove aromas while above 68 make for plenty of Bananna flavors. With belgian-style ales, cooler temps make for “cleaner” brews, fruity flavors are associated with higher temp-fermentations.

I plan to reuse some of this yeast to make some dubbles, and while these beers are in secondary fermentation (a misnomer, it’s just maturation period) some split batches are getting doses of Brettanomyces. a wild yeast despised by winemakers, embraced by many belgian ale producers. I have saved the yeasty-bits of belgian ales that have this interesting aroma, add adding it to a select few of my beers. These beers will either be bottled as is, although blending the “un-infected” with the infected beer, will open up a skittle-like amount of possibilities.

so this year.. limited pale ales.. maximized Belgian ales.
1. Belgian-style pale (brewed 1.1.06) (maybe a triple/or strong golden ale.. I will post about style.. brewing to style soon.) split, one half was kegged, and sampled, it needs time to mellow, but i added the dregs from Matt D’s sour ale as I thought my beer hadn ‘t attenuated well enough. “Attenuation-
Yeast is responsible for turning sweet wort into what we call “beer”. Yeast consume the sugar in wort, and turn that sugar into CO2, alcohol, and flavor compounds. When yeast finish the fermentation process, they shut down, clump together, and fall to the bottom of the fermentor, or “flocculate”. When yeast flocculate, it is easy to see that fermentation is done. But how can the brewer be sure? What if the flocculation is minimal, and yeast and CO2 stay in solution. How does the brewer really know when fermentation is done? The answer: by testing the degree of attenuation. Apparent attenuation percentage is the percentage of sugars that yeast consume. Attenuation varies between different strains. The fermentation conditions and gravity of a particular beer will cause the attenuation to vary, hence each strain of brewers yeast has a characteristic attenuation range. The range for brewers yeast is typically between 65-85%. “ The other half had yeast added that had been collected from Beire De Mars by NewBelgium- I suspect this is one of the mildest strains of Brettanomyces- but it has a great aroma.

2. is another Belg.pale ale, it’s still in primary.

In the weeks coming I will be writing about my past brewing. I plan to make some video clips of the All Grain Processes, and post several pictures.

Brew on!

Monday, January 23rd, 2006 at 9:28 am.
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