Les Framboises du Mal: Vintage 2010

The fresh one. Fruity and juicy with enough acidity and funk to balance things out. Darker than previous years as some of the raspberries were actually blackberries.

Still not quite in condition but quite enjoyable.

Les Framboises du Mal: Vintage 2009

This one still tastes like raspberries, but not as cloyingly as it did a year ago. Still very sour but seems to be getting more funky with time.

What to do with the remaining bottles? They should continue to age well but the raspberry flavor will fade. With this year's batch ready that should serve as a fruity sour beer and I could keep the 2009 around to let it's funk progress and do its thang.

Les Framboises du Mal: Vintage 2008

2 years in and no more raspberries. The funk has won. Le goût d'Orval! Mais rouge.

That was the last bottle. Makes me want to brew a batch of beer, add Orval dregs in secondary. Then stick it in the basement and forget about it for several years.

Tasting: Les Fleurs du Mal 2010

The beginning of August marks the start of my annual month long sabbatical from brewing. Only beers not in bottles are the sours, which calmly do their thing in the corner just passing the time until it's their turn. It is too hot and humid for brewing to be any fun. And there is fun to be had out of doors. But this is a good month to drink some beer and write, neglecting this blog a little less. First up in the August tasting notes series is Les Fleurs du Mal.

This one presented a bit of a challenge when I went to buy ingredients at the LHBS. With Wyeast 3942 (De Dolle) out of stock, I was left scratching my head for a substitute. 3864 (Unibroue) seemed a reasonable substitute. No Amarillo whole leaf hops also forced a choice between Cascade leafs and Amarillo pellets for dry hopping. I chose the pellets and I'm not sure it was the best choice as they were a pain to separate from the beer and they seemed to affect the flavor.

OG: 1.070
FG: 1.010
ABV: 7.9% ABV

The medium amber color is decidedly darker than previous years. I account for this with unexpected efficient and color extraction as the grist did not change much. Just two months after bottling, the citrusy aroma of the hops is fading. The Amarillo pellets for dry-hopping seemed to give a harsh edge to the flavor and aroma that I've not found in my whole leaf dry-hopped beers. The fading hops have struck a nice balance with the yeast and malt. There are fresh pears and apples. Maybe a bit of mango? A bit a honey sweet malt gives way to a bone dry finish accented by just enough bitterness.

I had not sat down and focused on the flavor of this brew but I'm glad I did. Even with the on-the-fly changes I am pleased with how this turned out. I doubt I will let more than a bottle or two get much older as previous batches turned too sweet, almost syrupy, when the hops faded.

Solera: La Fontaine du Sang

In the brewpot right now. The plan is to ferment clean then blend with a pull off the solera. The pre-hopped wort is sweet and almondy.

Tasting: Belgian Chocolate

The brown liquid out of the bottle
finds itself much darker in a monk's goblet
and pushes up a toffee foam,
invites a whiff.
cocoa
figs
plums
and pepper.

A sip through the lips,
plums and blackberries
play on the tongue.
Dry and bitter,
the soft brew slides down
into a happy belly.

Belgian Chocolate

I took advantage of the day off from class to brew and bottle some deliciousness. Out of the fermentor was the Double Stout, finishing at an adequate 1.012 and 8.1% ABV with wonderful smoky and roasted flavors. Into the fermentor was a Belgian-inspired brew with cocoa powder (fka Dubbel Chocolate). I changed the recipe from last to tone down the chocolate and up the fuitiness. Also no oak this year. I plan to add some frozen blackberries and plums in secondary to accentuate the fruit. Details below.

Tasting: La Fontaine du Sang

The foam starts building in the bottle as soon as the cap is pried off. An experienced drinker, I have a special glass ready for my precious libation. This one shows some odd behavior when poured. The bubbles roll around slowly in suspension before lazily rising to the top, as if in a highly viscous liquid. The bubbles deceive though, the beer is actually quite light in the mouth. The color, a gorgeous deep burgundy, fits the name.

Quite a bit of complexity in aroma and flavor. Cherries and plums. Raisins and dried fruits. Apricot maybe. There is enough malt sweetness for this to be recognizable as beer but the underlying acidity accentuates the fruit and funk. I am very happy with how this turned out and it will take great patience to wait on the next pull from the solera.

Happiness is a Fresh Saison

Vertical Tasting: Les Framboises du Mal

With this year's batch of Les Framboises du Mal bottled and ready to drink I decided to open my second to last bottle of the 2008 brewing for a vertical tasting. I started with the the 2008 vintage...

Les Framboises du Mal 2008

Big foamy head over a deep red-orange beer that is perfectly clear to show off the streaming columns of plentiful CO2. Very fruity aroma with raspberries, light caramel malt, and the elusive pineapple brett scent. The Orval yeast is very apparent as aged Orval is a huge component of the aroma. The raspberry smell is more forward than I remember which could be the funky yeasts' doing. Finally taking a sip gives a soft dryness accompanied sub-acidity to tartness. A light malt sweetness remains. The raspberries appear in the middle which then giveway to some earthy mustiness. The 7+ percent alcohol makes no appearance. Time has been kind to this brew. I will try to hold off on the last bottle until next year in hopes a three year vertical tasting.

Les Framboises du Mal 2009


This bottle has yet to reach full carbonation so no head sat atop the shade more red than polished brass liquid. In contrast to the 2008 only an occasional buble meanders upward through the viscousity. The first whiff reaks of pungent lambic with a load of barnyard funk and a touch of almond nuttiness (odd but still nice). However, in the mouth the acidity level is much lower than a lambic but still quite tart. This beer is still rather sweet with plenty of raspberry and stone fruits. The sweet-sour balance is tilted more towards a true lambic to please me but hopefully not so far that it puts off my friends that have been anticipating this one. There is also the ropy mouthfeel you get in a real lambic. Worth the wait and I'm-afraid-to-add-up-the-cost-of-fruit. While this would cower in the shadow of the Rosé de Gambrinus, I feel I could fool some people in a blind tasting of lambics that what I have here is an honest to goodness Senne Valley blend. I plan on putting at least a case of this away for long term aging.

PS. Can you guess what I plan to brew next?

Funky Brewings

Finally another post for anyone that actually reads this modest brewing information repository. Between moving across the city and starting graduate school, blogging time has been nonexistant. Brewing history posts will, unfortunately, be even more seldom for a while and I will most likely only have time for quick posts on brewing activities.

Ahh, fall, time to start brewing again. The cool weather arrived early this year which means I have already brewed twice this fall. I cooked up another batch of saison early in September and this weekend I filled Saturday afternoon with a parti-gyle brew and bottling La Fontaine du Sang and Les Fleurs du Mal.

Only part of The Fountain of Flood was bottled. The remaining half was refilled with the first gyle to begin a solera. The second gyle received oak and a portion of my sour starter.

Dog Days of Summer Brew Update

When the temperature and humidity in the 90s, brewing just can't be any fun. Thus, since stocking up on saison in early July, nothing more intense than bottling has happened. I do have some aging beers that I can squeeze an update post out of.


Belgian Barleywine
When bottling the base beer I drew off one gallon to age some more with an "infected" oak spiral. Only bubbled a bit occasionally but never put up a pellicle. I figure at nearly 13% ABV that the bacteria and Brett. were killed off. Not much funk when I tasted it last week but it was still boozy and hot despite the extra aging time. I put it in the back of the refrigerator in hopes a few cold weeks will calm it down a bit. That main portion of the batch never carbonated so I will use wine or champagne yeast at bottling time.

La Fontaine du Sang
After two months in secondary, this one has just put up a bubbly and ropy white pellicle. A sample last week still tasted fairly clean and mostly like sweet caramel malt. Quite a ways to go for this one.

Les Framboises du Mal
I've added all the fruit I can afford to dump into beer, which now totals 5.5 lbs of raspberries and 12 oz plums from the fantastic Kimball Fruit Farm. The samples have tasted very sour and funky but I was dissappointed with the lack of fruit flavor and hue of the raspberry color, so I added plums to help rectify those problems. Although I have never heard of plums added to sour beer. The raspberries floating on top have beautifully disgusting crust.

Tasting: Saison

What a wonderful feeling to open that first bottle of a much anticipated brew, raise it up to your nose, that first whiff encouraging glass to lips and take in all that goodness and hard work, comforting you that you made a beer just the way you drew it up in your mind.

Soft on the palate, a round maltiness (thank you Weyermann Vienna) gives way to a delicate bitterness. Then comes a yeasty pepper flavor along with floral and grassy flavors of several noble hops. A dry bitterness lingers. A spectacular beer for a night when both heat and humidity begin with an 8.

Crap, my glass is empty.

Saison

Inspired by a couple great beers, Saison Dupont and Ommegang Hennepin, I heeded the siren call of saison. To me, saison is four basic ingredients of beer combined in perfect harmony. Nothing fancy. Just the finest malts and hops fermented with a difficult yeast. That was the aim of this recipe.

Grain:
4 lbs. Belgian 2-row pale malt
4 lbs. US 2-row pale malt
1 lb. Vienna Malt

Hops:
60 Minutes - 0.75 Amarillo % AAU
60 Minutes - 0.5 ounce Saaz 6.8% AAU
15 Minutes -0 .75 ounce Noble mix*
0 Minutes - 0.75 ounce Noble mix*
*.5 ounce each of Saaz (6.8 AAU), Hallertau (3.8 AAU), Styrian Goldings (2.0 AAU).

Mash
113 - 20 minutes
145 - 50 minutes
162 - 20 minutes

Yeast:
pitched starter built up from Saison Dupont Vieille Provision
OG: 1.053
78 % Efficiency.

Update: Version 2 brewed 7/16/2009 using the same recipe. 1.051 OG.

7/16/2009: 1.020 SG. First batch racked to secondary.

7/28/2009: Bottled 5 gallons, primed with 3.5 oz table sugar. 1.004 FG, 6.1 ABV, 92 % AA.

Tasting: Belgian Barleywine

This is the first tasting of the Belgian Barleywine, two weeks after bottling. It has yet to carbonate but I wanted to get this tasting in before summer arrives and barleywine is not on the mind.

Appearance: Deep dark amber. Nearly no carbonation despite re-yeasting at bottling.

Aroma: Pear, raisins, caramel, and molasses. A bit boozy.

Flavor: More pear, raisins, caramel, and molasses. Nugget hops provide a firm bitterness and earthy, spicy flavor to counteract the sweetness and fruitiness. The 12.7 ABV makes itself well known with a long boozy burn at the finish.

Overall an good first attempt to make a beer this big. The alcohol burn and lack of carbonation detract quite a bit from what could be an outstanding beer. Some age may be able to take care of this. Hopefully these problems can be resolved in the funky portion or next brewing.

Les Fleurs du Mal

This is an all grain adaptation of the Hoppy Belgian that I brewed last Spring with excellent results. The grain bill is simple to let the yeast and hops shine. I brewed several batches of this last year and aimed for similar hop additions to the one that has aged best.

10 lbs Dingemans Pilsner malt
.6 lbs 20 L Crystal malt
1 lb sugar, inverted*

60 Minutes - 0.88 ounce Nugget, 14.6 AAU
15 Minutes - 0.25 ounce New Zealand Hallertau, 7 AAU
15 Minutes - 0.5 ounce Cascade, 9.3 AAU
0 Minutes - 0.25 ounce New Zealand Hallertau, 7 AAU
0 Minutes - 0.5 ounce Cascade, 9.3 AAU
Secondary – 0.5 ounce Cascade, 9.3 AAU

Mashed 113 F – 145 F – 160 F
1.067 OG
75 % Efficiency

*Heat 1 lb sugar with 1 cup water and 1 tspn lemon juice. If I had a candy thermometer I would aim for certain temperature.

5/5/2009: Racked to secondary with 0.5 ounce Cascade flowers. 1.020 SG.

5/29/2009: Bottled 5 gallons with 4 oz local blueberry blossom honey. 1.010 FG. 7.5% ABV.

7/1/2009: Tasting posted.