Tasting Stale Porter: Soured Double Stout

Not what I had in mind when I blended a bit of sour beer into some stout nearly two years ago (Guinness FES is what I had in mind). I didn't consider what would happen when the lactic acid bacteria and super-attenuating Brettanomyces strains took hold in the lush, smoky stout.

All the roast, toast and smoke is still present. With it there is sharp, sour smelling funk. All present in the mouth along with solvent/plastic. The body torn to shreds. Thin, sharp and sour.

If you've had Madrugada Obscura from Jolly Pumpkin (who are usually great), this is like that. That austere sour character is not meant for stouts. Maybe I will try to mix a little bit into fresh porter to see if it gives a bit of complexity.

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.

Rhubarb Sour

Here it is, the crazy rhubarb sour beer.

Hazy burnished orange. The rhubarb added some color but not the vibrant red of its ripe stalks. Some small chunks of rhubarb appear to have made it through the sieve at bottling and float suspended in the beer but aren't perceptible when drinking. The aroma is mostly lactic sourness and a bretty funk with a slight earthy vegetal note in the background. The flavor starts off with a sharp, austere acidity and morphs into a rounded earthy, herbal bitterness. Not hop bitterness, but, well, rhubarb bitterness. The finish is bone dry, but not harsh despite the acidity and slight bitterness. Still, this is not a beer for the non-lambic lover.

I'm pleased with the rhubarb sour overall. I think one gallon was about the right batch size. Maybe I'll make more someday if I can get more rhubarb. The 11 bottles won't last long as everyone I told about this has been pestering me to try it for the past few months. I know which of them will be agog over it and which will just gag.

Fooling Around

A batch of saison is brewing. But the foolishness stems from the combination of a gallon of pale sour beer and a pound of rhubarb.

Brew Updates

April and May have been slow months for brewing and beer drinking in general. The beers I have brewed in Springs past were all I could find time for. Les Fleurs du Mal just received an ounce of Amarillo dry hops. Les Framboises du Mal is in primary fermentation and should be ready for raspberry additions when the early summer fruit season begins. Yay. A sharp jump in efficiency will result in both beers being stronger than past versions, both creeping towards 8% ABV.

I blended and bottled La Fontaine du Sang a week ago. A tasting and comparison to the previous bottling will be coming shortly.

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.

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.

Les Framboises du Mal

Last year I experimented with making a funky raspberry beer. It turned out great but had one problem, I only made one gallon. The pre-fruited beer is fairly similar to Les Fleurs du Mal but with some wheat malt and the hops turned down to let the funk and raspberries shine after several months of aging. As with Le Fontaine du sang, half a gallon was removed and funkified with "infected" oak. Raspberry season should be just starting when primary fermentation finishes.


Grain:
85% Belgian 2-row pale malt
10% Wheat malt
5% Crystal 20

Hops:
80 Minutes - 0.45 Galena 12.2 % AAU
80 Minutes - 0.3 ounce Saaz 6.8% AAU
15 Minutes - 0.18 ounce Perle
15 Minutes - 0.18 ounce Cascade, 9.3 AAU
0 Minutes - 0.18 ounce Perle
0 Minutes - 0.18 ounce Cascade, 9.3 AAU

Mash
113 - 20 minutes
145 - 60 minutes
162 - 20 minutes

Yeast:
repitched De Dolle yeast from Le Fontaine du Sang

OG: 1.069
72 % Efficiency.

6/22/2009: Down to 1.004 SG. Blended in the funkified half gallon portion, which had a wonderful bright lactic, yogurty acidity and a bit of bretty funk. Like a low gravity lambic! Might be another week or two before raspberries arrive at the farmer's market.

6/26/2009: Racked to secondary with 10.5 oz raspberries from farmer's market.

7/1/2009: Added 14 oz raspberries from farmer's market.

7/8/2009: Added 10 oz raspberries from farmer's market.

La Fontaine du sang

This beer was inspired by several Belgian styled red ales that are similar to Rodenbach ales but are higher in alcohol. Those beers would be Oerbier and La Roja from Jolly Pumpkin. I am aiming for an acidity level between those two wonderful ales. I took the grist from my red ale that showed quite a bit of potential but need less aggressive hopping. For bittering, Saaz replaced the Cascades that overpowered the beer.

To achieve a good level of acidity and funk I took a half gallon and added the oak spiral from the Brett beer that had been soaking in lambic dregs. I plan to blend this portion back into the rest of the beer for the secondary conditioning.

I like the idea of naming beer after a Charles Baudelaire poem (or even his entire master work). The concept provides a combination of literary allusion and awesome imagery. And they are in French for added snob appeal. This brew shall be named La Fontaine du sang (The Fountain of blood), perfect for a strong, sour red ale.

Grain:
60% Belgian 2-row pale malt
20% Munich malt
5% Belgian Aromatic
5% Crystal 90
5% Special B
5% Dark Wheat malt

Hops:
80 Minutes - Saaz 6.8% AAU

Mash
113 - 20 minutes
145 - 45 minutes
160 - 15 minutes

Yeast:
repitched De Dolle yeast from Les Fleurs du Mal.

OG: 1.064

6/10/2009: 1.010 FG. 7.07% ABV. Racked to secondary with sour portion and ½ oak spiral soaked in red wine then sour slurry.

7/13/2009: Took sample. Dark Amber/Caramel to slightly red (see picture above). Smells like an oud bruin but taste has more bitterness and very subdued acidity. Could be bottled now but aging will bring out the full brett flavor.