Matt's Beer Page : Your head will explode into Gueuze!

3725 Bieres

Oh, dear blog, how I have neglected thee.

I've brewed some since this blog died (and I'm apparently trying to revive it.) I've created two bieres with the Wyeast 3725 Bier de Garde. (I won't discuss that they should've added an 'e' at the end of 'Bier'... uh, no.) I find it way different than any of the other Saison strains that have been offered by the wonderful folks at Wyeast. =) Way different, and I haven't even made a Biere de Garde with it yet. I have, however, tasted a homebrewed Biere de Garde made with this strain and it was very good. After I tasted my own first 3725 biere it took me awhile to put a finger on the fact that it does put more emphasis on malt (or malt and hop) in a more basic way like, for example, 1056 American Ale does. It lets the ingredients shine a bit more than other Saison strains.

So, I've made 2 Saisons with 3725. Here they are:

The Lesser

13# 11 oz Gambrinus Pale Malt
3 1/2# Wheat (Wagner Wheat)
1.75 oz US Northern Brewer 8.1% AA (90 min)
2 oz German Hallertau 4% AA (K.O.)
Wyeast 3725 Bier de Garde (24 oz starters)

OG: 1.045 TG: 1.004 91% Apparent Attenuation, 5.5% abv.
Apparently you can be malty and attenuative at the same time.

(more later.)

Yard City SaisonFest I

Someone else writes about SaisonFest

here.

A great professional Saison Drink a' Thon we had one Saturday in September. A bit blustery as I remember. It worked fine inside our cozy shack. While men and woman drank and nodded their heads at one another, the merriment and radiant laughter of children was heard.

Did you ever notice that any informal beer tasting seems to gravitate toward a certain space or area or object? It's probably that way with any gathering. But, I notice that the kitchen is a popular spot. We have some good kitchens in our circle! There's even one with an island and it's own separate sink! We don't have a good kitchen at my house. Our gatherings are best had out on the back patio, but the weather dictated an indoor festivus. Apparently this event married itself to our dining table. It was a great time, with a healthy turnout of over a dozen-ish folks plus some offspring. We had just enough drinkers for the 750s so everybody got a little taste.

Now, the list:

1. Dickey - YCB
2. Bobbie - YCB
3. Ne Goeien - Lost Abbey, San Marcos, CA
4. Saison du Pelican - Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City, OR
5. Li'l Jib - YCB
6. Thiriez Blonde - Brasserie Thiriez, FR
7. Tannum - YCB
8. Saison Lo Terminal - YCB
9. Hunca Munca - YCB
10. L' Amalthee aka "Goat Biere" - Brasserie Lebbe, FR
11. NeDe Gard - Brewery 'Smoga', East B-town
12. NeDe Gard Dry Hopped - Brewery 'Smoga', East B-town
13. Le Bon Temps, draft - YCB
14. Brise Bon Bons, Fantome, Soy, BE
15. Saison de Janice - Altman Brasserie, Indianola, WA
16. Hennepin - Brewery Ommegang, Cooperstown, NY
17. 8% - YCB

We also opened a bottle of YCB Super I somewhere along the way, but it was an oxidized messy drainpour.

My favorites include: The Thiriez Blonde up against the Li'l Jib. It was great to be able to see that the Wyeast 3711 French Saison strain is the Thiriez strain. I was surprised to see that Li'l Jib tasted as good as it did next the the Thiriez Biere. I really enjoyed Smoga's homebrewed Biere de Garde. It was awesome. Balanced, flavorful, malty. Smoga's beer and the Le Bon Temps that was on draft were an interesting comparison. Same strain, two very different beers. I was sad that the Brise Bon Bons hadn't sealed properly and was more lactic than it would've been normally. It was all good. I don't know if we can top it next year. I'll have at least four Yard City beers that were not available this year, probably more.

New WSB Logo

Thanks, Wade! (goes good with my color scheme.)

8% Bottled/Mars Transferred

I bottled the 8% Saison on Tuesday, May 27th. Since it had been in secondary a good while I decided to help it along with some 1007 German Ale. It was very bright! The flavor was great and had plenty of grassy hop nose from both Saaz and Spalt. There was some late heat in the back of the throat, but the whole beer seemed fairly delicate and not one of substance. So, it's OG was 1.063 and the TG was 1.003. I know. It is hard to believe, but look at the record! Anyway, that's 95% apparent attenuation and a solid 8% abv. I noticed when I took the MarsBiere down to the lagering freezer yesterday, that the other half of the 8% had been down there since May 7th? It's already been 3+ weeks? I remember when I used to keep better records. Now I have to decide whether I should put a potentially lethal 8% Saison on draft? I dunno. I guess I'll think on it. Whaddaya think?

Biere de Mars (Biere de Yard? OG 1.056) terminaled at 1.006... with 5% crystal malt! and no sugar in the kettle! That's still 89% AA and 6.6% abv. Maybe this is the yeast for the 100% Crystal Malt beer we've talked about. CaraFoam anyone? =)

The biere in my glass

I drank some Belgian Pale today. We finished the keg with the 1214 strain. It was good. Estery and more earthy than the one we have now. Currently on draft is the Belgian Pale fermented with the 3944 Belgian Wit strain. It's very different. The emphasis seems to be more so on the malt and hops. At least in this case. I can get the Styrians in the aroma. It has phenols, but I think those have become more background to malt and hops. It's balanced, dryish, slightly malt emphisized. Biscuity from Castle Biscuit and grainy from the GW 2-row. The aftertaste is fully grainy 2-row. I thought that I liked the 1214 half more, but now I'm not sure. They were both good. I should have them next time side by side.

My next task is to buy a bag of Gambinus Pale malt and compare it with GW 2-row.

Biere de Mars, et al.

We created a biere yesterday. Bier #6 on the year. (Boo yah, in yer face, etc.) I'll be calling it a Biere de Mars even though it's just a Saison with more color and a bit more maltiness than most others I've made. Ingredients include:

19# Castle Pils (the last available from Olybrew at present time... economic downturn, etc.)
1# Wagner Wheat
1# Castle Aromatic 20L
1# Weyermann CaraHell 9-12L
2oz Weyermann Carafa Spcl 425L
2oz US Northern Brewer 8.1% aa (75 min)
1oz Kent Golding 6% aa (KO)
1oz Bavarian Spalt 2.9% aa (KO)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison

I got permission to split my nearly 1 quart of Slurry from the previous two batches into 2 seperate biers. One portion of pitch 3 was on a 1.090 Super Saison made at Big Brew on May 3rd. That bier has finished, or nearly so, at 1.008 for a whopping 11% abv. But enough about that. The Current Biere de Mars is humming along at a comfortable 74-76F. I plan to lager one half for 3-5 weeks and bottle the other half with bugs from the Yard City Sour w/ Lambic Blend in the style of New Belgium's old Bier de Mars.

On brew day I ran out of Propane -both tanks! And ran down the street to steal some from an unsuspecting neighbor. I also ran out of oxygen! Fortunately I made it to Kitsap Lumber 15 minutes before closing time. It was a lengthy late day but at least I got to see The Posies live in BREMERTON!

Holy double rewards, Batman!

Barrel Wrestling

Verkdai

Today I racked the Saison II to secondary and retrieved a boat load of slurry from the carboys. It is tasting nice and pineappley. It finished at 1.003. That's 95% AA from the 1.063 where it started and 8% alcohol by volume. This yeast is crazy. I'm beginning to think that the next beer with it needs 5% or less of sugar. I was going to use 20%! Doh! The next beer will be a super saison with a high gravity of 1.095. So, I think I'll have to tone dow the sugar to 5% or under. Maybe no sugar. Maybe all Pils.

I also racked the Tannum to a keg and carbonated it at the appropriate PSI (25) at the dispense temperature (52F) to equal my desired volumes of dissolved CO2 (3.0ish). This might work. It seemed good on first pour, but maybe most things do. We'll see. I've always had trouble dispensing Belgian's because of how much carbonation I want from them.

The first pint of Tannum tastes good. It has a light and bright character. The bitterness hit differently. Some bright grapefruit. Lemony, maybe?

Bottling Waved Off

I took a sample of the Saison made on April 1st (now being called 'Tanum') and I decided not too bottle it tomorrow. It's still a bit green and more stuff can drop out before I bottle. But, thank goodness for Anytime Lock! With speed and quality work Mike had me in and out with a new latch re-keyed to fit my current key set quicker than you can say, "Tanum Saison, 5.8% abv, 90% Apparent Attenuation!"

Thanks, Anytime!

Latch

Draft biere is coming. 1214 Belgian Pale by Monday the 21st & Ahtanum Saison by the end of that week.