“If you are just starting out making funky beers, making a beer that is palatable will be considered a success.” – Vinnie Cilurzo, Russian River Brewing. [ppt]

After a three batches of beers with 6+ month fermentation timelines ( “Marley was Dead“, “Out Like a Lion” , “Sour Suburbanite” ) I wanted something with a slightly, faster turnaround.

And – less, um, experimental.

So, I pulled together this Biére de Garde Golden Strong Ale.

Simple and straight-forward ingredient list.

“GnomeMower” Bier de Garde recipe
• 6# Northern Brewer Organic Light Malt Extract
• 2# Belgian Clear Candi Sugar
• 2oz. Norther Brewer @ 60min
• 2oz. UK Kent Goldings @ 15min
• WYeast’s 3725 Bier de Gard

• Original Gravity: 1050 ( ~6.5% ABV though, I’m pretty sure that’s a low reading)

Update 1 April 2011
After a day of being quiet – re-attached the blowoff tube last night. Woke up this morning to a hose full of new krausen. Golly.

Update 7 April 2011:
I moved it to the secondary today. Kinda flat. Hmmm.

Update 3 May 2011:
According to the Hopville’s Beer Calculus – I completely missed both Golden Strong & Biére de Garde. Not off by much on the Bier de Garde – and that’s what I’m really in the mood for any way right now.

Update 16 May 2011:
Bottled tonight.
Final Gravity: 1.002
Tasting notes from bottling: medium body with a sugary grapefruit notes in the nose and aftertaste. I’ve also renamed this ‘GnomeMower’ since it’s so far form a Golden Strong.

Update 23 May 2011: Fantastic. The carbonation gives it a perfect head – and it lasts for the entire pint. The grapefruity-ness has subsided considerably and the body is much more forward. There’s a little off-sweetness on the nose but the finish is clean. Turned out to be quite the nice beer.

“Sour Suburbanite” Lambic recipe
• 6# Northern Brewer Organic Light Malt Extract
• 1# Maris Otter
• 2# Special B
• 1# Belgian Light Candi Sugar @ 15
• 2oz. Galena @ 60min
• 2oz. Galena @ 30min
• 2oz. Norther Brewer @ 5min
• WYeast’s Lambic Blend

• Original Gravity: 1050

Update 22 May 20100
Bottled today. Final Gravity 1004.
Pre-carbonation tasting notes: Amber in color. Tastes like pure 100% grapefruit juice. Real sweet & citrusy nose. Just the faintest hint of a body. Both a sour and bitter finish. Definitely not what I was aiming for. Once carbonated – I suspect this will be very refreshing. Though – definitely not what I was hoping for.

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” – Charles Dickins, A Chrismas Carol

Last night Jon came by to help me brew the Christmas barleywine recipe I’ve been working on for month now. It went super smoothly. And rather than sticking the boil pot in the snowbank to cool it off (doesn’t work), we shoveled snow into the sink (also doesn’t work). Either way, I had a great time.

“Marley was Dead” Barleywine recipe
• 12# Northern Brewer Organic Light Malt Extract
  This is my first experience w/ Northern Brewer’s house extract, sounds like this Organic Light is a little darker than pale – exactly what I was looking for.
• 4# Maris Otter
  Seems like the right adjunct grain for the English side of the recipe.
• 2oz. Spruce essence
  I’m hoping this provides a touch of Christmas to the overall flavor. Prior to the popularity and availability of hops for preservation & bitterness – young growth spruce was commonly used in beer. Particularly in Colonial America. For an inspiring story on using actual spruce in a barleywine – I recommend: Spruce Barleywine, Part 1
• 2oz. Galena @ 60min
  a fruity, citrus-y, high alpha (13%) bittering hop popular in American ales.
• 2oz. Galena @ 30min
• 2oz. UK Kent Goldings @ 15min
  Traditional English aroma & dry hop – with a sweet floral nose.
• 2oz. UK Kent Goldings – Dry Hopped
• WYeast’s Headwaters Ale Yeast
  The new strain from Midwest Supplies designed for big American ales – alcohol tolerance is 10%.

• Original Gravity: 1110
• Potential alcohol content: 15% (far higher that I’d like – I’m trusting it’ll fall).
• Bottling scheduled for: November 12, 2011.

Update 3 June 2011: I couldn’t wait until November. It’s June – and already I needed the reminder of winter’s chill – so I bottled.

Final Gravity: 1.030.
ABV: 10.7%
IBU: 94.1
Here’s the recipe on hopville: http://hopville.com/recipe/641796/american-barleywine-recipes/marley-was-dead—test-2011

20-some inches of snow fell on Saturday. I don’t know exactly how much – because the temperature promptly dropped below 10°F and – I decided to stay indoors.

And brew up some beer for spring.

“Out Like a Lion” Ginger Maibock Recipe
• 10 lbs Pilsen Light Liquid Malt Extra
• 2 lbs CaraMunich II
• 2 oz Yakima Magnum @ 60 min
• 2 oz Yakima Magnum @ 15 min
• 2 oz Ginger @ 5 min
• Wyeast’s 1007 German Ale yeast

Original Gravity: 1074
Potential alcohol content ~10%.

The blow-off tube is a lesson I learned from my previous encounter with Wyeast’s 1007 German Ale – it seems to be much more excitable than the Belgians yeasts I more frequently use.

I’m planning to lager it in the basement until spring – or the snow melts, which ever comes first.

Update 23 Dec 2010:
I moved the beer to the secondary this morning. It smelled fantastic with a comfortable ginger nose. It’s quite cloudy, so if it doesn’t clear out by next week – I’ll rack it again before hiding in a cool corner of the basement until March.

Oh – and estimated ABV is currently at 7.3%.

Update 27 Dec 2010:
Lagering has begun.

Update 20 Mar 2011:
I bottled it today and poured the dregs of the bottling bucket into a Duval glass. There’s a big ginger nose, a light (perhaps too light) malty body, and a gingery aftertaste lingering on the tongue. And like a good Maibock should- the alcohol completely crept up on me.

Abbey Cyser Recipe
• 4 Gallons of Apple Cider from Hy’s Cider Mill purchased from Whole Foods in St. Paul
• 2.5 pounds of honey from Pine Tree Apple Orchard
• 1 package of WYeast Trappist High Gravity 3787

According to the package, the yeast like it between 70-75°F. To accommodate it, I combined the cider and honey into my boil pot on a low flame just until I got a read of 75°F. Then I siphoned it into the carboy, shook up the yeast package well for good luck, and pitched.

Fermentation started nearly immediately and has been going strong for 20 hours.

Once primary fermentation stops, I’m planning to put it in the secondary until Thanksgiving.

I picked up the honey on a lark visiting Pine Tree Orchard a few weeks back. It wasn’t until I got home that I decided to make a cyser with it. The cider was the only cider I could find (without going back to Pine Tree) lacking preservatives [1]. Whole Food’s price per gallon was less then I was quoted from local orchards – and they gave me a discount for buying so much. The yeast choice was easy. As you may know, I’m a big fan of Belgian beers and the cyser has the potential to get north of 10% ABV, so the yeast designed for Belgian doubles and triples was the only choice.

Unlike beer brewing, putting this cyser together was very relaxing and un-messy (primarily because there’s not 3+ gallons of wort threatening to boil over for an hour). I’m only hoping this is as delicious as Crispin’s The Saint.

Update 25 Oct 2010
By all signs, the fermentation stopped today and I moved the cyser to the secondary. Along the way, I split it in two, and dry hopped one half with ~2oz of Yakima Magnum hops. Midwest Supplies’ says the hops have an aroma of black pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Sounds like they were grown for a cyser.

Update 30 Oct 2010
I bottled both batches today – with priming sugars. At this point, the non-hopped half is quite enjoyable, with the hopped-half being a bit much. Though – both are very drinkable. First bottle gets opened on Thanksgiving.

1. If you have any ideas on how to resurrect yeast in a pool of sodium benzoate-laced cider – I’m all ears. 🙂

Here’s my ongoing list of homebrew beer ideas that seem like interesting explorations. If you know of existing beers or recipes that explore some of the ideas below – leave a comment. Thanks.

• A non-Stout coffee Beer- Most compelling combination thus far: Monsooned Maibock

  Basic Brewing ‘brewing w/ coffee’ podcast mentions the monsooned malabar.

• An fuller-bodied ginger beer – perhaps a ginger Belgian Wit
• Something with Quinoa
• Something with Buckwheat
• Something Reinheitsgebot-compliant and decidedly American – maybe a barleywine or an IPA
• A Belgian Ale with Rye- inspired by Two Brothers’ Cane and Ebel Red Rye Ale

• A beer inspired by Too Much Joy/Wonderlick/The Its
• A beer inspired by Mike Watt/Minutemen/fIREHOSE