Brewing up a Belgian

[far9410]

Disaster!! up earlt this morning,got mash and sparge done before a quick job to do in brum, cant find the yeast, thought it wsas with all my yeast in the fridge! been to three lhbs, no-one stocks anything like it. I Have s23 (lager) Wb06 (wheat) Notty (owt) and some "heart of england" premium brewers yeast. Managed to order t58 but it wont be here till thursday, so is this a good plan?

Pitch the heart of england or notty today, then chuck in a sachet of t58 on thursday, what do you think?

[raiderman]

WYour wort is sterile, its pretty cold right now and if you keep the wort cold and airtight the chances of it going off before the T58 arrives isn't that great, but you'll worry and there is a risk and why take a chance when you can still get something great out of what you've made with an existing yeast. I'd go with the Wb06, because its the funkiest yeast you've got. I've tried piching 2 strains before, but together not staggered. If you pitch an ale yeast now, it'll have such a head start on the T58 that I wouldn't think the T58 will get much of a look in. According to an aussie homebrew shop I've just googled , The Safbrew WB-06 yeast is best suited for German-style Weizens, Wheat Beers and Belgian Ales - so if the Aussies think so who am I to argue.

[far9410]

Thanks raider man I'll go with the 06 then

[raiderman]

let me know how it comes out. I've started getting into belgians, not for their own sake but there are some intersting comments made by americans about belgian brews being a good jumping off point. Whilst I'd normally mess about with the hopping, your post has started me wondering what I'd end up with if I chuck a wheat yeast at something brewed along the lines of a Chimay white and then mess around with the hopping!

[far9410]

I'll keep you posted

[seymour]

I can tell you from experience WB-06 is a nice dry strain for Belgian styles, exhibiting some banana, clove, and other characteristic spicy phenols, especially at warmer fermentation temps.

Keep in mind, with regards to almost all yeast, they're all single-cell variations of the same species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The labels (ale yeast, brewers yeast, bakers yeast, wine yeast, wheat beer yeast, Belgian yeast, weiss yeast, weizen yeast, etc, etc, etc) are entirely human semantics.

Yes, you can always pitch the T-58 when it arrives, if you like. Most of the heavy-lifting will be done in the first few days, thus most of your sugars will be fermented and the flavors locked-in, but T-58 probably has higher alcohol tolerance thus will keep the secondary fermentation going a little further.

Don't despair, this is all kinda cool, and you are almost certainly producing complex and delicious beer, which is the whole point, right?

[far9410]

yep, Im not in despair now!

[far9410]

Wb06 has taken off, good krausen and nice smells this morning! My next step was going to be re-use the yeast to make a stronger darker brew, now i,m thinking that if I re-use a small amount of this yeast and pitch a pack of t58 this may give the taste and alcohol strength i,m after, any thoughts?

[seymour]

Wb06 has taken off, good krausen and nice smells this morning! My next step was going to be re-use the yeast to make a stronger darker brew, now i,m thinking that if I re-use a small amount of this yeast and pitch a pack of t58 this may give the taste and alcohol strength i,m after, any thoughts?

Sounds like a great plan. You could still do that with this batch, too, and then repitch the blend next time. Your choice, brewmaster!

[far9410]

Ok this brew is fermenting away nicely now, so next stage, will rack to bottling bucket then reuse some of the yeast with a pack of t58.
similar recipe as before but with the addition of some chocolate malt and roast barley (cold steep or added at end of mash, not sure) and some dark brown sugar, may increase tho ibu,s a bit.
any advice on steeping,or otherwise welcome

[far9410]

Just removed from fermenting fridge, crash chill in my freezing garage (this weather has its plus points!), had crafty taste, not bad!, bit of banana etc as I hoped, we'll see how it matures, so that brings me on to the follow up, using some of the yeast from this brew, and pitching a pack of t58

Belgian Brune
Date:
Gyle Number:
Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Bohemian Pilsner 4 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 14.8%
Lager Malt 2.5 EBC 6 lbs. 9.8 oz 3000 grams 44.4%
Pale Malt 5 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 14.8%
Aromatic malt 50 EBC 0 lbs. 10.5 oz 300 grams 4.4%
Sugar Invert No. 1 Solid 30 EBC 2 lbs. 3.3 oz 1000 grams 14.8%
Carapils 50 EBC 0 lbs. 8.8 oz 250 grams 3.7%


Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 1.5%
Roasted Barley 1350 EBC 0 lbs. 3.5 oz 100 grams 1.5%

Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Challenger Whole 7.5 % 60 mins 0 lbs. 1.8 oz 50 grams 100%

Final Volume: 22 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.074
Final Gravity: 1.011
Alcohol Content: 8.4% ABV
Total Liquor: 33 Litres
Mash Liquor: 14.4 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 31.7369450968055 EBU
Colour: 110 EBC
final brewlength is wrong on this, I'm aiming for 20 litres, so will be slightly stronger with a predicted og of 1082, its all go tomorrow morning!

[far9410]

This is ticking away nicely now, smells great. I've been asked if I can do some fruit beer, but I dont want to make a full batch, so thought maybe add some syrup to a few of the bottles at the bottling stage, anyone done this, any ideas which syrup to use?

[jmc]

This is ticking away nicely now, smells great. I've been asked if I can do some fruit beer, but I dont want to make a full batch, so thought maybe add some syrup to a few of the bottles at the bottling stage, anyone done this, any ideas which syrup to use?

I've tried the Polish syrups cherry & raspberry.

Cherry ended up tasting a bit medicinal / synthetic.

Raspberry was good, though very dry. Best with a blond / wheaty brew. It didn't work that well in a darker Belgian pale ale experiment.

Easiest way is to to this at bottling stage.
Add 1 bottle syrup to a sanitised DJ.
top up to shoulder with brew
Bottle / keg balance

You could also try a lambic experiment by adding dregs from a bottle of lambic ale to the DJ, like Cantillon geuze or Kriek, though be prepared for appearance of a pellicle if going that route.

You could also do in a more controlled manner by adding a WLP lacto vial (WLP677 Lactobacillus Bacteria), which shouldn't for a pellicle but will give you a lactic bite.

If you want a sweet fruit beer add syrup to finished beer..

[far9410]

This is ticking away nicely now, smells great. I've been asked if I can do some fruit beer, but I dont want to make a full batch, so thought maybe add some syrup to a few of the bottles at the bottling stage, anyone done this, any ideas which syrup to use?

I've tried the Polish syrups cherry & raspberry.

Cherry ended up tasting a bit medicinal / synthetic.

Raspberry was good, though very dry. Best with a blond / wheaty brew. It didn't work that well in a darker Belgian pale ale experiment.

Easiest way is to to this at bottling stage.
Add 1 bottle syrup to a sanitised DJ.
top up to shoulder with brew
Bottle / keg balance

You could also try a lambic experiment by adding dregs from a bottle of lambic ale to the DJ, like Cantillon geuze or Kriek, though be prepared for appearance of a pellicle if going that route.

You could also do in a more controlled manner by adding a WLP lacto vial (WLP677 Lactobacillus Bacteria), which shouldn't for a pellicle but will give you a lactic bite.

If you want a sweet fruit beer add syrup to finished beer..

Great, thanks, thats the syrup on the polish aisle in tesco i guess

[jonnyt]

It's got witz in the name I'd be scared it's going to kill me!

Why not try a brewferm kit?