Tag: Flanders Red

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Over the winter I’ve been brewing a series of darker beers to age for next winter. These have included Flanders Red, Oud Bruin, Stock Ale and Old Ale. The second two were brewed to top up the first two when I racked them off the primary yeast cake, using low hopped portions of the wort. I’ve also brewed them to reuse my wild yeast blends. The Flanders Red was split and half was fermented with traditional commercial yeast and half fermented with wildflower yeast Blend 2. The Oud Bruin was also split with half fermented on the commercial yeast cake from the Flanders Red and the other half fermented with Blend 3 wild yeast. The stock ale was fermented with Sussex yeast in the primary and Brettanomyces Clausenii in the secondary. The Old Ale was then intended to use all three wild yeast blends (Blend 1, Blend 2 and Blend 3 from 2017) and therefore act as a yeast bank.

I brewed the Old Ale on 14 April. It ended up being another marathon brew day with back to back brews starting at 3pm and finishing at 3am… The first brew was a trial run for my cousin’s wedding this summer; a pale, sessionable, ale with shed loads of locally grown English Chinook and American west coast yeast. The second brew was the Old Ale and I wanted to make a better job of brewing a strong ale after winging it with the Stock Ale and not achieving the desired volume. It went pretty well but my mash tun is too small for that quantity of grain so I struggled to get it up to the desired mash temperature. I tried draining off portions and heating them up in a saucepan, which raised the temperature to 66 deg C but not 68 deg C as intended. The recipe’s below:

OG:1.078 ABV:8.6% SRM: 34 IBU: 50

61% Maris Otter
32% Munich Malt
2% Carafa 1
3.5% crystal malt (30L)
1.5% dark crystal malt (120L)

Mash at 68 deg C for 60mins. Boil for 150 mins.

I sparged 25 litres and split this, using 6.5 Litres for the Oud Bruin top-up and and 18.5 litres for the Old Ale. The Oud Bruin top-up was boiled for 1 1/2 hours with Bullion hops to 10IBU. The Old Ale was boiled for 2 hours with equal weights of Bullion hops at the start of the boil and 30 mins from the end of boil. After racking, the gravity was only 1.072 so it was put back in the kettle and boiled for a further 30mins (150 mins in total).

The Oud Bruins were both tasting nice still slightly sweet with mellow smokiness from the cherry wood smoked malt. The commercial yeast portion had a pH 4.3 and the Blend 3 portion was at pH 4.4 so not very acidic yet; hopefully that will go lower with time. The gravities were 1.010 and 1.008 respectively. Both were chestnut brown.

11.5 litres of Old Ale was racked onto the wild yeast blend of blends. After 24 hours fermentation started in earnest, shooting through the airlock.

About 2 litres of wort remained once the carboy were filled; a mixture of Old Ale and the Oud Bruin top-up. This was used as starters to feed Blends 1, 2 and 3 for a future pale ale.

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I now feel I’ve come full circle. The wild cultures from 2017 are now house cultures for 2018 and will continue to be experimented with. The seasons have passed by and spring has arrived again. It’s been a slow, cold start for a few weeks primroses were the only flower, uncontested. Then wood anenomes slowly gathered momentum. But in the last week much of the flora and fauna has woken up. This included the birds and subsequently me. The dawn chorus woke me up at 5:30 the other day but it was worth listening to.

An area of woodland near the house was cleared last year. It needed doing but it left a stark scar. Now, however, it is being reclaimed. Plant that I haven’t seen there before are taking over: primrose, wood sorrel, violets, garlic mustard and wavy bitter cress. This motivated me to collect my first wild flower yeast captures of 2018. I realise I looked pretty weird out in the woods at 2230, head torch on, carrying a stainless steel bowl full of 18 centrifuge tubes and a pair of tweezers…. a possible error was to use the same tweezers for each flower so cross contaminating the samples.

 

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Last year I didn’t generate much sourness. This is mainly do to over hopping the brews but I though I would try an experiment to optimise lactobacillus production. I took 6 samples of each flower and half the centrifuge tubes were treated like last year – filled 2/3 full with 1.035 gravity wort, aerated and left at room temperature. The work was unhopped pale malt extract. The other 9 tubes were filled a little more, not aerated and then places in a thermos flask water bath at just under 40 deg C. I will leave them for a few days as if sour worting before allowing to cool to room temperature and aerating. Maybe this won’t work because it is not a pure lactobacillus culture and the high temperature may encourage off flavours or other bacteria – no harm in trying though. I also read somewhere that ground dwelling plants have stronger lactobacillus cultures, which is why cabbages lactoferment so easily. We shall see.

 

Spring awakening

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To recap, back in November I went to the London BrewCon and took part in the MegaBlend. For this Brewlab took away participants’ wild cultures, house cultures and bottle dregs, screened them, propagated the blend and distributed it around the world. My wild flower yeast blend 1 and 2 went into this.  They did this all free of charge so it was an amazing effort by them. Last weekend I made my first brew with the culture and Emma Inch, a journalist and home brewer who had taken an interest in the project, came round to see what I was doing. The brew day was a week later than planned because of snow, which meant that the ingredients arrived too late and we were snowed in.

The brew day was a bit chaotic. I’m learning I’m not as good at multitasking as I would like. I attempted two overlapping brews – starting the second mash once the first was complete – and, with talking to Emma at the same time, my timings and attention to detail were a bit off. In the end the first brew went fine, the second was salvaged and the kitchen looked like a bomb site. It was really nice to meet Emma though and I look forward to reading her article.

Pellicle on the starter

For the MegaBlend culture I wanted to brew a pale farmhouse ale with some complex fermentables from unmalted grains and some extra body and mouth feel from rolled oats. Call it misplaced nostalgia but I also wanted a varied grain bill to add some preindustrial complexity and a sense of making do with what was available. The recipe is below:

OG:1.055 ABV:6.6% SRM: 7 IBU: 8

67% Maris Otter
10% Wheat Malt
10% Spelt Malt
8% Flaked Oats
5% Flaked Wheat

Mixed Bushel of Hops Heritage hops at 60mins and flame out
60min mash at 69deg C

I intended to add a little Epsom Salts and Precipitated Chalk to aid fermentation, as both magnesium and calcium are low in our moderately soft water, but I forgot… I also added 10 minutes on to the boil because the Protofloc went in late…

I had made a starter for the MegaBlend to ensure it was vigorous. Alison from Brewlab had told us it was big enough for 20 litres so cell count should have been fine. Because of the snow delay the starter had a week in the fridge following a week fermentation but it quickly became active again once I took it out. The aromatics coming off the starter were really appealing: there was an acetic acidity and depth of funk. Possibly wrongly, I didn’t pour away the starter liquid, mainly because the yeast was still active in suspension and also because the aromatics were so good.

Within 24 hours the airlock was very active and I opened the window to keep the room temperature below 20 deg C. After a few days the airlock had slowed to a regular bubble.

For my second brew I wanted a wort of similar colour, strength and character to top off the Flanders red. I had also become interested in stock ales from reading Country House Brewing in England by Pamela Sambrook and drinking Burning Sky’s Stock Ale. I intended to draw off 15 litres of wort and use 5 litres low hopped for the Flanders Red and 10 litres high hopped for the stock ale. I took far too little wort and so, post boil, ended up with 5.5 litres of stock ale and 3 litres to top up the Flanders red. I realised I had residual sugar in the mash so remashed and made a 5.5 litre batch of bitter. The mash had been left dry for at least an hour so I don’t know whether this will affect it. I think there was still residual sugar in the mash also. I clearly need to do some homework on brewing strong beers and parti-gyling. I started with the intention of brewing an entire ale and ended up parti-gyling. I realise I was winging it, messed up the volumes but I think the character and strength of the stock ale, flanders red top-up and bitter should be fine. I imagine the malt for country house brewing would be a bit less uniform than what we have today so I’ve used a mixture of Maris Otter, Chevalier (a heritage variety) and crisp amber malt to provide a varied complexity to the taste.

  • Flanders red top up OG:1.073 ABV:8% SRM: 24 IBU: 11
  • Stock ale OG:1.078 ABV:8.5% SRM: 23 IBU: 70
  • Bitter OG:1.040 ABV:4.0% SRM: 17 IBU: 45

39% Maris Otter
39% Chevalier
11% Crisp amber malt (25L)
5.5% crystal malt (30L)
5.5% medium crystal malt (75L)

60min mash at 67deg C.

Stock ale hops:

  • 50:50 East Kent Goldings and Mixed Bushel of Hops Heritage hops at 60mins (49 IBU)
  • Mixed Heritage hops at 30mins (18 IBU)
  • Mixed Heritage hops at Flame out

Flanders red top-up hops:

  • Mixed Bushel of Hops Heritage hops at 60mins (11 IBU)

Bitter

  • 50:50 East Kent Goldings and Mixed Heritage hops at 60mins (29 IBU)
  • Mixed Heritage hops at 30mins (22 IBU)
  • Mixed Heritage hops at Flame out

I took samples of the Flanders red before topping up. The batch fermented on commercial yeast was racked when I made the Oud Bruin. It tasted fine but not quite happy in its skin yet. It wasn’t very smooth and hadn’t developed much acidity. Hopefully the addition of fresh fermentables from the top up will feed the bacteria as well as the yeast.  The batch fermented on my wild flower Blend 2 was a lot smoother. Still a bit sweet and young so I hope it becomes more savoury with age. It took a couple of days for these to start fermenting. As is consistently the case, the wild yeast ferments slower and for longer, and this is still the case compared to the Roeselare Blend.

I also recently bottled Blend 3 and the reuse of Blend 1. A portion of Blend 3 has been kept back for blending with Blend 1 and 2. Blend 3 had a gravity of 1.004 and a pH of 4.3 with a spicy, Turkish delight taste. Blend 1 reuse had a gravity of 1.003 and pH of 4.4. The taste still had some body, which was surprising for the gravity, and the taste was clean but tangy.

Tasting notes…. Blend 2 has a strong nail varnish aroma, which is probably beyond pleasant. I will leave it a few months and see if it improves in the bottle. Elderflower has a floral aroma, a biscuity taste and creamy mouth feel. I particularly liked this one. Dog rose had a softer floral aroma than elderflower, a slightly darker colour and a taste reminiscent of Turkish delight.  Heather ale was pale gold, tasted of flower honey with a tangy finish. The head quickly diminished.

I am concerned about the oxidation from blending and head space. Blend 2 has definitely suffered because of this and Blend 3 might be affected. While I’ve enjoyed drinking Blend 1, the single flower ferments have a cleaner, less creamy taste to them. This year I will only Blend if the ales will benefit from balancing out. I will still Blend the yeast though.

The first flowers are now out with a scattering of snowdrops and clumps of primrose. It feels like spring is breaking through. The birds are more active and the dawn chorus streams through the window in the mornings now. I might revisit primrose after using them last year. I read somewhere that veg near to the ground has more lactobacillus present. I’m wondering whether the same is true with flowers and will try and encourage a sour culture from them soon.

Year-end roundup

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London Homebrew Week and the BrewCon were the week of the 6th Nov. It was great to meet the brewers, James and Jack, at Redchurch Urban Farmhouse Bring the Funk event. James felt the Gorse sourced wild ferment had lacked oxygen during primary fermentation and had a slight off flavour as a result. I wondered whether this could have also been down to a low pitching rate of yeast. I only propagated a 250ml starter for the gorse. The general consensus on the Dandelion was very positive so I kept the bottle dregs and will try to keep the yeast going.

The highlight of the BrewCon for me was the MegaBlend, meeting fellow home brewers and meeting the team from Brewlab. They put Blend 1 and Blend 2 under the microscope so I was able to see the wild yeast and bacteria in the samples. Good to have confirmation that they’re there!

Taken by Brewlab

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About 15 – 20 samples were brought to the MegaBlend; a mixture of bottle dregs and wild captures. Brewlab took them away, will screen each sample and propagate the blend before sending it out to us. The story can be followed on the Facebook page.

Brewlab streak plate Blend 1
Brewlab streak plate Blend 2

I’m now drinking Blend 1 and some of the single source bottles that have gone into Blend 2. Tasting notes below and in the sensory testing diagram:

Date Originating Flower Tasting Notes
10 Dec 17 Hawthorn Low carbonation. Head ok. Rose gold rather than yellow gold. Medicinal aroma. Not astringent. Spicy fruity.
15 Dec 17 Rowan Light amber. Spicy, possibly slightly smoky. Rich fruitiness when aerated in the mouth.
20 Dec 17 Blend 1 Floral creamy notes. Spicy, sharp, clean, dry.
22 Dec 17 Broom Pea flower
1 Jan 17 Garden Apple 2 Little head. Low carbonation. Gold colour. Rose like aroma. Sweet and sour fruity taste.

I have wondered whether autolysis has influenced the flavour profile of the ales that went into Blend 1, which sat on the yeast for 5 months. If it has it is subtle and more akin to the positive attributes in Champagne making than brewing, where it is usually considered a bad thing. In Champagne it is associated with the creamy, buttery, biscuit and floral notes. In brewing it has been associated with marmite and rubber, which is not something I’ve detected in these ales.

On the 18 November I made some rosehip syrup. I did this after the first frost, which I have read can improve the hips, but this was the first opportunity I had had. I did this  to learn the process and experience the flavour. I want to drink the cordial but also add it as a priming sugar to ale. I researched a few recipes including these links from the Guardian and eattheweeds. 500g hips and 1 litre of water were simmered in a pan for 20mins. As they simmered the hips were mashed with a potato masher. They were then strained and squeezed through a double layer of muslin before adding the pulp back to the pan with 1/2 litre of water and setting the juice to one side. The process was then repeated with the pulp and water. The combined juice was then put back on the heat with 150g of golden caster sugar. The resulting cordial is a very good source of vitamin C and I have found it restorative, although I may have imagined this. The syrup tasted quite sugary so next time I will reduce it further with a vigorous boil and use a brown sugar.

Last a Friday night I finally managed to squeeze in a brew while my wife was out. I brewed a Flanders Red recipe based on Greg Hughes Home Brew Beer. And split the batch of 20 litres, using half with commercial yeasts and half with Blend 2. I’ve been fairly liberal with the traditional style. I am primary fermenting the commercial batch with a single strain saison yeast, to use it up and will add a roselaere blend to the secondary. The recipe was:

OG:1.056 FG:1.008 ABV:6.2% SRM:19 IBU:11 20L batch

57% Vienna malt
28% Maris Otter malt
6% Caramunich malt
5% wheat malt
4% Special B malt

13g East Kent Golding (5.92% AA) at 60mins
4g First Gold (6.63% AA) at 60mins

Mashed at 65 deg C for 60mins. Added hops at first wort. Boiled for 90mins.

Evening brewing went well, allowing for more family time over the weekend. With water filtered, grain weighed out and kit prepared in advance, I started the mash just before 8pm and was cleared up by 1am.

The brew was chilled, aerated, split and yeasts added. After a week fermenting with WLP Belgian Saison Yeast Roselare Blend was added to the fermenter. I intend to rack these to secondary rather than resting on the yeast cake.

Other adventures into fermentation in the few months have been sauerkraut and ginger bug which might make their way into my brews at some point. I have also made a deconstructed compound gin kit which I plan to use to gain a deeper appreciation of different botanicals.

After three months, I racked the Heather Ale off the sprigs of heather. A very thin film had formed on top among the floating fronds. This had been an experiment to see what would happen if I cut out the propagation steps and sensory testing. It was a bit of a gamble, a bit lazy but also a way to “dry hop” the ale with heather as well as add a source of yeast. The gravity was 1.007 and the pH was 3.9. The ale had mostly cleared and tasted of a floral honey.