Brews 20 and 21

Brew #20
Sorry for the late update again, busy summer. So brew #20 was a second version of Saison of the Witch, but with a whole different witch. The first one I used Brett, and originally I was expecting to use the same yeast cake to redo with more Brett, but due to complications I will explain in a minute, I had to change things up. After not being able to use the same yeast cake, I had to use regular Saison Yeast. It went for the SSBC annual competition at the pig roast, got a couple votes but not a winner. Anyways, now with what's left, I decided to witch it up a bit, but instead of the Wicked Witch of the North Brettanomyces, I decided to use the Good Witch of the East Peaches. Sliced up 10 fresh ripe peaches, skin and all, and threw them in. After about a week I'll taste and see how it is. Should be interesting to say the least.

So the reason it went bad... so the original Saison of the Witch for which I added Brett, in order to prevent contaminating my normal fermentation eqp with Brett, I decided to use a Poland Spring 5 gal water bottle. At first as it was fermenting it started to taste good, with hints of Brett. But it was going slow. So to speed up the process I added more sugar and boy did it ferment. A big rolling new fermentation went, and when it was done I decided to bottle it and let it continue to bottle condition. At bottling time, which happened to be when I was brewing this batch for brew #20, I opened it and smelled polyurethane, paint thinner, and acid. Sure enough a slight tongue burning taste confirmed it. After much searching and forum posting, the best conclusion I found is due to oxygen. Poland Springs bottles are apparently very porous, which is why they are approved for water use only. Also something I learned, when Brett is fed lots of oxygen, it creates lots and lots of acids and acetic like flavors and aromas. SO I ruined the batch, but learned a lot. I bought a new fermenter specifically for bugs for the next attempt.

Brew #21
Next I needed to brew a beer for the Homebrewers' Jamboree in September. I decided to do something interesting and unique. While I was thinking about it I happened to be eating some dark rye toast, so I thought why not do the same in a beer. It is a play on the words India Pale Ale (IPA), but as it's no longer pale, pumpernickel replaced it well. It is a Cascadian Dark Ale (Black IPA, American Dark Ale, whatever you want to call it). Basically hopped very well, with Chinook for bittering, then Centennial for some flavor and aroma as well as some Cascade to finish it off. It will then be dry hopped with Simcoe, and most likely polished with some Rye Whiskey oak chips. On top of that, added a bit of rye, some bready malty and biscuit grains, a bit of flaked oats for body, and some nice dark malts. It rings in at an estimated 62 IBUs, and SG of 1.070.

Another update to come hopefully when both of these beers are finished.

Cheers!

Brew #19 Iced Coffee Cream Ale

The next beer in the coffee infusion series, I wanted to replicate a nice refreshing iced coffee for the summer. I created a light malty and aromatic cream ale, toasty and refreshing. I brewed the original beer a few weeks ago and went to LalaJava and talked to the owners about coffee that would work well. They gave me two different coffee options, so I split the finished beer into two 2.5 gallon batches and added the cold extracted coffee. THe flavor of the coffee was light (as I only made a little of each cold extraction), so I'm making another round of the coffee and pitching soon. The FG reaching a dry 1.006, 21.4 IBUs, and 5.1% abv, not to mention some nice subtle coffee flavors. It should be a nice tasting beer, and drinkable for the summer.

Next beer, saison of the witch #2, using the same yeast cake as the previous fermentation. This will contain both the original Belgian Saison yeast as well as Brettanomyces already in it. This should give the Brett an extra kick to get more wild flavors in it from the beginning. THis will be brought to the South Shore Brew Club annual Summer Pigroast Brew competition.