Bière de Réserve

Bière de Garde is a strange style: it's considered a farmhouse ale like saison but is actually very different and is actually lagered. Aside from the lagering aspect, and a balance towards malt, there doesn't seem to be any set definition or ingredients that make something a bière de garde. It can be gold, amber, or brown; moderately alcoholic to very strong; use European or English hops; use lager yeast, fairly neutral ale yeast, or characterful Belgian yeast, and in some cases can even have brettanomyces. I've only had 2 beers labeled as Bière de Gardes: Flying Dog's Garde Dog, knocked as not being within the style parameters by most reviews, and Right Proper's Baron Corvo, a mixed fermentation bière de garde.

In coming up with my recipe I focused on the 2 things that definitely define the style (malt forward and lagered) and looked at homebrew recipes from Michael Tonsmeire and Gus Addkinson to get a ballpark idea of ingredients and decided to use an array of toasted and crystal malts to compliment the German pilsner base.

Part of my desire to brew a beer in this style is my love for "farmhouse" ales and "wild" ales. With this in mind I planned to add BKYeast C2 (and possibly other yeast or bacteria) to part of this batch to give it some more farmhouse "rustic" character, instead of just being a toasty/malty kolsch. I chose this Brett strain after tasting a 100% C2 beer recently and thought that the mild earthy/fruity/dusty/"wild strawberry" characteristics would go well with this style.

I made one big mistake when designing this beer and wrote the recipe for 5 gallons for the ingredients but 6 gallons for the water profile, leaving the beer with a much lower gravity (1.052) than I aimed for (1.062). I ended up adding 4 oz. of sugar and 8 oz. of malt extract to bump up the gravity a touch.

Brett version pictured on the left with the plain version on the right.

12/27/17 Side by Side Tasting:
Appearance:
Plain: Heavily carbonated with a massive white head that lasts as a thin layer with thick foamy lacing left behind. Coppery amber in color with decent clarity, just a little haze.
Brett: Much less heavily carbonated with a quickly fading head that leaves no lacing. Similar coppery color with a touch less haze due to the lower carbonation not shaking up as much sediment.

Smell:
Plain: Mild fruitiness with a strange sour, vegetal and earthy squash like character. Light caramel malt aromas and a touch of phenolic smoke.
Brett: Overripe fruit up front with some peppercorn, clove, and green pepper. Slightly vinous and caramelly.

Taste/Mouthfeel:
Plain: Light berry fruitness mingles with moderate peppery phenolics that lead into sweet lightly caramel malt followed by more spiciness and a low bitterness with lingering spice and vegetal character. High carbonation makes the phenolic character even more prickly but it calms down with some time and warmth. Some astringency from an unknown source. Fuller bodied than the brett version but doesn't feel thick despite 1.016 FG.
Brett: Medium earth and fruit mingle with a lingering spicy bitterness. Seems less phenolic and the low carbonation and thin body adds to the vinous character.

Overall:
I'm really not crazy about this one and almost ditched the tasting and the whole post. That said, the brett version does seem a little better despite only mild changes and I could see this strain working great in a slightly better base bière de garde. In terms of how to get to a better base bière de garde I'm not sure what I would change to avoid the phenolic character other than a change in yeast and maybe cutting some of the toasted malts. I also wonder if the hop choices contributed at all to the earthy/vegetal character that is a little too strong for my tastes. Overall, not the beer I wanted it to be but not undrinkable.

Fermentables

Amount	Fermentable	Maltster	%	Use	PPG	Color
9.0 lb	Pilsner (DE)	Avangard	79 %	Mash	36	1 °L
1.0 lb	White Wheat (US)	Briess	9 %	Mash	40	2 °L
12 oz	Victory	Briess	7 %	Mash	34	28 °L
4.35 oz	Honey Malt	Gambrinus	2 %	Mash	37	25 °L
3.25 oz	Caraamber	Weyermann	2 %	Mash	34	23 °L
2.0 oz	Crystal 150L	Great Western	1 %	Mash	33	150 °L

Hops

Amount	Hop	Time	Use	Form	AA
1.0 oz	Fuggle (UK)	60 min	Boil	Pellet	4.1%
0.5 oz	WGV (UK)	60 min	Boil	Pellet	6.0%
0.25 oz	WGV (UK)	15 min	Boil	Pellet	6.0%

Yeasts

Name	Lab/Product	Attenuation
Kolsch	Wyeast	75%

Brewed 6/17/17
Cooled to room temperature and placed in 6 gallon fermenter with Wyeast 2565 Kolsch.

6-30-17
Split batch between two 3 gallon plastic carboys, adding a starter of C2 Brett to one. These were placed in a chest freezer set to 35F.

7-29-17
Both batches were pulled out of the chest freezer and allowed to rise to room temperature (~66F) for at least one week in order to ensure full attenuation before bottling.

8-5-17
Bottled the clean half with 1.5 oz. sucrose aiming for ~2 volumes of carbonation. Final gravity is higher than expected at 1.016 and quite a bit higher than expected and shows a much lower attenuation than the style calls for. This may be closer to a Marzen but tastes like a nice, if a tad too sweet/caramelly, lager. The "Avec Brett" half will be given more time as the gravity is only down to 1.012 and may be able to fall further.

9-15-17
Brett version bottled as it was still sitting at 1.012. Tasting good with just light fruit/earth/funk from the C2 strain on top of the clean and malty character of the base beer.

9-20-17
The clean half has become surprisingly "Belgian-y" with a spicy phenolic character that gives the impression of Belgian yeast. While some phenols aren't entirely out of style in a bière de garde, the beer seems to have transitioned from a clean, Marzen like beer into something closer to a Belgian blonde. I'm not sure where this yeast character could have come from but have to assume that a Belgian/Saison/Brett/wild yeast strain capable of producing phenols (POF+) was picked up in bottling. A full side by side tasting will be done once the Brett half is carbonated.

Citrusy Farmhouse

When someone asks me what my favorite beer is I often have a tough time answering. My mind goes back to the great beers I've enjoyed and the fun experiences I have had around them: the time I had St. Bernardus 12 with friends shortly after turning 21, and the Westvleteren 12 I brought back from Belgium a few years later; the unfiltered Pilsner Urquell I was lucky enough to enjoy in Prague and the truly terrific bock I stumbled upon at Devil's Backbone; the first Russian River Sanctification I had when my brother introduced me to sour beers and the Cantillon gueuze I consumed after touring their spiderweb filled brewery.  Along with these commercial favorites there are homebrewed beers that come to mind: Scott's NEIPA, Sean's Rye IPA, and Mike's Anna dreg Saison. While all of these beers have been revolutionary, eye-opening experiences for me, Mike's beer was the first one to make me angry: angry that someone had already brewed the perfect mixed fermentation saison.

Knowing very little about the beer, Mike's blog post was not up yet at the time I brewed this beer and his responses my question on ingredients was: "some pale malts, some low alpha hops, some dregs from Hill Farmstead Anna" which wasn't enough to design a clone, especially when I didn't have access to Anna bottles. Still, I set out to brew something similar: a citrusy mixed fermentation farmhouse ale with mild-to-moderate tartness and mild-to-moderate funk.

While my End of a Spark citrusy farmhouse ale didn't give the exact flavors of Mike's it nailed the high citrus, moderate funk, and moderate tartness qualities I was chasing, while also using entirely different ingredients than his.

I took about a case of bottles of this beer to DC Homebrewers annual BBQ and competition hosted at 3 Stars Brewing. The beer was generally well received and even got an honorable mention from the judges!

Note: I had planned to take some pictures of this beer and do a full write up but accidentally took the last few to a blending session (post on that possibly to come). In all, this was an enjoyable beer that I would happily make again.

Batch #21 100% Brett Beer - Side by Side

I've recently been diving into the catacombs of the past (aka my parent's basement) to grab some beers that I brewed years ago to see how they're tasting now. In many of these cases the beers are oxidized - in some cases they may have been that way when fresh. In other cases, primarily with boozier or sour/brett'd beers they have aged gracefully, in some cases even gaining character. Today I decided to pop bottles of batch 21 and 21b side by side. This beer started as an ordinary bitter recipe which was brewed with 100% BKYeast C2 Brettanomyces yeast. The b version was put on 2 pounds of Blackberries (.8 lbs/gallon) to increase the sourness and play up the berry characteristics. I'm interested to see whether the beers have held up after about 4 1/2 years. Tasting notes below:

21 (100% Brett Beer)
Appearance - amber-brown, a bit hazy (high carbonation pulled up some yeast immediately after popping the top). Voluptuous head that lasts throughout.

Smell - Earth, malt (toast), grass, berry. It definitely has the "wild strawberry" green/earth/wood/berry character that has been seen in this yeast isolate. Some musty/funky aromas and slight cardboard give an impression of age.

Taste - Very similar to the nose with some woody and berry flavors throughout, a touch of bitterness on the backend with a lingering strawberry and earth impression. No real oxidation character, showing once again the power of Brett to help a beer age gracefully.

Mouthfeel - Dry and highly carbonated but not thin or aggressive, very enjoyable.

Overall - This beer has aged better than I expected and is drinking a bit like some of the Brett biere de garde's I have tried. I could definitely see this strain working well, probably not as the only yeast, in a mixed ferment biere de garde.

21b (100% Brett Beer w/ Blackberries)
Appearance - Similar in color but less hazy (very clear) compared to the straight version. Almost no head and absolutely no retention (possibly due to the berries, but also appears to be much less carbonated). I remember this beer having a more reddish/pinkish/purplish hue when fresh but that color appears to have faded.

Smell - Very different smell with berries/fruity pebbles dominating. Earth and toast are found further in the background but it smells fruitier/sweeter.

Taste - The smell is deceiving in this one as the taste is actually much less sweet than the other version due to a moderate acidic kick. Not acetic but very noticeable (possibly malic) acid blends with some moderate blackberry flavors.

Mouthfeel - Thinner than the other version and with very little carbonation this one falls a little flat. the mouthfeel may be the weakest part of this beer.

Overall - I highly enjoy the smell of this beer and could see why I preferred this version fresh but time (and lack of carbonation) have not been as kind to this version with the berry flavors and color seeming to fade. This one does come off somewhat vinous and is by no means unenjoyable.

Impressions/Takeaways - Once again my old beers with Brett have held up and retained some very enjoyable characteristics. I've been thinking a lot about Biere de Garde recently and drinking these makes me very much want to try the C2 yeast in one.

Brett IPA (Or how to dump a batch)

While I've made a number of moderately hoppy beers recently (including multiple takes on my Mosaic Grisette) I haven't had a true IPA on hand. Part of the reason is that I haven't had time to brew much and have devoted most of that to perfecting a few recipes. Part of it is just that I don't brew IPAs that often. And part of it is that I haven't been in love with IPAs recently.

While IPA has never been my favorite style I've gone through waves of hating them, loving them, and being fairly indifferent to them. Part of my issue recently is that I've found that the IPAs (and to a large extent pale ales) I've had recently tend to fall into 2 categories: overly dank and bitter or underwhelming all around.

StarTropics is a name I've used for several very distinct beers and I want to use the moniker once again because it has the 3 things I really want in this beer: super tropical-fruit aroma and taste from both hops and yeast, beautiful bright red color, and refreshing, not assaulting, bitterness.  Past attempts at this beer have missed the mark, with one being a Brett saison that became way too heavy on the Brett and the other being a "Brett" Trois based IPA that felt too malty and surprisingly tame in terms of fruit character. This time around I needed to do another radical overhaul.

I liked my previous 100% Brettanomyces beer, but I wasn't sure BKYeast's C2 strain was ideal for an IPA. Having read a lot of Bear-Flavored and Mad Fermentationist posts about Brett C for 100% beers I decided it had the descriptors I was looking for with fast fermentation and bright fruit characteristics.

In order to keep this beer from being as malty as the last version I decided to keep it focused on Pale Ale malt with just a touch of Golden Naked oats for a light sweet, nutty complexity. The color is coming almost entirely from 3 oz. of Carafa III, which I hope will be the right amount to provide a bright red look without too much roast character.

2/5/2016
Friday post-work brew day provided for some challenges. The cold weather made it take longer than usual to hit my strike temperature, and then my mash-in temperature was 4 degrees low. Added another couple gallons of hotter water to bring up to 151 after about 15 minutes. Had a smaller sparge due to the mash water correction and ended up getting my first stuck sparge. A number of things (stirring, adding more water, opening valve wider) didn't help but shoving the top of the dip tube to one side seemed to clear it and was able to run off enough to reach 6 gallons of reddish brown wort. Added the hopshot and bittering additions were added as First Wort with no other additions added until post boil, with the first addition added at flame-out and another added less than 10 minutes later once the wort had cooled to 160. After a 20 minute hop stand at 160 the wort was cooled down the rest of the way to 75.

2/6/2016

Unfortunately a two day starter didn't seem to be enough to get the yeast to the levels required and after 24 hours I pitched a slurry of Brett L + C2.

3/5/2016
I didn't want to admit it for a lot of reasons but...this one is my first full batch dumper. The Brett ended up creating a LOT of plastic flavor that outshines the otherwise pleasant hop characteristics. I am assuming that this is likely due to not having enough yeast at initial pitch and the long lag time experienced by the Brett C. I feel like this is a recipe that had some promise if done correctly but I failed to deliver and need to start over. Once again this recipe teaches me a lesson but fails to produce adequate beer.

4/2/2016
Gave this one a month to cleanup, but I needed the carboy so it got fed to the compost. Disappointing but at least I got the impression that this hop bill worked.

#42 - StarTropics - Hoppy Brett Saison

With the end of summer quickly approaching here in DC (and me preparing for my trip to Munich for Oktoberfest!) I found myself with a free weekend, a few empty carboys, and a desire to make one last saison during the hot season.

For this beer I wanted heavy hop flavors and lots of bitterness, backed up with enough malt to keep things balanced, interesting, and ready for Autumn.  I also wanted to further explore the combination of Nelson Sauvin and Brettanomyces that I tried a few beers back so for the yeast I used the slurry from the Brett Saison as the primary (rather than in the secondary) and added Crooked Stave dregs to add even more varieties of fruity and funky Brettanomyces.  I also kept Nelson Sauvin as a major component of the hop profile but added my two favorite citrusy American hops: Cascade and Amarillo.

As I've done with many beers, and particularly often recently, I plan to experiment with this beer after the primary ferment, though this time I don't have preset plans.

Expected
1.061 OG
1.008 FG
62      IBU
7.0% ABV
10     SRM

Fermentable	Amount		Use	PPG	Color
Maris Otter Pale (UK)	8.5 lb	61 %	Mash	38	3 °L
Vienna (US)	4.5 lb	32 %	Mash	35	4 °L
Caramel/Crystal 60L (US)	0.5 lb	3 %	Mash	34	60 °L
Victory (US)	0.25 lb	1 %	Mash	34	28 °L

Hop	Amount	Time	Use	Form	AA
Nugget (US)	0.5 oz	60 min	Boil	Pellet	14.10%
Cascade (US)	2.0 oz	4 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	7.10%
Amarillo (US)	3.0 oz	4 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	8.50%
Nelson Sauvin (NZ)	1.0 oz	4 days	Dry Hop	Pellet	12.00%
Cascade (US)	2.0 oz	5 min	Whirlpool	Pellet	7.10%
Amarillo (US)	1.0 oz	5 min	Whirlpool	Pellet	8.50%
Nelson Sauvin (NZ)	3.0 oz	5 min	Whirlpool	Pellet	12.00%

Name                                         Average Attenuation
Brett Saison Blend                         87.50%

9/13/14
Brewed on stove top with no issues.  Whirlpool hops actually done as 20 minute hop steep.  OG measured at 1.058 (with a slightly low reading hydrometer).  Fermentation took off within 8 hours.

9/17/14
Fermentation still fairly active, gravity only down to 1.022 so this one should have a ways to go. Flavor is a melange of peach and white wine with just a touch of the bitterness showing through under the still high sweetness.

9/25/14
Gravity down to 1.007 with fermentation at a near standstill but the Brett will probably continue working away for a little while.

10/16/14
Running way behind on this one due to getting delayed on my return from Europe but finally added the first wave of dry hops (1.5 oz Amarillo, 1 oz Cascade and .5 oz Nelson Sauvin) to the primary.  Gravity down to 1.006 and tasting super funky without much hop presence prior to the dry hop additions.  Had been hoping to keg this, but getting the kegerator in place has also fallen behind schedule so I will probably just bottle in 8-10 days after another round of dry-hopping.

10/21/14
Racked 3 gallons onto the second wave of dry hops.  The remainder (about 1.5 gallons) was split between two 1 gallon jugs, one with 4 oz. demerara sugar and paradise seeds and the other with lime juice and a tangelo tincture I have been holding onto for a while.  My entire apartment is currently engulfed with amazingly fruity and citrusy hop aromas.

10/25/14
Bottled 3 straight gallons as #42, Demerara version as #42B, and Lime/Tangelo version as #42C.

7/16/16

Approaching two years in the bottle and this one is tasting pretty good. Hop character has certainly faded but the Brett character still gives a lime and pepper impression.

Nelson Brett Saison Tasting

I really enjoyed the fresh, kiwi/white wine/melon character of the straight version of my Prairie Artisan Ales' 'Merica inspired beer.  The Brett version took a little more time to grow on me however, which is why I am only now getting around to a formal sit down and review.

A-Burnished gold with some definite haze to the point of being fairly opaque.  Some of the clarity is likely due to the dry hopping, while some also seems to be condensation on the glass.  The small white ring of a head lasts for a long time around the edges of the glass.

S- Immediately upon popping the top there is a huge pineapple character that comes out.  In the glass the scent continues to be heavy on the Brettanomyces derived fruit and funk, with the hops playing a strong supporting role.  There is strong pineapple, barnyard, mango, decaying grass, and subtle orange rind in the beautiful bouquet.

T- This one is certainly dank, earthy, and citrusy.  The kiwi/melon I found to be more dominant in the straight version are subverted by the funky Brett here.  Bitterness is moderate, just enough to part the slight grainy sweetness in the middle and help transition to a long funky finish.

M- Dry with moderately low carbonation.  I had purposely primed without much sugar in case the Brett had continued doing its work but this definitely could have used more bubbles.

O- A solid beer.  The hop character is much lower than the straight version (likely due to the 2 weeks in secondary after dry hopping).  This seems like a decent introductory Brett beer with the funk being noticeable but not overwhelming and the hops giving off a nice tropical fruit character without being overly bitter.  A good beer that I would like to build off of in the future.

#40 - Nelson Brett Saison ('Merica-ish)

Two things I've planned to brew many times but have not followed through on are a super hoppy Nelson Sauvin beer and a Brettanomyces spiked Saison.  Prairie Artisan Ales' 'Merica has been getting a lot of hype recently, and generating plenty of imitations and inspirations from homebrewers, with a recipe that combines Brett and Nelson.  While I haven't actually had the beer, it seems hard to go wrong with a SMaSH Saison using delicious hops and Brettanomyces.

One spin I decided to take on the beer is to use Fawcett Pearl malt for the grist in order to emulate another popular beer I haven't had a chance to try: Heady Topper.  With such a simple malt and hop bill one of my focuses for this batch will be the water chemistry with additions of 6g Gypsum (about the same amount per gallon as Ed Coffey's (Ales of the Riverwards) clone, 1g CaCl and 8 tsp of 10% phosphoric acid.  All of the additions were intended to both bring down the mash pH and emphasize the hoppiness.

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast 3711
Yeast Starter: 2L
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.006
IBU: 30
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 4 SRM
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 @ 73
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 21 @ 75
Tasting Notes:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 6.5 gal
Estimated OG: 1.053 SG
Estimated Color: 4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU

11 lb Pearl Malt (2.0 SRM) Malt 100 %
8 tsp 10% Phosphoric Acid
6 g Gypsum
1 g Calcium Chloride
0.25 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (60 min) Hops 11 IBU
0.50 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (15 min)Hops 11 IBU
0.25 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (5 min) Hops 2 IBU
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (1 min) Hops 2 IBU
1.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (Hop Stand) Hops 2 IBU
2.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (4 days) Hops 0 IBU
2.00 oz Nelson Sauvin [12.00 %] (4 days) Hops 0 IBU

1 Pkgs French Saison (Wyeast #3711) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion
Total Grain Weight: 11 lbs
----------------------------
Single Infusion
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 16.00 qt of water at 161 F 150.0 F
15 min Mash Out Add 8.00 qt of water at 212 F 168.0 F

6/13/2014
Brewed this today and had a pretty good time of it.  Hops smelled surprisingly piney, less fruity than I would have expected on opening, but when moving the wort to the carboy I was blown away by the luscious, complex, gooseberry like aroma.  I split the "whirlpool" hops (actually more of "hop stands" thrown directly into the wort) into 3 groups to try and add to the complexity of bitterness/oils/other components extracted. I have high expectations for this more complex hop addition which is based on the lessons I learned from my last beer which only used flameout hops.  I also remembered to add Irish Moss, which I forgot in my last batch.

The negatives: I once again got a very low efficiency from the Morebeer milled malt hitting just 59% efficiency and 1.048 SG when originally planning for 65% and 1.053.  This likely throws the beer further into the bitter range than I would have liked but at 5.5+ abv and only ~30 ibu's it shouldn't be too far out of style. For future reference I'll need to either get my own mill or just anticipate this type of efficiency and plan recipes accordingly. I also spilled about half an ounce of Nelson Sauvin pellets on the floor trying to vacuum seal them...I'll still have ~7.5 oz. to use after this batch though so hopefully they taste as good in this batch as I expect and I have the desire to use that much again.

6/22/2014
Added 1.5 oz. of Nelson Sauvin dry hops directly to the fermenter.

6/29/2014

Racked 3 gallons to secondary with BKYeast C2 and Orval dregs. The remaining amount was bottled plain. I ended up with closer to a gallon than the 2 gallons I had expected due to a huge amount of dry hop sludge preventing further bottling. Taste was almost all hop derived with citrusy and tropical flavors, a surprisingly lack of spice from the saison yeast, though it may show more as the hop character fades in the next few weeks. The Brettanomyces spikes version will likely be bottled in 3-4 weeks.

7/7/2014
Popped a bottle of the "clean" version open for an initial tasting.  Very hop forward with white wine, pine, lime, and tropical fruit flavors.  Very dry but not a lot of yeast character showing through.  Will do a more thorough tasting in a few weeks.
Brett version is showing tiny signs of secondary fermentation with a ring of krausen/pellicle around the top.

7/9/2014

Added dregs from a Prairie Ale. It wasn't my favorite beer (nor was the Orval) but should put this one close to the real thing in terms of Brett and wine yeast added.

8/1/2014
Tasting of the straight version.  Great flavor with tons of the Nelson Sauvin character.
Plan to bottle the Brett version sometime this weekend.