Smoked MIld Review

Hoping for a flavorful but low-alcohol beer, I made a Smoked Mild a few weeks ago using Breiss cherry-smoked malt. The results, I am happy to report, have been pretty good. Some people at the local homebrewers club liked it, including the guy who works at the LHBS that sold me the grains. Woohoo!

Appearance: Deep brown or mahogany in color. Appears very dark in the glass with brown highlights around the edges. A decent tan foam appears at the initial pour although is fades fairly quickly to a ring of bubbles where the surface of the beer meets the glass. I wish this beer were a little lighter in color.


Aroma: It has a reasonably strong smokiness, but not in a bacon or ham-like way. There's a hint of the roastiness as well, so the smoke isn't overwhelming.

Taste: Smoke up front, but a sweeter taste combined with some roasty character after the first impression. Again, the smokiness is neither overwhelming nor meaty, but noticeable. No hop aroma, little if any noticeable bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Low carbonation. The beer is low in body but the low level of carbonation prevents it from feeling spritzy. Leaves a sweet and roasty aftertaste.

Overall: A drinkable, low alcohol beer with an assertive but not overwhelming smoke character, balanced by a sweet and roasty quality. Low in body, but low in carbonation. Good complexity without being overwhelming.

For Next Time: The only thing I would change is the color. Currently I think it's too dark for the Mild style. Perhaps instead of 4oz Black Patent Malt I could use 2oz chocolate and 2oz black patent. That might also give the taste some added complexity. I definitely want to brew this one again.

Funky Table Saison Brewday

I would like to do a beer with a Brettanomyces twist, but without having to wait a really long time. This means keeping the gravity low, as I have read from several sources that for every 10 gravity points above 1.020 you should secondary the beer for an additional month to let the Brettanomyces work its magic. (After primary for 4 weeks). Otherwise the flavors may not fully develop or you may get beer that becomes dangerously overcarbonated (ie bottle-bombs).

The most prominent homebrewing funk-master in my mind is The Mad Fermentationist. I have been inspired by some of his recipes, such as his Funky Low Gravity Saison. As I understand it the basic idea is to make a saison in the 1.040 OG range and ferment with a combination of WLP645 Brett c. and WLP565 Saison. I'm going for a strong brett taste to get a sense of what that micro-critter is all about.

For this brew I based the grain bill of the BCS Saison recipe but scaled it down a bit to hit a 1.041 OG, with slightly reduced hopping. A little bit of acid malt and a 152F mash temp is part of the picture so that the brett has some good material with which to create its characteristic funkiness. The plan is to primary for about 4 weeks around 70F, followed by a secondary for 2-3 months. I hope the beer will be ready in February '13.

Funky Mini-Saison
3.25 gallons

3# Belgian Pilsner
1# Wheat Malt
0# 4oz Cane Sugar
0# 4oz DME (I forgot to get Munich Malt at the LHBS. That was dumb.)
0# 6oz Crystal 40L
0# 4oz Acid Malt
----
5.125# Total Fermentables

1/2 tsp. gypsum
152F Mash Temp
90min boil

5/8oz Hallertau, 3.9%AA, 60 mins
3/8oz Hallertau, 3.9% AA, 15 mins
1/2 tsp. Irish moss, 15 mins

WLP565 - Belgian Saison I
WLP645 - Brett c. 

Expected OG: 1.042 
Expected IBUs: 21


10/4/12
Made a starter with WLP565 from the previous saison and with WLP645 Brett. c. 

10/5/12
The starter was fermenting nicely with a moderate krausen by 7:30am.Started the mash around 7:50a and hit the 152F temp right on. Got 2.25gal of 1st runnings, as I was aiming for. Hit my pre-boil volume target of 4.5gal too.

Pre-boil OG without the sugar or DME was 1.030 at 4.5 gallons. That is about 76% efficiency. My system seems to get better efficiency on lower gravity brews. Added the sugar and DME with about 75mins left in the boil.

Used the IC to get the wort to 110F. Placed brew kettle in 65F water with some ice-packs to cool it to pitching temps.
   
Pitched when beer was at 70F, then placed fermentor in bin of 66F water for primary fermentation. Ended up with 3.4 gallons, or 3.5 with the starter thrown in. I have 5 cups (.3125 gal) of trub left in the bucket.

If my calculations and measurements are correct this all works out to a boil-off rate of .525 gallons / hour for my set-up on a rigorous boil. I need to figure that exact number into my calculations the next time I brew so that I get the right volumes.

Also, according to my rough calculation, because of the greater mash efficiency than expected, I should still have about the right OG of 1.042 - 1.045.

Pitched around 3pm. By 11:30 that evening the airlock was bubbling fairly actively.

10/19/12
Transferred to secondary. The gravity was at 1.006 - pretty low but I hope there's something left for the brett to munch on over the next few months. The sample tasted OK but definitely "green" and in need of more flavor development. I got a bit more than 3 gallons into the Better Bottle.  

1/18/13
Bottled with 68g of sugar, going for 2.4 volumes of CO2. The beer was all the way down to 1.003. I got slightly more than three gallons in a bunch of 22oz bombers and a few 16oz bottles. I will try the beer in a couple of weeks.