Kedrigern's Best Brown, rebrew

One of my favourite brews I have made was the Kedrigern's brown--last time, I had a couple of issues...one of which was that it was only a 3 gallon batch, and therefore didn't last long enough.  The post for the original batch can be found here

So, this time I'm fixing that and brewing a full 6 gallons (in two batches, since my setup isn't made for more than 3.5).  I've made a couple of changes to the recipe, the most significant of which is the use of actual liquid yeast for the first time.  Plus, since I will be aging in a 5gal secondary for a few weeks, I plan to take one gallon and put it through a secondary with brettanomyces.

Should be 6.5 gallons in there, bubbling happily

Apfel Fermented Blonde Ale

I got to eyeballing the German Sweet Apfelwein the other day--there are a good couple pounds of pureed granny smith apples resting on the bottom.  And I just know that the apple cider isn't going leech all the flavour out of them--especially given that I will have to leave all that and more behind when I rack, otherwise I won't get the apfelwein to clear.

2015 Year in Brewing

2-23-15; 4 gallons of a simple hard cider, using Belgian yeast.  I lightly oaked it, and it fermented out to fairly dry.  At one point, it got infected with what I suspect is a wild strain of Brettanomyces (based on the pellicle, which is not a reliable method of identification).  The completely fermented cider was dryhopped with 2oz of East Kent Goldings pellets.

2-25-15; 3 gallons.  Kedrigerns Best Brown.  It has come out fairly tasty, even though it is not quite what I wanted.  I'll be keeping the recipe, but as a porter--it needs some tweaking to be a brown ale.

3-10-15; 1 gallon/1 quart.  My experiment with the Anchorage Brewing Dregs.  1 gallon of plain cider, and what I intend to become a 1.5 litre solera.
     The cider is decidedly interesting, and not half bad (although I have to be in the right mood).  It didn't carbonate properly, though.

5-28-15; 1 gallon.  Apple Blossom Metheglin.

6-20-15; Rosehip Tripel and Belgian Table Ale. I added the lees from the brett cider above, and intend to flavour with orange zest and chamomile, rather than the rosehips.
The table bier is made with the second runnings from the tripel, fortified with sugar, and fermented with the same yeast.  Dry-hopped with Styrian Goldings.

7-3-15; Rhubarb Wine, 5 gallons.

8-15-15; Smoked Shire Brown, 1 gallon.   A quickly thrown together brew, not bad in flavour, but needed more than 3oz rauchmalt per gallon.  Using the aged hops added a strange flavour.  I intend to use the leftovers and add brett dregs, as a base for a small solara (one of these days...)

9-13-15; The Highwayman Old Ale, 3.5 gallons.

10-3-15; Pumpkin Weizenbock, 3.5 gallons?.  2.6 bottled.

10-4-15; Garden "Lambic", 0.8 gallon.

10-12-15; Belgian Dark Candi Cider, 4.5 gallons.  Nothing special; Apple cider, dark candi syrup, and Ommegang yeast culture.

10-26-15;  Sweet German Apfelwein, 4 gallons.  Juice, sugar, and Gewurztraminer yeast (Vintner's Harvest AW4).

11-23-15; Spruced Up Quad, 1 gallon.  Belgian Strong Dark Ale, with spruce tips and Westmalle yeast.

11-24-15; Rye Tripel, 1 gallon.  A paleish Belgian ale with strong rye character.



Total: 33.25 gallons brewed (much of which is still in the fermenters).

Rye Tripel (1gal BIAB)

I have never had a rye beer.  There, I've said it.  This isn't for lack of desire, so much as I haven't really seen a good quality one in my area that wasn't also an IPA (most annoying, actually).  Therefore, I set out to make my own.

Still not the best pic, I know.

Spruced Up Belgian Quad

Welp...I decided--more or less--that I was going to start brewing 1 gallon all grain batches.  I figure that it is easier--less water and weight, even if not less actual work and time--and if I do it right I can get a pipeline of a gallon every week or so.  Plus getting experience with my system and recipe creation, which is even more important.  Weekish for fermentation, week for secondary/cold crashing/dry hopping....and a month or so for bottle conditioning.  Oh well.

Anyways, I brewed the first one today.  I originally put together the (unmodified) grain bill as a Belgian IPA, after trying the Stone Brewing 08-08-08 Encore (which I have succeeded in culturing yeast from, btw.  But haven't tested it yet, and don't know what variety it is.).  Well....then it got cold out, and I got thinking that maybe a strong dark ale would be better.  This was /after/ buying the original grain bill, of course.
I still plan to make the Bel IPA soon, mind.  

Pumpkin Weizenbock

I decided--fairly randomly, although triggered by the thoughts of fermenting in a pumpkin--to make a pumpkin beer.  While my first thought was a oatmeal stout, I quickly decided that a weizenbock would work nicely.  I fell in love with the style after trying the original, Avantius (absolutely delicious...and propagating the yeast should be possible).
While I decided to not ferment in a pumpkin--too much work/cost for not much in the way of results (beyond being able to say I did it)--I did use fresh pumpkin in the recipe.

First Wild Brew

I'm excited to say that I finally pitched yeast on my first wild brew.  I've been wanting to do this for quite a while, simply out of curiousity.  The results being, that back in June I "harvested" (it was airborn) assorted yeast, microbes, and I don't know what else from the garden--this is known as an "ambient" starter (as opposed to one started from fruit skins, or flower petals).  See the prior blog post (here) for the journal of the starters.



What this is, is a semi-spontaneous fermentation.  I say the semi, since a completely spontaneous fermentation would have used the full volume of wort, and no starters to make sure it won't just go bad--too risky for me.  For information on Spontaneous fermentations, like lambics, read here.  The Milk the Funk wiki, and their FB group are both very good sources of information.  This article is also a good one.

The wild capture starter in the middle is the one being used.