Belgian Wit

I have now made about eight beers using the recipes from Jamil Zainasheff's Brewing Classic Styles book, and I just love it. The recipes turn out fantastic and the book is full of excellent tips. Now, the stats:

Brewed: 4/19/2008

Kegged: 4/30/2008

Original Gravity: 1.056

Final Gravity: 1.011

Alcohol By Volume: 5.8%

Carbonation Volume: 2.7 (15 psi at 40 degrees F)

This was my first 1o-gallon batch, as mentioned in a previous post. I split the batch into two 5 gallon carboys, one of which I fermented normally and the other I racked onto pinot noir soaked oak chips to imitate the style of the Dogfish Head Red and White Ale. I will document the results of that experiment in another post. These tasting notes are for the batch that was fermented normally.

Belgian wits are supposed to be drunk fresh. They are yeasty and very tasty and I am happy with the results of my brewing. The beer appears cloudy and sort of glows a pale yellow-white color when held against a strong light. The wit has a thick pillowy white head that dissipates quickly, but leaves a nice lacing pattern on the glass. It smells strongly of yeast and orange citrus, which is no surprise given that the 10 gallon batch used the fresh zest of three navel oranges. In fact, the smell is one of the things I love most about this beer. The taste has an immediate zing from the coriander that settles into the orange. The carbonation leaves a trail on your tongue, but dissipates quickly. You next taste the yeast, which has a spicy aftertaste that finally settles on a firm smoothness. The beer finishes with a slight lingering sweetness.

I really like how this batch turned out. However, for the next batch I will back off on the coriander slightly, as it is a bit too strong. I also plan on increasing the carbonation a bit, as it could be a slightly stronger. Additionally, a member of our homebrew club recommended I add 1/4 tsp of lactic acid to the beer as I keg it to add a slight sour spritz to the flavor. The cloudy "white" color can also be pronounced by adding a tablespoon of flour wort when it is boiling in the kettle.

Overall, I am very pleased with this beer and how it tastes out of the keg.

Bohemian Pilsner

I meant to post this a while ago, but this review is timely as this is the very last bottle. Here are the stats:

Brewed: 1/19/2008

Bottled: 3/8/2008

Original Gravity: 1.061

Final Gravity: 1.011

Alcohol By Volume: 6.5%

Lagering Time: 5 weeks

I have been extremely happy with this beer, given that it is the first lager I brewed. The pils is very clear, probably the clearest beer I have ever brewed. It maintains its head for a long time, which is something, as most of my beer has a head that dissipates quickly. It has a clean taste, but with a definite strong hop backbone. In fact, I would say the hops are a bit too much and next time I brew the beer I intend to reduce the total IBUs by at least five. I detect a slight amount of honey in the palate, but not sweet. The finish is very clean and slightly dry.

One other thing I read about is that bohemian pilsners are made with very soft water. This makes the hops stand out a bit less spritzy (I know that is not a word, but it is what came to mind), but makes the flavor softer on the palate. I read that this can be simulated by purchasing cheap deionized water from Walmart or similar store. Substitute 50% of the water used to make the beer with the DI water and it will make the total water used softer, but still drinkable.

This is one I will definitely do again.

April was a Busy Brewing Month . . .

Ok, I admit it, I have been extremely lax about updating the blog, especially given all of the beer and brewing things I did in April. I keep telling myself that I will get around to posting to the blog, but never seem to make the time to do it. Here is a bulletized recap of the brewing and wine-making activities of the last month or so:

• John's Party Brew Day #3 - John and I brewed beer batches #5 and #6 in April, which included a Dry Irish Stout and a Pale Ale. The Dry Irish Stout resulted in a stuck sparge, so it took a LONG time, and we kept missing our temperatures; thus it was nick-named Murphy's Law Irish Stout. However, despite all of that, it tastes great.


• First 10-Gallon Batch - I brewed my first 10-gallon batch ever in April. I had borrowed a friends 20-gallon aluminum pot so John and I to make two batches of beer at the same time. While I had it, I figured I would try to brew 10 gallons of Belgian wit, which worked well, but still took longer than expected.


• First Brewing Experiment - I divided the 10-gallon batch into two carboys and finished each different. I used the first carboy as a control, allowing it to finish fermenting normally and just following the recipe. I tried to make the second carboy into a clone of Dogfish Head's Red and White beer, which my wife loves. This involved racking the beer onto 2 ounces of oak chips that had soaked in pinot noir wine for a week. It will be neat to try the beer side-by-side to taste how it is different.


• Kegerator - I got really lucky on Craig's List and bought a $1,000 kegerator for $150. It is only three years old and is in very good condition. It can hold three homebrew kegs and I am currently working on a method to outfit it with three taps. I am very excited about this project, as I will finally have draft beer at the house.


• 4th CAMRA Meeting - Our homebrewing club had its fourth monthly meeting and we had about 25 people show up. One of the members led the discussion about the Belgian wit category (very timely, as I had just brewed one and he had lots of good suggestions) and we talked about growing hops and organizing our first homebrew tasting event at the end of May.

I hope to write an individual post about most of these items, but if past performance is any indication, it might not happen for a while. I am especially interested in follow-up posts about the kegerator and the Belgian wit experiment. I also need to do a write up on my bohemian pilsner, as I am down to the last bottle.

Until next time, whenever that may be . . . cheers!