Begyle Don't Bring Me Down, Zeus

Since I just recently mentioned how I need to spend more time on Chicago beers, I figured I should actually follow through for once.  My friend from college has been telling me for a while to check out Begyle Brewing because he knows one of the guys who helped start it up.  And seeing as the nice guy I am, I painstakingly went out of my way to sit down and drink a beer.

Begyle Don't Bring Me Down, Zeus

Appearance- Dark Golden orange, almost a tint of amber in color with a hazy body.  An off white to light brown head that sticks around in a very thin head, almost turning patchy.  Moderate lacing left behind.

Smell- Very resiney hop smell with some sappy pine and a bit of grass.  Behind the hops is a decent amount of caramel malt.  Slight amount of alcohol is noticeable towards the end, but it is not hot.  Some slight fruit esters (maybe grapefruit?) lingering way back.

Taste- Tons of the resiney/piney flavors, feels as if it is almost stripping the tongue.  Expected a twinge of citrus to hit somewhere in the middle, but the resin was there to stay (not saying that is a bad thing).  Hop flavor seems almost earthy and spicy on the tongue.  Although there is a decent amount of caramel malty character, it never seems to compete with the hops. Bitterness picks up in the middle in moderate amounts as it quickly turns up to high bitterness into the finish.  Bitterness lingers and almost seems to tickle the tongue, if that can even be a description.  Alcohol seems a little hot in the end of the beer.

Mouthfeel- Thick mouthfeel with a prickly carbonation that seems to be enhanced with the spicy hop flavor .  Could possibly use a little more a little more carbonation.  Warming alcohol, a little too hot for my taste.

Overall- Although not my favorite DIPA, a very enjoyable one nonetheless.  A nice switch up from the citrus-centric DIPAs that you normally see, nice to see a new brewery not just jumping on that ship.  If you like that piney and resin type flavor, this is a good one to pick up.  Also, maybe don't piss of Zeus. Just my opinion though.

Also, you can say whatever you want, but my sad excuse for a mind has already locked on the pronunciation "bagel", no matter how wrong it may be.

The (Mediocre) Brett Experiment

Now that I have spent some time getting back into the groove of brewing, it is time for some exbeeriments.  And what better fun than learning the ins and outs of brettanomyces?  As someone that loves all things sour and funk, this is a natural progression, and really something necessary if I want to make acceptable funky beers.  Luckily, someone came up with The Great Brett Experiment and helped me out with obtaining some strains of brett along the way.  The gist of the fun?  Generally, split up batches of beer, pitch different strains of brett, play the waiting game, and then have both side by side to see how each strain adds different characteristics to the resulting beer.  I started with Brettanomyces clausseni and East Coast Yeast 08 in a rye saison, and still have some brettanomyces lambicus waiting too be pitched.  However, anyone who has other strains should feel free to send them my way!  Because we are all in this together, right?

Rye Saison

Batch size: 5.00 gallons

Original Gravity: 1.053

Final Gravity: 

Boil time: 90 minutes

Mash time: 90 minutes

9.0 lbs Pilsener

3.0 lbs Rye malt

0.75 lb Table sugar

1.5 oz Fuggle hops @60 min

1.0 oz Fuggle hops @10 min

0.75 tsp yeast nutrient

1.0 tsp irish moss

ECY 08 and Brettanomyces clausseni

Water profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons at 149 degrees F.  This time I actually overshot the mash temperature and had to gradually bring down the temperature with a variety of arduous methods.  Nevertheless, I got there.  Let the mash sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Did not get great efficency with 1.053, hopefully I can make up for this in the future.  Batch sparged with 4 gallons and collected around 7.25 gallons of wort.  After boiling and chilling to around 74 degrees F, split into two 3 gallon better bottles.  One received the ECY 08 and the other received the Brettanomyces clausseni.  Put these ones away and they will sit for a while before I have the opportunity to bottle.

Brewed: 8/10/13

Bottled: 

Tasting:

The Bruery Sour in the Rye

A recent look at my bedroom made me realize that I have begun to hoard bottles from The Bruery.  Someone may think I have a problem if they saw it.  Fortunately for me, having an excess of beer from the Bruery could never be considered a problem.  As a result, I decided to reach into my "stash" and grab one of the bottles.  In comes Sour in the Rye.  Sour beer and The Bruery, one of the best matches. Seriously.  The best.

The Bruery Sour in the Rye


Appearance- Golden orange in color with an egg shell white head.  Head becomes patchy with a thin ring around the edge.

Smell- Familiar tart sour smell from the beginning.  Sour apple smell is prominent with some oak as well.  Some light fruit, lemony aroma as well.  Do not really get any of the rye.

Taste- Mouth puckering sour from the beginning of the beer.  THe faimilar apple taste from the smell returns, but is not overwhelming.  Sourness peaks in the middle and continues to the finish.  Some tart cherries and citrus sour is also balanced by the oak flavor.

Mouthfeel- Medium, maybe medium-light in body.  Prickly carbonation and a dry finish.  Mouth feels covered in an almost sour residue as well.  I mean that in a good way if I didn't make that clear.

Overall- Very impressive sour.  Sour is a fairly constant presence from the beginning to the end.  Thinking it would be great to use the dregs of this beer in a sour.  Will put that on the to do list.  Have another one of these bottles and will plan to let it sit for a couple of years at the moment.

Had this beer with some homemade vegetable soup I made with a hearty slice of bread.  Hoping to start making more food this year as I am brewing more.  Also hoping that The Bruery will start sending me one of every beer they make.  Or at least just pay me to drink their beer.  Is that too much to ask?

Double IPA Brewday

I noticed that I have been stockpiling saison and needed a little change (until the following week when I brewed another saison).  I haven't brewed a double IPA for a couple years now and figured I would revisit it before fall hit.  The basic recipe is based off Pliny the Elder (who would have guessed!?) from Russian River, with some of my own small changes to it.  I also attempted another fly sparge with this one and am still getting the hang of it.  As a result, I think my efficiency was a little low, so this may be somewhere in between an IPA and a double IPA.  Or maybe just an IPA.  Leave me alone.

Besides that, it was just a wonderful weekend of brewing beer and seeing The Cure.  Pretty much your ideal weekend.

Batch size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.063
Final gravity:
Boil time: 60 minutes
Mash time: 90 minutes

14.0 lbs Two row
0.5 lb White wheat
0.5 lb Crystal (40 L)
0.5 lb Cara Pils
1.0 lb White belgian candy rocks

2.0 oz Columbus @ 90 min
1.0 oz Warrior @ 90 min
1.0 oz Columbus @ 60 min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 45 min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 30 min
1.0 oz Simcoe @ 0 min
2.0 oz Centennial @ 0 min
3.0 oz Columbus @ dry
1.5 oz Centennial @ dry
1.5 oz Simcoe @ dry

1.0 tsp Irish dry moss
0.5 tsp Yeast nutrient
5.0 g Gypsum

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4.5 gallons of water at 150 degrees F.  In the mash I added 2 grams of gypsum.  Fly sparged with 5 gallons of water and collected 7.5 gallons of wort.  I actually added the 60 minuted addition hops by mistake and had to adjust with my remaining hops.  Oh well.

Brewed: 8/3/13

Secondary: 8/22/13 Racked the beer into secondary over the dry hops, half being leaf and the other half being pellet.  Hoping using less pellet hops will decrease some of the unnecessary grassy flavors.

Bottling:

Tasting:

Belgian IPA Tasting

This is one that I have been looking forward to trying.  After receiving some tips from Haymarket on how they brew their Angry Birds and Rubber Monkey Belgian IPAs, I decided to brew my own.  And to say the least I am fairly happy with the results (there is a joke somewhere in there playing on the name of Angry Birds, but I will spare you....this time).

Appearance- Hazy golden orange in color with a thin white head.  Although it does stick around, it could be a little better. Maybe a little more time in the bottle will help. Lacing noticeable in medium amounts.

Smell- The chinook and cascade hops are very noticeable with a cirtusy hop aroma to begin.  The hop aromas meld into the middle of the beer as a phenolic and clove aroma pick up.  Some slightly doughy and a hint of resin noticeable in the back end.

Taste- Much more of a balance with the citrus hops and the belgian yeast flavor.  Citrus flavors are a little lighter  and mixed in with a phenolic clove.  Middle of the beer seems more medicinal than the smell, but not off putting.  A slight peppery spice in the middle and moving towards the end.  The beer finishes with a medium amount of bitterness.  The Beglian yeast notes become more noticeable as the beer warms up.  

Mouthfeel- Medium-light body, lighter than I would like.  Medium carbonation and the very dry finish that I expected after mashing at the low temperatures.

Overall Notes- Very excited about where this beer ended up considering my last attempt at a Belgian IPA.  However, there is still a good amount of work needed to be done.  Notably, I would like to increase the body and the size of the beer overall.  I'm hoping that along with that will come more yeast character.  

Saison/Cucumber Saison Brew Day

Well with this latest brew day and what I have planned for the next week, I am going to have too much saison on my hand.  What I am trying to say is, does anyone want some saison?  I find bribery is the best way to cultivate friendship.  I was interested in doing this beer after hearing about Cigar City's Cucumber Saison.  I am not even really a big fan of cucumber, but I have found it to be refreshing in light amounts when placed in drinks (I ordered some cucumber soda/pop from Glaco's Soda Pop Stop in LA a couple of years ago and was surprisingly impressed).   As a result, I thought throwing some cucumber from the local farmer's market could be refreshing in a saison (like a cucumber in water).  Decided to base this off the base beer the mad fermentationist he did for his hoppy saison as I was looking for something a little lighter than the saison I previously brewed.

Batch size: 5 gallons
Original gravity: 1.052
Final gravity:
Boil time: 90 minutes
Mash time: 90 minutes

9.25 lbs Belgian pilsener
1.25 lbs White wheat

1.75 oz Saaz @ 60 minutes
0.75 oz Saaz @ 0 minutes

1.0 tsp. Irish moss

Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison

Water Profile: Chicago

Mashed in with 4 gallons of water and came out at around 149 degrees F.  Allowed the mash to sit for 90 minutes in order to ensure full conversion.  Flyed sparged with around 4 gallons of water at 170 degrees.  Collected a little over 7 gallons of wort.

Brewed: 7/27/13

Chilled to around 74 degrees F and pitched a yeast start I made the night before.  Around a week later the yeast is still working.  Was hoping that it would have knocked down the gravity a little faster.

Secondary: 8/21/13 Racked onto around 2.75 lbs of frozen and sliced cucumbers.  Looking back, it may have been easier/a better idea to cube the cucumber.

Bottling: