Dark Sin Wild Solera Xmas Beer

Hi all,

Today i bottled my dark solera. It is my first attempt at a solera. For those not in the know, a solera is a combination of various ages of beer combined in ratio and then left for a time to blend together to make a unique product distinct from the original ingredients. In this instance my solera is a combination of Belgian Golden Ale, Apricot soaked Saison, and Russian Imperial stout. Its had been on a couple of kilos of figs for a year or so and has many yeast varieties in it (Duvel, Dupont, Chimay, US-05, Brett C) and whatever wild yeasts were present on the figs and on the various fruits i have introduced.

The beer had a final gravity reading of 1.003. Part of the solera (RIS) dates back to 2008 and when i checked my brewing journal i found that it had been bottled at 1.016 FG. I mention this to highlight the fact that i can only guess at the ABV of this beer. I have put 9.5% on the bottles and a 'treat with respect' notice. NOT a session beer!

I was absolutely gobsmacked at the smells coming out of the FV during bottling. There was a very obvious chocolate smell, as well as dark fruit and liquer alcohol. I have resisted the temptation to try the trial jar as i have work to do this afternoon! In addition to the above mentioned olfactory pleasures there was also a distinct Brett C wild edge. This was very apparent when the beer was going into the bottles. I immediately cross referenced it to Orval. Gods homebrew eh? These people with the wild phrasing really need to come to Scotland to try real homebrew!

All too soon the bottles were capped and i was left with a sad collection of depleted cherries. No sign at all of fig remains and not an apricot in sight. The cherries are now on the composter so there will be some drunk insects at my house today.

There is no way that i could let this mad combination of yeasts go down the drain. The question of course is 'what to do with it'? As there is so much Belgian and wild yeast in the litre or so and its a quite frankly preposterous combination that i have decided to try and match it with a preposterous beer. I have a truly outrageous IPA in mind, more on that next time.

The beer was bottled at a carboantion volume to produce 1.5 vols of co2. I went deliberately light as the beer style suits it and i'd rather not have any bombs. Also very aware to leave a decent headspace in each bottle.

The labels on these bottles are a wee bit weighted towards darkness. What with the Big Bad Wolf motiff and the Halloween bottling date. Hopefully get a shiver at Christmas when i try one!

This beer has been great fun to make and going by the nose its a seriously complicated beer with huge depth. Anticipation for excellence is high. Cheers! :)

Quad B MK4 initial impressions & Quad B MK5

Hi all,

 

I have a bad habit of brewing beer and then not posting any info on it. Sorry about that but its all pretty good and no real dogs! The QB4 has settled and carbonated nicely. Its not 100% clear yet (not an issue for me) and has some beautiful delicate interaction going on between the yeast and the hops. A nice sweet flavour, maybe a touch like lychees? Not at all powerful but there in a nice ratio to compliment the Chimay & Duvel Belgian flavours. Really glad its only a 40IBU beer as much higher bitterness would take away from ther overall mellow fruit thing thats going on in this beer. Nice carbonation but not excessive and holds a reasonable head for a few minutes. Also glad that it is only 4.2%, a perfectly quaffable Belgian beer that does not do what Achouffe Blonde does to me after a couple (fall down). Here it is in all its glory!

 

I also decided to bottle the MK 5 version which was contemptuously Brett'd last month. What a beast of a yeast that Brett C is! Dregs of a bottle and it runs the Quad B4 down from its FG of 1.010 to its own FG of 1.003.

 

 

 

 This final version is a shade over 5% ABV and will i'm sure be a fine beer. I hope that the Brett C is in the background and the fruit flavours remain, time will tell.

 

I really like the flavours that this Duvel/Chimay split throws out. I couldn't bring myself to dispose of all of the yeast from the 4 gallon brett'd batch so i have decanted the yeast and cleaned it up.There is enough to do a 10/15 gallon batch easily and it has been put aside for a future project. That project will be my first go at one stop shopping in a tube (Sacc thru to Brett) when brewing and should make for an interesting beer. I am erring towards a heavily hopped MK 6 Quad B (Got to get Bramling Cross involved in it)!

I am flying out to our Turkish apartment tomorrow night with my wife and daughter. A few of my mates out there have been on an Efes only diet over the Summer so with this in mind i am taking a few beers out with me for them to try. I look forward to their reactions and I am sure it will be interesting one way or the other! The beers range from the 4.2% QuadB MK4 thru to the magnificent 7.3% Scottish SteamPunk MkII and a couple in between. What they all have in common is that they grab your taste buds, give them a damn good shake and shout, WAKE UP!

 

Cheers :)

 

 

 

 

 

Neglected hops

Hi all,

A few years ago i purchased three hops, a year later a fourth was added. To date i have had no crop worthy of mention & one of the plants died! I thhought we were too far North to grow hops properly and decided to leave them as ornamental. With this in mind i left the hop plants alone this year. No composting, no pruning or maintenance at all. Two out of the remaining three again did very little BUT the last one went crazy!

This hop plant has been planted in a sheltered corner and is West facing. This is Year four for the plant so i can only guess that it has now fully established its root system? I plan to move the other two bines next year to see if i can encourage them to perform as well.

 

This variety is a dwarf hop called 'First Gold'. It is a UK low Alpha Acid variety. Nothing showy or fancy just a nice mild slighly spicy brewing hop.  The cones are quite small, maybe 15 to 20 mm long but there are a lot of them!

 

 

I spent a couple of hours yesterday and the same again today stripping the plant of the flowers. I knew there were a good amount of them but was still pleasantly surprised at the final result. I am currently drying the hops and did not weigh them when wet. They are spread across 6 opened newspaper sheets. My guess will be around a kilo when dried.

 

 

I have been brewing with American and NZ hops most of the time for the past year or so. As a result these seem really mild! With this in mind I am going to place them at a girlish 2.5% AA when i work out a recipe. I will go for a Maris Otter only, high mash, a good caramelisation of the first runnings and a neutral yeast. Nothing fancy but special to me as it'll be from my own garden! :)