Big Bad Belgian Beer Mk IV or (Quad B 4)

Hi All,

 

A couple of weeks back i had a few nights out in Hull. Its a great city with a lot of very nice people and very nice pubs. One in particular to put on a 'to do' list is The Wellington Inn.. It has an onsite microbrewery, an excellent number of guest ales & Perrys and the best Belgian beer fridge that i have seen outside of Belguim itself. I introduced a few of the lads to differing styles of Belgian beers with the lambic being the firm favourite. I went for the Achouffe Blonde which is a tremendous unfiltered beer.

 

The only downside is that it is an 8% monster and in truth it can be a bit chewy so its in no way a session beer. On the upside it has massive yeast flavours and sits close to the top of my fave beer list.

http://www.achouffe.be/en

 

With this in mind and while still in the pub i decided that i'd have a crack at a lightweight version of Achouffe Blonde, reasoning is that i REALLY like Belgian beers but at 43 years old i don't really like the idea of falling on my arse due to drinking 8% beers! I haven't aimed slavishly close at Achouffe just in the general direction of Southern Holland and Northern France! This casual approach give me the artistic freedom i enjoy in beermaking, clone beers have zero appeal for me. The final volume of this beer was approx 18 gallons. As my overback is 60 ltrs i find that a 60 ltr mash/rest and the same again for a sparge will give me approx 18 gallons final wort. Anyway, here's the recipe for this most recent of adventures.

 

Quad B 4

 

12kgs Maris Otter

2kgs Munich

1 kg CaraMunich

1kg wheat

1kg torrified wheat

1/2 a handful of Pale Chocolate malt

7oz Glacier hops FWH

3.5oz Amarillo 90 min steep

3.5 oz Nelson Sauvin 90 min steep

2.5 oz Simco 90 min steep

1 oz Simco through Hopthang over 2 days

Duvel/Chimay Yeast Split @ 23 degrees falling to 20.

 

I don't really bother with staggered hop additions. As you can see i go for First wort hopping to reduce harshness then a long steep for the aroma hops with nothing in between. In this case it seems to have worked out quite well as there is a distinct fruity aroma to the beer not connected to the traditional Belgian Yeasts. I moved 4 gallons to another FV for Brett C introduction and took the opportunity to draw off a sample. I can taste limes which reminds me of Pacific Gem hops so i assume this is from the Nelsons but at the moment i can't really differentiate between the yeast influence and the hops. Its all rather nice though!

I enjoyed running up HopThang again as its sat idle during my last few brews. I carried out a modification on the return line fitting to open it up to 10mm dia from 3mm. It has made a huge difference to the flow through HopThang. Check out the video and the eddy currents!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdBXL5i13kQ&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Early indications are that this beer is a winner, nice and light but absolutely bursting with flavour from the Yeast and hops. I will be bottling tomorrow so hoping to get an early preview in about a week. In the meantime i'll just have to make do with last years 5.5% Saison with apricots and Turkish Chillies, its a hard old life. :)

 

The next morning

 

I will begin the delabelling and sterilisation of the bottles today so first thing this morning i ran up HopThang again. I won't leave it running overnight but run it in 1/2 hour bursts through the day. Compare the two photos of  HopThang for its effectiveness as a yeast filter. A nice bonus to the hop infusion.