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Brewing Classic Styles – February Update

As you may or may not be able to see on the recipometer (but surely by the expression on my face), I have brewed only three recipes since my last post. I went on vacation for a couple weeks and had to travel for work so I am behind.  Right now, on the two beers a week schdule, I should have brewed 14 beers already this year.  I have brewed seven…

  1. Flanders Brown Ale (Oud Bruin – pg 224)
  2. Lambicus Piatzii (Straight Lambic – pg 228)
  3. Its All in the Details (Belgian Golden Strong Ale – pg 242)
  4. Brew like a Homebrewing (Belgian Dark Strong Ale – pg 244)
  5. No Short Measure (Standard Bitter – pg 117)
  6. I’m Not Bitter, I’m Thirsty (Special Bitter – pg 119)
  7. Programmer’s Elbow (Extra Special Bitter – pg 121)

I have bottled three and tried two of those.  Both of those — the Belgian Dark and Golden — had low carbonation which I was worried about because this was the first time I have primed this little beer.  Until I get my process down, which I think I should be by the time I bottle the bitter, I am blaming everything that is wrong in the final product on my piecemeal brewing system.  I think that the The Belgian Golden Strong, which tasted similar to Delerium Tremens, was a good signal of how good these recipes can be.  The Oud Bruin, which I tasted pre-bottling, and had little to no sour flavor, will be an example of how bad I can mess up these recipes.

I recently purchased some more fermentation vessels so I will be able to brew six more beers sometime between tomorrow (when the homebrew store opens) and Sunday (when I have to travel for work).  The only piece of equipment I still need is some sort of lagering space.  Anyone out there who wants to lend me a chest freezer or extra mini fridge for the rest of the year, please comment with details.

As I said, I have brewed seven of the 94 recipes I am planning to brew this year.  Thats about 7.5% of the recipes and we are already through about 12.5% of the year.  The agenda is obvious but what may not be presented overtly by this project is its purpose.  I am doing this to gain experience about the brewing process, about styles of beer that I have not brewed before, about techniques that I have not used.  I’m behind schedule but have already added a bunch to what I will call my “beer instincts.”  The more you brew, the more likely you are to know what to do in a certain situation, which shortcuts you can take and which you can’t, what will ruin a beer and what will save it, etc…

February 15th, 2011 | Category: Brewing Classic Styles | One comment

Brewing Classic Styles

So here we are, five days into the new year and I am two beers into Brewing Classic Styles a.k.a. The Danil and Jamil Project a.k.a. The Danil, Jamil, and John Palmil Project a.k.a. I’m brewing every recipe in the aforementioned book this year.

Feast your eyes on the “Brewing Classic Styles Recipometer” on the right side of this post.  I will be using this recipometer for the entire year to track my progress through the book.  The book’s cover claims to have “80 Award Winning Recipes” inside but if you leaf through, you will discover that there are more than 90 recipes in the book.  Maybe only 80 of them are “award winning.”  Actually, there are a few variations that were interesting enough, in my mind, to make me want to brew them.  My face (happy for now) will rise as I complete recipes

My goal this year is to brew 94 one-gallon batches, all from recipes found in this book.  That is almost 2 recipes a week.  Two a week is fine and I think anyone could do it except that when you factor in vacations (Patagonia here we come!) and holidays, the 45 days of the year that I will be sleeping, and all those days doing whatever else it is people do when they are not brewing, I think it will be a tough run.  That said, if I do brew two a week I will have the whole month of December to do the drinking.

You probably can’t tell by looking at the recipometer but I have already brewed two of 94.  My first one was the Lambic, Lambicus Piatzii, and my second was the Oud Bruin, Flanders Brown Ale.  Brewing one-gallon batches takes some getting used to.  I really should have done a test batch.  Different equipment, different measurements, much less yeast.  Instead of doing a test batch I had not enough wort post-boil for the lambic and too much post-boil wort for the Flanders brown.  In fact, I had to boil the Flanders brown for almost double what the recipe called for to get the volume where it is supposed to be.  Good thing there is only the one early hop addition.

January 5th, 2011 | Category: Brewing Classic Styles | Leave a comment