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Lambic Digest #0326
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Subject: Lambic Digest #326 (April 22, 1994)
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 00:30:10 -0600
Lambic Digest #326 Fri 22 April 1994
Forum on Lambic Beers (and other Belgian beer styles)
Mike Sharp, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Beer tasting at the Brickskeller ("Phillip Seitz")
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Date: Thu, 21 Apr 94 09:34:55 -0400
From: "Phillip Seitz" <p00644 at psilink.com>
Subject: Beer tasting at the Brickskeller
Last night I attended the second of three evenings of the
Brickskeller's annual Belgian beer tasting (same program each night).
The guest of honor was Kris Herteleer, the brewmaster of the DeDolle
Brouwers, and the featured beers were his and three from the Strubbe
brewery in Ichtegem. I won't go into all the beers in detail, but
wanted to mention some interesting aspects and a conversation I had
with K.H.
The beers:
Strubbe brewery
Vlas Kop (Cotton Head). The Strubbe brewery's answer to white beers,
using 50% barley malt and 50% UNMALTED BARLEY. It looks just like a
white beer (cloudy, big head, yellow) but has a more malty flavor. 5
degrees Belgian. Nice.
Doedel. 50% pale malt (presumably pils) and 50% aromatic. Lots of
coriander, quite sweet. OG 6.5 Belgian degrees (+/- 1.065).
Ichtegem oud bruin. A very marked ACETIC flavor. We debated whether
it tasted more like distilled vinegar, cider vinegar, or malt vinegar,
but there was no mistaking it. Also rather sweet, so once you got used
to it you could consume a lot. 6.5 degrees Belgian.
DeDolle brewery
Oerbier. OG 8.9 degrees Belgian (+/- 1.089), FG *1.025*. 7.5% abv.
Bos Keun (Bush Rabbit). OG 8 degrees Belgian. Tasted quite like the Chouffe yeast
to me, plus some honey (which I believe is used in the recipe).
Dulle Teve (Mad Bitch). OG 8.8 degrees Belgian, 9% abv. A barley wine.
Stille Nacht (Silent Night). OG 10.6 degrees Belgian, FG (*gasp*) 5
degrees Belgian (1.050). All pale (pils) malt, boiled for 5 hours in a
direct fire kettle.
I asked Kris how they make their beers so sweet, assuming they used
filtration and sweetening. He said they use unattenuative yeasts that
finish high, then prime with a small amount of yeast and sugar. Woof!
Well, how do you know you won't kick off a bigger-than-expected second
fermentation (with bottle bombs)? He replied that it's a bit tricky
sometime but that they get some lab help. (Sound of me kicking myself
for not following up on what kind of help they get!). He noted that
certain malts just aren't all that fermentable, and said that with the
Doedel the aromatic only partially ferments, leaving a lot of residual
sugars. Basically, though, he seemed to be suggesting that once the
high gravity ferment hits bottom it remains pretty neutral, and that
you can prime without having major side effects from the residual
sugars in solution. Scary!
This was particularly interesting as I'd recently done a chouffe
ferment that started at 1.092 and slowed down substantially at 1.050.
This worried me a lot, but at the same time I mentioned to several
people that the beer reminded me a lot of Stille Nacht (I have
witnesses!). I ended up pitching again with cropped yeast, but even
then the drop in gravity was not as dramatic as I'd have expected from
the size of the second kreusen. Perhaps I should have let nature take
its course via bottle conditioning, as I do like sweet beers. I've
also recently dug up a brew from the cellar that finished at 1.027.
Initially it seemed a bit phenolic and thick, but after 5 months it's
doing great.
None of this is the easy, fail-safe info homebrewers want, but I think
this points toward some new and interesting directions. If I'm killed
by an exploding bottle, will people say I've given my life for the cause?
Another issue entirely was where they got the fruity sourness that's so
apparent in Oerbier and Stille Nacht. Unfortunately I have no progress
to report on that front. (One thing at a time!)
Phil
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End of Lambic Digest
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