Lambic Digest #0326

eZine lover (@eZine)

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Lambic Digest

 · 6 months ago

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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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