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Lambic Digest #0521
From postmaster at lance.colostate.edu Wed Jan 11 03:11:27 1995
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From: lambic-request at lance.colostate.edu (subscription requests only - do not post here)
To: lambic at lance.colostate.edu
Subject: Lambic Digest #521 (January 11, 1995)
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 00:30:12 -0700
Lambic Digest #521 Wed 11 January 1995
Forum on Lambic Beers (and other Belgian beer styles)
Mike Sharp, Digest Coordinator
Contents:
Re: Lambic Digest #520 (January 10, 1995) (Christopher Nemeth)
Re: Prospective pLambic: Suggestions? (Todd Gierman)
Re: Biere de Garde (Conn Copas)
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Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 09:29:14 -0600 (CST)
From: Christopher Nemeth <nemeth at gate.id.iit.edu>
Subject: Re: Lambic Digest #520 (January 10, 1995)
Re: Geoffrey Talvola's Biere de Garde
I have a five gallon batch in the fermemnet downstairs, Geoff, courtesy
of the Zymurgy special '94 Indigenous Beers issue which contains a recipe
for a version of La Choulette amber which Hoff and Knudsen wrote. I used
Brian Nummer's #141 Biere de Garde strain and pitched a half cup of
sterilized oak chips in the secondary. Champagne bottles and corks are
ready as soon as it ferments out. M-m-m-m-m boy.
Keep on brewin'. --Chris Nemeth
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Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 23:28:42 -0500 (EST)
From: Todd Gierman <tmgierma at acpub.duke.edu>
Subject: Re: Prospective pLambic: Suggestions?
Chis Nemeth writes:
>After 5 years of homebrewing and six months' Digest reading, I'm ready to
>brew my own pLambic. Before I do, I'd like to throw it open to the Digest's
>collective experience. A number of the LD clan have already been very
>helpful. _Your_ suggestions/recommendations are welcome
>here in the Digest or directly to me, at: <idnemeth at gate.id.iit.edu>.
>Thanks in advance!
Okay. Well after reviewing your brewing/pitching plan, I would
have to say: give it up; it can't work; you're way to
organized. Clearly, you take the "German" approach to brewing
and you probably make a pretty mean triple-decocted pilsner, but
you need to put some spontaneity into this effort.
Okay, kidding aside here are my recommendations:
1) You don't need large starters (go ahead if you want to,
but...). My largest pitching cultures have been no more than 50
ml. If you use a small S. cerevisiae culture maybe you will get
lucky and get some bacterial contamination going during the lag
period.
2) Skip the tomato juice in the Brett starter. You don't need
it (you're confusing this with pedio starter).
3) You shouldn't need a bottling culture, as the Brett will
still be alive after a year and this will carbonate your p-lambic.
4) Keep an open mind.
On another note: went to the zoo today, visited many of the
animals whose odors are invoked in an attempt to classify
aromas/flavors in lambics. Okay, I sniffed around a little and
collected some data:
springbok - no
polar bear - no
mandrill - no
meerkat - no
horse (shetland pony) - ummm...no
baby goats - nope
arctic foxes - BINGO!
Actually, I wasn't even thinking of lambics until we stood in
front of the arctic fox display. Sharp, pungent - my God, that's
Boon Gueuze! Then my memory was jarred a little and I remembered
that as a young lad I had to occasionally go and feed the
neighbors' fox when they went on vacation (don't ask me why they
had a fox, but they did and boy was it ripe! and viscious to
boot). Now that thing had a pretty overpowering, musky (dare I say
"feral"?) odor, especially in their garage in stifling summer heat.
However, it wasn't nearly so sharp as these arctic fellows. So,
maybe there is some validity to the idea that you not only have to
find the right animal, but you have to find a certain variety of the
right animal when looking for descriptions of lambic aromas
and flavors.
Todd
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 15:24:57 +1030 (GMT+10:30)
From: cvc at itd.dsto.gov.au (Conn Copas)
Subject: Re: Biere de Garde
Geoff writes:
>
> Having recently discovered the joys of tasty French Biere de Garde
> such as 3 Monts, Jenlain, and Castelain, I realized that I haven't
> read anything about brewing them. To me, their distinguishing
> characteristic is that they have a pleasant spicy yeast flavor,
> similar to many of the Belgian brews we all know and love. How does
> one go about brewing there beers? Anyone have a recipe? In
> particular, I expect that you'd need to find genuine yeast, or maybe
> you could fake it with a Belgian strain?
>
It is hard to make generalisations about this style because it is so diverse.
BdG has traditionally been brewed in Flanders, so naturally 'Belgian'
influences may be detected. Ale is regarded as somewhat novel by the French, so
the marketing people usually ensure that 'haute fermentation' is displayed
prominently on the lable, although I have drunk bottom-fermented varieties,
and some made as far away as the Strasbourg region.
I personally don't regard BdG as particularly spicy in comparison to the
ubiquitous phenols one finds in Belgian artisanal brews, with saisons being the
prime French-derived example. BdG is always high-gravity, and that probably
accounts for the incidence of fermentation by-products as much as any special
yeast selection. The brews do not usually finish as sweet as their original
gravities would suggest, indicating that Belgian-like attenuative yeasts and
sugar are being employed. Trois Monts is very similar to a Belgian triple, with
the nose possibly enhanced by tricks such as minor dry hopping or use of
orange peel. The major distinguishing characteristic of Jenlain is specialty
dark malts, which tends to put it in the Belgian double league.
Conn V Copas cvc at itd.dsto.gov.au
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End of Lambic Digest
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