Biere de Mars

I've been looking around the internet and I haven't really come across any good Biere de Mars recipes. I was hoping to try one in the next month or two. Has anyone here ever tried one. If so, any recipe ideas, what yeast to use, etc. New Belgium had a pretty good one a couple of years ago, but I don't think they are offering it anymore.

Cheers,

I'm going to brew one of these soon, I too have had difficulty finding proven recipes,etc.
Here's some info/quotes from the babblebelt:

"Biere de Mars translated means "Beer of March" and from what I've read, it was produced in the spring months using the first harvest barley/grains which brewers claim to be the best quality ingredients for brewing. So, the beer of March is regarded as a top quality brew that is brewed in spring with fresh, newly harvested ingredients and is meant for summer through fall consumption. It is a sub-style of Biere de Garde except is usually a bit more hoppy and bitter. Farmhouse Ales has some descriptors about the brew itself."

(this guy knows his stuff, trust me) -> Al B: "I'm going to try WL Antwerp when its out soon for a Biere de Mars.... For an extra Spring-like quality, I'll use 30% dark wheat, some Munich + aromatic and cold-condition over the Winter."

My friend has the Farmhouse Ales book, hopefully he'll let me borrow it next weekend so I can read up on this style and how to brew it, I have that yeast on hand( VSS Antwerp)but haven't used it yet, so I'll probably try something like he describes, unless there's something interesting/different to try in Farmhouse Ales.

Maybe we could brew something similar but with different yeasts and see how they come out. I probably won't be able to brew this until early January when I get back from holiday vaca'. But it will be brewed in one form or the other, don't worry.

I was thinking of using White Labs WLP515 Antwerp Ale yeast. Are we talking about the same thing, or did wyeast do a very special strain that you have? I'm in about the same boat as far as schedule goes. I won't be brewing this one until January or maybe late December. I'm still doing extract brewing, but I'm really tempted to go all grain if I can find the time for a proper brew session. Maybe I'll see if I can get a hold of the farmhouse ales book for a Christmas present or something and hack up the Biere de Garde recipe too.

Cheers,

uwjester said:

I was thinking of using White Labs WLP515 Antwerp Ale yeast. Are we talking about the same thing, or did wyeast do a very special strain that you have? I'm in about the same boat as far as schedule goes. I won't be brewing this one until January or maybe late December. I'm still doing extract brewing, but I'm really tempted to go all grain if I can find the time for a proper brew session. Maybe I'll see if I can get a hold of the farmhouse ales book for a Christmas present or something and hack up the Biere de Garde recipe too.

Cheers,

Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant Platinum...Whitelabs version of VSS. It was one of their Sept/Oct Platinum strains, so it won't be around forever. Seems like a good one to shoot for all-grain, its supposed to be all about the best/fresh ingredients

Good point. Guess I'll be converting that cooler this weekend.

uwjester said:

Good point. Guess I'll be converting that cooler this weekend.

Click to expand...

+1 For Me!

I do get credit for bringing another all-grain brewer into the world right?

Maybe a bit premature, but congrats!

You can have the credit, but my wife is going to be upset when I spend all afternoon brewing instead of just an evening. When she brings it up, and she will, I'll say "It's all landhoney's fault!"

I brewed a Biere de Mars for a friends wedding. He really liked it alot.

Biere de Mars

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 7.00 Wort Size (Gal): 7.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.25
Anticipated OG: 1.068 Plato: 16.50
Anticipated SRM: 9.8
Anticipated IBU: 28.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Formulas Used
-------------

Brewhouse Efficiency and Predicted Gravity based on Method #1, Potential Used.
Final Gravity Calculation Based on Points.
Hard Value of Sucrose applied. Value for recipe: 46.2100 ppppg
% Yield Type used in Gravity Prediction: Fine Grind Dry Basis.

Color Formula Used: Morey
Hop IBU Formula Used: Tinseth
Tinseth Concentration Factor: 1.30

Additional Utilization Used For Plug Hops: 2 %
Additional Utilization Used For Pellet Hops: 10 %


Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
49.2 8.00 lbs. Pilsen (2 Row) France 1.039 2
33.8 5.50 lbs. Wheat Malt America 1.038 2
13.8 2.25 lbs. Munich Malt Germany 1.037 8
2.3 0.38 lbs. Cane Sugar Generic 1.046 0
0.8 0.13 lbs. KilnBlack Malt France 1.030 525

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.00 oz. Fuggle Pellet 4.50 24.0 60 min.
0.50 oz. Saazer Pellet 3.70 3.0 20 min.
0.50 oz. Saazer Pellet 3.70 1.0 5 min.


Extras

Amount Name Type Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 Unit(s)Whirfloc Fining 10 Min.(boil)


Yeast
-----

WYeast 2565 Kolsch


Mash Schedule
-------------

Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 15.88
Water Qts: 15.88 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 3.97 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.00 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 147 Time: 90
Mash-out Rest Temp : 170 Time: 10
Sparge Temp : 170 Time: 5


Total Mash Volume Gal: 5.24 - Dough-In Infusion Only

All temperature measurements are degrees Fahrenheit.

I get this out of Farmhouse Ales. Good luck with the brew!


Gordo

landhoney said:

[According to the babblebelt]"Biere de Mars translated means "Beer of March" .

Click to expand...

Apparently a myth.

http://www.newfarmcrops.com/Cereal agronomy/Growing winter barle.aspx

With modern seed and modern fertilizer, when growing winter malting barley for early harvest Farmer Brown needs to have all of his nitrogen fetilizer on the plants by the end of March and has to worry about late frosts in May as well.

I am interested now to know what "Biere de Mars" really means.

Odd. Even Michael Jackson had it recorded as a spring beer.

New Belgium calls for planetary parallels, perhaps keenly aware of Wyoming's barley harvest months.

Jolly Pumpkin refers to Biere de Mars as the last of the winter strong ales.

I wonder if the Belgians have some special super dooper barley that is ready to harvest before anybody elses?

EDIT: I have a call in to my sister, the one who is UN certified to translate among English, French, Spanish and Russian. She does hate beer though, this may not get anywhere. EDITII: I heard back from her. In the French language, calendar months are not capitalized. She claims to have not studied Roman mythology in the French language.

According to wikipedia if mars is lower case in french it means the month of March, if Mars is capitalized in French it means the Roman demi-god. Not sure wikipedia is UN certified. The beer of war. For that I can see an OG of 1.068, some wheat malt for head retention, yada, yada.

Resurrecting an old thread here... I got an email back from New Belgium saying that you could/should use the Fat Tire yeast, but ferment it hot. Like 30C/86F hot. Also, try some oats, lemon peel, and lemon verbena. The AHBS recipe is fairly close with this one. Finally, add Brettanomyces yeast at bottling time. I'm guessing the bottle bomb problems they had are related to the Brettanomyces, so watch yourself.

Cheers,

uwjester said:

Resurrecting an old thread here... I got an email back from New Belgium saying that you could/should use the Fat Tire yeast, but ferment it hot. Like 30C/86F hot. Also, try some oats, lemon peel, and lemon verbena. The AHBS recipe is fairly close with this one. Finally, add Brettanomyces yeast at bottling time. I'm guessing the bottle bomb problems they had are related to the Brettanomyces, so watch yourself.
Cheers,

Click to expand...

Looking at Farmhouse Ales, they suggest using an ale strain on the cold side, or a lager strain on the warm side. I recently had a friend's Biere de Garde that used a lager strain fermented warm and it was very good. The books suggests 50% Pils, 14.8% Munich, 35% Wheat Malt, and .2% Kiln Black(500SRM -Black Patent?). I like the idea of adding Brett at bottling, but only if the final gravity is low enough. The book suggests mashing on the low side, which should leave the beer fairly low. Thanks for emailing NB, maybe I'll email them about La Folie, that's interesting info.

So you brewed AHS's kit? What's it like, what yeast, etc.?

I didn't use the yeast they recommend (White Labs Saison). Instead I used the White Labs Antwerp Ale we discussed earlier. I got the email from NB today, so I've been fermenting at around 66F and warming it up as I go. My basement is around 62F, so I've been using my cooler, 8 gallons of water, and an aquarium heater to control temperature.
Other comments on the AHBS kit; they got the adjuncts pretty close. They add sweet orange peel and lemon verbena. I did an extract with steeped grains (sorry). The steeped grains are flaked oats, caramunich, white wheat malt, and vienna malt. The kit came with cascade hops. I'm guessing this is in line with the New Belgium recipe since they seem to like that hop, but I'm not a big fan. Next time, I'll probably switch to something a little more "noble".

No AG?!?! Noooooooo!! Just kidding. Sounds like a good brew, I don't like the cascade either - but it might be good. I think I'll try to use a lager strain at ale temps though, I liked the flavor of that Beire de Garde. And I'll mash low and use Brett at bottling. I think I'll use some of those spices NB suggested as well. Did NB say anything about the grainbill? I'll probably use Farmhouse ales suggestion if not. I think the saison yeast would not be appropriate for this.

All they mentioned was Barley, Oats, and Wheat Malt. I'm not sure what the base malt is. The kit was wheat extract. What lager strain are you planning on? I think I saw from another thread that you bought a bunch of different Brett strains. Sounds like fun.

I just got this from New Belgium... I'm new to all-grain, and have never done recipe formulation. I'd really like to brew a Biere de mars-like beer though. If anyone can help with quantities, I'd really appreciate it ... I put some values in to Beer Smith that I pulled out of thin air ... I'm not sure how they get the brilliant orange color.

New Belgium R&D Guy said:

We are actually bringing BdM back as a new release for our special series we call "Lips of Faith". It will be available on draft at extremely select accounts starting March 1st.

BdM is a very complex beer to brew.

For grains we use pale malt, Carapils malt, wheat malt, caramel malt, and aromatic malt. The creamy mouthfeel comes from oats.

We use cascade hops, lemon peel and lemon verbena at the end of wort boil.

It's fermented with a clean ale yeast, but very hot. We add a Brettanomyces culture at packaging at a very low rate. To get the Brettanomyces flavor it should sit in the package for a month or so before serving.

Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Oh man, I gotta look out for that. For what its worth (and its not worth much), here is the recipe I used. I also added some brett in at the end. The beer came out good, but not BdM good. But then, maybe it will give you a starting point.

7.00 lb Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 46.67 %
3.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 20.00 %
3.00 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 20.00 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 %
1.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (60 min) Hops 24.5 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
1.00 oz Lemon Peel (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1.00 oz Lemon Verbena (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs Fat Tire (Wyeast) [Starter 1 L] Yeast-Ale

Thanks uwjester!

Are those quantities for a 10 gal batch?

No. That's for a 5 gallon batch.

How did it turn out?

It was pretty good. It was a couple years ago but I did go through the batch pretty fast.

Alright, cool. Thanks for the update

Resurrecting this thread. Does anyone know what water profile to use?