Bière de Garde A monstrous brown bière de garde

[beerisyummy]

Recipe Type

All Grain

Yeast

Omega OYL-057 "Hothead"

Yeast Starter

2L

Batch Size (Gallons)

5

Original Gravity

1.062 - 1.071 with added sugar

Final Gravity

1.016

Boiling Time (Minutes)

60

IBU

62

Color

dark :)

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

28 days @ 70-72°F

Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)

n/a

Additional Fermentation

bottle conditioned

Tasting Notes

Somewhat sweet, balanced by aggressive hop bitterness. Earthy. Dried fruit notes are prominent.

I'm a big fan of Josh Weikert's "Brew Your Best" articles. As I was contemplating what to brew in the warm end-of-summer-beginning-of-fall months here in California, my thoughts turned to Farmhouse Ales and Bière de Garde in particular. I have to admit not being terribly familiar with the style, but I have loved every one I've ever tasted, from Sierra Nevada's Trip in the Woods to Fieldwork Brewing in Berkeley. I became interested, in reading Josh's "Brew your best Biere de Garde," for some reason, in Brewing a Brown Bière de Garde, which I have never had ... it just sounded good. Perhaps because I'm not familiar with it, I went ahead and took some liberties.

The results were so good, I drank the entire hydrometer sample, and I poured the dregs of the bottling bucket into my glass and had that too.

Here it is:

Method: Brew-in-a-bag

Ingredients for 5 gallons:

Grain bill:
5.5 lb Munich
5.5 lb Pilsner
12 oz Crystal 60L
12 oz Special B
4 oz. Blackprinz

Adjuncts:
1 lb. soft brown Belgian Candi Sugar - boiled in 1 qt water & added to fermentor on day 5.
1.5 tsp. CaCl in mash
4 oz. corn sugar boiled in 2 c. water for priming

Yeast: Omega OYL-057 "Hothead" (2L starter)

Water: municipal water, filtered

Hop bill:
1 oz Magnum (14.4%) for 60 min
1 oz. Tettnanger (3%) for 15 min.
1 oz Fuggles (4.3%) for 5 min.

Mash: 152° for 60 min. Dunk-sparge @ 180°
Mash pH: 5.22

Boil: 60 min

Fermentation: Single stage, 4 weeks

O.G. 1.062 - 1.071 with added sugar.
F.G. 1.016
ABV 7.2%

 

[Jabob513]

Just wanna say that I brewed this recipe about 6 months ago with WLP568 Belgian/Saison Blend at a low-ish temp to keep yeast character from overwhelming everything.......excellent beer! This recipe is just what I was looking for, and it definitely keeps improving over time!

 

[beerisyummy]

Just wanna say that I brewed this recipe about 6 months ago with WLP568 Belgian/Saison Blend at a low-ish temp to keep yeast character from overwhelming everything.......excellent beer! This recipe is just what I was looking for, and it definitely keeps improving over time!

Cool. I stretched this one out over about 6 months (bottled) and it definitely hung in there with some interesting changes along the way. I only used the "Hothead" yeast because the temp in my fermentation cave (aka downstairs closet) was hanging around 70-72 at the time, right at the top of the scale, or over, for many yeasts. If you can keep it cooler, for sure other options are available.
Thanks for the feedback!