Recent content by Chops1867

I used Belle Saison. I believe I hydrated the yeast before adding, but I can't remember. I did harvest the slurry and use it in another saison. That one came out great also. Both Saisons finished good enough that I entered them into the Michigan Beer Cup.

Yep. I'm pretty sure my rice was too wet. I like the idea of the larger batches, just need to come up with a way for me to cook 10 lbs of rice. The pot won't fit into my oven to do the 300° thing.

So, as my first large batch continues to ferment (5 gal bucket, 10 lbs rice) it has s very tart flavor. When I have made smaller batches, it has been sweeter at this stage. I did have challenges cooking 10 lbs of rice. The water did not 100% absorb into the rice, could my tartness issue be...

Day 6 and I am just starting to get some action in this batch. Added yeast balls and rice flour on day 2. No airlock activity. Top layer of rice starting to look funky and the wine smell is just starting. It's in an area about 65°.

I bought some bottles of Gulden Draak. Don't like it enough to brew 5 gallons. A friend of mine tells me it's his favorite beer. In fact, he says it's the only beer he drinks. I had thought about making him a batch, but I really don't want to have a few gallons of this on hand. :(

Trying dwhill's method. Put rice, yeast balls, flour in a spigoted bucket Sunday morning. Waiting for fermentation to begin... BTW, 10 pounds of rice is a LOT of rice to cook!

How different is the Briess Goldpils Vienna from Weyerman's Vienna? My LHBS only has the Briess. I was planning on brewing a SMaSH with Vienna and Northern Brewer hops.

Yep. Wife said I should make an IPA. So I whipped up a recipe I'm calling Galileo's Astronomical IPA. Galena, Amarillo and Galaxy hops. A pretty malty grain bill based on one of biermuncher's IPAs.

How did the IPA come out? I've got a pound of galena to use too.

That is correct. I am hoping to make a version of the white bottle Gulden Draak. Gonna have a bottle of it tonight. VanSteenberge brewery says they add wine yeast to further ferment the beer. So, I'm thinking to mash at a fairly high temp to keep it sweeter, and use a wine yeast (champagne?) to...

I think you'll be fine with that sugar addition. You can add sugar when the beer is at full krausan for less stress on the yeast. I invert sugar rather than buying candy sugar. WAY cheaper.

The recipe I found posted here attributed to Clone Brews had no candi sugar or special B. Here's another one I found that seems closer. I think it's a defunct Northern Brewer kit: Gulden Draak clone III (Northern Brewer) - Belgian Dark Strong Ale (18E)...

Here's Szamatulski's take on the recipe: Gulden Draak clone - Belgian Dark Strong Ale (18E) ================================================================================ Batch Size 5.551 gal Boil Size 6.752 gal Boil Time 1.000 hr Efficiency 70%...

I have that recipe, and two others. Only one has Special B malt - I would think that Special B is necessary for the deeper plum/raisin flavor in the beer.

I hope to brew a fair facsimile of Gulden Draak. I have scoured the Internet and various brew boards searching for a tested recipe. I have found three, all about 10 years old (one on this board) but they are all different and the brewers all report that they fell short of the goal. Anyone been...