Recent content by stevehollx

You can build a starter, and WLP1762 will do. I've done a couple ounces of oak chips for 2 weeks, and 3 oz medium toast oak for 3 months. Something in the middle is what you want. I'd recommend 2 oz french medium toast oak for 2 months. Soak the cubes in bourbon for a week before adding...

I brewed a Belgian Strong Dark Ale (think Rochefort 10 crossed with Trois Pistoles) on 100% Brett L, which kicks out a slight cherry flavor. The beer came out excellent. Though, I think the _thing_ with W12 is that complex dark burnt sugar, brown sugar, molasses type taste. Not sure I'd...

I'm thinking about doing a dark saison, and throwing some brett in with it. How long do you folks normally age a saison with brett for? Is 6 months in a secondary sufficient, or do people typically go closer to a year out?

I added two ounces of american medium toast oak, soaked in cab sav (which was then strained off) for 24 hours before adding in. Oak went in the secondary, and it has been in there for 9 months. If I did it again, I'd probably use closer to 1 oz of french oak, perhaps using cubes that have...

Snuck a taste. It isn't sour yet. My 3 month older pale beer on a lambic blend is way more acidic. Which is quite odd, since it has quite the pile of critters in it. I wonder if the bugs are struggling at the 10+ ABV that this beer has. It is quite hot in fusels, and perhaps over-oaked...

I haven't snuck a taste yet. It is odd that there isn't a pellicle on this, though, after about 9 months. Maybe there isn't enough oxygen present for one, since the fruit fermentation forced all of the o2 from the secondary transfer out. There have to be plenty of bugs in this thing, with...

Nah. For dubbels/quads you want the candi syrup (carmelized beet sugar) for color/flavor, but clear rock candy is no different from corn sugar. Save your money.

I carb my Belgian beers to just shy of 3 volumes. For a 5 gallon batch stored at room temp, that's 5.9oz.

Boiling down the first runnings into a syrup sounds like a good idea. That may give some of that sugary complexity that I felt the new world was missing. I've got four bottles of real W12 coming in the mail, so I'll be able to do some real A/B with my next batch. ;-)

That's key, since you still have about a ~20 point gravity drop on a sour after primary fermentation.

Yeah don't worry about a secondary, unless you are concerned about clarity. It takes several months for signs of autolysis to show up. The phenols are pretty strong with this yeast and having extra yeast around to help clean those up actually may not be a bad thing?

The OG of this is about 20 points lower than real KBS. Has anyone tried brewing this with a grain bill of 1.110 to match the 11.2% ABV?

So I'm going to pitch a 2L starter of Brett C on top of the Brett L to see if it does anything. If that doesn't do anything, I've got a fresh French Saison slurry I'll try to get to use it to attenuate.

I aged it in the carboy for 2 months, and then pitched T-58 during bottling. Carbed and ready to drink in another 3 weeks.

Hydrometer, which is accurate. Water still measures 1.000 and it just gave me an accurate/expected reading on a dubbel I brewed last weekend.