Any one brew the Tafelbier?

[MVKTR2]

Thanks for the update Nugent. I'm guessing that the most important aspect of the recipe on this approach is yeast selection, it's got to be a very flavorful strain to add complexity to such a simple product. Will be following your progress as it will be more than a month maybe 2 before I get around to brewing up one. I'm probably going with a belgian approach though I may go with a saison... who knows!

Glad yours turned out with a 1.008 fg, not too dry for such a small brew.

Schlante,
Phillip

 

[Nugent]

Well ... 16 days in the bottle and figured that it was time to have a go.

Still needs a bit of time to carb up, but certainly not flat.

- Malty, slightly sweet aroma (not surprising with the amount of crystal)
- Slightly sweet, toasty/bready flavour. Very malt forward (again, not surprising). No significant bitterness, but enough there.
- The choice of a character-filled English yeast was a good idea. Fruitiness of the yeast is balancing out the potential harshness of the high amount of crystal.
- Certainly not thin, but the lack of alcohol as an element of the flavour is not very apparent.

In all, I'm very pleased with this as a first try. I would certainly make this again. Will have to taste a few more to get an idea of what I'd change next time, but this has the potential to be a regular brew. Something to have with lunch, the nights where light is best or the last one of the night.

Will maintain updates. Good luck to everyone else with this.

 

[Shooter]

Well, I just sampled the tafel bier, 3 1/2 weeks in the bottle. It's much better than I anticipated. I made it with pilsner dry extract and wasn't expecting much. I was really worried about mouthfeel. I wanted to add 4 oz of maltodextrine, but didn't have any on hand at the time. However, it doesn't really seem thin. The beer started around a 1.026 and dropped to around a 1.006 in the end. It's a fairly carbonated bottle, but it's not too bad actually. The pepper flavor is mild, but the yeast did add a few interesting notes. Honestly, I think I'll brew this again. I may tweak it a little, but I think I've found a pretty decent, low ABV, summer beer.

 

[jangelj]

Well, I just sampled the tafel bier, 3 1/2 weeks in the bottle. It's much better than I anticipated. I made it with pilsner dry extract and wasn't expecting much. I was really worried about mouthfeel. I wanted to add 4 oz of maltodextrine, but didn't have any on hand at the time. However, it doesn't really seem thin. The beer started around a 1.026 and dropped to around a 1.006 in the end. It's a fairly carbonated bottle, but it's not too bad actually. The pepper flavor is mild, but the yeast did add a few interesting notes. Honestly, I think I'll brew this again. I may tweak it a little, but I think I've found a pretty decent, low ABV, summer beer.

mind sharing you recipe?

 

[Shooter]

mind sharing you recipe?

Sure, it was the standard recipe online and found at the beginning of the thread. I just substituted extract, with a couple of very minor changes, hops were a little higher AAU, but only a little. I just did it as a partial boil recipe on my stove top, because I was too lazy to drag out the propane burner.

Batch Size: 5.5 Gallons

3 lbs Pilsner DME (All-Grain substitute 3.75 lbs Pilsner Malt)
1 lb Caravienne
.25 lb Aromatic
.50 0z Czech Saaz (4.0% AAU) - 60 minutes
1 tsp Cracked Black Pepper – 5 minutes

Wyeast 1214 Belgian Ale

OG 1.028
FG 1.006
IBU 7
ABV 2.9%

The recipe calls for taking the first gallon of runnings and boiling to reduce by half to caramelize it. Since this was an extract version, I didn’t really have that option. I ended up doing a three gallon boil with half the DME and the hops for 60 minutes and, in a second pot, boiled the remaining DME in a gallon of water, but I’m not sure how much I got from that really. I carbed the sample bottle to around 2.5 volumes.

I sampled a little more of it last night. It’s not bad, I think there’s room for improvement and I think I’m going to play around with it a little. Like I said, it’s not overly thin, though I think 4 oz of maltodextrine might still be an improvement. I also don’t think the pepper came across that strong and really think I could have used a little bit more. I’m just happy to have found a low ABV beer, other than a mild, that seems to have some possibilities.

It would probably be improved by doing a grain version and caramelizing that first gallon of runnings. I might try that, but I'm kind of looking for an easy version of this recipe that I can keep on hand most of the time. So, if I can tweak the extract version a little, I'll probably stick with it.

 

[MacBruver]

I randomly found a reference to tafelbier when I was looking through the wikipedia article on Belgian beers.. I will definitely be trying this! I may try to squeak a few more IBU's in there... nothign crazy, bump it up to 15 or so, and then add a touch of dry hopping for some nose.

 

[randomsample]

I'd like to get in to making small beers, and I'll be watching this thread closely.

The closest I've gotten was my first all grain (BIAB). I somehow turned BM's Centennial Blonde into something lighter than BMC. Refreshing, if not particularly flavorful.

 

[JNye]

i used the 3rd runnings of the saison furtif recipe and came out with 2.5 gallons of 2.5% alcohol. I hopped it to about 18 ibu and it turned out wonderful. I also had to boil the hell out of it just to get my OG so that may have helped with mouthfeel. But you would NEVER guess it was very low abv, but you could drink 2-3 after work and feel just fine. I used white labs 360 if that matters.
Next time i'll make more...

 

[JKaranka]

At 2.5%+, IBU 7+ and a combination of crystal and biscuit malts I would say this is a British mild!

You can try the Finnish 'kotikalja' that is fermented for 24 hours (then cold crashed), uses rye malt, bakers yeast and no hops... that definitively is a beer for kids!

 

[MVKTR2]

I've made at least 4 or 5 sub-3.5% abv offerings. I think generally when brewing simplicity helps. However in smaller biers which I probably have brewed 60% sub 4.5% abv biers, it generally helps to have a fairly complex grain bill.

For instance victory malt to enhance the bready character, 2 varieties of caramel to add complexity on that front, etc. Just a thought.

 

[Piratwolf]

I'm on this as well. Haven't given up on big beers, but like to have a beer on tap I can DRINK and still feel good next day. My latest is a Rye Mild. 7.5# British Pale (Perle or Optic preferred, but Golden Promise is nice), and 8oz each of Choclate rye and C60. 1oz of Willamette FWH or at 60min. ~3.4% of malty, spicy, earthy good drinkin'!

 

[Matteo57]

some interesting recipes on here! i'll have to make one or two sometime soon! Yum!

 

[bizarrojosh]

Has anyone else made a 2% or less beer recently? I'm interested in the Belgian style since I prefer that yeast and flavor profile. Has anyone continued to brew their recipe and modified it to make it better?

 

[JKaranka]

I made a 2.5% abv by recycling a single can lager beer kit, adding medium dme and dry hopping with h. mittlefruh. The yeast was the MJ Workhorse. Interesting results, quite mixed. The main flavour was from the yeast, as it overpowered the little malt flavour, and gave the beer a fruit / banana / baker's yeast quality. There was some spice from the hallertau but much less than what I expected. Was relatively similar to other traditional table beers I've had (like kotikalja).