So I visited Belgium over the summer and had a great time drinking beer and touring some breweries that included Cantillon. The tour of Cantillon is self guided and they give you a pamphlet that explains their process and even gives the proportions of grain and hops they use. With that information I developed a recipe to produce on my BIAB stove top system.
I bought aged hops from Hopsdirect http://www.hopsdirect.com/choice-debittered-aged-hops-leaf/
My recipe was for a 4 gallon batch to be long term aged in a 3 gallon better bottle.
BIAB
5.5lb Pilsner Malt
3lb Raw Wheat harvested from my friends farm in Oklahoma
3oz. Debittered Hops
Protein rest at 113 and then stepped and rested 20 minutes each at 140, 145, 150, 155, 160 and then a dunk sparge at 170.
Boiled for 180 minutes adding the hops at beginning of the boil.
OG around 1.055
So Far I have brewed two batches. I live just north of Dallas so I decided to do the brews this winter and used aluminum pans for coolships.
After brewing I let the wort cool to about 190 in the kettle and then poured the wort through one of my BIAB bags into another kettle to filter out the whole hops. Then transferred the wort to my coolships which were on our 2nd story balcony. I covered the pans with paint strainer bags.
Brew #1 was on November 9th, 2015 and I divided the wort between two coolship pans. That evening the family and I enjoyed a Cantillon Rose De Gambrinus and Beersel Oude Geuze and I poured the dregs into each pan. The next day I transferred the wort to a 4 gallon bucket for fermentation. After 6 days I hardly had any fermentation and decided to pitch some Sacc. I used a pack of M27 and it took off violently. After 64 days in the bucket I racked to the better bottle for long term aging. I had enough left over to fill some small swing top bottles to carbonate and test. Gravity is at 1.001 and it is a perfect color, slight tart, slight lemon, slight funk. Along the way I have also added some dregs from Orval, Oro De Calabaza, and my Russian River Temptation Clone.
Brew #2 was on February 15, 2016. Same recipe but I decided to divide the wort between 4 pans to increase the surface area and I figured I would used 2 buckets to ferment and leave the buckets out over night. Same recipe and mash schedule. This time to please the beer gods I offered the dregs of Jester King Le Petite and The Collective Brewing Project Petite Golden Sour divided amount the coolships. The next day, I transferred the wort to the 2 buckets. Within in 48 hours I had active fermentation and it bubbled away like a normal fermentation. After 2 weeks bucket 1 was at 1.004 and bucket 2 was at 1.006. Both had thick yeast cake like a normal fermentation. I then racked the beer to a 3 gallon better bottle. Along the way I have added the dregs of Orval, Hanssens Oude Gueuze and Jester Kings Das Wunderkind. The airlock bubbled slowly for awhile and has since stopped. I have not checked the gravity but this past weekend pulled a sample and it is surprisingly not sour. Slight brett aroma and funk but no sourness.
I actually pulled samples of both to taste side by side. I even mixed the samples to see how they taste together and my preference is that I like them alone. Beer #1 is tart and funky and Beer #2 is funky.
Both beers have a pellicle.
Now it is just wait and see what happens. My goal is to put 1 gallon on Cranberries, 1 gallon on Tart Cherries, 1 gallon on Prickly Pear Fruit, 1 gallon on possibly juniper berries and then have 1 gallon of each without fruit.
The quandary is which fruit with which beer. I may also add some oak cubes to beer #2 that has more brett character.
Anyway, long ramble but figure at some point I wanted to document and share and hopefully get some input.
I bought aged hops from Hopsdirect http://www.hopsdirect.com/choice-debittered-aged-hops-leaf/
My recipe was for a 4 gallon batch to be long term aged in a 3 gallon better bottle.
BIAB
5.5lb Pilsner Malt
3lb Raw Wheat harvested from my friends farm in Oklahoma
3oz. Debittered Hops
Protein rest at 113 and then stepped and rested 20 minutes each at 140, 145, 150, 155, 160 and then a dunk sparge at 170.
Boiled for 180 minutes adding the hops at beginning of the boil.
OG around 1.055
So Far I have brewed two batches. I live just north of Dallas so I decided to do the brews this winter and used aluminum pans for coolships.
After brewing I let the wort cool to about 190 in the kettle and then poured the wort through one of my BIAB bags into another kettle to filter out the whole hops. Then transferred the wort to my coolships which were on our 2nd story balcony. I covered the pans with paint strainer bags.
Brew #1 was on November 9th, 2015 and I divided the wort between two coolship pans. That evening the family and I enjoyed a Cantillon Rose De Gambrinus and Beersel Oude Geuze and I poured the dregs into each pan. The next day I transferred the wort to a 4 gallon bucket for fermentation. After 6 days I hardly had any fermentation and decided to pitch some Sacc. I used a pack of M27 and it took off violently. After 64 days in the bucket I racked to the better bottle for long term aging. I had enough left over to fill some small swing top bottles to carbonate and test. Gravity is at 1.001 and it is a perfect color, slight tart, slight lemon, slight funk. Along the way I have also added some dregs from Orval, Oro De Calabaza, and my Russian River Temptation Clone.
Brew #2 was on February 15, 2016. Same recipe but I decided to divide the wort between 4 pans to increase the surface area and I figured I would used 2 buckets to ferment and leave the buckets out over night. Same recipe and mash schedule. This time to please the beer gods I offered the dregs of Jester King Le Petite and The Collective Brewing Project Petite Golden Sour divided amount the coolships. The next day, I transferred the wort to the 2 buckets. Within in 48 hours I had active fermentation and it bubbled away like a normal fermentation. After 2 weeks bucket 1 was at 1.004 and bucket 2 was at 1.006. Both had thick yeast cake like a normal fermentation. I then racked the beer to a 3 gallon better bottle. Along the way I have added the dregs of Orval, Hanssens Oude Gueuze and Jester Kings Das Wunderkind. The airlock bubbled slowly for awhile and has since stopped. I have not checked the gravity but this past weekend pulled a sample and it is surprisingly not sour. Slight brett aroma and funk but no sourness.
I actually pulled samples of both to taste side by side. I even mixed the samples to see how they taste together and my preference is that I like them alone. Beer #1 is tart and funky and Beer #2 is funky.
Both beers have a pellicle.
Now it is just wait and see what happens. My goal is to put 1 gallon on Cranberries, 1 gallon on Tart Cherries, 1 gallon on Prickly Pear Fruit, 1 gallon on possibly juniper berries and then have 1 gallon of each without fruit.
The quandary is which fruit with which beer. I may also add some oak cubes to beer #2 that has more brett character.
Anyway, long ramble but figure at some point I wanted to document and share and hopefully get some input.
