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An Ankoù

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 25, 2022
Messages
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Location
Brittany, France
Hi all,
Thanks for letting me join your forum. I've been brewing since I was 16 and that was quite a while ago now. What I really enjoy is experimenting and trying new ideas and I particularly like seeing how different people do different things, hence I lurk on the UK forum as well as the Australian/NZ forum (and the French one). Naturally, I like Traditional English cask ales, but I'm not always too keen on how they turn out when they're bottled. I want to have ago at some of the American traditional ales like Cream Ale and California Common. I like well hopped beers with a good nosefull of hop flavour, but I'm not too keen on mega-bitter "hop bombs" or juicy/cloudy IPAs. I like a decent porter and stout, too. In fact there are not many styles I don't like as long as the beer is well balanced. I'm looking forward to reading about how things are done on your side of the Atlantic and getting some new ideas for some new brews.
My present project is perfecting my La Goudale (a kind of aromatised bière de garde) recipe. I'm happy with the formulation, but the yeast I'm using makes the beer a pain to pour so I'm working on that side.
 
Where in Brittany are you? I'm in the Touraine right now, yesterday we met a British guy who has started a small (tiny) brewery in a nearby village. While we were visiting him three other Brits showed up for their afternoon beers.
 
Where in Brittany are you? I'm in the Touraine right now, yesterday we met a British guy who has started a small (tiny) brewery in a nearby village. While we were visiting him three other Brits showed up for their afternoon beers.
Hi, I'm right in the armpit where 56 meets 44 and 35. Not far from Redon. Pop in for a pint if you're passing by.
 
My present project is perfecting my La Goudale (a kind of aromatised bière de garde) recipe.
Care to share the recipe? I recently brewed a BdG that I aged on Cab Franc oak from a local winery. I was a little disappointed in the outcome but I think that’s more because out the wine barrel aging.
 
Care to share the recipe? I recently brewed a BdG that I aged on Cab Franc oak from a local winery. I was a little disappointed in the outcome but I think that’s more because out the wine barrel aging.
My pleasure. I'll look it up.
Edit: Id a;ready posted this on another forum so it was just a matter of cut and paste. I tend to work in gravities rather than degrees Plato and in ebc rather than SRM or Lovibond.
The beer turned out fine. A little "lemony" at the beginning, but then It was so popular, it never got chance to age properly. I was worried anout the yeast: it's very powdery and the flocculation is low. Indeed the beer was quite cloudy when I bottled it and I don't think it would have ever dropped bright in the fermenter. However, it was fin in the bottle and careful pouring produced a glass of clear beer. Nevertheless, I've done a second batch using Wyeast Scottish Ale yeast. I haven't tried it yet.

My Original post.
As promised, here's my recipe for 20 litres. The only info I've been able to get is on their data sheet, attached, which doesn't declare the hops so I've gone for Strisselspalt. I presume densité apparente refers to final gravity (in degrees Plato) and so I've calculated the original gravity from that and the abv. No reference to percentages so I've had to guess. This, then is a "range-finding" shot at a recipe.
20 litres in fermenter : OG/FG/abv- 1065/1009/about 7.5 (I know the original is only 7.2) IBUs 28
Soft water with ½ tsp CaCl2
Château Pilsner malt 70% 3.64 Kg
Château Cara Blond 5% 260g
Flaked Wheat 10% 520g
Flaked Rice 5% 260g
White Sugar 10% 520g
Mash for several hours at 64.5C
70 minute boil
FWH Strisselspalt @1,7% alpha acid to 28 IBUs (had to add a bit of Aramis as I didn't have quite enough)
½ tab protofloc last 10 minutes
Cool to 80C and add 10g broken coriander seeds and 16g bitter orange peel.
Overnight cool.
Pitch with Safale K-97

In fact I only got 17 litres at the required OG so I need either a finer grind on my mill or I need to reconsider the extraction potential of the base malt, but, in fact, I think I rushed the sparge. Last time I used quite a lot of flaked wheat, I also got a low extraction, but I think that's coincidence. I'll liquor back to 18 litres so that the hops and spices are not too dominant.

I'm not a great bière de garde drinker, it's too strong for a regular session, but my favourite is La Choulette blonde. Or anything from La Choulette, really, except their fruit beers. They really should stick to what they're good at.

Fiche-argu-LA-GOUDALE-BLONDE-7.2.pdf 336.43 KB

post scriptum: In fact I mashed at a lowed temperature and for longer than planned and my FG was lower than planned giving me a tad above the 7.5% abv. This didn't affect the beer detrimentally- the sugar and rice additions are obviously there to thin the body and make the beer more drinkable. There was no "thinness" in this beer.
Note, too, that not all bières de garde a reounded off with peel and coriander- this is more common in Belgium than in France.
 
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