tasty...

Lachouffe is still really good.
John came over and had a tasting a couple fridays back. he liked that best too. the rest are all a bit so so.

oh, and the stout is pretty good now.

must get another Lachouffe down soon.

Lachouffe, first taste...

one word. De-fucking-licious.

i'm SO gonna make another batch of this one. its turned out like one of the better LaTrappe's, maybe the Blonde or the Tripel even. its got a really good mouth feel, taste, effervescence, body. and its only just 4 weeks old... wicked...

fastest stout in the east... 15.6

well! put down tuesday, and by saturday it'd stopped bubbling. very fast to start tho, plus double the yeast, and not a huge amount of sugars, so.. anyway, bottled last night, 15/6 into all 500ml bottles (including all my nice Renaissance bottles), except for 6 x 330ml and 3 x 640ml bottles...

Swtchbrewskr's Oatmeal Stout

Put down last night...

1.7kg Coopers Stout Kit
300g Chocolate Malt
150g Black Malt
250g Rolled Oats
1kg Dextrose
15g Saaz Hops pellets
Muntons Premium Yeast
Coopers kit yeast...

First time trying with mixed yeast strains, wonder how it'll turn out. first time i've not followed anyone elses recipe...
bubbling away nicely already at 22 degrees... bottling...?
and according to the Brewcraft Calculator, this will only be about a 5.7% beer... i shoulda gotten a light malt extract to boost it... too late now i guess.

oatmeal

its winter, its time for stout. should made some a month or two ago, in order that it be ready to drink now, but i didnt, so not much i can do about it.

its experiment time. been reading Oatmeal stout recipes, and they all require a stout kit, some roasted barley, chocolate and black malts, some hops, and ale yeasts. i've got a whole bunch of yeasts left over from previous kits, at least one of which is a good munton's one. all i'm gonna need to get is a stout kit and maybe some light malt... this week i think it'll be.


And, i scored bottles galore... emailed Renaissance Brewery, Blenhiem, and said i liked their bottles, and where could i get some, and they emailed back saying, send us 11 bucks and we'll send ya a couple of cases. as it happened a friend was up there for a weekend, so he dropped in and they gave them to him! so, thats 12 litres of my next brew capacity in Renaissance Elemental Porter bottles... nice! like the Brakspear bottles, they have a good lip in the neck that retains sediment very nicely in the pour.

Lachouffe again. 29.5

Bottled, last night, 29th May. usual two hours or so. followed a piece of advice i'd noticed on the Bodensatz site, whereby once the bottles were filled, i just placed the lids on them on the bench, and then continued filling the rest of the bottles. at the end, once all were filled, then i got to work with the capper. the reason being, the active live beer is producing CO2 and allowing it to sit for a period of time before sealing allows the CO2 to displace some of the air in the space at the top of the bottle. doubt there'll be much difference, but it actually made the bottling process smoother, in that i was focussed on sanitising, rinsing, sugaring, filling about 8 to 10 bottles at a time, and not having the capping process in the middle. perhaps a thing to do in future will be to move the barrel a few hours before bottling, up onto the bench and that way save all that wandering back and forth. will update this post later with numbers of bottles... lots more stubbies than i'd estimated.

Lachouffe pt 2

went to bottle last night, but timed the (seemingly very slow) bubbles, and they were still coming in at less than a minute between each, so. i guess i'll be bottling it all up tonight. sorted out the bottles, 8 x 750ml, roughly 7 or 8 x 330ml and the rest 500ml...

the similarities between the Maudite and Lachouffe are not lost on me... it will be interesting to see how the notes of the bitter vs the pilsner, plus the two different yeasts, behave.

the Maudite is drinking quite nicely now.
the Dunkel seems to have a similar issue to the original Bock, that being it is over carbonated, and champagnes upon opening. you have to be very quick to tilt the bottle to minimise yeast disruption. not a huge issue it being a wheat beer, but still preferable to leave (most of) the yeast behind...

Lachouffe

Strong Belgian Ale

Munton's Premium Pilsner,
2x blackrock light malt
800g dextrose
20g Saaz hops pellets
Saflager yeast.

bubbling away at present, should be bottling in a few days time. expecting around 8%.

Dunkel sampled, maudite bottled. 18.4

so, i did bottle the maudite last friday night. went smoothly, about 20 x 750ml, only a few 500's and a few stubbies. John came over and watched.

Sampled a stubby of the Dunkel too. still a little young, at (peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot...) 9 days old but the potential is definitely there, its gonna be a tasty brew.

having a look in my 'cellar' now, i've got a heap of beer, but majority only maudite and dunkel. there's probably only 3 or 4 bottles of brown left, still a few bock, hardly any dopplebock or hoegaardens left...

i want a recipe for a Leffe Radieuse. any brewers out there able to post a clone?
also, have lots of whole grain oats to use, so an oatmeal stout is up and coming. also, would like a lighter brew, so a Koelsch is maybe on the cards. or another witte/hoegaarden style.

Maudite ready for bottling

Had stopped bubbling this morning, so i'll bottle up tonight...