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...

Maudite next...

Next one will be a Maudite... purchased yesterday, putting down tonight.

Muntons Premium Bitter (1.5kg),
Black Rock Light Malt (1.5kg)
1kg Dextrose
400g Crystal
Saaz pellets
Safale yeast...

should be 7.9%?

Dunkel weizen bottled... 8.4

Finally she'd stopped bubbling, so bottled late last night... went down pretty well, clean 2 hours. so. sampling in a few weeks time. ended up doing only 6 x 750ml. plus 11 stubbies, 2x 640ml, and 24x 500ml botts... total, 21.41 litres

dunkel bubbler...

STILL the dunkel bubbles, albeit VERY slowly...

its 9(!) days now. might pull the plug on it and bottle tonight...

And will go for a Maudite - Strong Belgian Ale, next...


Did a bit of a stock take. Getting pretty low on brews. All the empties i'm holding at the mo is indicative of that too...
Only about 3 or 4 Hoegaardens left. one or two of the Brown. still a few of the Bock, but its a pain in the ass so the sooner they're gone the better... and ONE stout...
still quite a few Dopplebocks.

dunkel beginnings...

put down, and bubbling nicely now, a dunkel on friday night.

Muntons Dark 1.8kg
Black Rock Whispering Wheat, 1.5
340g Crystal,
114g Black
114g Chocolate
hallertau bag
safale/wheat yeast.

ground the grains by hand, and added to cold water on stove, then brought to boil, then did usual sitting extract malts in hot water, pouring into barrel, along with the wort from the grains, then cold water. temp said 28 (but is inaccurate) and has come down to 24. bubbling nicely and smelling gooooood...
will post post bottling.

Also, Hoegaarden is drinking beautifully at the mo.
last weekend i had my second to last stout, only one left!
Bock still a champagne-in-the-ass, going OFF when you open it...
Dopplebock just gets better and better...

tasted dopplebock.

divine. sampled a stubby last night.

a little flat, but the flavour is rich and smooth and mellow and delicious. i'm gonna enjoy imbibing this one.
alcohol content? STRONG