Finally brewday. Reworked recipe!

Yesterday I finally brewed what should have been "Franks Strong Candidate II" but ended up totally different.
For starters, I couldn't get dates. I searched every grocery store nearby without any luck at all. Next I couldn't get whole coriander so I ended up buying ground coriander. Anyway, you gotta brew with what you have, so I changed the recipe a bit.

Brew Like a Monk

I decided to leave out the Belgian Candi syrup totally. I haven't got any of the complexity from the product that many sources, such as BLAM, promise. I don't regard the syrup as being the key ingredient in making dark belgian ales - at least not the syrup I can get, which is from Brewferm.
Then, I know for a fact, that you can brew wonderfully complex beers without. Take for instance Abbaye Des Rocs Brune, which is rated 100% at Ratebeer.com. It is brewed without any sugar additions at all and it is verrrrry good!

Another change to my recipe was the mash temp. I wanted some sweetness in the beer for two reasons.

1. To get the typical "belgian sweetness" in the beer. I mashed at 68C (154F) for an hour. It's very high but I thought I'd give it a try. This also goes against the BLAM advice, to mash low. But hey, as Stan Hieronymus says: You must brew like yourself!
2. I have noticed that some of the beers with more sweetness cellar better. They tend to develop more complexity.

Last change, or, more accurately, decision, was to stay with the anis. I think there's a big difference in throwing a lot of interesting ingredients in the beer and making a complex beer. I was afraid to get a "muddy" impression if I threw too many ingredients in, but since I couldn't get dates I figured it was OK - and MAN the anis smells good!

Here's the recipe I brewed yesterday.

Name: Brew no 31: Franks Brown #6	Style: Belgian Dark Strong Ale
Statistics
Volume:	24 liters
OG:	1082
FG:	1015
Alcohol:	8.7 % by vol.
Colour:	42 EBC (Dark brown)
Bitterness:	36 IBU
BU/GU:	0.44

Fermentables
Pilsner Malt 3 EBC	6000	gr.
Cara-Hell 25 EBC	375	gr.
Cara Amber 70 EBC	367	gr.
Cara Munich 120 EBC	256	gr.
Special B 350 EBC	250	gr.
Chocolate Malt 800 EBC	50	gr.
Dark Moscovado Sugar 80 EBC	500	gr.
Brown Sugar 80 EBC	300	gr.

 Mash schedule: 68C for 1 hour in the oven

Hops
Saaz	3.5%	alpha	100	gr.	60	minutes
Hallertauer	3.0%	alpha	50	gr.	10	minutes

Fermentation
Yeast: Safbrew T-58
Fermented at 23-28 degrees C for 10 days.
Fermented at 15 degrees C for 6 days.
Lagered at 12 degrees C for 120 days.

Comments:

Boil for 1 hours. Add 1 tsp ground coriander and 1 tsp anis to the boil for the last 10 minutes.



It's now bubbeling away in the basement....

Beer Tasting : Aged Hercule Stout

Hercule Stout

In my private stash, I have this aged Hercule Stout from Brasserie Ellezelloise. It expired January, 2008 which means it's 2 years and almost 8 months past it's best before date.
It will be interesting to find out, if this beverage is improving with age or it should be drunk fresh. I have had this young several times and I like it very much. It's not my favourite but it's a nice enjoyable sipper. Not like many other belgians, this has a distinct taste from roasted black malts. But then again, it's a stout, and there are not that many belgian stouts around....

I brought out my Chimay goblet and opened the swingtop lid with only a faint hiss.
Here goes:

Aged Hercule Stout in Chimay Glass

Aroma (5/10)
Lots of tar, smoke and cold strong coffee. A bit of caramel sweets and burnt banana peel too. No hops. Pleasant, but I had expected more.

Appearance (4/5)
Pitch black, a small rim of beige foam bubbles along the sides of the glass is what this beer has for foam. Totally clear.

Taste (5/10)
Smoked taste of black malts and a little salty. Very intense with just enough sweetness to balance the roastiness. No bitterness or hop taste. Not so much to say really. It's become a bit simple or one-dimensional over time.

Palate (2/5)
The body is very full with an oily texture. Over te years the carbonation has almost disappeared. It's not completely gone, but it's very faint. I miss some carbonation because it could balance the heavy taste and give it some lightness. Overall a short finish except for the smokiness which leaves a long impression. A bit astrigent finish.

Overall (10/20)
This is an aged beer and I like aged beers very much. I have to conclude that this beer does not improve with age though, because as a young beer I would have scored it much higher. It's more an experience than it's an enjoyment to drink this beer I would say. And even though it's quite average overall, I am very happy to have tried the aged version.

Total score 2.6 of 5

My Top 10 Belgian Quadrupels

Who don't like a good strong dark abbey style ale. Well, I do, and here's my list to make the cold winter nights a little warmer.

1. Rochefort 10
In my opinion this is the best of them all. It's lovely smell of figs, dark ripe fruit and sweet chocolate can be picked up from a long distance. Very dark brown colour, nice big head, and lots of carbonation. Taste is very complex, sweet, figs, fruits, dark malts, vanilla. If you haven't tried it, it's very difficult to describe. The aftertaste is one of the longest I've ever had from a beer. You must concentrate to taste hops and bitterness in this beer, it's faint. The funny thing is - it's still balanced perfectly. And beware, it hit's you with 11.3% alcohol.

2. Westvleteren 12
Many thinks this is the best beer in the world. While it certainly is a great beer, I won't say it's the best in the world. I think it's history and rareness may add to the reason why many rate it the best. I am lucky to have easy access to all Westvleteren beers and have tasted a good share of them so the history and rereness factor does not affect my rating.
That said, the Westvleteren beer is fantastic. It's smell and taste is very complex, with pronounced caramel/toffee characters. Don't drink a normal beer just after this one - it will taste dull!

3. Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van de Keizer
Great and complex beer. I have tasted this one fresh as well as one, two, and eight years (the 2002 vintage)old. They're all very enjoyable and round tasting. This one has a certain spicyness to go along with the dark malts and toffee flavours. Very good.

4. Abbaye des Rocs Brune
This is an all-malt belgian beer, which is a little bit unusual, since many belgian brewers tend to add a fairly large amount of syrups/sugars for the reasons of complexity and/or drinkability of the final beer. This one does not have any sugars added, but instead 7 different malts to get an amazingly complex taste. This is a beer you must try.

5. Struise Pannepot
This dark ale begins it's fermentation in open tanks with their house yeast T-58. It's rich, complex, malty and spicy.

6. Floreffe prima meilleure
Wonderful dark ale with an added dose of anis and coriander. Normally there's a rule of thumb saying that if you can spot the spice used in a beer, then you have used too much. Well, in this case, you can easily smell and taste the anis! And that's how this beer should be! The anis goes wery well along with the dary malts and syrups.

7. N'ice Chouffe
I know it's a christmas beer, but this soft dark strong ale can be consumed all year round. I't spiced with coriander, thyme and orange peel which melts together with a nice complex malty taste with a hint of chocolate.

8. St. Bernardus abt 12
The St. Bernardus brewery brewed Westvleteren beers under license from 1946 to 1992. It is sayd, that when the license ended, they continued to brew the Westvleteren 12 beer under the name of St. Bernardus Abt 12. Although there are many similarities between St. Bernardus abt 12 and Westvleteren 12, it's far from the same beer. Still very good though.

9. Malheur 12
This potent 12% Abv is just great. Great caramel and toffee notes and mild hopping makes this strong beer easy to sip.

10. Oerbier
Toffee, Caramel and a nutty undertone. Pleasant.

Drink responsibly!

Units of alcohol

How many units of alcohol are you consuming? This formula assumes one unit of alcohol equals 12 grams of pure alcohol.

It's actually quite easy to calculate using this formula

[amount in cl.] * [Alcohol percentage] / 150

Some examples

A glass (33cl) of beer (5% alcohol) equals (33*5/150) 1.1 units of alcohol
A shot (2cl) of vodka (45% alcohol) equals (2*45/150) 0,6 units of alcohol
A 66cl barleywine of 11% equals (66*11/150) 4,8 units of alcohol

Simple as that.. and remember... drink responsibly!