#11 Biere de Garde

After letting the Biere de Table sit in the fermenter after a surprisingly long fermentation at 70 F, I wanted to repitch the Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde yeast in a higher gravity Biere de Garde brewed for summer. I had intended to sour a portion of the base malt in a mash a few days before brewing this beer but realized I couldn't brew this upcoming week. I'd like to get into sour mashing at some point, but that may have to be at some point this summer.

Rye malt is one of my favorite adjunct malts and I wanted to brew a beer that would benefit from the spicy, tangy flavors it produces. I've used it before in a Rye Pale Ale that came out a bit too spicy, so I chose to lower the percentage of the rye malt in the grain bill from 13% (as in the Rye Pale Ale) to 5.4% for the Biere de Garde. Together with the same proportion of Biscuit malt, I'm hoping this beer ends up fairly bready, spicy, and tangy from the specialty malts used, as well as the Belgian yeast.

Biere de Garde

Batch Volume (Gal): 5.66

Pre-Boil volume (Gal): 6.33

Total Grain (Lbs): 14

OG: 1.068   Anticipated FG: ~1.012 - 1.008   

Anticipated ABV: ~ 7.4% - 7.9%

IBUs: 32.6

SRM: 7.4

Brewhouse Efficiency: 74%

Boil Duration: 65 min

Grain             (Lbs/oz.)    (%) 

Pilsner                 11          78.6

Rye Malt           12 oz.       5.4

Biscuit Malt      12 oz.       5.4

Wheat Malt       8 oz.        3.6

Flaked Oats       8 oz.        3.6  (unmilled)

Crystal 20          8 oz.        3.6

Hops                       (AA%) (IBU) (Oz.) (Boil[min])

Northern Brewer     10.6     21.2    0.5          60

Cascade                     7.4       7.5    0.5          30

Northern Brewer     10.6      3.9    0.55          5

Cascade                     7.4        0     0.55          0

Yeast

Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde (repitched 130 mL 

of thin yeast slurry from Biere de Table)

Aerated wort with pure oxygen for 25 seconds

Water

1/4 tsp Calcium Chloride (in mash) (mash pH ~5.4)

1/4 tsp Calcium Sulfate (65 min)

1 Whirfloc tablet (10 min)

1/2 tsp yeast nutrient (10 min)

I chose to, for the first time in a long time, mash this beer in without 5.2 pH stabilizer to see how well the grains would buffer the mash alone. At 5 minutes during the 60 minute mash, I was surprised to see the mash was close to the optimal 5.2 - 5.5 pH range for starch conversion. I added a small amount of calcium chloride to see how much the addition would lower the mash pH. The calcium chloride produced a small decrease in pH to the 5.4 pH I was hoping for. Once I can get a water test done, I should know exactly how to add calcium chloride and calcium sulfate in varying ratios to lower the pH of the mash into that ideal range, while also providing ions to the mash that will ultimately enhance the flavor of the beer. My past additions of salts in the boil have only provided flavor, but calcium in the mash will be a great substitute for the 5.2 when mashing as the 5.2 contributes too much sodium in the final beer.

Testing the mash pH after the calcium chloride addition at 15 min

I mashed for a total of 60 minutes at about 151-150 F which should produce a fermentable wort, resulting in a dry, high alcohol beer for summer drinking. I also chose to try a quick "mashout" by bringing up the wort that was collecting in the boil kettle to 170 F. Typically the wort that collects in the boil kettle is anywhere from 140 - 120 F, so I've always been concerned that there are still enzymes that have yet to be denatured by high temperatures and they continue to eat the sugars produced by the chosen mash temperature. In order to retain those sugars that will provide body in the finished beer, I'll have to experiment with raising the wort temperature to mashout (170 F) to help retain the character of the wort produced during the 60 minute mash. There is always the chance however that there is no additional enzymatic activity after the 60 minute mash and no additional "drying" of the beer occurs.

The new heat shield / wind shield

During the sparge the wort came out a bit cloudy, and I'm assuming this was due to the high protein content of the wheat malt, the rye malt, and the flaked oats. One of the big differences I noticed in the brewing of this beer without 5.2 was how the wort looked throughout the brewing of this beer. The wort began very cloudy (but tasted fine) but quickly cleared during the boil. I've never seen protein coagulation during the boil itself (other than hotbreak). The wort was so clear that I could see protein chunks floating  as the wort boiled. When using 5.2, the wort has been too cloudy during the boil to see anything. Once I chilled, the wort clouded up again, and only until I chilled the beer back down to 60 F did the wort clear once more as protein recoagulated. The finished wort came out of the boil kettle and into the fermenter crystal clear, so once this beer bottle conditions and the yeast drop out of solution, this could end up being a bright golden Belgian ale for summer.

I used my new oxygen system to infuse in a higher ppm of pure oxygen into the wort than I have been able to in the past by only using an aquarium air pump. By aerating wort with an aquarium air pump or splashing the wort in the fermenter, 8 ppm is the maximum amount of oxygen that can dissolve into the wort, and this number decreases as wort OGs get higher (1.060 and up). So at least when I'm brewing a beer over an OG of 1.060, I'll be using this new oxygen system to reach 8+ ppm of oxygen in the finished wort. This system is much faster and cleaner as well, only taking 25 seconds to properly aerate wort. That's opposed to the aquarium air pump that takes 30 minutes, doesn't aerate the wort sufficiently, and produces a mess as the beer foams up and spills out of the fermenter.

Coagulated protein in the boil

Using the oxygen system

Hopefully I will be able to dial in the amount of oxygen I need (or the amount of time needed to bubble oxygen through the wort) in order to get a good fermentation. High oxygen levels could result in watery, character-less beer and/or cell death (producing off-flavors from cell autolysis) however, so I'll have to make sure I never go overboard when diffusing oxygen.

I'll be waiting a while until the next brew. Not sure when I'll have another chance to brew, but I'd like to brew an American IPA for late spring / early summer anyway, so waiting won't be a problem. I'll be brewing a Bell's Two Hearted IPA clone with a total of 10 oz. of whole leaf Centennial hops. Two Hearted is one of my favorite IPAs and one of my favorite beers, and it will be great to get another chance to clone this amazing beer (this is attempt number two).

The Columbus hop rhizome is now a little hop plant. It's been doing well in the pot with the amount of sun we've had in the last few days. Leaves on each of the 3 larger bines are starting to unfurl and it's growing fairly quickly. Once the other two rhizomes arrive and all the snow finally disappears in NH, I'll have to plant them outside and build a small trellis to start guiding their growth.