Golden Bear #3: The Golden Bear Rises (7/26/12)

This marks round three of our most beloved beer, the Golden Bear. This time around I decided to go with all Styrian Goldings, Duvel-style, and also added 1 gram of Grains of Paradise at flame out. Other than that its pretty much just like the first two.

Batch size: 5 gallons

Boil volume: 6 gallons

Calculated OG: 1.073

Measured FG: 1.011
Attenutation: 85%

Estimated ABV: 8.13

Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 32

Pitching Temperature: 70

Yeast: Wyeast 1388 Belgian Golden Strong

Starter: 2 Liter

Fermentation vessel: Bucket

Other Fermentables		Amount	%	Max Pts.
DME		6.5	35%	42.00
Cane Sugar		2	11%	46.00

 

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%
Styrian Goldings		3	60	3.2%

Fermented hard and steady for 36 hours, then started to fall off.

8/2/12 - 2lbs of sugar added, bubbling quickly

8/11/12 - Bubbling has nearly stopped. Gravity of 1.011. Bottled.

9/6/12 - The aroma of the beer is very sulfurous. That could mean the yeast produced extra dimethal sulfide (DMS), which should fade with time, or there was a bacterial infection. The result remains to be seen.

10/2/12 - The sulfur flavor has left the beer, must have been DMS. Flavor is sublime. More tasting notes to come.

Peche Mortel 7/15/12

Randy Mosher says peach beers are better with apricots, thus Peche Mortel was born. A Belgian golden strong ale with apricots, this is our first experiment with fresh fruit. The recipe was adapted from our highly successful Golden Bear, with some of the sugar replaced with fresh apricots.

5.5 lbs of apricots were added 7/22, a week after brewing, when bubbling through the airlock had slowed significantly. Before tossing them into primary, I soaked them in diluted starsan, a meager effort to combat infection. They were then split in two and slowly dropped into the fermenter, core and all.

7/28/12 - Gravity is down to 1.013, and the apricots appear to have mold on them, though it could just be yeast scum. If its mold, it will grow, otherwise it should be fine.

8/2/12 - No change to the apricots, now appears they just yeasty when dropped into primary.

9/2/12 - Gravity of 1.010. The peaches still look funky, but the beer is clear and delectable. The flavor is very peachy, with lots of tartness and just a bit of sweetness. Almost no hop flavor to detect. Will bottle tomorrow.

9/3/12 - Bottled with 2.6 volumes of CO2 entirely in thicker belgian and german bottles.

Batch Size: 2.5 gal
Boil Volume: 3.5 gal
Estimated OG: 1.073
Estimated FG: 1.010
Estimated ABV: 8.13
Calculated IBUs (Tinseth): 22
Pitching Temperature: 68F
Yeast: Wyeast 1388 Belgian Golden Strong
Starter: None

Other Fermentables		Amount	%	Max Pts.
DME		3	34%	42.00
Cane Sugar		1	11%	46.00

Hops/Additions		Amount	Time	AA%
Styrian Goldings		1	60	3.2%