Another recipe from my supplier. Low IBU, high alcohol, Belgian origins. Les Biere des sans Culottes. A little darker wort than anticipated from the extract brew, but I find that most extract brews seem to be a little darker than the calculator suggests. Recipe posted. Overdid it with cooling so now have to wait a little bit for it to warm back up so I can pitch. Got a lotta things went wrong on this one, so hope it turns out OK. One day I'll figure out how to use the recipe and brew step calculators and actually put in a recipe that generates the correct brew timers. Always seem to get that backward or completely wrong. Fortunately I have the actual recipe to follow, too, so haven't blown one up yet. Pretty sure I got it corrected during the brew. Bittering hops in at boil, flavor hops at 10 minutes remaining, and flavor hops at 5 minutes remaining. Made a starter this morning before beginning the brew (which I should have done yesterday). Forgot to refrigerate the liquid yeast that came with the kit for a couple days, so hope it's still viable. It didn't get hot (>75 degrees), so maybe ...... Gave it a little DME to munch on while i was brewing. Will see what happens. Worst case, I have to dump a pack of something else in it in a couple days. Got a couple different dry yeasts for backup. Wish me luck!
It may not have pants, but it's covered in bottles now. Had a long batch 'cause I over did it with water for cooling/makeup. A little weaker than expected, but still hittin' about 7% ABV. Little bit sharper bitterness than I usually prefer, but it needs to condition and age a little before I make up my mind. Very aromatic beer, very sweet malty aroma, but floral hints underneath the malt. Let's see what fizzin up does for it.
That's exactly what I'm hoping for, but the IBU is 36, so maybe I'll just get to teach my palate new tricks. Never have been real fond of high bitterness, but trying to learn to appreciate different hops and boil times, etc. If I'm gonna drink something bitter, it better have a lot of other redeeming qualities. Even after 30 plus brews, I still consider myself a neophyte learning the craft. There's so much to choose from and the slightest change in procedure or ingredient can have a pretty big impact on the outcome. That's what makes it fun, trying to guess what I did differently that produced something I want to duplicate or hope I never see again..
