Biere de Garde

As the second brew day in a row, this batch actually started last summer. One of my friends from my homebrew club started Lazy Monk Brewing. He gave me a recipe for a biere de garde as a possibility for one of his seasonal beers.

This last year was pretty crazy, so I hadn’t gotten around to brewing this recipe. We moved twice and it took a while to get settled into our new house. So, I figured I’d see how this recipe turned out.

Since the recipe was created by Leos, I figured the only appropriate beer to drink while brewing this recipe was his Bohemian Dark Lager. It started the brew day off on an awesome note and provided a relaxing background flavor to complement the fun of brewing a new recipe.

I’ve never had biere de garde, so I’m not sure what to expect in the finished product. It’s a lager fermented a little bit warm to contribute to the flavor. This batch, fermentation started at 59 degrees Fahrenheit and heat from fermentation rose the temperature to 61 degrees over the course of fermentation. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this turns out! The hydrometer sample tasted awesome, as did the sample at bottling time.

When you try a new recipe, do you first brew a smaller than normal batch to see if you like it or do you just go for it? So far, I just brew a full-sized batch and hope I like it. Let me know what works for you.

Biere de Garde

Grain bill

9 kg Pilsner malt
4.536 kg Munich II malt
454 g Caravienne
61 g black patent malt

Hops

80 g UK Fuggles 5.0 % AA at 60 minutes

Adjunct

2 pounds dark brown sugar added at 15 minutes for sanitization

Yeast

2 packets Saflager S-23

Mash

Target mash temp: 147 degrees Fahrenheit (my mash came in hot at 153 degrees F)

Boil Volume: 14 gallons

Target Original Gravity: 1.074 (actual: 1.068)

Target Final Gravity: 1.019 (actual: 1.010)

Target Batch size: 12 gallons (actual: 11.5 gallons)

Boiled for 90 minutes, being really careful as the boil started. It was nerve-wracking with the wort so close to the top of the kettle.

Robust Porter Brew Day

I love the porter style, and this recipe is one my most requested among those who help me consume my brews. After moving, and coming to realize my supply of porter was nearly gone, I decided to re-brew this recipe.

Of course, planning to brew a recipe doesn’t always mean you get to brew that recipe. I’ve been pushing to use up ingredients I have on-hand, and as a result I had to make a few adjustments to the grain bill. Mostly little stuff, hopefully not too noticeable.

A friend helped me brew this batch, and it’s always nice to have someone to talk to while you’re brewing. The process can drag a bit through the mash. Once I’m done with the mash, I usually get pretty busy with cleaning & santizing, monitoring hop additions, getting the wort chiller ready.

Yeast got pitched, beer got fermented cool but it kicked up super active in less than 24 hours. The Fermometer stuck to the side of my fermenter rose from 59 degrees F to 63 degrees F during active fermentation.

Grain Bill

9 kg 2-row pale malt
3 kg Munich II
675 grams chocolate malt
450 grams Crystal 80
454 grams Special B

Hops

112 grams US Goldings 4.5% AA at 60 minutes
56 grams UK Fuggles 4.5% AA at 15 minutes
56 grams US Goldings 4.5%AA at 0 minutes

Yeast

2 packets Danstar Nottingham dry yeast

Single infusion mash, with a target temperature of 153 degrees

Target boil volume: 14.25 gallons

Target original gravity: 1.062

Batch size: 12 gallons into the fermenter

Target final gravity: 1.012 (actual: 1.006)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take an original gravity reading. Based on the previous batch, which had a final gravity of 1.008, I think this will be close to the original version.

What’s the first recipe you developed that you were excited to re-brew?

Patience can be a Virtue

Brewing beer is an exercise in patience. I’ve heard urban legends of homebrewers on top of their game who had a beer ready to drink in a week. Seven days from brew day to force-carbonation and enjoyment. I can’t help but wonder if they are just legend or if beer can actually be turned around that quickly(I know they can). I know it is not possible when you bottle-condition your beer, as I do.

I brewed a batch of porter on Memorial Day, 2012. I bottled it two weeks later, and made the mistake of trying it one week after that. I don’t know if it was the roasted malts or the yeast, but the beer literally tasted like sucking on a penny. If you haven’t tried it, make sure you don’t suck on a nice, shiny one, get one of the old, brown, funky-looking pennies. The flavor is quite strong, metallic and makes my mouth pucker up something fierce.

Of course, I started freaking out. It did not taste like beer. Much less, this did not taste like anything I wanted to drink. This was a deep, dark abyss of disappointment. It looked so promising on the pour; the head was small which is appropriate for a porter, the color was black as midnight, but flavor was so off I couldn’t even finish my glass of beer.

I started doing research for the cause of the off flavor: infection by bacteria, over-milling grain, sparge water too hot, etc, etc. There were so many possibilities available, my head was spinning. Most of the possibilities were eliminated due to knowing my process, but the one that wouldn’t go away was the possibility of infection. I was distraught.

The actual cause of the off flavor can be attributed to something I did not find online: impatience. With pale ales and the like, you can get away with drinking them the week after they are bottled, they just may lack carbonation. Not a big deal. Apparently, at least with this batch, dark beers do not fare as well.

I talked to members of my homebrew club and the owner of a local homebrew shop, but no one had a solution or advice. Starting to think I was going to have to uncap and dump the whole ten gallons, I tentatively sampled the beer after another week. The off-flavor was less, but still strong. At least I could finish this bottle.

I was so upset, it took me nearly two additional weeks before I worked up the fortitude to try another bottle. There was no off flavor. It actually tasted pretty good. There was rich, toasted malt sweetness with a noticeable bitterness. It came off much more like a stout than what I think of as a porter, but I enjoyed it.

Of all the beers I’ve made so far, this is the recipe several people have told me is the best I’ve made so far. And to think I almost dumped all ten-plus gallons of it after one week in the bottle. Patience saved a lot of enjoyment.

Do you have a brewing story where a little patience was a good thing? It doesn’t have to be with carbonation, maybe it was waiting a few extra seconds before writing off your sparge as stuck or something similar.

Share your stories in the comments below.