Tasting: Dai Tajín

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Dai Tajín is my first barrel-aged saison. As I mention when brewing, I struggled with what else to put in that Rum barrel and thought the saison would be a good bet. Early on, it tasted great, rum and saison perfectly balanced. Life got in the way and well, it spent a lot longer in the barrel than I had anticipated. At bottling, I just wasn’t sure if it was going to work out. I never picked up any real Rum flavors. This beer was bottled on Jan 30th, 2014, so we’re not even 4 weeks out in the bottle and the great news is that it’s perfectly carbed. This was something I’ve struggled with for the last 3 beers that have aged in barrels. This time I used The Mad Fermentationalist barrel-aged beer priming spreadsheet and it turned out to be just what I needed to get priming just right. Now, what about the beer?

Appearance: Amber to orange color, slight cloudiness. Solid foamy head which settles down into a thin, but persistent creamy head.

Smell: Tart fruits, slight funk (Bretty? won’t be the first time I’ve infected a batch in a good way accidentally), oaky, earthy.  The tart, funk and oaky spirits really reminds me of Jester King Boxer’s Revenge.

Taste: Spicy, oaky, slight booze, long tannins and it ends dry. Slight carb bite, prickly. Very saison-like though the boozy nature makes it stand out from a typical saison.

Mouthfeel: Medium mouthfeel.  Solid to high carbonation, but not past where I would like it.  Tingly on the tongue but not distracting from the thicker smoothness.

Drinkability & Notes: I must say that I’m quite impressed with this beer given it was not something I’ve seen brewed before. I’m in love with the great nose and flavor, mostly because it reminds me of one of my favorite Jester King beers.  While it’s not sour itself, it just begs to be innoculated.  Next batch of Dai Tajín will be aged in-barrel with Jester King mixed culture.

Small Batch Sunday: Mosaic SMaSH

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I just had a pint of Lone Pint’s Yellow Rose and well, I can’t think of a better beer to start trying to dial in on our Small Batch Sunday series here.  The last small batch was Stone IPA which is currently tasting really nice in the dry-hop keg.  I’m bottling the Stone this afternoon and tonight will start into another just amazing IPA that is as simple as they come.

Yellow Rose is now available all-year around and most recently to me, it can be had in bottles.  Hopefully I’ll be able to track down a six pack, or a bomber so I can do a side-by-side.  I don’t think this beer can really be cloned right now simply because it varies somewhat out of the brewery.  I’ve seen numerous mentions of getting radically different noses and flavor profiles from batch to batch.  The silver lining is that everyone agrees that it remains an amazing IPA.

My initial impression of this beer’s smooth malt profile that just carries the hops was one that needed a really solid base that’s interesting.  My go-to base malt for that sort of thing is always Thomas Fawcett Marris Otter, aka.  The Crutch as my good friend once told me of a remark from a pro-brewer here in Texas.  It’s hard to go wrong when putting Marris Otter in a beer at any level.  Some of my best SMaSH (Single-Malt and Single Hop) beers were 100% Marris.  What I’ve seen discussed around the net though was that Yellow Rose uses Wyermann Pilsen malt.  I can believe that since it doesn’t seem to have any crystal in it (neither in color nor taste) and lets the hop shine.  And it’s certainly easy enough to try a different base malt out next time.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
1 gal 90 min 66.0 IBUs 5.1 SRM 1.062 1.011 6.6 %
Actuals 1.046 1.01 4.7 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
American IPA 14 B 1.056 - 1.075 1.01 - 1.018 40 - 70 6 - 15 2.2 - 2.7 5.5 - 7.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsen (BestMälz) 3.422 lbs 100

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Mosaic 0.07 oz 90 min First Wort Pellet 11.6
Mosaic 0.35 oz 5 min Boil Pellet 11.6
Mosaic 0.35 oz 20 min Aroma Pellet 11.6
Mosaic 0.53 oz 5 days Dry Hop Pellet 11.6

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Phosphoric 9.80 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 2.10 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 0.30 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 0.20 g 60 min Mash Water Agent

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Dry English Ale (WLP007) White Labs 75% 65°F - 70°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Saccharification 147.9°F 90 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Woxbic: Lambic-style Beer; Second Barrel, Second Year

Unleash the Krausen!

ECY20 Bug Country going at it about 12 hours after pitching

About a year ago, I brewed my first lambic-style beer.  I didn’t spend the time to do a turbid mash, but I did use the Wyeast guide for temperature infusions to provide a similar mash profile.  During the past year, I’ve pulled a few samples, roughly once a quarter to ensure that the beer didn’t turn too acetic.  Frankly, I’m impressed at how well it’s held up.  This is almost entirely due to applying a layer of paraffin wax to the entire barrel.  At this point, the year old beer is exceedingly sour, about 3.0 pH.  It tastes full of lemon zest, sour grapefruit, medium oak, with just a hint of vanilla whiskey, due to the use of a whiskey barrel.  Clearly not as neutral as the Lambic I’ve tasted from Cantillon, Boon, and Drie Frontain.  Nonetheless, it’s entirely acceptable for a year old sour to be tasting this well.

For this year’s attempt, I’ve prepared a Rum Whiskey barrel.  It’s had only two beers run through it, but it’s aged beer for nearly a year.  It’s likely that there will be more barrel flavor contributed than the previous barrel, but that’ll be fun when blending.

It's foamtastic!

Hot water rinsing. Filled and drained completely three times with 150F water. Soaked both heads as well.

Thar she BLOWS!

Steam-sanitizing the barrel. I used the guide on Embrace the Funk to construct a barrel steamer from a pressure cooker and a few extras. This hits 212F and stays going for 15 minutes.

Looks really pretty after soaking in wax

After cleaning, I used a heat gun to melt a block of paraffin wax. This took about 20 minutes. Much faster than double-boiler and basting it on.

 

The recipe for this year will remain the same.  The only major difference is the use of aged hops versus a small amount of very low AA hops.  Last year I used Crystal @ 3 AA.  This year I used two year old whole-leaf hops.  Originally they were about 10% AA, but being old and exposed they provide a much lighter hopping and hopefully a bit more musty, cheesy funk one expects from great Lambic beer.

Wyld Woxford Styleeeeee!!!!

Fermentation Blow OUT, total Woxford-style

 

I can’t wait to see how this one turns out over the next year.

Recipe Details

Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV
13 gal 90 min 8.7 IBUs 3.6 SRM 1.051 1.012 5.0 %
Actuals 1.057 1 7.5 %

Style Details

Name Cat. OG Range FG Range IBU SRM Carb ABV
Straight (Unblended) Lambic 17 D 1.04 - 1.054 1.001 - 1.01 0 - 10 3 - 7 1.8 - 2.6 5 - 6.5 %

Fermentables

Name Amount %
Pilsen (BestMälz) 17.333 lbs 61.54
Wheat, Torrified 9.75 lbs 34.62
Acidulated (Weyermann) 1.083 lbs 3.85

Hops

Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha %
Northern Brewer 1.62 oz 60 min Boil Leaf 3.2

Miscs

Name Amount Time Use Type
Phosphoric Acid 56.60 ml 60 min Mash Water Agent
Epsom Salt (MgSO4) 3.40 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Calcium Chloride 1.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) 1.70 g 60 min Mash Water Agent
Wheat Flour 3.25 oz 5 min Boil Other

Yeast

Name Lab Attenuation Temperature
Bug Country (20) East Coast Yeast 70% 63°F - 75°F

Mash

Step Temperature Time
Acid Rest 93°F 15 min
Protein Rest 113°F 15 min
Saccharification 1 131°F 15 min
Saccharification 2 149°F 15 min
Mash Out 168°F 10 min

Notes

After mash-out, drain all liquid into boil kettle, raise temp to 190, pump back to mash for second rinse through grain bed.

Pitching ECY20 Bugcountry in 11G barrel.

Brewed 2015-01-30
- Mash pH was at 5.1, a little low
- A little short on the sparge water; had extra but didn't get it into the mash tun. Ended up with 16G pre-boil, about .5 gallon short. Upside, pre-boil gravity was up, 1.048.
- 90 minute boil completed fine, ended up at 13.5G of 1.057 wort.
- Chilled with ground water (about 60F), directly into barrel at 70F
- Extra 5L of wort into EL flask, parked next to barrel for some "spontaneous" action
- Aerated barrel for 60 seconds with O2
- Pitched half ECY20 from Sept, and Half ECY20 from Dec
- 24 hours till active foaming fermentation. Ambient temp in garage about 60 to 70F. Much warmer than last year, no need for heat belt to keep temps above 50.
- 5 days until 5L flask "caught" enough blow-off yeast and outside air; then full active fermentation. Smells very belgium-like.