Homebrewing Again
It's been entirely too long.
Brewing in Tucson in the summer just isn't a great idea, especially when your house is cooled by evaporative cooling rather than AC (the house can get a bit warm, and boiling a large quantity of water for an hour or more tends to make it worse.)
Anyway, it's still hot as hell here, but I just can't stand it anymore. I've decided to try my hand at a Belgian style beer, specifically something along the lines of a Tripel or a Belgian Strong Pale Ale (personally, I think the distinctions between these are a bit fuzzy). This has been inspired by basically two things:
1) A recent (but brief) visit to Amsterdam, where I got to go to the exquisite Cafe Belgique. I've been meaning to devote an entire entry to this place, but the truth is that it's kind of a blur. Imagine that.
2) Unibroue's absolutely amazing Edition 2004, which is possibly one of the most decadent beers I've ever tasted. I will write it up when I have another...I was just too busy drinking it the first time to take notes.
So my goal is this, stylistic specifications be damned. I'm aiming for:
--pale to golden in color
--fruity and spicy in flavor, with only a hint of bitterness
--herbal in aroma
--good head retention
--about 9-10% ABV
Zero hour when the sun is off the house and things start to cool off. Recipe will be forthcoming (I've already purchased the ingredients, but I'm still working on the timing of everything) and I will keep you posted.
Wish me luck.
Brewing in Tucson in the summer just isn't a great idea, especially when your house is cooled by evaporative cooling rather than AC (the house can get a bit warm, and boiling a large quantity of water for an hour or more tends to make it worse.)
Anyway, it's still hot as hell here, but I just can't stand it anymore. I've decided to try my hand at a Belgian style beer, specifically something along the lines of a Tripel or a Belgian Strong Pale Ale (personally, I think the distinctions between these are a bit fuzzy). This has been inspired by basically two things:
1) A recent (but brief) visit to Amsterdam, where I got to go to the exquisite Cafe Belgique. I've been meaning to devote an entire entry to this place, but the truth is that it's kind of a blur. Imagine that.
2) Unibroue's absolutely amazing Edition 2004, which is possibly one of the most decadent beers I've ever tasted. I will write it up when I have another...I was just too busy drinking it the first time to take notes.
So my goal is this, stylistic specifications be damned. I'm aiming for:
--pale to golden in color
--fruity and spicy in flavor, with only a hint of bitterness
--herbal in aroma
--good head retention
--about 9-10% ABV
Zero hour when the sun is off the house and things start to cool off. Recipe will be forthcoming (I've already purchased the ingredients, but I'm still working on the timing of everything) and I will keep you posted.
Wish me luck.
posted by Brian @ 4:24 PM
2 Comments:
At 3:34 PM,
chris said…
I've had a late request for a wheat beer so I'm redoing my hefeweizen from last year. I'm trying a new yeast because there was just a tad too much sulfur and not quite enough banana esters. It had a nice apricot scent but I figure it's worth a tweak.
I'm planning to shoot for a Belgian witbier in the spring. I don't think I'd ever try a Trappist. I just don't think I can get anywhere close to my favorites with my current equipment and don't feel like I need to when it's already hard to find a bad one.
At 12:16 PM,
David Larsen, fine artist said…
Another blogging brewer from Tucson? Wow!
As far as brewing in the summer is concerned, I now use a small refrigerator to keep proper temperature, which you can see on my blog:
http://hunahpu.blogspot.com/2005/08/yes-i-can-make-yeast-starter.html
I used to use a "Son of Fermentation Chiller," which you can check out here:
http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/chiller/chiller.PDF
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