Sunday, 19 May 2019

Chamomile Saison

I decided to enter a beer to a competition. What better category than herb vegetable or spice beer!

I had a bunch of chamomile from the allotment. Siobhan also brought me some chamomile flowers from work. I had already brewed this beer with broad beans. I thought it worked well, and decided to brew with beans again. This time I wanted to use dried beans because somebody on 'milk the funk' mentioned my poor extraction last time might have been because my beans were still hydrated, whilst most ingredients are dried when weighing them for a recipe. I used a ten bean mix. Initially I was going to malt them, but my malting experiment turned into a smelly mess, so I decided to just use dry packet.

The beans provide starch and protein, and the point of them was to increase mouthfeel in a low gravity beer, as well as some longer chain sugar for Brettanomyces to metabolise. In my previous beer I felt they also contributed a nice fresh but barely detectable pea/bean aroma.

The beer was 5% acid malt, 25% beans (assuming same extract potential as wheat) and 70% pale malt. The beer was 1.035 OG. the beer was bittered with Fuggles (I think!?) to 27.5 IBU and finished off with 10g of my allotment hops (mix of Fuggles and Goldings) in a 10 L batch with 10 minutes left (or no chill equivalent).

The beer was then fermented with yeast cultured from my previous batch of spelt Saison. This was mangrove jacks Belgian ale + a Brett strain, which was either Brasserie de la Senne's Bruxellensis or Orval. This problem of misidentification which started with this batch will soon come to an end, as I think I'll start with new yeast for the next batch of Saison in the summer.

The beans were hydrated/boiled for an hour before adding to the mash. My gravity was again a little low, suggesting that beans just don't contribute many sugars regardless of if they are dried or not. The liquid from the beans was purple, which I was a bit worried about, but the finished beer was a nice pale yellow. The beans really do flesh out the body of the beer, you'd not guess it it was only 1.035.

As for the chamomile, most was added at flameout, according to the recommendations in Phil Makowskis's 'Farmhouse Ales'. At bottling time, a tea was made in a French press and added just to boost the flavour a bit. I suspect the flowers added some bitterness, as the impression of this beer is quite bitter.

I've not had many chamomile beers before. This had a definite witbier feel to it, which is nice. It also had a phenolic flowery flavour. None of the nice fresh bean aroma is there in this batch, unsurprisingly, since the beans were dried. At times I feel I've been able to detect a bean flavour, that is, kidney beans, but this isn't always detectable. Despite my criticisms this beer is nice, I like the bitter dry expression, and being honest I would happily brew this again. The fact that it is 1.035 and relatively satisfying to the mouth is also very pleasing, a great table beer with a salad and some nice funky cheese. Would probably reduce the bitterness slightly next time.



The judges had mixed views. I got a score of 31, but the criticism was almost equal and opposite. One thought flavour was very noticeble, one too weak, etc. I, in the end, lost to a chile chipotle porter.

Pretty happy with this beer. A bit rough but I feel there is genius waiting to sneak out. The head is fabulous, I wonder if wheat or other grains would give retention as good.

Saturday, 18 May 2019

Beer Engine

Something that is difficult to recreate at home is the character of a pint from a beer engine.

The gentle carbonation helps the delicate yeast flavours of a good strain express themselves, especially on the back of the tongue, where normally, carbonic bite would be most vicious. A beer engine contributes to the barmyness of a good beer.

The remedy to this problem is just to get one. A stand was built out of scrap wood as no suitable countertop was available. A one way valve between engine and polypin (from now on referred to as 'pin' for brevity) attached to a quick disconnect means that the majority of the beer in the line - which is in the long section of line nearest the pump - stays in the line, and can be pumped into a glass after turning the tap of a pin off and disconnecting. The small stub between the pin and the quick disconnect is lost, but we can live with that.
A mini cellar was easily created for a 5 L pin by using a cool bag and swapping in frozen bottles of water to achieve a 10 - 14 degree temperature.



Pins were primed at 3 g of table sugar per L. The carbonation on my first effort, a stout was just slightly low, although it produced a highly acceptable head. Next time would up the sugar and not chill as quickly as I did. The 5 L pin was just perfect for having a couple of guests for a few days.