March 19, 2006

Paysan de Bourgogne

Grain:
7.5 lb. Belgian Pale
2.5 lb. Belgian Pils
1.5 lb. Belgian Aromatic
8 oz. Belgian Cara Munich
4 oz. Special B.

Mash:
122 degrees for 30 min - stir every 5 min.
150 degrees for 40 min
170 Sparge for 40 min

Boil:
90 min. boil

Hops:
1.5 oz. Hallertauer (4.25% AA, 60 min.)
.5 oz. Hallertauer (aroma)

Yeast:
White Labs Golden Ale Yeast.

Original Specific Gravity:
1.053

Notes:
Pitch one pack of Wyeast Roselaire into secondary after about a week in the primary.
It's not quite sour enough after a month, and the gravity is low; around 1.007. So, I threw some honey (about 1/4 cup) in for the bacteria to chew on and produce some more lactic acid. It's off style, but it should do the trick.

UPDATE: Yep, that worked great. It's sour... but I see some colonies forming in the neck of the carboy (pictured to the right). I'm not sure if that's something from the Roselaire starter, or if it's contamination. I'm not taking any chances so I bought a plate filter and filtered it at room temp through a .5 micron filter. That should get any left over bugs out of solution. It tastes great though.

UPDATE: In retrospect, I should have just let the culture do its thing. Brettanomyces forms a pellicle in the presence of O2. I don't think I did any harm by filtering it, but the fuzz isn't going to hurt the beer. Next time I'll let the Pellicle rise and fall like I did with my lambics (which turned out awesome).

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