Cheers to Belgian Beers:

The Ultimate Primer

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beervana.blogspot.com
 Ambacht
Name: Ambacht Black Gold
Concept: Brewer Tom Kramer described his beer:
"Ambacht Black Gold that we brewed for the PCTBB is a
variation on our regular Ambacht
Black Gold that brewed with the
Farmhouse strain of yeast and
bumped the OG up a bit to make
it a bit more festive.
Method: "We brewed it early February, just after the
yeast became available and it spent two weeks in the
primary getting up to 80°F, we then let it age for a
month at about 50°F before kegging/bottling. We
carbonate all our beers with honey which we find leaves
just a bit of residual sweetness to the taste."
Comments: "The farmhouse yeast added some new
flavors and we are very happy with how it turned out."
Stats: 15.2P, 6.8% ABV, 25 IBU
Big Horse Brewpub
Name: Cuvee Du Ferme
Concept: If you haven't been to Big Horse in the past
year or two, you need to go try new(ish) brewer Jason
Kahler's beers. "Describing "Cuvee Du Ferme" gets a
little complicated, because two of the three beers going
into it were experimental in process. All three use the
selected strain; I suspect people will assume that it
involves other "yeast." It does not."
Method: " I brewed the 2 younger
beers in early Feb. and allowed them
to condition warm until about 2 weeks
ago. Sour Mash Wheat: 72% of the
blend, FV temp. 78F, sour mashed 1/2
the grain for 48hrs. Rye Saison: 24% of
the blend, FV temp. 80F. The Old Gold: 4% was a beer I
did years ago with the [same strain of yeast], I put up a
1/2 barrel of it with pediococcus/lactobacillis and let it
ride at ambient temps, hot in summer, cold in winter.
This beer on its own is very acid, it's one that I use
strictly for blending."
Comments: "[The soured beer] adds a layer to the cuvee
that I really enjoy. As far as the [festival] strain is
concerned, it is probably my favorite of the commercial
Belgians.
Stats: Final, blended beer 6.3% ABV
Block 15
Name: La Fermé de Demons (The Demon's Farm)
Concept: Founder and brewer Nick Arzner described
his complex beer: "Playing off the saison theme I
developed a recipe similar to a
saison, using Belgian Pilsner
and French wheat. Since we
were required to brew a dark/
high beer, the addition of
Carafa III blackens the beer and dark candi sugar
boosted our fermentables without adding more body. I
was hoping for a good blend of light bourbon vanillas
and caramel, tannic Oregon oak, and Pinot barrel
character. The Pinot barrel we used came from a winery
that had tested the wine for low counts of
Brettanomyces. I was hoping to pick up a bit of this
character, though the timing was not in favor of this."
Method: "Primary fermentation started at 75 degrees,
rose to 80, finished at 68 over two weeks. Into barrels;
roughly 1/3rd each fresh emptied pinot noir, Oregon
oak, and bourbon. The beer spent 2 weeks in the oak and
two months in the pinot & bourbon. Blended with a
touch of organic black cherry juice. I was surprised at
the even fermentation and solid attenuation. In the past
we have had to baby saison strains, sometimes over a
month to finish the beer. This yeast really evolved its
character from primary, secondary, and barreling. At
peak primary a good amount of banana and clove where
present with some nice fruit. Towards the back end,
more spice, wood and light pepper."
Comments: "The keg sent up to the fest will be the only
keg of its kind. The Demon's Farms pours a ruby black
glass with an off white/ruddy brown head. Oak barrel
aromas dominate with background spice and fruit.
Medium-bodied with barrel character, a bit of roast,
vanilla, and a hint of sweet cherry. The finish is warming
with a coating mouthfeel and vinous qualities."
Stats: 19P, 8.8% ABV, 31 IBU
Cascade
Name: Frite Galois ("Frite Galois harkens back to old
French and was a fried Welsh Pastie. The filling was a
mystery and needed to be approached with caution.")
Concept: Ron Gansberg,
whose ways are never
simple, describes how he
avoided letting the yeast take the upper hand: "I just
have never been a big fan of the flavors this yeast
produces. I feel that three months in the barrel has done
wonders in mellowing the flavor."
Method: "Frite Galois was fermented in the low 70s F.
and then put into the White Port barrels that had just
contained the Noyeau [the strong sour made with
apricot meat]. The beer was aged at the Cascade
Brewing Barrel House on Belmont for three months in
the barrel room at 60 F during normal lactic
fermentation.
Comments: "It is a pleasant refreshing sour ale that is a
much needed diversion from the heavy/hopped ales of
winter."
Stats: 14P, 4.6% ABV, 13 IBU
Double Mountain
Name: Bonne Idée, Bonne Idée Avec Kriek. The name,
"good idea," comes from a story in brewer Matt
Swihart's history when, while in Berundi, he tried to
communicate to a bartender that another beer was a
bonne idee. Neither man's French was
very good, and lingustic hijinks
ensued. The incident stuck in his
memory.
Concept: "This beer was a three way
collaboration between myself and our
two other brewers Kyle Larson and
Greg Balch. It was Kyle's idea to try to
blend the finished beer with a little of our aging Kriek.
The kriek coming out this year has double the cherries
and is on a brown beer base. It is very dark and inky,
and just now starting to show off the Brett character. It
was brewed in June 2009 and features July’s Bing
harvest. What we were shooting for the beer was to
show off the characteristics of the yeast strain but
subdue the overly sweet/fruity character that you can
get with the farmhouse strain."
Method: "The beer was fermented in the upper 60s....
We boosted the bitterness and hop back character to
balance the higher alcohol, and then blended in 20% of
our Kolsch yeast to dry out the beer for more
attenuation. The higher yeast count fermented nice and
strong and I believe the kolsch finished off the ferment
quite nicely."
Comments: "We really dug the fruit profile and slight
smokiness of the yeast blend so brewed another batch of
the Bonne Idée to have it one tap in Hood River for
awhile. We also brewed a whole other beer that is a light
red/wheat/farmhouse beer that is coming out around
next week in the taproom, yet to be kegged and named."
Stats: 17.2P, 8.4% ABV, 50 IBU, Kriek: 8% ABV, 48 IBU
Fort George
Name: Mangifera Indica Belgae (Mangifera Indica is the
latin name for mango)
Concept: Owner and brewer Jack Harris has long
experimented with adjuncts, and this year's beer utilizes
"the world's most popular
tropical fruit."
Method: "After the long slow
experience of last year we
started this batch much earlier
and it has had nearly two
months to condition. It fermented out nice and dry in a
reasonable amount of time. We used whole, frozen
chunks in a secondary ferment."
Comments: "The profile is subtle, but distinctly Belgian
with some spicy overtones. The fruit came through very
pleasantly, flavorful, but not sweet. At around 8% abv
the Mango Beer ought to hold its own among fruit beer
snobs. We tried it a couple weeks ago at a brewers
dinner and it was fantastic."
Stats: 19P, 7.9% ABV, 15 IBU
Hopworks Urban Brewery
Name: Diablato
Concept: Brewer Ben Love described the host brewery's
thinking behind their selection of the festival's yeast
strain, the described Hopworks' beer. "We initially
picked the Wyeast 3726 strain out of the five different
strains we test brewed with because of the aroma and
flavor profile, but also the fermentation and flocculation
characteristics. Diablato is essentially
the same recipe as El Diablo (8.9%)
and Diablito (5.8%) completing our
Belgian Golden Trilogy. (El Diablo
and Diablito were fermented with
Ardennes)."
Method: "Recipe 87% Gambrinus
Organic Pils malt, 1% Acidulated,
12% Organic Evaporated Cane Juice.
Diablito was brewed on the 15th and started at 23 Plato.
We held fermentation at 68F til it hit 15 Plato (to limit
harsh higher alcohols), then let it free rise. It hit 78F. It
attenuated 90%, down to 2.3 Plato (same attenuation as
El Diablo and Diablito), resulting in ~11% ABV."
Comments: "The aroma is complex floral with slight
banana and spice, medium bodied with a fruity and
floral flavor, warming finish and subtle bitterness."
Stats: 23P, 11% ABV, 20 IBU
 Laurelwood
Name: Infared
Concept: From brewer Chad Kennedy: "It's loosely
based on our Free Range Red. Basically, we brewed an
ESB and fermented it with
Belgian yeast--kind of like a
Belgian IPA."
Method: "Temp wise we let this
go--the warmest it got as 82F. As
far as hops, we did go fairly heavy on it. As far as hops,
we did go fairly heavy on it. We used Ahtanum and
Sirachi Ace--two fairly fruity varieties that blend well
with the yeast flavor."
Comments: "I find the ester and phenol profile to blend
well with the hops. It's a good beer that is best tried
fresh- with the true yeast and hop character there."
Stats: 17P, 7.5% ABV, 65 IBU
Lucky Lab
Name: Malt Bomb V
Concept: This is the fifth year brewer Abby Sherrill has
made Malt Bomb, all with a different
yeast.
Method: " I started at about 17 plato
and at about 7 I really had to be
patient and it eventually hit 5.5. I
believe I fermented it at 75 F. I
conditioned it for over a month, I
believe it was nearly 6 weeks pre-rack."
Comments: " This yeast is pretty yummy, but the
tartness does coat the palette in an unusual way."
Stats: 16P, 5.4% ABV, 25 IBU
Oakshire
Name: La Ferme
Concept: Brewer Matt Van Wyk explained how he
landed on the idea of a spiced ale: "Farmhouse ales, as
with many Belgian-style beers, offer
the brewer a playground of
opportunities to try new ingredients.
[With the method I used] I can do
very small experiments without
over-spicing a full batch. On how I
choose the different spices:
sometimes when deciding to do stuff like this, I think
about the foods that I think would go well with them
and how each spice would play with the aromas and
flavors in certain foods."
Method: " I was tempted to "let er rip" and not use the
jackets, but my head brewer talked me down from that
and we knocked out at about 70-71F and set the jackets
at 75. It climbed a bit, but never got above 72.5. We
thought it was nearly finished--started cooling down,
very little activity--but upon bunging, it just kept
building pressure, so it trickled a bit, down to 1.6 deg
Plato. Brewed 3/19. Racked 4/6-so only about 18 days in
tank."
Spicing Method: "We decided to use lemon peel and
rose hips in the original recipe. If you see it around town
outside of HUB (only four kegs went to Portland) it will
just have those. We went very light-handed, and because
of that and the yeast phenolics, they are not real
apparent. I wanted to experiment with other spices as
well, so I cleaned up three bung sided kegs, and aged
the finished beer in three different kegs. One had
Grapefruit peel and Grains of Paradise. One had Orange
Peel and Pink Peppercorns and the third has Pink
Peppercorn and Jasmine."
Comments: "The beer was on the spices for about two
weeks and there were very subtle differences. I sent the
Grapefruit peel and Grains of Paradise keg to PCTBB
because I could pick up the Grains of Paradise and I like
the slightly spicy character. The difficult part of all this is
that the yeast is both fruity/citrus and spicy, or at least
that's what we got from it."
Stats: 15.8P, 7.8% ABV, 15 IBU
Pelican
Name: Le Pélican d'Or
Concept: I didn't talk to brewer Darron Welch, but
received a spec sheet on this beer. "Le Pélican d'Or is our
experimental variation on a Belgian-style Golden Strong
Ale. It uses malted rye to emphasize the balanced spicy
character inherent in the 'Farmhouse'
yeast."
Method: Made with pale and rye
malt, Mt. Rainier, Santiam, and
Tettnang hops, and a bit of white
sugar.
Comments: "Le Pélican d'Or finishes with a clean,
snappy balance of malt flavor, hop bitterness, and
slightly tart, spicy yeast character."
Stats: 18.1P, 8.4% ABV, 45 IBU
 Rock Bottom nearly the same degree of acidity. I'll be curious to taste
Name: Floreal IV the other darker beers to gauge the "maltiness" of the
yeast and also the pale ones to assess the ester profile
Concept: Brewer Van Havig started out talking
more."
(colorfully) about how this is a style where people
shouldn't be focused on IBUs. He continued: "As far as Stats: 16.8P, 7.2% ABV, 22 IBU
the rest of the beer, not to
sound boring, but I feel
these beers are an Widmer
exercise in letting the Name: Biere de Table
yeast express itself."
Concept: Brewer Ben Dobler reports: "The goal was
Method: "So the grain bill is very simple, just two row simple very light and very low abv. I also figured most
and acidulated malt for pH. We added some dextrose so brewers wouldn’t go this route. Looking at the Belgian
that we would increase the amount of ester formation. Table Beer style and history I was surprised to see that it
The hops aren’t too important. Fermentation was served at many schools for the
temperature was at a very mild 70 F (too hot and the children up until the 80’s and 90’s, and
esters tend to get blown off). No exotic ingredients. Total was then replaced by soda. Belgians are
time in the tank was 18 days – contrary to the beliefs of considering bringing it back due to
many, I feel these beers (like most) are best served fresh, childhood obesity. Beer is much more
not after the esters have had a chance to volatize out of healthy than soda. Duh! I personally
the beer have been on session beer/lighter beer
kick lately.
Comments: "What do I get out of it? A nice white
pepper spiciness and banana and apricot." Method: Note: the stats seen elsewhere were from a test
batch. Widmer reformulated the recipe and accurate
Stats:13P, 5.9% ABV, 35 IBU
stats are below. "Overall this yeast was fun to work with.
We cooled the batch to 56F and then let it free rise to 72F.
The second batch fermented much slower than the first.
Upright It was around a 2 week fermentation. When you are
Name: Mingus and Monk (brewed with Confucian starting at 8P it is tough to have a fermentation run
Brewer Corey Blodgett and named for jazz greats much longer. We used US Goldings. Finishing at 2P was
Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk) nice and helps give it some mouth without it being
overly dry."
Concept: Corey has some thoughts at his blog. Here's
Alex's take: "We made a brown ale with lots of pale Comments: "It has a very pleasant aroma and flavor for
caramel malt and just a bit of Briess being so light."
special roast which has a lightly Stats: 8.2P, 3% ABV, 14 IBU
toasty/bready flavor that came
through more than expected in the
non-barrel aged portion before
blending."
Method: "We didn't hit high
attenuation in the open fermenter
(even reaching a peak of 91F) but that had more to do
with the fact that it was only 10 barrels in there (20
barrel tank) and extremely shallow so the yeast dropped
out early (our yeast is so non-flocculent that it never Visit
becomes an issue in that situation). The beer did end up
drying out more in the barrels and the acidity balances
out the residual sugar nicely. Our finished beer was beervana.blogspot.com
about 45% barrel aged and picked up a bit of
brettanomyces and other souring organisms in the oak so
it's not very representative of the farmhouse strain on its
own."
Comments: "The non-barrel portion also had a finish
that was more tart yet much more soft than our house
strain. The Dupont strain has similar soft finish but not