Oak Aging

In preparation for my next brew, an Imperial Stout recipe I have been working on, to be titled INFINITE DOOR (to be brewed next month in honor of David Foster Wallace (more on this later)), I started looking into oak aging, and how it can be done homebrew style. There is a rippling trend right now of brews, particularly stouts, that are being aged in oak barrels previously used for aging bourbon (though at La Trappe I had an Allagash triple on tap, that was aged on bourbon barrels, that was almost like a pilsner) - I have read that a large reason for this, is to impart bourbon flavor to the brew (not so much the oak) - and for commercial brews this is the only way to go about it, as it would be illegal for them to toss some bourbon into the brew. However homebrewers dont have these limitations. But I'm getting ahead of myself. More on the Infinite Door another time.

Important part: I bought some American Oak chips. I have read that French are better (mellower), and that cubes are better than chips (not as much crazy surface area), but whatevs... I was gonna wait to first try them on the stout, but when I racked the Enchanted Door (and sampled it), the spices were just everywhere, so I thought, "it may be good to oak this a bit to mellow out the spice..." So after two weeks of conditioning in the carboy, I poured out 1 oz of toasted American oak onto my scale.


I then put them in a muslin bag and steamed them in my brew pot (aluminum stock pot from Chinatown that came with a steamer rack) for about 20 minutes to sanitize, kill any whack bacteria.


I had a bit of trouble getting the bag into the carboy, it took a little wrangling, but I did get it in there. However, I didnt put any weight in the bag, so it floats. I sanitized my bottle filler and poked the bag around with it for a bit, to soak it, then plugged the carboy back up. I plan to let it sit on the oak for about a week before bottling. But I may change my mind when I sample it (if I am not getting enough oak flavor yet). I am actually thinking the floating bag may be a good thing, as since I havent done this before, ALL of the oak is not touching the brew, so I at least may not be overdoing it (but we'll see). I have read that American oak can really impart a lot of oakiness, quickly, so you gotta watch out, monitor it along the way, until you get what you're looking for...

Enchanted Door Ale / Reusing Yeast

So on my next brew, I tried a little experiment (well, experiment for me at least!), in that I reused my yeast from the Hive Door 2. I had seen various articles in books, magazines, and online, about this practice, and decided to give it a shot. Many people that write about this, talk about it in regard to saving money (a vial of White Labs yeast is about $8.00), but I just figured it would be interesting to see what happened.

As my guide, I used a simple article from the last issue of Brew Your Own discussing the matter. 1) I took an empty Gatorade bottle (large plastic), cleaned and sanitized it. 2) After racking the Hive Door from the fermenter, I swirled up the yeast cake with a small amount of Hive Door still in the bottom of the fermenter and poured it into the Gatorade container. 3) Screwed the sanitized cap onto the container and put it into the refrigerator. Note: This could cause a CO2 problem if left for a while, so you want to unscrew cap occasionally to let pressure out. I was brewing again later that day, so I didnt worry too much about it (though I did make sure a few times).

Later that day, I brewed up a similar recipe to the Hive Door, with a number of changes (no honey, more sugar, added .5 Belgian Munich), this time shooting for a more traditional Tripel-style Belgian. On the crazy side, I went a bit whacky with the spices, adding small amounts of Chinese Five Spice, All Spice, Coriander, White & Black Pepper, Wormwood, Star Anise, Vanilla Extract, and Maple Syrup. Not sure what I was thinking. Just went with it. The Enchanted Door. The gravity came out to 1.074, which is my highest OG yet. 4) When starting the brew I took the Gatorade bottle of White Labs Trappist from the fridge and sat it down in the closet I ferment in (to let it temp change).

I whirlpooled in the bathtub to cool the wort down. Was able to get it down around 76 within 15 minutes, though I may have been a bit rough with it, causing some aeration (you really dont want to do this until after it is cooled down, not while, from what I understand). Oh well. I like to think that doing it this way really works/steeps the spices and hops into the wort before you strain into the fermenter. I should probably spin a bit slower in the future, but whatevs.

I filtered the wort back and forth from pot to fermenter, filtering it through a colander twice, aerating the hell out of it. Foam was almost to the lid of the fermenter. I moved it into the closet. Fermometer read 70/68 degrees. Perfect. 5) I then examined the Gatorade bottle of White Labs Trappist. There was some separation evident from where the beer was on top, yeast in the middle, and trub on the bottom. I dumped the layer of beer on top into the sink, and then pitched the rest into the fermenter! It was about half of a Gatorade bottle.

It seemed to take quickly (within 4 hours), pushing up the lid, slowly, but then a day later, WHAM: it went crazy, bubbling in the airlock. I think for this style of brew it was good to pitch so much yeast, however, 2 days in there were some sulfur smells that werent the most pleasant, however, they were gone within a day... The yeast fermented like mad for about a week and a half. Longest ferment I have had. It is pretty much done now, sitting at around 66 degrees, its main action was at around 68/70. My last hydrometer reading, 4 days ago, was 1.010 - 8.3% alcohol. Right in line for a Tripel. I am guessing it'll probably be around 8.5% final when I rack it, as it fermented for a few days more. I was glad to see that the yeast spit out a lot of the dark trub, crusted onto the upper sides of the fermenter, above the beer, so the beer isnt sitting on it now (well, not all of it anyway)... Will probably leave for a few more days, and after bottling Hive Door 2, will rack to secondary.

Tasted one of the readings, and it was crazy interesting. We'll see how it turns out... On New Year's Eve, we stopped by to see a friend for a bit, who generously opened and served us from a 50 oz (or so) bottle of Anchor Steam's Christmas Ale (which I am guessing was a gift from Anchor Steam to his place of work). After passing out a few more glasses, he then cleaned the huge bottle and gave it to me for homebrew! I am planning to fill it with Enchanted Door and let it age in the cellar for a bit, for the right occasion.

Here are a few links to some good articles about reusing yeast if you happened to stumble upon this randomly:
ARTICLE BY PRES OF WHITE LABS
FROM NORTHERN BREWER FORUM

Brewed on Sun, Dec 21
Racked on Thu, Jan 8
Oaked secondary on Jan 22
Bottled on Tue, Feb 3

Gingerbread Monk comments

So the Gingerbread Monk has been getting some love this holiday season, though mainly from the Party Pig in my fridge (at this point). For the following reasons, I am going to wait to do a proper tasting. Having brewed this specifically for Christmas etc, the Pig went into the fridge after only 12 or 13 days after priming. I dont think that fact effected the first taste of the brew much, but what I have noticed, esp. with a beer like this (a darker dubbel-style), is that drinking at the fridge temp masks a lot of the subtleties of the beer and possibly make its weaknesses more apparent... After tasting one from a bottle, straight from the cellar (which was excellent), I began letting the glass sit for at least 15 or 20 minutes after pulling from the keg, before drinking... It is amazing how much ten degrees on a beer like this changes the experience. I have decided to let some of the bottled portion age a bit more before doing a detailed tasting on here.

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: I now have a deeper understanding for when temperature guidelines are on the side of specific beers. Brewing beer yourself you are more open to experimenting with temps and tasting, versus buying beer, throwing them in the fridge, and drinking the same way each time. You start to see how technically, refrigerator temp can many times make an unreal beer (not saying mine is unreal, but) taste not so great.

These were the first labels I have designed, because H was too busy. I like the label, though let it be known I kindof ripped it off of Witkap-Pater Abbey Triple Ale (though changed it a bit!).