The one session beer is Cumbrian Double Brown Ale, a Northern Brown Ale all grain recipe from Northern Brewer. A previous extract version of this I consider to be the best beer I've made since restarting the hobby in February of 2009. Northern Brewer was out of one of the grains, Halcyon, so I got it from Rebel Brewer. The yeast is a Wyeast Premier one called British Cask. I forget the Wyeast strain number for it but will look it up, maybe tonight, and update this post. This all grain version is still tasty and also one of the best I've made.
The other session beer is from a kit from Northern Brewer called 'The Inkeeper', a British Best Bitter. However, I forgot these kits were for 5 gallons instead of the 6 gallons that I've been brewing for a while now, so the O.G. was only 1.042. This O.G. is at the bottom level for a Best Bitter, so maybe this one will be more of an Ordinary Bitter. I don't care if it has 5/6 less alcohol, it's still very tasty. When I make it again I'll get enough ingredients for 6 gallons. The yeast is another Limited Edition Wyeast one, Yorkshire Ale I think, # 1495. But I'll have to look this up tonight too and update the blog post accordingly.
The sour beer is my second attempt at a sour beer back in May of 2009. By the time I got it kegged it had been conditioning in a Better Bottle for nearly 18 months. It is a Flanders Red pitched with Wyeast Roeselare sour blend (#I dunno). It's pretty good and not nearly as sour now as it was at 1 year. Pretty complex flavors and these got me a compliment from Dave Webb at last month's SAAZ homebrewer's club meeting. I'll take along another bottle of it this Sunday for the February SAAZ meeting.
Also age conditioning:
Golden Dragon, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale all grain from Northern Brewer. It was 1 year aged on 02-Feb-11 and I'll be drinking it next when one of the session beers runs out. This could be 3 to 4 weeks from now. It isn't as good as I had hoped, so I've decided not to bottle any for further aging. I'll use my BDSA solera project output for this, starting in early August, 2011. - Notre Dame d'Golden Valley. An Orval clone, recipe kit from Northern Brewer. The Oval kit mention above has the exact same ingredient list as this one, but with different yeast. I guess NB figured that made it enough different to give it a different name. It has been age conditioning since 03-Mar-10, almost a year.
- Two Lambics
- A 2010 version of the Flanders Red.
- A 2011 version of the Oud Bruin, secondary pitched with East Coast Yeast's Bugfarm IV (Al B. is now commercial, selling his great sour mixes through Princeton Homebrew in New Jersey. I used Al B's Bugfarm III, acquired at the end of December, 2009 from him via a distribution he arranged on a forum thread at the Burgundian Babble Belt fora). Age conditioning started a few weeks ago. You can find out about East Coast Yeast on Facebook. See their Info tab for how to order their yeast inoculum products. Most are (proprietary) blends.
