Matilda, The Seductress
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| The Temptation of the Idler Albrecht Dürer, 1498 |
This is the penultimate post (minus the inevitable tasting notes) of my Brewing Vintage Beers Series. Today’s beer is a Belgian Enkel, also known as a Patersbier. This is a style of beer that I wish was much more common – it has all the flavour and complexity of a double or triple, but comes in at less than 5% ABV and thus is quite sessionable. It solves all of the problems of dubbel and tripels; you can imbibe in pint after pint of an Enkel without finding yourself hugging the floor as the room spins around you.
This beer is obviously not a high-gravity beer, so why is it part of the vintage-beer series? The answer is that this isn’t just any old beer – it is also a massive stater for one hell of a big beer I’ll be brewing (and posting about) in two weeks time, and its also been scaled up to provide a few extra litres of wort to test-ferment a dozen wild yeasts I’ve isolated over the past year. This is truly a beer with many faces!
To make this beer a good “starter” for producing yeast I am taking the rather unusual route of adding yeast nutrient to what is a beer that wouldn’t normally require it – but keep in mind, our goal isn’t simply a good beer, but its also healthy yeast at the end of the ferment. Yeast nutrient plus a strong oxygenation will fulfill that goal.
Some may be wondering about the odd name for this beer. I don’t want to give too much away, but it is related to one of my favourite novels and also to the name of the strong/vintage beer this beer’s yeast cake will be re-pitched into.
Recipe & brew-day notes below the fold…
Recipe & Notes
| Matilda, The Corruptor |
| Belgian Specialty Ale |
| Type: All Grain | Date: 25 Jan 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Boil Size: 39.88 l | Boil Time: 60 min | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| End of Boil Volume 35.88 l | Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ingredients | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Beer Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Est Original Gravity: 1.036 SG | Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Est Final Gravity: 1.005 SG | Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.1 % | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bitterness: 19.8 IBUs | Est Color: 17.0 SRM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mash Profile | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge | Total Grain Weight: 4.85 kg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sparge Water: 33.15 l | Grain Temperature: 21.0 C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C | Tun Temperature: 19.0 C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE | Mash PH: 5.20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (13.09l, 20.07l) of 75.6 C water | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Carbonation and Storage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Carbonation Type: Bottle | Volumes of CO2: 2.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pressure/Weight: 185.28 g | Carbonation Used: Bottle with 185.28 g Corn Sugar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Keg/Bottling Temperature: 21.1 C | Age for: 30.00 days | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage | Storage Temperature: 18.3 C | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| -Hit mash-in temp dead-on -Added first sparge at 85C to raise temp to mash-out -Used mix of light brown sugar and white sugar to mimic turbinado -Overshot gravity by quite a bit (1.040 pre-boil gravity!) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Created with BeerSmith | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Previous posts in this series
- A Tale of Two Beers – a review of two vintage beers I brewed over the past couple of years
- Book Review: Vintage Beer by Patrick Dawson – a review of the must-have book every vintage brewer needs on his/her bookshelf.
- Brewing Long-Aging Beers – Some Guidelines: an article covering the major things you need to consider when formulating and brewing long-aging beers.
- Brewing long-aging beers – fermenting high-gravity beers: – an article covering how to best brew high gravity beers fit for long aging.
