Beatrice and Scotch Ale tasting

posted by Jon

On Monday I was joined by Ryan, Ryan and Ryan (Aukeman, Beld, Wallace) for the first ever Knoll Street Scotch Ale tasting.

On Monday I was joined by Ryan, Ryan and Ryan (Aukeman, Beld, Wallace) for the last ever Knoll Street Scotch Ale tasting.

We also brewed Beatrice, our Belgian pale that will be funked up with some Brett.

Details on the other side of the jump.

We started the evening with a couple of KSB beers. We first had a little experiment of mine. A couple of months ago I harvested some yeast (brett) from the bottom of an Orval bottle. I made a yeast starter in order to get a nice little library of Orval yeast. Once the yeast was harvested from the starter I mixed the rest of the starter with Von Bora. There were some crazy faces at the first sip but appreciation from most by the end. More on that yeast later.

We then unveiled the Fekete Mókus. Some of us (Wallace especially) disliked the smoked flavor. I traded a Von Bora to Wallace for his entire sixer.

Next up, the Scotch ale tasting. Beld was kind enough to purchase all of our selections for the evening. It was his intention to convince us all that we needed to do a Scotch ale as one of our summer/fall brews. We tried Arcadia's Loch Down, Ommegang's Cup O Kyndnes, Dragonmead's Under the Kilt, Orkney's Skull Splitter, Great Divide's Claymore, Dark Horse's Scotty Karate and Founder's Dirty Bastard. The general consensus was that the Skull Splitter was the best of the bunch (lesser of all the evils?). I personally liked (didn't dislike) the Ommegang selection as well. The Scotty Karate had large chunks of white something floating everywhere in it and was basically a one-sip-and-drainpour. Seriously. White chunks. The other general consensus was that we probably wouldn't be doing a Scotch ale this summer/fall.

Scotch ale tasting  (pictures by Ryan A)

Beld attempted to redeem himself (and succeeded) by breaking out the big guns. From the trunk of his car came a bottle of Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout. For those of you who have never heard of this beer, this is one of the biggest beers in the world. A 12 oz. bottle has as much alcohol as 13 Budweisers and as many calories as a Double Whopper. Didn't make my top 10, but it was a fabulous beer.

Of course, while all of this was going on, we were also brewing Beatrice.

Typical Ryan pose (pictures by Ryan A)

Beatrice is a pale ale that will have brett added (from the aforementioned library of Orval yeast) at the secondary. Here's your timeline:

2/27
Pitched bottle of Von Bora yeast into starter made of 1 qt water, 1 cup DME.

2/28
6:45 1.75 gallons water heated

7:20 Water @ 155°, 1/2 lb CaraMunich and 1/2 lb Crystal 20° steeped

7:55ish Grains sparged with 1/2 gallon 155° water

8:15 6.6 lbs LME added

8:30 2 lbs Belgian candi sugar added (boilover, d'oh!)

8:53 Boil started, 1 oz Hallertauer and 1 oz Styrian Golding hops added

9:23 1 oz Hallertauer and 1 oz Styrian Golding hops added

9:38 1 tsp Irish moss and 1 tsp yeast nutrient added

9:53 Flameout, 1 oz Styrian Golding hops added

10:40 Yeast pitched @ 63°

O.G. = 1.062


Occasionally during the day yesterday I would check on the fermenter to see if there was any action. Nothing.  I tried agitating the beer by swirling it. I checked again this morning. Nothing. Again I swirled it and noticed that there was a healthy head of krausen (foam on top). This means fermentation has started. Suddenly the airlock started bubbling furiously. Apparently the airlock was jammed with a piece of hops or something. We now have a very healthy bubble going.

In a week or two I will be racking this off the the secondary and adding a bottle of Orval yeast to the secondary. This will give it a bit of funk flavor once it is conditioned.

One note of warning. When the brettanomyces is added to the beer it will be close to final gravity. However, brett does a good job of slowly fermenting every little bit of usable sugar. This means that as the beer is conditioning, the brett is slowly turning that sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. As more and more carbon dioxide is created, the pressure in the bottles starts growing. If you hear any popping sounds from wherever you store your beer, or come home from work to find a funky beer smell, it means that your bottles are exploding. You've been warned.