BeerBorg

This beer will, in part, be an experiment. I have 0.40 oz of whole leaf Northern Brewer hops that I want to use as soon as possible, and I want to make use of the yeast I recovered from brewing St. Sebastian Tripel back in November. With the amount I recovered from washing, I should have enough to where I won't need a starter. Northern Brewer will provide bittering, but also a small bit will be used for aroma together with Saaz. My expectation is a floral and slightly herbal aroma, with strong dark stone fruit and caramel flavor notes. The name of this beer translates into Sacred Cat, from French.

Recipe: Sacre Chat Dubbel
Brewer: Mr. Rufus Brewing Co.
Asst Brewer:
Style: Belgian Dubbel
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Boil Size: 2.82 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.60 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 2.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.069 SG
Estimated Color: 17.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 20.1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 72.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 64.0 %
1 lbs Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 2 16.0 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 8.0 %
4.0 oz Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 4 4.0 %
0.25 oz Northern Brewer [9.90 %] - First Wort 60 Hop 5 16.9 IBUs
8.0 oz Brown Sugar, Dark [Boil for 10 min](50.0 Sugar 6 8.0 %
0.25 oz Saaz [3.75 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 7 1.3 IBUs
0.15 oz Northern Brewer [9.90 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 8 1.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Ardennes (Wyeast Labs #3522) [12 Yeast 9 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 6 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 7.19 qt of water at 162.4 F 150.0 F 75 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 1.71gal) of 168.0 F water

Looks pretty good! I've not tried Special B, what does that bring to the party?

Special B is a very dark crystal malt. It brings raisin/plum dark fruit flavors.

You could take the recipe above, and instead of the special B and brown sugar use 180L candi syrup or dark candi sugar and achieve a similar result.

I was actually going to, at first. Then I decided to be frugal and use the special B and I have brown sugar at home already, so it'll save me money.

I think it stinks, Pepe.

Got my grains n hops today at the LHBS for this one. Gonna start the new year off right and brew! Well, not till Thursday. I'll get a starter going tomorrow or Tuesday.

Using new equipment, I had a not too bad, but not great brew day. OG came in a little short at 1.066, but I did have a little snafu when plugging the specs of my new gear into BeerSmith. I entered some incorrect numbers into the deadspace and into the wort loss columns, so I ended up sparging with a quart too much water, and diluting the wort. Otherwise, no big deal. Everything's set correctly (AFAICT) now so hopefully future brew days will be spot on. Still have potential for 7.4%, so it's all good!

Seems like it was a good brew day for all!

So I came home from work, and decided to go check on this to see how it was going... I opened the closet door and this is what I saw...
Holy crap, I need a mop! Then I thought to myself, "I ought to check inside and see how that looks..."
Yeah, I am certain the yeast are doing the happy dance in there!

they's a party up in there

Damn Phil, sorry, but nice at the same time.

Another day gone, and there's a new puddle on the floor after I cleaned up yesterday's mess. Well, damn!

Finally bottled this today after a month (to the day) in the LBK. 1.010 was the FG for 7.4% ABV. Really nice dark bronze color, that bubble gum aroma that I got from the Ardennes yeast in the tripel, and the sample I tasted was really smooth with notes of dark stone fruit.