Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Cherry Ale (Brettanomyces)

I wanted to make a Christmas beer to bring home for family and friends over the holiday. I knew that I wanted it to by unusual but still palatable to the majority of my family, who are more likely to drink wine than beer. I decided that I would do a brown ale with cherries and try to hit end up with a beer than was both hearty and sweet with a hint of cherry. At the last minute I decided to ferment the beer using the Brettanomyces that I had previously cultured from a Russian River bottle of Sanctification, which I realize might ruin its ability to be enjoyed by my target audience but whatever.

Brew Date 11/20/2011

Ingredients:
2.5 pounds American 2-Row
2 pounds German Munich
1/3 pound Caramel 120
1/3 pound Special-B
1/3 pound Vienna
1/3 pound Malted Wheat

Mashed in 3 gallons of water to hold at 150F for 60 minutes
Sparged with 2 gallons of water at 180F

To boil added 1 can of dark sweet cherries in heavy syrup and 3/4 oz of Sterling 7% at the beginning of a 60 minute boil.

Calculated IBU 30

Original Gravity 1.052
Cooled and pitched Brett and set heat belt at 75 F

11/21 Bubbling nicely with a puffy head
11/28 Moved to secondary and added 1 can of cherries, gravity 1.022
12/10 gravity 1.021 Bottled 2 gallons using 37.44 grams of cane sugar in 1/2 cup of boiling water

1 comment:

  1. Forget the target audience, just send me a bottle! Sounds delicious, cheers!

    ReplyDelete