Luckyeddie's AG#18 - Dunkel Rauchbier

[luckyeddie]

I decided to do something different today - my first attempt at a rauchbier. There was a bit of a disaster - I realised after I'd put the boiler on that I didn't have any Munich malt - hence the Pilsner / Special 'B' combination.

As usual, I'm sticking with my current Belgian theme - "What can I do with a Chimay bottle-cultured yeast". This is about the sixth style of beer I've tried with Chimay yeast - add to that a couple with Westmalle, a couple with Duvel and three with Orval and not a failure between them. It leads me to believe that there's nothing that these little wonders can't do.

Anyway, no problems, no piccies either because - well, when you've seen one, you've seen them all.

The recipe...

Rauchmalt 2.0 kg
Pilsner Malt 1.5 kg
Special 'B' 0.35 kg
Choccy Malt 0.15 kg
Flaked Oats 0.30 kg

Hop schedule...

Tettnang 30g @ 60 min
Tettnang 30g @ 15 min

Chimay yeast

Collected 18 litres @ 1044

A crafty taste of the wort before pitching - this is delicious. It will be interesting to see what effect the Chimay yeast has on the inherent smokiness, which is quite striking.

 

[TheMumbler]

Sounds good, I do like smoked beers though :)

What sort of fermentation temperatures are you going for?

 

[luckyeddie]

Sounds good, I do like smoked beers though :)

What sort of fermentation temperatures are you going for?

I've started it off at 22C, and I'm going to let it go uncontrolled. Chimay yeast doesn't normally run wild, unlike Westmalle which is an absolute animal (probably why every bottle of Westvleteren 12 tastes different), but it will climb over the first 48 hours - hopefully to no more than 25 or 26C. If it's threatening to eat the fermenter, then I'll pull it back down to 22.

 

[luckyeddie]

After 2 days the fermentation started to tail off - I thought that it was a dud. I measured it and was surprised to see that it had crashed down to 1008. I went on holiday, came back tonight and it was 1004 and crystal clear. It also tastes bloody lovely (although if you don't like rauchbier, you'd probably thing it's foul, smoky muck).

Into the bottles you go.

 

[TheMumbler]

What kind of impact does the Chimay yeast have? I did a smoked english with Brakspear yeast which turned out quite well in the end. Needed a bit of time to mature though, I think that was the amber malt though.

We have a great coffee shop (roasts and sells beans, not a cafe) in Lancaster that is currently selling a few beers including Schlenkerla.

 

[luckyeddie]

What kind of impact does the Chimay yeast have? I did a smoked english with Brakspear yeast which turned out quite well in the end. Needed a bit of time to mature though, I think that was the amber malt though.

We have a great coffee shop (roasts and sells beans, not a cafe) in Lancaster that is currently selling a few beers including Schlenkerla.

Estery fruitiness, most definitely. The typical Belgian beer shows hints of banana when very young, but as they mature, they tend to delicious plumminess. The yeasts do tend to dominate a little regarding the flavour of the final beer, but that's ok with me. It's worth upping the hop schedule a little to balance the bitterness. Regarding the Rauchbier, upon bottling the smokiness was dominant. I'll taste the first one in 2 weeks, then a month, and post tasting notes.

I did a 'Scottish' beer a few months ago and used Chimay or Westmalle (or Orval - I forget) bottle-culture. The finished product was fantastic - but I believe that some of the Belgian yeasts (Westmalle/Westvleteren???) were derived from Scottish and Newcastle or McEwans or something like that anyway.

It's also cheaper using bottle culture. It's £6 or so for a single Wyeast or WLP equivalent, whereas that price would get you 3 bottles of yummy Monastery goodness plus enough spraymalt to make starters from the dregs - then you're away.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

I must be doing somthing wrong, I used a yeast from a bottle conditioned ale it turned out absolute ****. It went straight down the bog

I wonder if the conditioning was a special yeast and not the primary strain

 

[TheMumbler]

Interesting about the scottish style beer, switching the yeast around seems like a good way of varying things a bit. I must get around to splitting some wort to experiment with. Duvel yeast, I think, came from a bottle of McEwans, by legend at least. It will have changed quite a bit with the number of generations it will have gone through. Careful with Orval it has some brett in there - lancssteve has made some good beers with Orval recultures though, both on its own and as a mixed strain if memory serves.

I must be doing somthing wrong, I used a yeast from a bottle conditioned ale it turned out absolute ****. It went straight down the bog

I wonder if the conditioning was a special yeast and not the primary strain

Some breweries use a bottling yeast which is different from the primary to protect their primary strain, so it might have been something different. I guess you might have got an infection, you need to be careful with cleanliness when re-culturing from the bottle as the yeast population is so low and often not in good health.

 

[luckyeddie]

Isn't WLP550 based on Orval? Probably cleaned up a bit. I bought a vial 7 or 8 months ago, used it once and since then I have nearly always used bottle culture. The exception is 1 x Nottingham, 1 x Witbier yeast, 1 x Windsor and 1 x Lager yeast. I think I've used Duvel 4 times, Chimay 5 times, Orval once and Westmalle twice in the last 6 months.

I even used Belgian yeast in a stout and a rauchbier (checks title of this thread - blushes) - and both (well, I've only had 1 bottle of the rauchbier so far) were just awesome.

As TheMumbler says though - be careful, and not just with Orval. Start your culture in the bottle with 1040-1050 wort, start the fermentation at around 22C and leave for a couple of days. Don't use a lot - say 65g of spraymalt in 500 mls of water (boil it then cool) but just add 50 ml to the bottle. Cap with foil and shake. Fridge the rest.

After 2 days, add another 100 ml of your wort (warm it in a water bath to 22C first before adding). Shake more gently this time - otherwise the lot will just fizz out the top. After another 2 days, add the rest of your 500 ml into a demijohn, tip the bottle contents in, shake and airlock.

Another day or so, add another 500 ml of wort to the demijohn. I then split into two, bottle in Grolsch bottles and fridge. When I am getting ready to brew, I use a bottle a couple of days before to make a 1 litre starter. I have no idea of the number of cells, but I've always found it plenty. Is it even possible to under-pitch Belgian yeast? Every time I brew, it goes off like a rocket with precious little lag time.

 

[TheMumbler]

wlp550 is alledgedly from Achouffe, I know because I looked it up as I'm about to do some brews with it. Looking now, Orval (minus the brett) is wlp510 according to Kristen England although there has been some debate about the accuracy of his list.

You must be able underpitch any yeast, but I suppose you might want to underpitch a little bit to stress the yeast more for some styles. I've seen it recommended for german wheat beers for example. Other people disagree. Generally it is better to overpitch than underpitch from what I have read. I guess it will come down to a bit trial and error to see what works for you in the end.

 

[luckyeddie]

wlp550 is alledgedly from Achouffe, I know because I looked it up as I'm about to do some brews with it. Looking now, Orval (minus the brett) is wlp510 according to Kristen England although there has been some debate about the accuracy of his list.

You must be able underpitch any yeast, but I suppose you might want to underpitch a little bit to stress the yeast more for some styles. I've seen it recommended for german wheat beers for example. Other people disagree. Generally it is better to overpitch than underpitch from what I have read. I guess it will come down to a bit trial and error to see what works for you in the end.

Ah, that's right - Achouffe.

The trouble with bottle-culturing is it's impossible without dilution and a microscope to determine the cell count (I suppose that goes for brewing in general - we have to take things on trust). Consequently it's difficult to know whether I'm under-pitching, over-pitching or doing things 'just right'. My rule of thumb is:

1. Put 100 mls of 1040 wort in the bottle, cap with foil and shake.
2. After 2 days, add another 100 mls of 1050 wort to the bottle and shake.
3. After 5 days, decant off most of liquor, shake and pour residue into 500 mls of 1040 wort in demijohn - airlock.
4. When vigorous fermentation subsides, add another 500 mls of 1050 wort. Let it pretty well work out.
5. Shake vigorously, leave for 20 minutes. The dead cells will drop out quickly.
6. Decant liquor to another bottle / demijohn, leaving the dead yeast behind.
7. Add a litre of water, shake vigorously. Allow to stand for 24 hours.
8. Pour off most of the clear liquor and discard.
9. Shake, split 2-4 ways into Grolsch bottles.
10. Refrigerate until required.

You can repeat steps 7 and 8 as often as you like, but I just do it the once to ensure there is a little sugar present. When I come to brew, I pitch one of the Grolsch bottles into 500 mls of 1040 wort 3 days before brewday as a starter. The 1040 - 1050 bit depends whether I'm adding to a liquor that has already been decanted or one which hasn't. I want the resultant liquor to be approx 1040 before the yeasties kick off again.

Obviously the usual sanitation rules apply - sterile containers/equipment, boiled cooled water for rinsing, wort boiled for 10 minutes etc.

Just about everything I've done has resulted in pretty incredible attenuation - most of my brews tend to ferment out to around 1006 from an SG of 1060 - 1070. There's also a distinct fruitiness but it's more delicious plum than overpowering banana. I suspect that I may be over-pitching on reflection.

The only time I had excessive banana notes was when I split a batch 50-50 and fermented half with WLP550 and the other half with Duvel bottle culture. It was the White Labs one which attracted the monkeys. The Chimay yeast is probably the most aggressive, but the Westmalle one is my favourite flavour (no coincidence there - Westmalle Tripel is my favourite pub beer).

 

[Darcey]

How is the Rauchbier going I am going to try this next week but using a wyeast oktoberfest smack pack I have in the fridge..

How long do you leave to condition in the bottle? Ever attempted draught?

D

 

[TheMumbler]

lancssteve put a rauchbier in a corny and it worked fine on draft to my mind.

When I did a smoked beer it needed quite a bit of time to come good but tbh I think that was more down to the amber malt I put in. I'm not sure it needs any longer than the normal 1 week per 10 gravity points in the cellar. Using a lager strain will make your turn around slower, of course.

 

[Darcey]

I am going to bottle i think, Im not sure I can handle 19L of smoked beer on tap! I am using the Wyeast Oktoberfest lager blend so I suspect Xmas at the earliest if I brew on Monday.

 

[luckyeddie]

How is the Rauchbier going I am going to try this next week but using a wyeast oktoberfest smack pack I have in the fridge..

How long do you leave to condition in the bottle? Ever attempted draught?

D

Hi.

It's going very well - I drank one yesterday and it tasted very nice. The smokiness isn't in your face - it's nicely subdued and blends very well with the plummy fruit flavours that are typically Belgian. Next time, I think I'll up the rauchmalt to 3 kg.

 

[leedsbrew]

now that looks like a cracking beer matey!

 

[luckyeddie]

now that looks like a cracking beer matey!

Very nice indeed.

I've had about 4 or 5 over the last month, and it's very enjoyable. Not quite smoky enough, but a very pleasant beer all the same. In fact, I think I'll have one now.

Sláinte. : In fact, I'm off to Dublin tomorrow for the Porterhouse Oktoberfest so rauchbier, bock, altbier, doppelbock, hefeweizen, pils, sticke, weisse, eisbock, dunkel... (help, I'm running out of German beer styles) - all will be enjoyed in good company.

 

[Darcey]

:party:

 

[Darcey]

I have only just bottled my beer. Its had 3.5 weeks in primary FV.. I had to up the temp of the WYeast Octoberfest yeast to 12C to acutaly get it fermenting from 9C at which I was planning. I think it did a good part of the initial fermentaion at about 10C~ and only really cleared up after its self when the temp got above 11C. I had a bit of a sneak preview and I am reasonably impressed. Its a lager yeast so I'll be untouched in the cool cellar untill at least xmas before the first one is cracked. It could have done with abit more smokyness but I'll really have to wait those months to find out what its like after its organised the flavours.

D

 

[luckyeddie]

That's the great thing about brewing - we have both produced a beer using rauchmalz yet have used totally different styles, and I bet both beers are equally quaffable.