Patersbier Brewday

[YeastFace]

First time brewing with my electric HLT/boiler. Usually use a 14.5l stock pot on a gas burner, but have had problems getting a decent hot break and wanted to be able to increase my batches.


I had planned on making a White IPA, but thought I'd try something less complicated for the first wet run. I'd attempted a Enkel/Patersbier-style session Belgian previously, but my Abbey Malt was darker in colour than Beersmith and I hadn't noticed. I'd also used Safbrew Abbaye yeast, which I don't think was suitable to style, despite the name. What resulted was more like a Belgian Amber, so a few amendments and my recipe was thus:


Batch size: 11l


ABV: 4.31%
OG: 1.042
FG: 1.009
IBU: 18.3
Colour: 7.2 EBC


1.5 kg Pilsner (Bel): 69.4%
0.6 kg Wheat Malt (Bel): 27.8%
0.06 kg Aromatic Malt (Bel): 2.8%


18.0 g Saaz - 60 mins - 11.4 IBU
18.0 g Saaz - 20 mins - 6.9 IBU
7.0g Saaz - 0 mins - 0.0 IBU
7.0g Styrian Goldings - 0 mins - 0.0 IBU


1 Whirfloc Tablet - 15 mins


Safbrew T-58

Obligatory grist shot

Started the brewday at 09:51 by adding a crushed campden to just over 19l of tap water. 20 minutes later, I turned on the element on the boiler. Success, no electrocution, leaking or sparks. Unfortunately my cheap probe thermometer died at this point, but luckily I had a meat thermometer in the kitchen I made do with.

The element works!

The liquor was up to temp for the mash in 30 minutes, which seems good. 9.39l was added to the MT for 75 minutes. I turned the element off with 30 minutes remaining to raise to the sparge temp, but this was probably too long and I had to add about 750ml of cold water to bring it down to 76ºc. Just over 9.5l of liquor was added as a batch sparge.


The runnings were combined and added to the boiler and gravity taken. Temp adjusted this was 1.033, which was 1 measly point off the predicted. I'd ended up with about 16.1l of runnings, against the 16.02l so was very happy with my numbers.

It didn't take to long to bring up to the boil. Much quicker than on the gas burner previously.

Hot break

The hops and whirfloc were added as per the recipe. The aroma coming off was a nice balance of malt and spicy and floral hops.

First addition of hops

This was also the first time I'd used my new immersion chiller (I got this from the eBay seller kajardine and I'm amazed at the quality for the price. I thoroughly recommend anyone seeking an IC to check out his creations).


This was my first time using an IC so had some trouble getting it down to temp. After about 30 minutes I felt I'd collected enough water for cleaning and then wasted a fair few litres that it was time to turn it off. Unfortunately it will still at 40ºc but I added to the sanitised fermenter and sealed. Once down to 20ºc, the wort was aerated with a sanitised whisk and rehydrated T-58 was added.


I ended up with 10.5l @ 1.045, which I'm happy with for my first run of the new boiler and chiller. I could have liquored back to get the desired gravity and volume, but completely forgot.

Original Gravity Reading

One thing I learned was that the flow from the tap (regular fermenter tap) is awful. Luckily I have a few spares from Angel Homebrew laying around, so a few more bits and I can add a 2 piece tap. I also need a hop strainer, although it was fine with hop sacks today. I would also like to add a separate HLT in the future, but it's not that difficult using a 2 vessel system.

Overall I'm very happy with the brewday. Nothing went drastically wrong, I didn't cause any injury or damage to property and I was pretty close to my numbers. I'm glad I went for the less complex recipe.


I also bottled my strong Brown Porter (ended up at 7.61%) which I hope to leave until Christmas. Was tasting pretty darn good. Malty, roasty with a bit of smoke.

 

[GHW]

Looks great. I've got my eye on the patersbier recipe in the Greg Hughes book. Looks and sounds like a great summer beer, so I doubt I'll get round to it til early next year!

Keep us posted, I haven't seen anyone else do one on here yet so it'd be good to know how it turns out.

 

[YeastFace]

No worries, will update along the way.

It's a lot weaker and less bitter than the BJCP guidelines, but I believe these were meant to be weak, nourishing beers drank when young by the monks. They wouldn't want to be sloshed and I think the table beers of the time were weaker still than this recipe.

The flameout additions are probably out of style too, but hopefully should taste good.

 

[YeastFace]

Bottling today after leaving in primary for two weeks. Finished at 1.10 which is 4.6% so a little higher than what I wanted, but still sessionable.

This is by far the most clear beer I've had at bottling time, which shouldn't be a surprise as my previous have either been no chill or chilled in an ice bath.

Had a taste of the hydrometer sample and I'm pleased. Fruity, spicy and distinctly Belgian in flavour and aroma.

Priming to 2.9 volumes, hopefully the bottles are ok with that.

Will report back in a few weeks' time.

 

[YeastFace]

Just trying a bottle now. Carbed up ok, but probably worth another week.

Aroma is typically Belgian. Fruity and spicy. Little bit of banana, but not overpowering. Decent clarity, very thin lasting head. No Belgian lace - this may improve with extra time in the bottle.

Am disappointed with the lack of body, so will probably mash higher next time to get a higher FG, or consider adding a handful of oats or Carapils too.

Overall it is a decent lawnmower beer, with a few tweaks I would be very happy with it.

 

[MartinHaworth]

Thanks for this. I was reading Greg Hughes on Patersbier earlier today, so your thread has been interesting.

Martin

 

[YeastFace]

Tasting a lot better now. I tried one earlier in the week warn and it was so bland. Put a bottle in the fridge a good few hours ago and it has stood up to the beers I've drank today, which have all been hop-heavy. It's definitely had that indescribable Belgian thing going on. Thing I'll put them in the fridge for a week and if they taste like this, I shall be over the moon.