Re: Brewferm Oud Vlaams Bruin/Old Brown Beer

[iceo]

I have only done a few kits. but I had read the brewferm kits are very good. so took a chance but picked up this kit as I couldnt find any real reviews.

before I start the review I did make some changes to it.

so I did as it said as far the mixing the can with water but split the kit as I only have 2 10L fv(as its a 12L kits the maths dont work)

12/8/13
so mixed the can, 4L of hot water and 650g of golden syrup
gave it a good mix then poured half in to my other fv
topped up with bottles water to 6L in each then took reading (1.065 and 1.052)
put lids on(no air locks) to cool down for a few hours
when I was happy the temps i gave both fv a good shake for a few minutes to add air.
sprinkled half the yeast on each gave it 20-30 minutes then a quick swirl to mix in.

put away at 21C for a week venting any extra co2 once or twice a day

18/8/13
the fv with the lowest sg (1.052) i added 183ml of polish cherry syrup to bring the sugar level up to match the fv and to give the a different flavour.

1/9/13
bottled 1.065 down to 1.010 and the (cherry) 1.052 down to 1.012 . as I had made changes to the cherry batch it might have made a difference to the fg.
used 330ml bottles as it was a stronger brew (7%).
primed the standard batch with a 2.5ml(3grams) of sugar in each bottle and the cherry batch with 4ml(2.7grams sugar) of the cherry syrup in each bottle.
capped will different coloured caps gold and red
a test 300ml pet bottle was done with a 3ml of cherry syrup (now very hard to squeeze)

all the bottles have been out in the shed since the 1/9 as the weather was warm.

the plan is try the first bottles on the 6th nov (my 31st) so they will be 9 weeks old and keep the rest if I can for xmas .

will update as and when I sample. brewday thread http://thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=42892&hilit=old+brown+beer

(note this is my first review. so be nice :pray: )

 

[serum]

I'm brewing this at the moment so here's how it's going. I'll update as I go:

I followed the instructions pretty much to the letter other than adding 500g dark spraymalt and a can of golden syrup instead of sugar. I used cheap bottled water from the co-op as the water in London is awful.

The initial gravity reading was bang on 1060.

I sat in in the cupboard under the stairs which has a fairly steady temp of about 21C It bubbled away for about 3 days then calmed down quite a lot after that.

I moved it to a secondary FV after 11 days and got a gravity reading of 1016. The smell of it blew my socks off. I tasted a little, expecting it to taste like treacle but it was really nice. Can't wait to bottle it. I'm going to leave it for another two weeks under the stairs as the temp has dropped this week before bottling it. I can see it being very nice after two weeks so I'll have to restrain myself. Hopefully the gravity will drop a bit more.

After two weeks in the bottle it tastes kind of like alcoholic dandelion and burdock. I think it needs to mellow out a bit more!

 

[Rilers]

Put this one on last night - brewed as per instructions with brown candi sugar. OG 1062. Will hide it away somewhere once bottled to try and keep it until autumn next year when it's well conditioned. Drank alot of my Brewferm Tripel and Adbij too early - even though they were lovely at the time they improved so much with age. So will learn my lesson with this one!

 

[serum]

I've now tasted it after 4 weeks and the dandelion and burdock taste is gone and it's getting more body. It's quite pleasant to drink and it's bound to improve.

 

[lukehgriffiths]

I did this kit with some coloured inverted sugar (coloured to deep red)
Dandelion and Burdock evident at start... Improved a lot with age.
I will second the comment that time is your friend. I did this in April and drank from August to November... Was so nice in November I regret drinking any early... Make sure you have other beers to see you through the wait.

 

[Tean Buns]

I didn't do this one myself but I have got a friend into HB. He did it and let me have a bottle for helping him along with his first brew. When I tried it, I was quite honestly gobsmacked by the quality of the brew and even more gobsmacked by the fact that a complete novice could produce a beer of such quality. 10 out of 10 to Brewferm. I am impressed.

In terms of profile, for a drinker of English style ales like myself, the beer is surprising. It is a very malty brew with a very low or non-existent hop profile. The aroma profile is essentially bitter orange and this comes through in the taste. However, after the initial orangey taste, the roast malts kick in and we realise that there are lots of complex flavours coming from the malts and all that on a slightly acidic background coming from the Belgian tradition of making beer with 'wild' yeast. You are never quite sure what you are getting from the beer, it keeps you coming back for more, and more, and more. And all that from a mere kit. Spot on. Brewferm get a ten out of ten in my book ... :clap:

 

[Burgo]

Started this yesterday though with some major changes! Instead of sugar I added a second tin/kit (I'm in France and the Brewferm stuff is a little cheaper here, so 2 kits were like a 2 tin kit if purchased in the UK). So, to start, I boiled 21g of E K Golding hop pellets (in a bag) for 1 hour in 250g of Dark DME + 3L of water then, at the end added another 250g of DME, then added the 2 cans of LME (the kits) and 500g of honey and added water to 19 litres. This gave a OG of 1,065 (I must admit, lower than I expected). I rehydrated the 2 packs of yeast, pitched and put the FV in the cellar at around 23°C at first. After just 3 hours it was fermenting like the clappers, seriously, like continuous bubbles with no pause in-between. It's only my 4th (kit) brew but I've never had one start off like that before!!!

I had considered changing the yeast to Safale US-05 to make it more like a Porter or something but decided on the Belgium yeast which came with the kits. I had a rather interesting French IPA last week that was Belgian-ish with a strong hop presence and decided to try something in that style. I plan to dry hop after a week in the FV

Will keep you posted :hat:

 

[proost]

Started this yesterday though with some major changes! Instead of sugar I added a second tin/kit (I'm in France and the Brewferm stuff is a little cheaper here, so 2 kits were like a 2 tin kit if purchased in the UK). So, to start, I boiled 21g of E K Golding hop pellets (in a bag) for 1 hour in 250g of Dark DME + 3L of water then, at the end added another 250g of DME, then added the 2 cans of LME (the kits) and 500g of honey and added water to 19 litres. This gave a OG of 1,065 (I must admit, lower than I expected). I rehydrated the 2 packs of yeast, pitched and put the FV in the cellar at around 23°C at first. After just 3 hours it was fermenting like the clappers, seriously, like continuous bubbles with no pause in-between. It's only my 4th (kit) brew but I've never had one start off like that before!!!

I had considered changing the yeast to Safale US-05 to make it more like a Porter or something but decided on the Belgium yeast which came with the kits. I had a rather interesting French IPA last week that was Belgian-ish with a strong hop presence and decided to try something in that style. I plan to dry hop after a week in the FV

Will keep you posted :hat:

Why would the Safale US-05 make it more like a porter?
I also have this kit waiting in the wings and I do like a Porter.

:hmm:

 

[Burgo]

@ Proost

Belgian yeasts give flavors of "esters and phenolics" like banana and spicy notes which you wouldn't find in an English Porter. Safale US-05 is an ale yeast and a very clean tasting one at that, leaving the malt and hops to lead the way. I have US-05 in stock but I could have referred to any "ale" yeast I guess. I'm still relatively new to this but I read stuff like a true geek

More here: https://byo.com/grains/item/1664-yeast-strains-for-belgian-strong-ales

Burgo

 

[proost]

@ proost

belgian yeasts give flavors of "esters and phenolics" like banana and spicy notes which you wouldn't find in an english porter. Safale us-05 is an ale yeast and a very clean tasting one at that, leaving the malt and hops to lead the way. I have us-05 in stock but i could have referred to any "ale" yeast i guess. I'm still relatively new to this but i read stuff like a true geek :d

more here: https://byo.com/grains/item/1664-yeast-strains-for-belgian-strong-ales

burgo

 

[MyQul]

Why would the Safale US-05 make it more like a porter?
I also have this kit waiting in the wings and I do like a Porter.

:hmm:

I would say It's the grains that make a porter rather than the yeast in a similar way that hops make various IPA's

You can brew porters with various yeast's, whaterver yeast you like really, Baltic porter is even brewed with lager yeast

 

[Burgo]

@ MyQul

With respect, I quote someone who knows more than I

"Yeast is one of the most important components of a beer recipe. If you think about it, you do not make beer, you simply provide a friendly environment for yeast to make the beer for you.

Different strains of yeast have evolved over the history of brewing, adapting to their breweries and being selected for different characteristics by brewers. The strain of yeast you choose can profoundly affect the balance of the beer just by virtue of the mix of alcohols and esters that they produce.

Every strain is different, but speaking in broad generalizations and bearing in mind that the flavors described can be subtle:

Belgian yeasts emphasize "spicy" esters. (E.g. White Labs 550 Belgian Ale)
English yeasts emphasize "fruity" esters. (E.g. Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley)
German yeasts tend to emphasize the malt. (E.g. White Labs 830 German Lager)
American yeasts tend to have a "clean" character that emphasizes hop flavor. (E.g Wyeast 1056 American Ale)"

 

[proost]

@ myqul

with respect, i quote someone who knows more than i

"yeast is one of the most important components of a beer recipe. If you think about it, you do not make beer, you simply provide a friendly environment for yeast to make the beer for you.

Different strains of yeast have evolved over the history of brewing, adapting to their breweries and being selected for different characteristics by brewers. The strain of yeast you choose can profoundly affect the balance of the beer just by virtue of the mix of alcohols and esters that they produce.

Every strain is different, but speaking in broad generalizations and bearing in mind that the flavors described can be subtle:

Belgian yeasts emphasize "spicy" esters. (e.g. White labs 550 belgian ale)
english yeasts emphasize "fruity" esters. (e.g. Wyeast 1275 thames valley)
german yeasts tend to emphasize the malt. (e.g. White labs 830 german lager)
american yeasts tend to have a "clean" character that emphasizes hop flavor. (e.g wyeast 1056 american ale)"

 

[Sandimas]

This is my favourite Brewferm Belgian kit, absolutely love it: think I made it to recipe but with a tin of treacle instead of sugar. Was ready to drink within a few months, but this is the first time I've ever managed to keep a few bottles back a whole year and boy is it good - finished at 6.5% ABV :drink:

 

[MyQul]

@ burgo. Sorry for the rather late reply on this

I whole heartedly agree. As someone once said, brewers make wort and yeast make beer.

I think what proost was a asking was, is there a specific yeast that creates a porter. I would say no. Porter is a malt forward beer. Without the roasted malts, chocolate, brown, black, etc you wouldn't be able to make a porter to get the distinctive porter flavours such as coffee and chocolate.

You can then use the yeast to further manipulate flavourto say add some spicy esters or fruity ones.

But as quoted no yeast, no beer

I am of course speaking specifically about porter as I am aware that some styles get their particular flavour almost exclusively from the yeast - I'm thinking of some of the belgian and french beers here

 

[proost]

@ burgo. Sorry for the rather late reply on this

I whole heartedly agree. As someone once said, brewers make wort and yeast make beer.

I think what proost was a asking was, is there a specific yeast that creates a porter. I would say no. Porter is a malt forward beer. Without the roasted malts, chocolate, brown, black, etc you wouldn't be able to make a porter to get the distinctive porter flavours such as coffee and chocolate.

You can then use the yeast to further manipulate flavourto say add some spicy esters or fruity ones.

But as quoted no yeast, no beer

I am of course speaking specifically about porter as I am aware that some styles get their particular flavour almost exclusively from the yeast - I'm thinking of some of the belgian and french beers here

Yes I was asking that. Porter is my favourite style of beer and I was just hoping that there was an easy way to brew it. I have been brewing for a year now, only kits mainly Coopers and Wilkos. Now that I have the basic brewing knowledge, I want to experiment with kits to change the taste profile. May think about AG in the future.

Thanks for all the replies

 

[Pashead]

This is my favourite Brewferm Belgian kit, absolutely love it: think I made it to recipe but with a tin of treacle instead of sugar. Was ready to drink within a few months, but this is the first time I've ever managed to keep a few bottles back a whole year and boy is it good - finished at 6.5% ABV :drink:

How on earth did you manage to avoid drinking it for a year Darrell ?

:)

 

[DarkHorse]

Started this yesterday using a 900g tin of golden syrup and approx 200g of demerara sugar I had left over. Made up to 15 litres, og came in at 1064, I reckon I'm going to leave it alone for a courple of weeks and go from there. I'll bottle this for my Christmas supply alongside the abjdi I made last autum.

 

[DarkHorse]

Little update, bottled my brew yesterday. Fg came in at 1010, spot on the brewferm guide which I was happy about. I'd left it alone in the fv for 3 weeks so was relieved that it had brewed out ok. Managed to fill 27 PET bottles primed with a teaspoon of brewing sugar and have stashed them away with the Abjdi I made last September. This years Christmas beer supply is stacking up nicely, fancy doing a diablo double batch to go with them next.

 

[Sandimas]

I've just brewed this for the 4th time, I really love this kit. Just add a 907g tin of Lyle Golden Syrup and a big tablespoon from another jar to give you OG 1060 for 12L.

All the Brewferm kits are great but this one, for me, is the best.