#wild ale

[thedaily-beer]

Jester King Spon 2018 Shiraz & Cabernet Sauvignon (Thanks, Ian!). A 4 of 4. Given the refermentation with Texas grapes, this does pick up quite a bit of wine qualities, but it's still quite complex and very clearly beer forward. There's funk to it but it's relatively clean, given its age, and definitely a bit on the higher end of the acidic scale. Quite excellent.

[teregetettszennyes]

Tommie Sjef - Oudste

[the-final-sentence]

We sit on the balcony with our feet dangling off the edge, listening to our neighbors go back inside their homes, the smell of rank wild ale all around us.

SJ Sindu, from “Wild Ale”

[brandonsdrunkagain]

Farmhouse Ales Tastings! In my barn no less!

[acommonloon]

What is wild cannot be tamed...especially now she's half way from two to three and knows her own mind.

Rosie was here for two full days but now, she's on her way to her papaw's. Hope he's well-rested! Meanwhile D has gone off with our daughter to stay in Lexington for three days leaving me all alone on this shady patio with wild beer and my rarely wild play list for company. Bliss

[justinsbeer]

Side Project, Smooth (Blend 2)

Rating: 4.25/5

[midgardbrewhouse]

Brewday - Wild New Zealand IPA

Another weekend another brewday. Homebrew this time though. I thought it was about time to get a nice IPA in for Spring, especially after my Witbier ended up Imperial strength, more on that later, lol.

It’s been a while since I used New Zealand hops and I’d nearly forgotten how much I love them, unfortunately I couldn’t get any from Malt Miller this time but did find some on BrewUK. I’ve used both Kohatu and Southern Cross before but I’ve upped my IPA game since then so I’m hoping for a much better product, especially as I’m going in with 140g for the boil and 60g for the dry hop. Use the full lot up in one beer.

My aim with this one was to really showcase the hops, especially that distinct piney profile with a very pale almost lager-like malt bill. I went with 48.6% Bohemian Pilsner, 36% Vienna, 6.3% Carapils, 5.4% Acid malt and 3.6% Flaked Oats. Was aiming for 64c mash, ended up about 65c so not bad. I sparged at 68c to try for full conversion for a lager-like clean body, which should compliment the wild blackcurrant bush Yeast that I've built back up from my first wild ale to use in this beer. 

As I just got what I could lay my hands on I ended up with a mix of leaf and pellet hops. Starting with 10g bittering with Southern Cross then 25g Kohatu & 10g Southern Cross for 25mins. Followed by another 25g Kohatu & 15g Southern Cross for 12 mins and with a final addition for the last 5 mins of 20g Kohatu & 35g Southern Cross. The remaining 30g of each will go for dry hop. Looking at around 66 IBU.

I worked on my mash thickness ratios more this time after leaning a thing or two at my brewday with the Jolly Sailor last week, as well as understanding the mash and sparging temperatures a bit more. It looks like my system works best at around 3L per Kg which was even proven by the fact that I got a better efficiency this time round, I was aiming for 1.055 and got 1.057.

After cooling to 23.5c I pitched my wild yeast which I caught last year from beneath my Blackcurrant bush, I had recovered this from the Blackcurrant Wild Ale I brewed with it. It’s such a great clean and fresh tasting yeast that I think I’m gonna try and keep a batch going all the time like a house yeast. It has pretty high attenuation as well and seemed to ferment best at a slightly higher temperature, hence setting my brewfridge for 23.5c. I’m probably looking at around 1.005 as a final target, so see how that goes. Once pitched it was only a matter of overnight before a full head of krausen was on the beer and the house was smelling rather topical from the hops, lol. Fingers crossed for this pale as the moon NZ IPA, more soon...

[whatchudrinkin]

Shades

For Valentine’s Day, Sarah got me a bottle of Shades from Upright Brewing. This is the second bottle of Shades she’s given me in the last few years, and somehow I haven’t tasted it yet.

Shades is a golden ale fermented with whole rainier cherries in oak barrels. The yellow-pink rainier has a subtler, sweeter flavor than the dark ruddy bing. The flavor is more like a small stone fruit, a bite size nectarine. Upright takes pains not to call Shades and the darker Hearts’ Beat kriek. Though both are made with cherries, they don’t follow the strict guidelines of a Belgian lambic.

But it’s hard not to see the influence of the Pajottenland in Shades. It has some of the same wild yeast character seen in a Belgian cherry ale, notes of hay and freshly shorn sheep fleece. The acids from bacteria are subtle, balanced, drawing out the fruit flavor, not overwhelming it. The fruit is the real star. Those rainier cherries taste juicy and fresh even two years later. Maybe I should pull out that other bottle...