Thursday. A day off. A day that I crammed with plenty of brewing fun. Two, count 'em, TWO beers brewed up. The first on the brew schedule was the third installment in my summer brewing Belgian line: Blanche de Greensboro, a clone of Unibroue's Blanche de Chambly. It's one of the finer Belgian witbiers you'll find...and it's brewed in Canada. The second beer was an unprecedented THIRD brewing of one of my particular creations: Maple Pumpkin Ale v.3.0. This one takes about two months to clear up and finish, which will take us right into football season where this beer is enjoyed most.
It was a busy day, so we'll do a timeline:
7:00am
Up! Yes that's right. Up at 7:00am on a day off. Inconceivable.
8:00am
Dry cleaners. Hey, there's chores to be done before all the fun starts.
8:30am
Clean out and defrost the garage freezer.
10:00am
Boil 1 pound of corn sugar in 1 pint of water, cool, then add to secondary fermenter. Then transfer "The Devil's Bats" Belgian Golden Ale from primary to secondary on the sugar water. Kick up a second fermentation and dry the beer out a touch more.
Now that the Duvel clone is transferred, clean and sanitize both primary fermenters.
Clean and sanitize the brewing equipment.
11:00am
Set up my brew station in the garage.
11:30am
Fire up the brew kettle to boil 7 gallons of water. First on the brew docket: Blanche de Greensboro.
12:15pm
Turn off the burner and add the wheat malt to the water. Brewing's begun!
12:40pm
BOIL!
12:45pm
Start charcoal on the smoker.
12:50pm
Go inside and roast 5 cans of pure pumpkin for Maple Pumpkin Ale v.3.0
1:10pm
Add soaked hickory wood chunks to the coals.
1:25pm
Meat on!
1:30pm
Add orange peel and coriander to the Blanche de Greensboro.
1:45pm
Pump witbier through plate chiller to primary fermenter.
1:55pm
Carry primary to kitchen.
Stir roasted pumpkin.
2:00pm
Back rinse plate chiller and clean up some equipment.
2:30pm
Add 8 gallons of water to kettle for Maple Pumpkin Ale v.3.0.
2:40pm
Roasted pumpkin is done.
3:15pm
BOIL!
Ahhh, and my first fuck-up. You see, the witbier had no crushed grains to steep so I could go directly to the boil. Here, I have 3 pounds of cracked grains to steep, and it needs to do so at 153 degrees. Um, I shot straight up to 212. Dammit. Let's wait for the 8 gallons of boiled water to cool down to 153 in North Carolina heat....
4:50pm
Freezer cleaned out completely. The food goes back in.
4:55pm
The 8 gallons make their way down to 153 degrees, so let's steep!
5:00pm
Pull meat off smoker.
5:20pm
Steeping done, to the dry cleaners we go to pick up my clothes.
5:30pm
Fire the kettle up to boil.
6:00pm
Turn off burner. Add malt, cinnamon, nutmeg, maple syrup, and roasted pumpkin flesh.
6:15pm
BOIL! (Again.) Always such a rollicking and vigorous boil with this recipe. 8 gallons plus all the pumpkin flesh, maple syrup, and spices in here and it just wants to GO!
7:25pm
2nd addition of spices and maple.
7:45pm
Final addition of spices and maple.
7:50pm
Pump through plate chiller to primary fermenter....sloooooooowly.....
8:05pm
Pump transfer STALLS with one gallon to go. Too thick and gooey. Just look at the kettle's false bottom!
8:20pm
Carry primary into kitchen then manually strain remaining liquid in brew kettle into a Pyrex dish and a large mixing bowl. Place said containers in clean freezer to chill down from freshly boiled to pitchable yeast temperature (around 80 degrees).
8:25pm
Do final cleanup of garage.
9:55pm
Liquid in freezer has cooled sufficiently. Add to primary fermenter to top off to 5 gallons.
10:00pm
Scrub brew kettle. Clean hoses and parts. Set up blowoff tubes for both primary fermenters. Watch Blanche de Greensboro begin bubbling and fermenting....already!
10:45pm
Dry equipment. Wait for the yeasty magic to happen in both fermenters.
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Whew, a long day. But quite a fun one. TWO beers fermenting away as of Friday morning. The rubber cap for the blowoff tube couldn't quiiiiiiite grab hold to the carboy's neck for the Blanche de Greensboro. I mean, just look at what the yeast starter did building up towards brew day:
So big deal, some goop oozed out the top and down the fermenter. Seeing this could happen the night before with the quick fermentation, I put the witbier in the sink to minimize cleanup. Worked well.
So for the recipes. the Maple Pumpkin Ale v.3.0 is basically v.2.0 posted here with 8 oz of maple syrup added with each addition.
Maple syrup in v.1.0 = 8 oz @ 90 min, 4 oz @ 20 min
Maple syrup in v.2.0 = 8 oz @ 90 min, 4 oz @ 20 min, 4 oz @ 2 min
Maple syrup in v.3.0 = 8 oz @ 90 min, 8 oz @ 20 min, 8 oz @ 2 min (plus 8 oz into secondary when it's time)
And as for the Blanche de Greensboro, another Belgian from the eponymous book Clone Brews:
What a day! Slowly but surely it seems I'm rediscovering that joy has NOT indeed perished from the earth!
What a day! Slowly but surely it seems I'm rediscovering that joy has NOT indeed perished from the earth!
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