Goudenband

Rating: 3

Liefmans Breweries
Dentergem, Belgium
Style: Flemish Sour Brown
ABV: 8%
375 ml corked bottle (2006 vintage)

In preparation for our upcoming Belgium trip I'm hitting the classics. Goudenband is billed as the classic Femish sour brown ale. Pours with a slight head that disappears quickly. Dark red color with a noticeably sour nose.

Sweet and sour taste. Lime flavor that leaves a lingering puckerness...(spell check doesn't think that's a word, but I don't care) Doesn't seem as syrupy as the Duchess, but in my opinion that makes it more enjoyable. More balanced in its sourness than a Gueze. All around a very enjoyable beer.

Lambic

Lambic v1
(10 gallons)
7/7/2007

20 lbs maris otter 3L
3/4 lbs munich
3/4 lbs wheat malt
2 t gypsum
8 oz german tettnang (120 min) - baked for 2 hours at 200 degrees to age the hops

infusion mash 150 for 90 min
120 min boil

yeast:
WLP655 Belgian Sour Mix I
WLP410 Belgian Wit Ale II primary/WLP650 Brettanomyces bruxellensis secondary

1.061 OG on 7/7

More of a lambic style beer than a true lambic. Lacking the necessary raw wheat and turbid mash, though I did attempt to use aged hops.

I'm pondering adding some wine grapes to one of the batches later in the fall.

Wostyntje

Rating: 3

Brouwerij De Regenboog
Brugge, Belgium
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
ABV: 7%
11.2 oz bottle

Pours clear amber with full white head. Doesn't look like mustard.

Very aromatic, maybe hints of mustard in there...but I'm probably just making that up because its called "mustard ale" on the label. Also some sour notes in the aroma.

Light dry body and taste for a stong ale, but definite belgian character, including some light sour flavors. I'd be hard pressed to identify mustard flavor, but there is some nice spiciness in there. The light body allows a lot of flavors to come through, I just have a hard time putting a finger on what they are.

Moat Mountain Smoke House & Brewing Co.

Just north of North Conway on Rt 16 we stumbled into Moat Mtn after a long day hiking the nearby Isolation Mtn. (As it happened we ran into some other Isolation hikers on the way in).

The restaurant is in a huge rambling white farmhouse, and we had no problem getting a table, though I was a little afraid I'd get lost on the way to the bathroom. They also have a good sized bar, where we managed to catch up on the Red Sox game on our way out.

For a brewpub the food was average, however the beers were outstanding. First the food. Given the smoke house billing, we both went with barbecue, the pulled pork sandwich and the beef brisket dinner. Maybe traditional barbecue comes this way, but we both were left wanting more sauce.

Now the beer:
Belgian Single - 2 (very drinkable belgian beer in a brewpub, I'm impressed)
Bear Peak Brown - 2
Golden Dog Pilsner - 3 (hoppy german/czech style pilsner, great crisp summer beer)

Sparge Manifold

This Sparge Manifold was made of 1/2 in copper pipe soldered together with lead free solder to fit the mash vessel. Vertical elbows were added to help stabilize it. 1/16 in holes were drilled into the tube. Smaller holes would probably be better if one could find a smaller drill. One problem I had was that the water would not reach the holes furthest away from he entry site unless the manifold was tipped up as in the picture. I can change the angle of the entry tube at a later date.

The Manifold seemed to work well, It can be manually moved to help distribute the water. Control of the flow was easy by using the valve on the water vessel. By keeping a 1/2 in head of water on the mash, I doubt any troughs were formed through the grain bed.

Hefeweizen v.2

Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Clone
5 gallons
7/1/2007

4 oz aromatic malt
2 oz acid malt

The grains were heated to 155F in 1 quart of water, and left to steep for 30 minutes. The liquid was strained into the brewpot, the total amount of liquid was brought up to 1.5 gallons, and brought to a boil. The following were then added:

5.75 lb Munton's Wheat DME
2 oz malto-dextrin
1 oz Hallertau hops

The total amount of liquid was increased to 2.5 gallons and the wort was brought to a boil. After 45 minutes of vigorous boiling, I added:

1/4 oz Perle hops
1/4 oz Spalt hops

After a final 15 minutes of boil, the wort was cooled and added to the fermenter; the total liquid was topped up to 5 gallons, and I added the yeast:

Whitelabs WLP300 Hefeweizen Ale Yeast

After 24 hours, an EXTREMELY vigorous amount of fermentation activity was visible, noisily forcing CO2 and foam out of the airlock; I brought the fermenter downstairs to regulate the temperature somewhat. After a week in the primary, all seemed well - there was much evidence of that vigorous activity when I opened the lid - and the specific gravity was down to 1.012.

Southampton 10th Anniversary Old Ale

Rating: 2

Southampton Publick House
Southampton, NY
Style: Old Ale
ABV: 8.8%
750 ml

Not much carbonation when I uncorked the bottle. Deep red color with minimal head when the beer was poured. Strong complex beer, with many flavors going on. Pick any one you want, its probably there: raisin, caramel, date, ...

Not having had too many old ales, this beer kept reminding me of a barleywine, minus some of the hops. Great to drink sitting around a fire on a cold winter night. Might also be interesting to age for a couple more years.