Friday, September 17, 2010

Dreg Series: Lost Belgian Abbey Dubbel

Another experimental batch. To be honest with this one I don't have high hopes. I'm not really even sure why I used this yeast after I pitched it. But I guess if anything it is a good test. Here's why I have a doubt. I pitched the dregs from Lost Abbey's Judgment Day (This is the base beer for Cuvee de Tomme). My original reason for wanting to use this yeast is because Lost Abbey uses their house Belgian yeast. They make great beer so I was hoping it would help me make good beer. The part I didn't think about was the stress I'm putting on this already stressed out yeast. Judgement Day is a Belgian Quad at 10.5%. And I was pitching this small amount of yeast straight into a gallon of 1.060 wort.
Well, this stuff has some power, it had a nice 1" krausen in 24 hours. It was pitched and fermented warmer than I would like at around 74. San Diego has had some hot weather lately and I had no room in my fermentation cabinet.

Day 1:
Day 2:
Day 11:
Gravity - 1.035
Taste - still too sweet to judge but does have a touch of Belgian character but I smelled a touch of hot alcohol. It's really too early to tell.
So the next exciting part of this experiment is that I was given some grapes that were left on the vine too long. So they are now raisins. They were not sure the variety so I'll do some research. I think they are going to be perfect for this beer, especially color wise since they are a dark purple. I am planning to candy them a bit on the stove before adding (similar to this). Check back for an update. Below is a preview.
Update 9.22.10
The above grapes were added with 2 oz dextrin

Update 2.5.11
Gravity 1.007
Has some funk on the nose and still some nice Belgian Dubbel taste. It does have a good amount of alcohol warmth. May blend with red wine when I bottle.

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