Something a little stronger...

It's time to get back to brewing, and with the warmer (i.e., really hot) weather, it's likely that I'll be spending a good bit of time indoors, particularly during the hottest part of the day.  So, why not get things going and build up a bit of stock?  I am going to get on to some fruit-forward IPAs, but I thought I'd start with something adventurous.  I stopped by the local home brew supply shop, and while I was browsing through the hops in the refrigerator, I decided to pick up a packet of Safbrew BE-256 dry yeast, formerly known as "Abbaye".  I've brewed with this before, and I figured I'd gite it another go.

Brew Day: 20 Jul 2017

Partial Mash:
16 oz Munich malt
4 oz rye
2 oz flaked wheat

Boil (20 min):
1 lb Pilsen DME (@ 20 min)
14 g German Perle hops (AA: 7.5%, @ 20 min)
1 oz sliced fresh ginger (@ 5 min)
1 lb wild honey (@ 0 min)
14 g German Perle hops (AA: 7.5%, @ 0 min)

Yeast: Safbrew BE-256

*I followed all of my usual steps for partial mashing, boil, cooling the wort, and pitching the yeast.


This will hopefully be one of several beers to be available toward the end of August. Maybe I'll call this one "Abbie...Abbie...Abbie Someone".  ;-)

Quick Update: Just a few hours after I pitched the yeast, I was down in the basement and I stuck my head in to take a look...and the yeast is going absolutely crazy!  The yeast really took hold and is eating up the sugar!  When the description said that it moved fast, I had no idea...most of my other stuff usually took a bit longer to get to this point.

Addendum, 21 Jul: Swapped out the blow-off bottle this morning...it was just about to completely overflow.  As soon as I did, I could see/hear the rapid flow of bubbles flowing into the new bottle.  Very nice!  I took a good whiff of the contents of the old bottle, got some sweet fruit in the nose.  It will be very interesting to see how this is going in a week to 10 days, after the yeast has had a good long time to eat through the sugar.  Also, I'm hoping that by adding the honey at the end of boil, I retain some of the flavor.

Addendum, 6 Aug: Bottled today, with 2 1/2 T of sugar dissolved in 1/2 c. boiling water.  Got 6 good bottles and 2 larger bottles out of it.

Addendum, 21 Aug: Chilled two small bottles over the weekend, opened them last night.  Opening the bottle, there was the slightest, very small escape of gas.  The beer poured with no carbonation.  The beer itself was good...full-bodied thickness, very tasty.  There as also a boozy warmth to the beer, as well.  My thinking on this one (note: I do not test of gravity due to the volumes I brew) is that the alcohol level overwhelmed the yeast, so there was very little left viable at bottling.

Addendum, 18 Nov: I kept a couple of the bottles around, and this evening, we opened one...and found that it poured with a wonderful head!  So, two regular bottles met their end tonight, and there's still a 22 oz flip top bottle available.