Been Brewing

I haven’t been blogging much lately. There, I said it. Why? I’ve been busy brewing:

1) A few weeks ago I corked the 2010 HolzBrew Holiday Ale, dubbed “Reindeer Games.” This was my first experience using a corker, but after a test run it was pretty easy to figure out. I basically followed the steps laid out in the following excellent article in BYO magazine.
If you brew and are interested in presentation, investing in a corker is the way to go. I think for something like a Holiday Ale that you pass out to friends and family as gifts, it really makes your homebrew unique.

The beer is a Belgian strong golden ale that I brewed back in July and subsequently lagered for approximately two months. I understand that Duvel-Moorgat lagers Duvel and I hope to emulate some of the fantastic flavors you find in that beer.

2) A few months back I was inspired to focus on brewing Belgian ales after reading Brew Like a Monk by Stan Hieronymus (a great gift for the holidays), an excellent book for those interested in trying their hand at Belgian brewing. To contrast with Reindeer Games, I brewed a Belgian dark strong ale a few weeks later. My main inspirations for this ale were St Bernardus Abt 12 and Ommegang Three Philosophers. The end result is probably leaning more toward Three Philosophers as the beer definitely has a fruity-raspberry kick. Long story short, I bottled that beer this weekend and am eagerly waiting for an opportunity to crack one open.

3) About two months ago I brewed an Extra Stout. This is currently on tap at la casa HolzBrew. I dry hopped the keg with 3 ounces of cracked espresso beans, which really imparts a fresh coffee flavor. I love dry hopping kegs and I'm not sure why it me until recently to start doing this.

4) About 5 weeks ago I decided to get back to my roots and brew up a good 'ole fashion tongue scorching IPA for kegging sometime in the next couple of weeks. This is the first time I have brewed an IPA with something other than California Ale yeast. I decided to branch out and try some yeast from the other side of the pond, Ringwood Ale Yeast. I hopped with a combination of Centennial, Simcoe, and Warrior hops. The IBUs on this thing is off the charts, can't wait!

5) This past weekend I brewed up a batch of lambic. I stuck pretty closely to a partial mash recipe that I found online. This brew should be done fermenting sometime in 2012 (no kidding), so I'll have to exercise some patience. I'm already planning on splitting the batch and bottling some of it unblended and blending the other half of the batch with Marionberries (that's right, there is a berry that shares it's name with the infamous DC mayor).

That's the basic run down of brewing operations over the last month. I'll keep up the blog better in November. Go Hokies!

-HolzBrew

Tripel Sunrise

Last Sunday I set aside a few hours to myself to brew this year's HolzBrew Holiday ale. Well I decided to go big this year and as would be expected, something a little different. I concocted a fairly traditional Belgian Tripel recipe, but I substituted a pound and half of Organic Blue Agave Syrup for the traditional Belgian candied sugar. Why in God's name would I do this? Why not? If I want a great traditional tripel a trip to Norm's or Pizza Paradiso for Westmalle, Allagash, or even Victory can easily satiate that hankering, but neither of those establishments offers something as original as a tripel brewed with agave syrup. I've heard of people experimenting with agave, but honestly even using Google I wasn't able to find out much in regards to the results or even appropriate amount to add to a beer. And even if I had, who is to say how much is appropriate for a tripel. I relied largely on pale pilsner malt for the body and exclusively Czech Saaz hops and lastly Wyeast Abbey Ale yeast. The post brew stats show this one clocking in at a staggering 1.095 original gravity (expected ABV of 10%).

My plan is to ferment this through to November and then bottle it in Belgian beer bottles, cork it, and gift it to friends as a Holiday present. Depending on how the fermentation takes a full sized bottle of this could quite possibly kill you, jk.

Put on your shades, a warm winter jacket, and enjoy the tripel sunrise,

HolzBrew

Trappists IV: Westmalle

Its been awhile since I posted in my series of trappist breweries. Well today's post covers the Westmalle brewery, home of the original tripel!

The Trappist abbey in Westmalle was founded 6 June 1794. Martinus Dom, the first abbot decided to brew their own beer, and the first beer was brewed in 1836. The first beer was described as light in alcohol and rather sweet. By 1856, the monks had added a second beer: the first strong brown beer. This brown beer is today considered the first double (dubbel, in Dutch). The current Dubbel is derived from a recipe first brewed in 1926. The monks began local commercial sales in 1856.

The brewery was enlarged and rebuilt in 1865 based on the example set by the Trappists of Forges (nearby Chimay). Father Ignatius van Ham joined the brewer team. Further commercialization and sales to traders commenced in 1921. In 1933 a new brewery was built and in 1934, the brewery brewed a strong pale ale of 9.5% abv giving it the name TRIPEL - the first known use of the name! The brewery was remodeled in 1991. It currently has a bottling capacity of 45,000 bottles per hour, and yearly output of 120,000 hL (in 2004).

The brewery produces three beers.

* Westmalle Dubbel, a 7% ABV Dubbel. Despite its dark color and strong aroma, it is not as rich and full-bodied as one might think upon imbibing. It does not go straight to the head, and is a local favorite because of its soft flavor. It has a brown color from dark malts and dark candy sugar as well as a dry finish.

* Tripel Westmalle, a 9.5% ABV tripel, was first brewed in 1934 and the recipe has not changed since 1956. It is made with pale candy sugar and has a very pale color produced from a mash of light pilsner malts. Styrian Goldings hops are used along with some German varieties and the classic Czech Saaz pilsner hop. After a long secondary fermentation, the Tripel is bottled with a dose of sugar and yeast. This beer holds up well in the bottle over time and seems to soften with age.

* Westmalle Extra, 5% ABV, a beer produced only for the monks (patersbier). It is not available for sale, but can sometimes appear at local beer festivals.

The abbey also produces milk and cheese.

Drink like a monk,

HolzBrew

Trappists III - Rochefort

Rochefort, the brewery, is located inside the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy, near the town of Rochefort, and has been brewing beer since 1595. There are approximately 15 monks resident at the monastery. The monks are very secretive about the brewing process, and the brewery is not open to the public, therefore much of the information publicly known about the brewery comes from only a few sources.

Circa 1230, Gilles de Walcourt, count of Rochefort, founded a monastery for Cistercian nuns called Secours de Notre-Dame. In 1464 Louis de la Marck ordered the nuns to leave the monastery which had decayed and they were replaced by monks. During the Eighty Years War the abbey was ravaged by the protestant armies of the Seventeen Provinces (a personal union of Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, a part of the North of France, and a small part of the West of Germany) and the Austrian armies of John of Austria (1577). Around 1595, the first brewery was founded within the abbey.

In the 17th century the abbey suffered from war, famine and the plague. On 30 April 1650, an army from Lorraine, lead by baron Châtelet, invaded the abbey. The monks had to flee, and again in 1652 and 1653.

In 1789 the French revolutionary army invaded the Austrian Netherlands, and in 1797 the abbey was closed and sold to Lucien-Jospeh Poncelet. Poncelet demolished the abbey around 1805 and converted it to a farm. Material of the abbey was used for buildings in the town of Rochefort.

On 11 October 1887, father Anselmus Judong from the Trappist Abbey of Achel (we'll cover these guys in an upcoming post) came to the old abbey and on 21 December 1887 the buildings were bought by the monks of Achel. The abbey was restored and new buildings were raised. A new brewery was founded, but it would take until 1952 for the brewery to produce enough beer to be sold.

Like many strong Belgian beers, those produced at Rochefort age well and can be cellared for up to five years while maintaining quality. Each of these beers is brewed to the same recipe, with the only difference being the alcoholic content. The water for the beers is drawn from a well located inside the monastery walls.

It produces three trappist beers :

* Rochefort 6 (red cap, brown beer, 7.5% ABV). Reddish color, almost like autumn leaves, very consistent texture with a slightly spicy aroma and an intense taste of caramel, fruit, and hints of raisins. It is only brewed about once per year, representing approximately 1% of total beer production. Strangely this beer can be easily obtained in the Northern Virginia area. I know several of the Whole Foods regularly carry it as well as Norm's in Vienna, Va.

* Rochefort 8 (green cap, brown beer, 9.2% ABV). Yellowish-brown color. This variety constitutes the largest proportion of production. I can honestly say I've never had this beer and that it is fairly hard to find in the NOVA area.

* Rochefort 10 (blue cap, dark beer, 11.3% ABV). Reddish-brown color, with a very compact and creamy head and an aroma of figs, feels like honey in the mouth. The alcohol profile is a major component in the flavor of this strong ale. This beer can be found in the NoVa area, but it usually leaves the shelves quickly.

Trappists II

Orval Brewery (Brasserie d'Orval)

Orval Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1132 in the Gaume region of Belgium and is located in Villers-devant-Orval, part of Florenville in the province of Luxembourg (not the country!).

In 1793, during the French Revolution, the abbey was completely burnt down by French forces, in retaliation for the hospitality it had provided to Austrian troops, and the Trappist monks dispersed. In 1887, the land and ruins were acquired by the Harenne family. They donated the lands back to the Cistercian order in 1926 so that monastic life could resume on the site. Between 1926 and 1948, under the direction of the Trappist monk Marie-Albert van der Cruyssen, the new monastery was constructed, and in 1935 Orval regained the rank of abbey.

Despite not commercially producing beer until more recently, Orval probably always had a brewery onsite, brewing beer was customary in these areas ill-suited for vine-growing. Beer was first and foremost considered for its nourishing properties : it was called "liquid bread". Various facts corroborate this idea : topographical references on old drawings; a detailed description of production left by a Franciscan visitor three hundred years ago; and an area called the "hop-field" very close to the monastery.

In 1529, the Emperor Charles Quint granted the monks authorization to establish a foundry which would provide the necessary revenues for the monks to financially support themselves. When Orval later (circa 1926) began to rise again from its ruins after more than 130 years, the enormous task of rebuilding the monastery required considerable financial means; a brewery was established to assume the role of the former foundry.

This newly established brewery employed lay-people. The first master brewer was a German by the name of Pappenheimer; he is buried at Villers-devant-Orval. The origins of Orval's very distinctive beer can probably be attributed jointly to Mr. Pappenheimer and to the Belgians, Honoré Van Zande and John Vanhuele who were working in the brewery at the same period. They were adventurous brewers who employed methods that were not used by any local monasteries or brewers at the time. Several of these methods, such as the infusion brewing and the "dry-hopping" are English: probably owed to John Vanhuele, who brought them from England.

Currently the brewery produces two trappist beers:

* Orval Trappist Ale, 6.9% ABV, often referred to as The Queen of Trappists. It was first made in 1931, and has a complex and unusual flavor and aroma produced by a unique strain of yeast. The beer is light in color, slightly cloudy, and has a large, foamy head. There is a complex aroma of leather, horse blanket, spice, and many other earthy components.

* Petite Orval, 3.5% ABV, beer brewed only for the monks. Although not generally available for sale, it can be purchased in the monastery itself or the café near the monastery.

Because the beer is bottle conditioned, its flavor can improve over the years with aging, although its hop character and relatively low alcohol make it less suitable for this purpose than some other Trappist ales.

As with most Trappist beer, Orval is considered to be world class quality and highly critically acclaimed. Orval is also known for its unique "skittle" shaped bottle.

-HolzBrew

Trappist Breweries: The grand daddy of them all

Here's to the Anheuser Busch of Trappist Breweries, Chimay. In fact, the name Chimay is almost synonymous with "Trappist". I've been surprised that in the last two or three years Chimay has made its way from small specialty beer bars (and stores) to your grocer's beer aisle all over the country. What's Chimay's story? Here goes:

The brewery was founded at Scourmont Abbey, in the Belgian municipality of Chimay in 1862. In order to meet their needs and to sustain employment in the region, since 1862 the Trappist monks of Chimay have produced beers and cheeses.

The brewery produces three commercially distributed ales and a beer exclusively for the monks. The brewery was updated in 1988, and currently produces 120,000 hectolitres annually. Since 1876 the monastery has also made cheese, and currently offers four cheeses.

As with all Trappist breweries, the beer is sold only for financial support of the monastery and other good causes. All of the profit from the sale of the beer is distributed to charities and for community development around the region. The water for the beers is drawn from a well located on the monastery premises. The filtered solids from the beer mash are recycled into livestock feed which is given to the same cows that produce the milk for Chimay cheeses. That's the monks way of keeping it Green!, no doubt.

Once brewed, the beer is transported from the monastery to the bottling plant 12 km away. The beer is then refermented in the bottle for three weeks before being shipped around the world. 20% of Chimay beer production is sold on the export markets.

The Beers

The brewing ingredients have been the subject of interest by many brewers world-wide, all the beers are made from water, malted barley, wheat starch, sugar, hop extract and yeast; malt extract is used in the Rouge and Bleu for coloring.

* Chimay Rouge (Red), 7% abv. It is known as Première. It is a dark brown color and has a sweet, fruity aroma. The malt in this beer has a nutty character that goes well with the hints of pepper from the house yeast.

* Chimay Bleue (Blue), 9% abv darker ale. It is known as Grande Réserve. This copper-brown beer has a creamy head and a slightly bitter taste. Considered to be the "classic" Chimay ale, it exhibits a considerable depth of fruity, peppery character.

* Chimay Blanche (White), or Chimay Triple, 8% abv golden tripel. It is known as Cinq Cents. This crisp beer bears a light orange color and a very bitter taste, and is the most hopped and dryest of the three.

* Chimay Dorée, 4.8% abv ale, brewed from very similar ingredients as the Red, but paler and spiced differently. It is intended only to be drunk at the abbey or at the nearby inn Auberge de Poteaupré which is associated with the abbey. The monks themselves drink this variety rather than the stronger three. The Dorée is not sold commercially and the rare bottles which make their way out are through unofficial sources. Even the brewery's own web site makes no mention of this variety.

The Cheeses

* Chimay with Beer, whose rind is soaked in Chimay beer.

* Chimay Grand Classic, a semi-hard pressed cheese.

* Chimay Grand Cru, made from pasteurized milk and matured for six weeks.

* Old Chimay, a hard cheese matured for at least six months.

Well that's Chimay in a nutshell. Pick some up next time your at the store, if you are extremely patient save a bottle or two and age it for a year or two.

-HolzBrew

Trappist Beer

A few days ago I shared a Koningshoeven Quadrupel with my father-in-law and Meg and I realized that it was a Trappist beer that I had never heard of. With the recent rise in popularity of Trappist beers, it got me thinking. How many Trappist breweries are there?

First, it probably makes sense to define what a Trappist brewery is. Trappist beer is beer brewed by Trappist monks. Who are the Trappist monks? They are Roman Catholic monks of the "Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance." According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/), this order was started by the Abbot de Rancé (b. 1626; d. 1700) in the Abbey of La Trappe, in France, in reaction to the relaxation of practices in many Cistercian monasteries.

The life of the Trappists is guided by the Rule of St. Benedict, written in the sixth century. As a "contemplative order", the Trappists live a life of prayer and penance. The day of a Trappist is divided between work and prayer. Manual work is preferred over other types of work and Trappist monasteries generally provide for themselves through the sale of goods produced in the monastery (e.g. beer, cheese). Except for the ill, they abstain from meat and fowl and eat fish on a limited basis. To the extent that it is practical, they are expected to remain silent throughout the day and most especially at night. They are expected to live a life of strict personal poverty with few personal possessions and limited contact with the outside world.

Currently there are nearly 170 Trappist monasteries in the world, the home of approximately 2,500 Trappist monks and 1,800 Trappist nuns. Despite the 170 monasteries, only seven produce beer commercially (six in Belgium and one in The Netherlands).

The posts to follow will cover each of these Trappist breweries.

Brew like a Trappist,

HolzBrew