Louis-Philippe Véronneau - beerhttps://veronneau.org/2022-01-22T00:00:00-05:00Homebrewing recipes2022-01-22T00:00:00-05:002022-01-22T00:00:00-05:00Louis-Philippe Véronneautag:veronneau.org,2022-01-22:/homebrewing-recipes.html<p>Looking at my blog, it seems I haven't written anything about homebrewing in a
while. In fact, the last time I did was when I had a <a href="/disaster-a-brewing.html">carboy blow out</a> on
me in the middle of the night...</p>
<p>Fear not, I haven't stopped brewing since then. I have in fact …</p><p>Looking at my blog, it seems I haven't written anything about homebrewing in a
while. In fact, the last time I did was when I had a <a href="/disaster-a-brewing.html">carboy blow out</a> on
me in the middle of the night...</p>
<p>Fear not, I haven't stopped brewing since then. I have in fact decided to
publish my homebrew recipes. Not on this blog though, as it would get pretty
repetitive.</p>
<p><a href="/media/beer/">So here are my recipes</a>. So far, I've brewed around 30 different
beers!</p>
<p>The format is pretty simple (no fancy HTML, just plain markdown) and although
I'm not the most scientific brewer, you should be able to replicate some of
those if that's what you want to try.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>A Good Harvest of the Devil's Lettuce2018-10-15T00:00:00-04:002018-10-15T00:00:00-04:00Louis-Philippe Véronneautag:veronneau.org,2018-10-15:/a-good-harvest-of-the-devils-lettuce.html<p><img src="/media/blog/2018-10-15/ready_to_dry.jpg" title="Hop cones layed out for drying" alt="Hop cones layed out for drying" height="30%" width="30%" style="float:right"></p>
<p>You might have heard that Canada's legalising marijuana in 2 days. Even though
I think it's a pretty good idea, this post is not about pot, but about another
type of Devil's Lettuce: hops.</p>
<p>As we all know, homebrewing beer is a gateway into growing hops, a highly
suspicious activity …</p><p><img src="/media/blog/2018-10-15/ready_to_dry.jpg" title="Hop cones layed out for drying" alt="Hop cones layed out for drying" height="30%" width="30%" style="float:right"></p>
<p>You might have heard that Canada's legalising marijuana in 2 days. Even though
I think it's a pretty good idea, this post is not about pot, but about another
type of Devil's Lettuce: hops.</p>
<p>As we all know, homebrewing beer is a gateway into growing hops, a highly
suspicious activity that attracts only marginals and deviants. Happy to say I've
been successfully growing hops for two years now and this year's harvest has
been bountiful.</p>
<p>Two years ago, I planted two hops plants, one chinook and one triple pearl. A
year prior to this I had tried to grow a cascade plant in a container on my
balcony, but it didn't work out well. This time I got around to plant the
rhizomes in the ground under my balcony and had the bines grow on ropes.</p>
<p>Although I've been having trouble with the triple pearl (the soil where I live
is thick and heavy clay - not the best for hops), the chinook has been growing
pretty well.</p>
<p><img src="/media/blog/2018-10-15/on_the_bines.jpg" title="Closeup of my chinook hops on the bines" alt="Closeup of my chinook hops on the bines" height="30%" width="30%" style="float:right"></p>
<p>Harvest time is always fun and before taking the bines down, I didn't know how
much cones I would get this year. I'd say compared to last year, I tripled my
yield. With some luck (and better soil), I should be able to get my triple pearl
to produce cones next year.</p>
<p>Here a nice poem about the usefulness of hops written by Thomas Tusser in 1557:</p>
<pre>
The hop for his profit I thus do exalt,
It strengtheneth drink and it flavoureth malt;
And being well-brewed long kept it will last,
And drawing abide, if ye draw not too fast.
</pre>
<p>So remember kids, don't drink and upload and if you decide to grow some of the
Devil's Lettuce, make sure you use it to <em>flavoureth malt</em> and not your joint.
The ones waging war on drugs might not like it.</p>Disaster a-Brewing2018-06-06T00:00:00-04:002018-06-06T00:00:00-04:00Louis-Philippe Véronneautag:veronneau.org,2018-06-06:/disaster-a-brewing.html<p>I brewed two new batches of beer last March and I've been so busy since I
haven't had time to share how much of a failure it was.</p>
<p>See, after three years I thought I was getting better at brewing beer and the
whole process of mashing, boiling, fermenting and …</p><p>I brewed two new batches of beer last March and I've been so busy since I
haven't had time to share how much of a failure it was.</p>
<p>See, after three years I thought I was getting better at brewing beer and the
whole process of mashing, boiling, fermenting and bottling was supposed to be
all figured out by now.</p>
<p>Turns out I was both greedy and unlucky and - woe is me! - one of my carboy
exploded. Imagine 15 liters (out of a 19L batch) spilling out in my bedroom at
1AM with such force that the sound of the rubber bung shattering on the ceiling
woke me up in panic. I legitimately thought someone had been shot in my bedroom.</p>
<p><img src="/media/blog/2018-06-06/carboy.jpg" title="This carboy was full to the brim prior to the beerxplosion" alt="This carboy was full to the brim prior to the beerxplosion" height="30%" width="30%" style="float:left"></p>
<p>The aftermath left the walls, the ceiling and the wooden floor covered in thick
semi-sweet brown liquid.</p>
<p>This was the first time I tried a "new" brewing technique called parti-gyle.
When doing a parti-gyle, you reuse the same grains twice to make two different
batches of beer: typically, the first batch is strong, whereas the second one is
pretty low in alcohol.
Parti-gyle used to be way beer was brewed a few hundred years ago. The Belgian
monks made their Tripels with the first mash, the Dubbels with the second mash,
and the final mash was brewed with funky yeasts to make lighter beers like
Saisons.</p>
<p>The reason for my carboy exploding was twofold. First of all, I was greedy and
filled the carboy too much for the high-gravity porter I was brewing. When your
wort is very sweet, the yeast tends to degas a whole lot more and needs more
head space not to spill over.
At this point, any homebrewer with experience will revolt and say something like
"<em>Why didn't you use a blow-off tube you dummy!</em>". A <a href="http://www.love2brew.com/Articles.asp?ID=279">blow-off</a> tube is a tube
that comes out the airlock into a large tub of water and helps contain the
effects of violent primary fermentation. With a blow-off tube, instead of having
beer spill out everywhere (or worse, having your airlock completely explode),
the mess is contained to the water vessel the tube is in.</p>
<p>The thing is, I did use a blow-off tube. Previous experience taught me how
useful they can be. No, the real reason my carboy exploded was my airlock
clogged up and let pressure build up until the bung gave way. The particular
model of airlock I used was a three piece airlock with a little cross at the end
of the plastic tube<sup id="fnref:1"><a class="footnote-ref" href="#fn:1">1</a></sup>. Turns out that little cross accumulated yeast and when
that yeast dried up, it created a solid plug. Easy to say my airlocks don't have
these little crosses anymore...</p>
<p>On a more positive note, it was also the first time I dry-hopped with full cones
instead of pellets. I had some leftover cones in the freezer from my summer
harvest and decided to use them. The result was great as the cones make for less
trub than pellets when dry-hopping.</p>
<h2>Recipes</h2>
<p>What was left of the porter came out great. Here's the recipe if you want to try
to replicate it. The second mash was also surprisingly good and turned out to be
a very drinkable brown beer.</p>
<p><img src="/media/blog/2018-06-06/hops.jpg" title="Closeup shot of hops floating in my carboy" alt="Closeup shot of hops floating in my carboy" height="30%" width="30%" style="float:right"></p>
<h3>Party Porter (first mash)</h3>
<p>The target boil volume is 23L and the target batch size 17L. Mash at 65°C and
ferment at 19°C.</p>
<p>Since this is a parti-gyle, do not sparge. If you don't reach the desired boil
size in the kettle, top it off with water until you reach 23L.</p>
<p>Black Malt gives very nice toasty aromas to this porter, whereas the Oat Flakes
and the unmalted Black Barley make for a nice black and foamy head.</p>
<p>Malt:</p>
<ul>
<li>5.7 kg x Superior Pale Ale</li>
<li>450 g x Amber Malt</li>
<li>450 g x Black Barley (not malted)</li>
<li>400 g x Oat Flakes</li>
<li>300 g x Crystal Dark</li>
<li>200 g x Black Malt</li>
</ul>
<p>Hops:</p>
<ul>
<li>13 g x Bravo (15.5% alpha acid) - 60 min Boil</li>
<li>13 g x Bramling Cross (6.0% alpha acid) - 30 min Boil</li>
<li>13 g x Challenger (7.0% alpha acid) - 30 min Boil</li>
</ul>
<p>Yeast:</p>
<ul>
<li>White Labs - American Ale Yeast Blend - WLP060</li>
</ul>
<h3>Party Brown (second mash)</h3>
<p>The target boil volume is 26L and the target batch size 18L. Mash at 65°C for
over an hour, sparge slowly and ferment at 19°C.</p>
<p>The result is a very nice table beer.</p>
<p>Malt:</p>
<p>same as for the Party Porter, since we are doing a parti-gyle.</p>
<p>Hops:</p>
<ul>
<li>31 g x Northern Brewer (9.0% alpha acid) - 60 min Boil</li>
<li>16 g x Kent Goldings (5.5% alpha acid) - 15 min Boil</li>
<li>13 g x Kent Goldings (5.5% alpha acid) - 5 min Boil</li>
<li>13 g x Chinook (cones) - Dry Hop</li>
</ul>
<p>Yeast:</p>
<ul>
<li>White Labs - Nottingham Ale Yeast - WLP039</li>
</ul>
<div class="footnote">
<hr>
<ol>
<li id="fn:1">
<p>The same kind of cross you can find in sinks to keep you from dropping
objects down the drain by inadvertance. <a class="footnote-backref" href="#fnref:1" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Holiday Beer Recipe - Le Courant Noir2017-12-24T00:00:00-05:002017-12-24T00:00:00-05:00Louis-Philippe Véronneautag:veronneau.org,2017-12-24:/holiday-beer-recipe-le-courant-noir.html<p>It's holiday season once again, and while I'm waiting for the deserts I made for
my family's Christmas party to finish cooking (I highly recommend <em>Bon Apétit</em>'s
<a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bruleed-bourbon-maple-pumpkin-pie">Brûléed Bourbon-Maple Pumpkin Pie</a>), I opened one of the beers I brewed
recently.</p>
<p>And oh boy, what a success. </p>
<p>I've been brewing …</p><p>It's holiday season once again, and while I'm waiting for the deserts I made for
my family's Christmas party to finish cooking (I highly recommend <em>Bon Apétit</em>'s
<a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/bruleed-bourbon-maple-pumpkin-pie">Brûléed Bourbon-Maple Pumpkin Pie</a>), I opened one of the beers I brewed
recently.</p>
<p>And oh boy, what a success. </p>
<p>I've been brewing beer with 2 other friends for a few years now, and while we've
brewed some excellent stuff in the past, I feel <em>Le Courant Noir</em><sup><a href="#note1">1</a></sup>
- a blackcurrant witbier-inspired ale - is my most resounding achievement.</p>
<p>This was my first time brewing with fresh fruits, and I'm very happy with the
results. The beer has a very pleasant, sharp nose of blackcurrants and esters.
To the taste, the blackcurrant comes through, but is counterbalanced by the malt
and pretty high alcohol content (~8% ABV). The result is a tart, ever so
slightly acidic fruity beer. I love it.</p>
<p><img src="/media/blog/2017-12-24/courant_noir.jpg" title="A glass of Courant Noir" alt="A glass of Courant Noir" height="30%" width="30%" style="float:right"></p>
<p>So yeah, I thought I'd share the recipe in case you want to try replicating it.
Try to get fresh blackcurrant, as what you are looking for is the tart taste of
the blackcurrant. Using syrup, you're bound to get some jelly-like aftertaste.</p>
<h2>Recipe</h2>
<p>The target boil volume is 25L and the target batch size 20L. I'm mashing with a
pretty low efficiency (70%), so if you use a proper mash tun, you might want to
use a little less grain.</p>
<p>Mash at 67°C and ferment at 19°C. Add the blackcurrants whole once the primary
fermentation is over.</p>
<p>Malt:</p>
<ul>
<li>2.8 kg x 2 row Pale Malt</li>
<li>2.8 kg x White Wheat Malt</li>
<li>1.0 kg x Munich Malt</li>
</ul>
<p>Hops:</p>
<ul>
<li>35 g x Saaz (4.4% alpha acid) - 60 min Boil</li>
<li>25 g x Saaz (4.4% alpha acid) - 30 min Boil</li>
<li>15 g x Saaz (4.4% alpha acid) - Dry Hop</li>
</ul>
<p>Yeast:</p>
<ul>
<li>White Labs Belgian Witbier Ale Yeast - WLP400</li>
</ul>
<p>Other:</p>
<ul>
<li>25 g x Coriander Seeds (crushed) - 10 min Boil</li>
<li>1.7 kg x Whole Blackcurrant</li>
</ul>
<h2>Pie</h2>
<p>Here's a bonus picture of the pie I referenced earlier.</p>
<p><img src="/media/blog/2017-12-24/pumpkin_pie.jpg" title="Pumpkin pie in the oven in a cast iron pan" alt="Pumpkin pie in the over in a cast iron pan" height="100%" width="100%"></p>
<hr>
<p style="font-size:95%;"><a name="note1">1</a> - Amongst other things, "courant noir"
is the French word-for-word translation for blackcurrant. It's also a very bad
translation pun Ⓐ ⚑.</p>