Belgian Dubbel & Hop Update

Now that Elise’s parents are in town to help with the impending arrival of Cody, I was able to get a brew session in. The dubbel is now on tap and as soon as Cody arrives we’ll open the Schwarzbier for business. As both are of the darker persuasion, and neither is hoppy, I thought a pale ale would be a good Summer beer. We’ll make an IPA soon, but I wanted something a little tamer on tap for Elise as she’ll need some time to get back into the swing of things.

This grist is essentially the same we’ve done for our Double Pale Ale in the past which is a combination of  Crystal 40L and Carapils and a small amount of Crystal 60L for some more color. The hop bill will be different this time around though. The online site I buy hops from is all out of Amarillo for the season (which we normally use), so this time we’ll sub some Ahtanum hops. They are florally/citrusy like Amarillo, but a little more herby and definitely less grape-fruity than Amarillo. We’ll bitter with Chinook, then a combination of Ahtanum + Centennial + Chinook as our aroma hops/dry hop.

The brew day itself was uneventual; so much in fact, it was one of the fastest days I can remember. Normally, with a 60 minute boil, from start to finish (everything cleaned) I usually take 4-4.5 hours. On Saturday, I started at 7 and was completely done by 1040. The original gravity came out to about 1056, which should yield a respectable 5.4-5.6% alcohol in the final product. I’ll let this one ferment for about 10 days, then cold crash for 3 days, and then it’ll be kegged. Hopefully, this one will be ready to drink on tap in about 3 weeks.

In other news, the hops are growing up the house nicely. They have definitely used the extra climbing height we gave them this year as a few bines have already reached the roof. I’ve been having some issues with fertilizers (I think?) as the leaves are a little yellow, especially near the bottom. Hopefully it’s nothing to worry about and the hot weather that is coming will make for some good growing conditions. I haven’t seen any bines yet this year, but we still have a few months before harvest season starts. Looking back at old pictures from last year, we didnt have any cones until around the end of July, so we're still on track as of now. Hopefully we'll get enough hops to make a beer this year. 

Centennial

Newport