Posted on November 20th, 2007 by Curt Bird
New Belgium Brewery “Fat Tire” Clone of Belgian Ale
– R. Curtis Bird September 2007
Grain
– 4 lb Belgian Pilsner
– 5 lb Munich
– 12 oz biscuit (Victory)
– 2 oz dark crystal 90 LV
– 3 oz caramunich
– 3 oz aromatic
– 0.5 lb rice hulls (optional to improve sparge – add to dough-in without milling)
Additions to Boil
– ¾ oz Hallertauer – 60 min
– ¾ oz Hallertauer – 10 min (original was Mt. Hood but none available, same at 1 min)
– ¾ oz Hallertauer – 1 min
– 1 tsp gypsum in boil
– 1.5 tsp Irish moss – 15 min
Brewer’s Notes
– Mash in 95oF with 56 cps aged (chlorine-free) water
– Protein rest 133oF 20 min
– Mash 1 hr 148oF 30 min, 158oF for 30 min
– Mash out 165oF 5 min
– Recirculate about 2 gallons of sweet wort (Vourlagh sp?)
– Sparge with about 6.75 gal water 77oC
– Collect about 7.2 gal
– Boil 90 min
– Chill, whirlpool and rack to primary
– Estimated original gravity = ~1.050
– Estimated final gravity = ~1.012 and ~5% ethanol
– Pitch Wyeast #1214 Belgian Abbey Ale II
– Ferment 1 week ~62oF
– Rack to secondary after 1 week and hold for 2 additional weeks
– Bottle with 7/8 cp dextrose boiled 10 min in 3 cps water
– Bottles recovered: 30 – 18 oz, 12 – 12 oz
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Posted on August 2nd, 2007 by Curt Bird
What a delightful find - the Auburn Brew Club! I have been homebrewing for about 30 years, the last 22 years in Auburn. I am a whole grain brewer with a fairly simple cooler-style setup but the beer is good by all accounts. I have a proper freezer incubator fermentation chamber and am a professional when it comes to cell/yeast culture (that is part of my research in my professional life). I specialize in Belgians and English sours - I grew up in Canada and the culture there is very different regarding beer. We don’t shake hands so much - just pass new acquaintances a beer! Phist! – and the job is done!
Anyway, by virtue of an introduction, I have several friends who home brew as well and we have talked about such a club for years - just never seemed to get off the ground. So we are delighted somebody showed up to get us all off of our collective pomposity and started this thing.
My ancestors were British laborers working outside of London in the malting and masonry businesses in a delightfully named location called Frog’s Bottom (a bottom is a valley) just outside of Stoke Poges which is North West of London. You really couldn’t make up a better name than that! Check out Stoke-Poges.com although you have to wait for some one to turn on the computer I think as its a pretty small place. Allison and I have decided to call our budding brewery The Frog’s Bottom Brewery as a tip of the hat to them. Hence the name of the blog and a tip of the hat also to John for setting it up. Now I just have to figure out what to use it for! Cheers, CB.
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