friggin' awesome beer! those crazy belgians do it again

[bobdea]

so, I've been looking for the next beer to rip off in my homebrew adventures and I found a serious flemish red this one is sweeter than say rodenbach but there's something else to it that makes it just off the hook

Duchess de Bourgogne is the name, get a bottle!

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/641/1745/

[bobdea]

right on, that's how I feel about most of the sour beers other than berliner weisse and a couple softer lambics

generally, at this point I prefer much different beers with food than if was out to just drink a beer or 9

now my big mission is to find some of the wyeast roselaire blend so I can make a half decent clone of the stuff

[bobdea]

already did, got oak in my lambic

[bobdea]

nope, primary fermentation was knocked up with wyeast lambic blend, which has some of the classic lambic bugs and the sediment from a bottle of gueze for good measure. the secondary fermentation here is what will either kill this batch or make it, I racked it on to 8 pounds of wild grapes that were not sanitized in any way other than a wash in cold water. I guess that technically makes it a bastardized version of a druiven.

this batch could go very, very bad but hopefully some luck and that the bugs I need and want have already taken hold.

when I racked it there was a faint hint of funk already. I racked to a second primary fermenter instead of to a carboy, the theory being that the plastic allows some 02 to pass into it. with the oak chips it allegedly simulates using a oak barrel fairly well and allows the yeasty portion of the bugs to do their funk. I've never done it this way though so I'll give it a month or two and see if the bret and others kick off and I get the horse smell. I really like the sours so I hope it goes well. I was at ocean state job lot today and they had sour cherries super cheap, maybe a kreik is next or maybe a cherry berliner weisse.

next fall I'm gonna do a batch with marechal foch grapes, not sure if you've come across wine with foch in it but they have probably the most interesting flavor profile of any grape I have found. like extremely sweet sour cherries. I liked a foch wine enough to buy four vines after trying it a couple years ago.

http://www.bunchgrapes.com/marechal_foch_grapes.html

You have good taste, you seriously need to brew if you don't already.

[bobdea]

it is! it was also my first batch for all grain as opposed to either partial mashes or malt extract.

usually I'm doing porters and stouts, there's no need to go all grain on those really being so dark.

future projects include something similar to skull splitter, a tripple boch, a kentucky common, a japanese themed beer with red rice and shiro plums(if this lambic goes well I will sour this one as well), maibock lager and possibly merlot spiked hefe if I can get a gallon or so of merlot juice.

[Jack M]

nice. ever had Gulden Draak? One of my faves. If so how does it compare?

[bobdea]

yes, it's been so long though

gulden tastes and looks like a dubbel to me even though it's supposed to be a trippel if I remember correctly

different style all together, the duchesse is a flanders or at least similar to a flanders, you taste balsamic notes and the beer is quite acidic, here's the wikipedia entry

Flanders red ale is a style of sour ale usually brewed in Belgium. Although sharing a common ancestor with English porters of the 17th century[1], the Flanders red ale has evolved along a different track: the beer is often fermented with organisms other than Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus being common to produce a sour character attributable to lactic acid; long periods of aging are employed, a year or more, often in oaken barrels, to impart an acetic acid character to the beer; special red malt is used to give the beer its unique color; and often the matured beer is blended with a younger batch before bottling to balance and round the character.

The beer appears deep red to brown in color, and should remain fairly clear in a glass. The aroma is a complex mixture of fruits: citrus, cherries, plum, raisin as well as some vanilla or chocolate undertones. The sourness of the beer can also be apparent in the aroma.

Flanders reds have a strong fruit flavor similar to the aroma, but more intense. Plum, prune, raisin and black cherry are the most common flavors, followed by orange and some spiciness. All Flanders red ales have an obvious sour or acidic taste, but this characteristic can range from moderate to strong. There is no hop bitterness, but tannins are common. Subsequently, Flanders red ales are often described as the most "wine-like" of all beers. However, this is also likely due to their distinctive red color.

[bobdea]

boy this one is getting horsey tasting might just bottle it as is

very pleased for the first attempt

also just did a dunkel as well as have the berliner going

hefeweisens and dunkels are my new favorite for speed and ease done and tasting great in 8 days, just needs to be primed and bottled guessing it will take a week and a half to carbonate

for less than $30 for a 5 gal batch and only 20 days to drinking I found a winner