Celis White - 8

owner: Michael Erwin | started: 04/30/2008 | last updated: 07/13/2008
Recipe: Celis White | status: Finished

4/30/2008 - This one has some interesting ingredients. Prepped a 1.5qt yeast starter last night. Reusing the Wyeast 3787. Not a witbier yeast, but at least it's Belgian. And it really performed last time around.

5/1/2008 - Flaked oats steeped 30 min in grain bag, drained. 6.6# Muntons wheat extract, no sugar. 1oz Mt Hood for 60, 2tsp Irish moss for 15. Coriander crushed, both orange peels, all that for 10. 1oz Mt Hood for 5. 10 min steep. Cooled to 95F. Poured into fermenter with 3gal cold water. Pitched at 73F.

OG: 1.052
At 76% app atten, expect SG: 1.013

BTW, with the orange peel chunks and the thickening of the oats, the wort looked a lot like vomit! :)

5/2/2008 - Fermentation started pretty early last evening. Things are really popping away right now. I think I have a pretty high pitch rate; I remember thinking (as I was pouring in the yeast) "wow that seems like a lot of yeast." I need a better way to estimate how much yeast I'm pitching.

5/8/2008 - Fermentation was active for about two days, and pretty dormant the last five. Moved to secondary. Was in a hurry and forgot to check SG. Oh well. RDW-HAHB.

5/15/2008 - Wow! I love this brew! Lots of orange flavor from both types of peel, the coriander is more subtle. Finished at 1.014, a tad higher than expected, but okay. Bottle-conditioning as we speak.

SG: 1.014
ABV: 5.0%
App Atten: 73%

5/26/2008 - Whoa! This beer is awesome! Tremendous orange flavor, with a dry, bitterness that I attribute to the coriander. Slice an orange, drop it in, and enjoy!

Belgian Blonde - 7

owner: Michael Erwin | started: 04/12/2008 | last updated: 07/13/2008
Recipe: Belgian Blonde | status: Finished

4/12/2008 - "You go to brew with the hops you have, not the hops you want." To bitter, I used 1/4-oz Sterling and 1 1/4-oz Glacier. For aroma, I used 3/4-oz Sterling. OG: 1.056. Also, used 2 cans Muntons X-light syrup. Wyeast 3787 propagator, first in a 1-liter starter, then stepped up to a 3/4 liter starter. Pitched at 76F.

4/13/2008 - Pitched at 11pm last night, bubbling profusely by 6am this morning. Bubbling has slowed as of this evening. Lots of aroma coming from the fermenter. 72F.

4/16/2008 - Temp is hovering around 70F. Still bubbling pretty well at about 6 or 7 times per minute. At 76% app atten, expect SG: 1.013.

4/17/2008 - Boy is this one fun! Still very actively fermenting after 5 days. Looked up the yeast, it's an active little devil. Don't know if it'll be done after a week or not.

4/21/2008 - Oh boy! Perfect! Racked to secondary this evening. SG: 1.013, exactly what I predicted. The flavor is dead on for the Leffe Blonde, which is what I was going for. It's awesome flat, I can't wait to taste it with carb!

4/25/2008 - It's all in bottles now. This is the clearest beer I've done, there's no appearance of yeast floating around at all. Has a real fruity/citrusy aroma and flavor. This is going to be a good one.

5/3/2008 - Whew! After a week in bottles, this beer definitely has that Leffe taste potential, but the flavors haven't blended yet. It's a little green, needs to mature some.