Belgian beer talk and homebrewing

(My Jul 21, 2014 comment to a ToledoTalk.com thread.)

"You can't go wrong."

I can go wrong if they don't have a Belgian-style beer available.

Currently, The Attic offers La Trappe Dubbel on tap. That's a fine Trappist beer. We enjoyed a couple of those on Saturday night, during SoundTrek. Only 10 "official" Trappists breweries exist in the world.

Last Tuesday at Mutz, we liked the Maumee Bay Brewing Company's newly-released Red Saison.

I heard that Ye Olde Cock n' Bull has a large selection of beers on tap, but I have not surveyed the place.

Thank you for this thread. I need to pay closer attention to what's happening. Look at Swig for today.

This should be a national holiday in our country.

This is happening right here at Swig on Monday, July 21 starting at 2pm... Belgian Independence Day celebration.

Chimay and Rochefort are Trappist breweries. I've enjoyed the Blue and Red labeled Chimays. I have not tried the Chimay Trippel, so hopefully Swig still has some left later this evening.

You can find bottled Rochefort at local stores like The Andersons, and both the 6 and 10 are excellent. The Rochefort 10 ABV is over 11 percent. It's a quad. Even the IPA-loving hopheads should try the Rochefort 10 at least once.

I have not tried Duvel. That's an old brewery. Framboise, not a fan of lambics. Ommegang is a New York state brewery that produces Belgian-style beers. The Bier Stube offers an Ommegang Abbey Ale (Dubbel) on tap.

At the moment, we definitely prefer Belgian style beers, although the imperial stout that we brewed back in March is aging well, and it tastes amazing. We brewed a Belgian Dubbel on Saturday. A few days ago, we opened the Belgian Trippel that we brewed last month. One evening this week, we need to bottle the Saison that we brewed on July 4. And this weekend, we'll brew a Belgian Wit, again, during a large group brewing day.

We brew one-gallon and five-gallon batches. The one-gallon batch is great for testing beers, and it can be done on the stove top, using a pasta pot and other kitchen equipment. It's easy. It takes about 3.5 hours to brew an all-grain one-gallon batch. An extract one-gallon batch takes a little over two hours. Most of the time is spent waiting around. Well, it's not wasted time since we're drinking beer and eating. Brewing beer, post-boil, requires a lot of attention to sanitizing.

Five-gallon batch brewing requires more and bigger equipment, so the initial cost is higher. I enjoy one-gallon batch brewing, and we like using the info from the two books produced by the Brooklyn Brew Shop.

Titgemeiers can get you hooked up on equipment and ingredients. And it's fun to visit homebrewing supply stores, such as Home Brew Ohio in Sandusky and the large store called Adventures in Homebrewing, located in Ann Arbor.

It was my wife's idea early this year to try homebrewing. I was reluctant because for some reason, I thought homebrewing beer was a complicated and difficult task. But after watching other homebrewers make wort, and after I tasted several home brews, I was interested.

If you are used to cooking or canning, then homebrewing beer should be no problem. It's fun, and the results are surprising. For my evening beverage of choice, our homebrews have replaced red wine. Our imperial stout was an attempt to clone the Maumee Bay Brewing Company's Total Eclipse Breakfast Stout. While obviously not at the level of the MBBC's fine beer, we'll definitely brew our stout again.

And brewing beer, like making naturally-leavened sourdough bread, contains a lot of science if you are interested in that kind of thing. You don't have to know the science. You can simply follow a recipe and be fine.

#beverage - #beer - #home - #blog_jr