MMMmmm beeeeer...

I haven't posted anything in quite some time, but it has been even longer since I have brewed a batch of beer. With my diet and my amazing propensity for procrastination, coupled with the beer of the month club that my in-laws got me for Christmas last year, I haven't brewed in about three years or so. I decided that I wanted to make a batch for the snowshoe/skiing trip that I am going on in March and that I wanted to make a Belgian Dubble. I'm assuming that a Belgian Dubbel is similar to a German Dopplebock. I really like Dopplebocks but Northern Brewer only had Belgian ingredient kits available, so I got the Dubble. I'm not sure what I'm going to name it yet. The obvious ones are taken; e.i. Dubbel Trouble, Dubbel Barrel, etc. I may just use one of those anyway.
Having not brewed in a while I stumbled a bit, but I think that everything went pretty well overall. I do wish that I had read the instructions on the liquid yeast earlier. I’m used to the White Labs liquid yeast that comes in a test tube and you just get it up to room temperature about 3 hours before adding it to the wort(unfermented beer). The yeast that I used this time was Wyeast Labs “Smackpack” liquid yeast. In this case it was the Wyeast #1214 Belgian Ale Yeast. The “Smackpack” is an interesting thing in and of itself. Essentially, the yeast is contained in a foil-lined plastic bag, and floating in with the yeast is a small bag of yeast nutrient. As long as the yeast is refrigerated they stay dormant. When you want to use the yeast you break the inner bag by smacking the package between your hands. This pops the inner bag and releases the nutrients. You then allow the package to get up to 68-78 degrees so that the yeast wakes up, eats and multiplies. The bag is pleated on the sides to allow for expansion as the yeast multiply and give off CO₂. What I failed to read was that they recommend that you do this 3-24 hours prior to pitching the yeast, with a recommendation to stay on the longer end of the spectrum. Had I known I would have activated the yeast the night before, thus ensuring a larger amount of viable yeast.

It is very important to have yeast that is healthy and plentiful. The strain of yeast plays a large role in the flavor of the end product, and the faster the yeast starts to flourish in the wort, the less chance there is for the beer to spoil or be overtaken by wild yeasts present in the air. Wild yeasts are not necessarily a bad thing, but they make it difficult to predict the flavor of the beer. I’m kind of tempted to make a small batch of beer using a wild strain from the region. I’ve heard that yeast is commonly present on apples, hence the proliferation of hard cider in the northeast during the founding of our nation. I suppose that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make a batch of cider and take some yeast from that. It would be an neat exercise to split a batch of something like a pale ale and make half with lab yeast and half with the local yeast to compare the two. I’ll save that for another time though.

I should find out by tonight whether or not the yeast took. The airlock that prevents air from going into the fermenter, while letting CO₂ out should be bubbling by then. If not, I guess I start over. Keep your fingers crossed for me.