The Belgian T-58 and British Windsor yeasted buckwheat beers came out lovely and sessionable. (more on the gose after the break) I brought the belgian version to the KC Biermeisters competition last month and got some positive comments. My memory of the night is predictably foggy, but I think our guest of honor Stan Hieronymous liked it A few observations:
- Great grainy buckwheat aroma from the toasted Kasha was present in both S. cerevisiae beers, aroma similar to grape-nuts cereal, or a multi-grain hot cereal from whole foods.
- Lovely head retention, protein in the buckwheat definitely helps with a persistent white foam. (remind me to take a pic before the last keg blows)
- The finish on both beers was pleasantly roasty, but in a different way than chocolate or roasted barley malts. I think the combo of toasted buckwheat and brown malt worked together really well here. In the Belgian I found the combo of earthy buckwheat and fruity esters gave a lot of depth to an otherwise simple beer.
The third beer from our buckwheat batch got a very different treatment, fermented with an old (expired) bottle of white labs Berliner Weiss blend, along with a bottle of GTs Kombucha that I left out for couple days to restart fermentation. Different Kombucha brands have different microbes, some have brett, some have Lacto strains, some don't tell you. GTs contains S. Boulardii, a yeast isolated from mango skins, and Bacillus Coagulans, a lactic acid bacteria that forms chewy snot-like colonies. I had a lot of ear nose and throat infections as a kid, so I find the texture nostalgic, your mileage may vary.Basically I was just looking for a source for more lactic acid bacteria since my LHBS doesn't stock L. Brevis or L. TheOtherOne. I thought about using some yogurt starter, but had some vague memory that L. Acidophilus might taste funny in beer. (Unfounded conjecture) I did have some water kefir grains, so I threw them in too for good measure. My hope was that the unhopped wort and warm temps (75F) would lead to a quick tasty sour beer of around 4.5%. Upon taking a gravity reading yesterday, I think I achieved that. FG was 1.010, sourness was tart and lactic, almost Rodenbach gran cru sour, quite refreshing especially after the addition of a little salt.
It's amazing what salt does to sour beer, I definitely recommend experimenting with a glass.
I recently had a bottle of Le Terroir from New Belgium, and couldn't resist dry hopping this beer. I recently drank some Sauv Blanc from California that smelled just like ruby red grapefruit juice, and I have several oz of American hops left from my last hopsdirect.com order. (Cluster and Chinook) I know the cluster aroma can be a bit of an acquired taste, I guess I've dated too many girls with cats, but I love it. Into the keg went: 1/2oz Whole-cone Cluster, 1/4oz whole cone Chinook, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of Indian coriander seed, and a few pieces of candied meyer lemon peel I had lying around, in a one gallon paint strainer bag.
Can't wait to try this "American Gose-IPA" hope to have some tasting notes late next week after conditioning.
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