Matilda, The Seductress

The Temptation of the Idler
Albrecht Dürer, 1498

This is the penultimate post (minus the inevitable tasting notes) of my Brewing Vintage Beers Series. Today's beer is  a Belgian Enkel, also known as a Patersbier. This is a style of beer that I wish was much more common - it has all the flavour and complexity of a double or triple, but comes in at less than 5% ABV and thus is quite sessionable. It solves all of the problems of dubbel and tripels; you can imbibe in pint after pint of an Enkel without finding yourself hugging the floor as the room spins around you.

This beer is obviously not a high-gravity beer, so why is it part of the vintage-beer series? The answer is that this isn't just any old beer - it is also a massive stater for one hell of a big beer I'll be brewing (and posting about) in two weeks time, and its also been scaled up to provide a few extra litres of wort to test-ferment a dozen wild yeasts I've isolated over the past year. This is truly a beer with many faces!

To make this beer a good "starter" for producing yeast I am taking the rather unusual route of adding yeast nutrient to what is a beer that wouldn't normally require it - but keep in mind, our goal isn't simply a good beer, but its also healthy yeast at the end of the ferment. Yeast nutrient plus a strong oxygenation will fulfill that goal.

Some may be wondering about the odd name for this beer. I don't want to give too much away, but it is related to one of my favourite novels and also to the name of the strong/vintage beer this beer's yeast cake will be re-pitched into.

Recipe & brew-day notes below the fold...

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Recipe & Notes

Matilda, The Corruptor

Belgian Specialty Ale

Type: All Grain	Date: 25 Jan 2015
Boil Size: 39.88 l	Boil Time: 60 min
End of Boil Volume 35.88 l	Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Ingredients
Ingredients Amt Name Type # %/IBU 3.64 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 75.0 % 0.36 kg Special B Malt (180.0 SRM) Grain 2 7.5 % 0.19 kg Carafa I (337.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.9 % 0.66 kg Turbinado (10.0 SRM) Sugar 4 13.6 % 29.00 g Northern Brewer [6.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 15.3 IBUs 21.82 g Hallertauer [4.80 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 4.5 IBUs 1.5 pkg Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) [124.21 ml] Yeast 7 -
Beer Profile
Est Original Gravity: 1.036 SG	Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.005 SG	Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.1 %
Bitterness: 19.8 IBUs	Est Color: 17.0 SRM
Mash Profile
Mash Name: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge	Total Grain Weight: 4.85 kg
Sparge Water: 33.15 l	Grain Temperature: 21.0 C
Sparge Temperature: 75.6 C	Tun Temperature: 19.0 C
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE	Mash PH: 5.20
Mash Steps Name Description Step Temperature Step Time Mash In Add 11.17 l of water at 74.7 C 66.7 C 60 min
Sparge Step: Batch sparge with 2 steps (13.09l, 20.07l) of 75.6 C water
Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Bottle	Volumes of CO2: 2.3
Pressure/Weight: 185.28 g	Carbonation Used: Bottle with 185.28 g Corn Sugar
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 21.1 C	Age for: 30.00 days
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage	Storage Temperature: 18.3 C
Notes
-Hit mash-in temp dead-on -Added first sparge at 85C to raise temp to mash-out -Used mix of light brown sugar and white sugar to mimic turbinado -Overshot gravity by quite a bit (1.040 pre-boil gravity!)
Created with BeerSmith

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Previous posts in this series

• A Tale of Two Beers - a review of two vintage beers I brewed over the past couple of years
• Book Review: Vintage Beer by Patrick Dawson - a review of the must-have book every vintage brewer needs on his/her bookshelf.
• Brewing Long-Aging Beers - Some Guidelines: an article covering the major things you need to consider when formulating and brewing long-aging beers.
• Brewing long-aging beers - fermenting high-gravity beers: - an article covering how to best brew high gravity beers fit for long aging.