a 0.5L starter of WLP001, saved from a prev batch (#34) brewed and saved for 1 week in the fridge in a pint mason jar
12# 12oz 2-row
8oz C60
8oz CaraAroma
8oz Pale Chocolate
4oz Torrified Wheat
0.5oz CTZ (17.5% listed) 60 min
0.25oz CTZ 30 min
0.25oz CTZ 10 min
1# Clover honey (from Baugher’s) at flameout
(forgot the whirlfloc)
mashed in with ~5.5 gallons at 152* (161* water), slowly dropped to 148* by the end of the mash
sparged in 2 steps with roughly 4 gallons of initially 197* water (2 gal each sparge)
OG 1.070
UPDATE 8/4/14: last night bottled with a tea made according to jmo’s original spec, FG clocked in at 1.009, giving 8% abv. Yielded a case of bombers, a case of 12oz bottles, and four various flip-tops 🙂 Yum!!
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP400
Yeast Starter: No (1 vial used)
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity:
IBU: 17
Boiling Time (Minutes): 75
Color: 3.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
5# Rahr 2row
4# Torrified Wheat
1# Flaked Oats (Giant Quick Oats)
1oz Cascade Leafs 75min
0.3 oz Bitter Orange Peel 5 min
0.3 oz Grapefruit Peel 5 min
0.7 oz Crushed Coriander Seed 5 min
Mashed in with 3.5 gal water at 165* to get a 154* mash. 10 minutes in, mash held at ~150*
Sparged with 5 gal water (in two batches) first 2.5 at 196* water temp, second 2.5 at 160* water temp (mash after draining the first sparge was at 156*). Collected ~6.5g for boil
OG 1.047 at 75* (corrected to 1.048) 🙂 Pitched at 75*, looks like I have between 70% and 75% brewhouse efficiency on this one! I sparged quite slowly, weary of all of the wheat and oats, and I used at least a half-pound of rice hulls. I might have to sparge more slowly from now on to see if I can improve my efficiency!
UDPATE 4/27: Healthy fermentation, seems to be in the high 70s. I see the remnants of a high krausen that almost reached the top of the 6 gallon fermenter, but stopped just short (whew, no blow-out).
Sarah has had a request on deck for quite a while: Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA, aka Black IPA) 🙂 Inspired somewhat by Hop in the Dark, as well as a few recipes on HBT, and given what’s on-hand at home and at Nepenthe, I cobbled this together.
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP001
Yeast Starter: two pint jars of trub from Batch 32, taken 4/13 so approximately 2 weeks old (approx. 250ml of junk, unclear even approximately how much of it is yeast)
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.0?? (before cold-steep addition)
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~64 (depends on what app you ask)
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 40+
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): pitched yeast at 68*
Mash:
8# Rahr 2row
1# Torrified Wheat
.5# C60
Mashed in with 3.8g of water at 164* into the red round mash tun. At 5 and 20 minutes post-mash, temperature held steady at 151*
Hop/addition Schedule:
4 oz CTZ (17.5% AAU) added, 8g a minute, from 15 minutes to the end of the boil
1 whirlfloc added at 10 minutes, with the immersion chiller
Cold steeped (start: 1:15p) in 5 quarts of room temperature for 8 hours, then held at 170* for 10 minutes, then cooled and added to the fermenter:
1# black malt (dehusked)
.5# roasted barley
.5# pale chocolate
after 2nd runnings (of 3), 1.029G at 135* (corrected to 1.043)
start of 3rd runnings, 0.995 at 138* (corrected to 1.009)
UPDATE 5/16/14: racked 6+ gal to 2ndary, dry hopped with 1oz cascade leaf, 1oz Columbus pellet
UPDATE 5/26/14: racked to keg, force carb’d at 25psi rocking the keg for 15 minutes. Amazing beer. Black as night. Quite bitter, but complex with a rich and silky mouthfeel. Hops aren’t as present as I want them to be, but this may be a water profile issue (i.e. fixable with water adjustments). Also, though my memory is a bit hazy, I recall Hop in the Dark being a bit maltier, maybe caramelier. I should try to be more true to the posted (and roughly stated, on Deschutes web site) recipes. Either way, good beer. Really gonna enjoy this one!
Sarah thought it was too bitter 🙁 And I can see that. Not a problem for me because I like bitter, but next time: add brewing salts to accentuate hops, maybe add less hops for the late addition, cut down on the black malt (maybe 0.5#?), and add oats, munich, and maybe 0.5# more C60
I just noticed that the name of this beer is consonant-heavy. Can a beer be consonant-heavy?
Anyway, we are embarking on a quest into Saison territory!! (should I say terroir?)
Inspired by a number of various recipes on homebrewtalk.com, and given my current compliment of ingredients, I present to you (for camping consumption in the Smoky Mountains, care of Doshin-Kamp!) a strong Saison intended to be dry, refreshing, and high in spice character 🙂 The Saison was typically brewed on farms to be a refreshing and fortifying drink for field-workers. I was inspired by a reading from the book of Isaiah (2:3-4), upon accepting the God of Jacob, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” – a very aiki concept indeed, to take that which is used to kill and turn it into that which is used to cultivate. Forgive me for momentarily turning the notion back on its head. Ben requested a spicy yet strong Saison for camping in the Great Smoky Mountains, therefore with the increased ABV of this recipe, it will pack more of a punch, and be much more like a sword than a plougshare. For spice, I will ferment in higher temperatures. This yeast should give plenty of classic Saison character at higher temps, and these should be well-complimented by judicious additions of malted rye, coriander, and grapefruit peel. First-wort-hopped northern brewer will add an earthy and possibly a slight spicy aroma, and the citrus of the grapefruit peel should be accentuated by both a Cascade aroma addition, and dry-hopping with Cascade leaves from casa de Cole.
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP565
Yeast Starter: 400mL Starter (orig 500mL, but I took 100mL for the yeast library)
Batch Size (Gallons): 7 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.056 (before fermentation sugar addition)
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~32 (depends on what app you ask)
Boiling Time (Minutes): 90
Color: 6?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): pitched yeast at 75*
12# Rahr 2-row
2# Torrified Wheat
2# Munich
2# Rye
1 oz Northern Brewer cones (9.1%) FWH
1oz Cascade cones (7.7%) 10 min
1oz Cascade cones (ala Brian Cole) Dry Hop 7 days
1 whirlfloc – 10 minutes (!! FORGOT THIS PART)
.5oz fresh-crushed coriander – 5 minutes
.5oz grapefruit peel – 5 minutes
first runnings: 1.056 at 140* (corrected to 1.071)
beginning of second runnings: 1.017 at 130* (corrected to 1.029)
SG for a collected ~8.5 gallons before boil: 1.032 @ 142* (corrected to 1.048)
OG: 1.056
I split this batch into 2 carboys. I first tried carefully to split the yeast starter between the two carboys, and then I poured the beer in on top of the yeast. I was able to get a fairly even split of ~3.5 gallons in each 6 gallon plastic carboy. This should give plenty of headspace to protect against possible crazy initial fermentation that some have reported with this yeast. I used a sanitized paint strainer bag to filter out all of the leaf hop matter and spices. I hope to still only loose about 1/2 gallon of this beer to trub.
Once primary fermentation begins to die down, I will add 1.5 # sugar (.75 # to each carboy) to “dry the beer out” (notice I planned this prospectively, and accounted for this sugar in my original recipe, meant to get me up above 1.070). If the beer stalls out or doesn’t ferment below 1.01, I will add a fresh starter of WLP001 to try to finish it off. If With the OG, and 1.5# of sugar added to the fermenter, and a FG at 1.01, this beer will be about 7.3% 🙂
CHEERS
UPDATE (4/14/14): added 3/4# sugar (boiled for 5 min in water to make a total of 800mL volume) to each fermenter!!
Brewing an IPA for my first competition!!!! 2014 http://beerbaconmusic.com/
I entered the Pale Ale, IPA, IIPA category, and for this I am brewing a late-hopped American IPA, relying mostly on the Columbus hops that I bought in bulk from NikoBrew 🙂 Thanks, NikoBrew!
I used the silver thermometer, as a few days ago I tested the silver and black thermometers back to back, and the black thermometer ran a little colder than the silver. I need to mash low for this one, so I don’t want to mistakenly mash hotter than I want, in the case that the silver is correct and the black runs cold. I mashed in with 5 gallons of water at 159*. Using the red mash tun, there was a lot of head space. At 20 minutes, it was down to 145*, so I added some hot water (maybe a quart or so) at 180*. At 40 minutes it was down to 140*, and at 45 minutes I added another quart at 180*. At 60 minutes I conducted an iodine test from a few different locations, and it passed the test (no purple: complete conversion!)
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP001
Yeast Starter: 500mL Starter
Batch Size (Gallons): ~6 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~50
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 6.5?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 2 weeks primary, 1 week secondary/dry hop
12# Rahr 2-row
1# Torrified Wheat
.6# C60
.5 oz CTZ (17.5%) FWH
1 oz CTZ (17.5%) 10 min
1 oz Amarillo (10.7%) 10 min
.5 oz CTZ (17.5%) 5 min
.5 oz Amarillo (10.7%) 5 min
.5 oz Simcoe (12.7%) 5 min
.5 oz CTZ (17.5%) 1 min
.5 oz Amarillo (10.7%) 1 min
.5 oz Simcoe (12.7%) 1 min
1 whirlfloc – 10 minutes
whole of the first runnings: SG 1.05 at 138 (corrected to 1.064)
beginning of 2nd runnings: SG 1.016 at 128 (corrected to 1.028)
cooled wort to 69* before pitching. Got ~5.5 gal into the 6g carboy, put an additional .5 gal into the 1g jug. I stopped by Nepenthe a picked up some Safbrew T-58 to put into the 1 gal jug. wheeeee!!!!
UPDATE 3/31 – Nice krausen in both fermenters, with a very familiar slightly peppery nose that I always used to get from WLP001. Chico yeast, I’ve missed you. Tub water is holding steady at about 70* (maybe 69)
UPDATE 4/13 – this has dried WAY out to FG of 1.002 (6.69%). Great flavor and aroma, quite thin body. I’m gonna dry hop it on 1o Amarillo, then we’ll see how it does in the keg 🙂
UPDATE 4/20 – I’VE KEGGED MY FIRST BEER! EVER!! I guess I’m taking a few chances here, but here it goes. I’ve had my single ball-lock keg full of startsan for a week or two. I hooked up the CO2 and transferred all of the starsan via party tap to a new keg, leaving the target keg full of C02, freshly sanitized, and ready to go. I disconnected the gas, bled the pressure, opened the lid (covered it with some sanitized foil) and racked the IPA to the keg. It reads 66* in the keg, so by www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator, I need 21.9PSI to get 2.2 volumes of carbonation, which is at the middle of the road for American ales and lagers (and maybe moderate but on the low end of the range for IPAs). I’ll leave it on the gas at this pressure for about a week and see where that gets us! PROSIT!
UPDATE 4/27 – I have kept the keg on ~20# of pressure since racking to the keg, to force carbonate slowly. This is the pressure on the chart at 65* that will get me in the low 2s for carbonation level. I bottled a sixpack tonight, and I will try a few over the next few days. If this goes well, I’ll send the final 2 off for judging 🙂
Taking on Yooper’s California Common (Anchor Steam Clone)
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f63/california-common-anchor-steam-clone-extract-ag-54301/
slightly modified, due to available ingredients 🙂 With the wonderful help of Paul Smaldino and Evan Hermann (for at least the first 1/2-2/3 of the process)
SG: 1.023 at 135* (1.037 corrected)
OG: 1.055
8.5# 2-row
1.5# C60
1oz NB hops 60min
.5oz NB hops 30min
.5oz NB hops 0min
added 1# sugar to the end of the boil
at the mid-range of attenuation of the yeast (68%), we should get ~5% ABV
3/21/14 delicious but needs more hop flavor and aroma! Maybe dry hop next time
Partigyle seems to be the word of the day! Brew day was Sunday, Jan 12. Brewing this recipe:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/russian-imperial-stout-2011-hbt-competition-category-winner-238807/
and capping the mash for a small beer, because why not!? Gonna either let the small beer sit in secondary with vanilla or chocolate, or bottle with either a vanilla tea or coffee, to make some kinda flavored stout. In hindsight, I should have bought an extra pound of very dark or roasted malt to cap the small beer, but even without that, this will still be tasty beer.
— RIS —
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: Fermentis S-33
Yeast Starter: yeast cake from batch 28
Batch Size (Gallons): ~5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.080
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~87
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 52?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 1 month primary, 3 months secondary
17# Rahr 2-row
1.5# Roasted Barley
1# Special B
.75# Chocolate Malt
.5# CaraPils
3.5oz Northern Brewer 60 min
2oz EK Goldings 30 minutes
1 whirlfloc – 10 minutes
2.5 tsp yeast nutrient – 10 minutes
Mash in with ~8 gal strike water at 162* (almost filled the big blue cooler). sparged with ~2 gal ~175*. Heavy Fermentation & blowout within 6 hours. Whut.
SG: 1.066 (1.05 corrected from 145*)
OG: 1.080 (1.078 corrected from 80*)
Might it be worthwhile to let a gallon of this sit on oak for a month or so?
— Small Beer —
Added 1# 2-row, 0.5# C60 to mash from RIS, also added ~5 gal water at ~150* (there was still some water left in the mash tun from the RIS – total final yield for the small beer was over 5 gal).
1oz Willamette at 60 minutes
1oz Cascade at 20 minutes
whirlfloc
SG: 1.034 (1.02 corrected from 135*)
OG: 1.040
Pitched the yeast cake from 1gal additional batch 27 (Fermentis S-04)
UPDATE 1/16/14 – small beer is starting to clear, while the RIS is still cloudy and moving around.
UPDATE 1/19/14 – small beer 1.006 (4.5%, 85% attn), RIS 1.018 (8.1%, 76% attn)
UPDATE 1/26/14 – small beer 1.005 (4.6%, 87% attn), RIS 1.013 (8.8%, 83% attn) time to play with the small! gonna split it up and do some with coffee, some on vanilla bean, some with cocoa, and some on hops!
UDPATE 2/1/14 – bottled the small beer. I split, scraped, and soaked half of a vanilla bean (Trader Joe’s bourbon madagascar vanilla bean) in enough vodka to cover it. I put 1 gallon of the small beer onto the vanilla bean, 1/2 gallon was dry hopped with 0.5 oz Northern Brewer leafs, another 1/2 gallon was dry hopped with 0.5oz Cascade leafs, and an additional 750ml was mixed with 1/3-1/4c of coffee from the french press. The rest was bottled as-is, yielding exactly a full case of beer!
UPDATE 2/13/14 – the porter is damned tasty. It needs to be closer to room temperature than fridge temperature to really shine, and when it warms up from the fridge it gets nice and roasty with a bit of chocolate and a hint of coffee. I have yet to bottle the vanilla and dry-hopped beers. They will need to be bottled asap. The vanilla tasted delightful about 3 days in, and tasted not much different about a week in. I’m hoping to get that a little past where I want it, so that as it bottle conditions and sits for a while, it will come back to where I want it. I sampled the NB and Cascade dry hops a few days ago. Cascade tastes better, but they both might benefit from being mixed together before bottling. I might have also done better to dry hop this with the CTZ that I got. Next time … 😉
UPDATE 2/16/14 – bottled the vanilla porter by itself (11 twelve-ounce bottles, plus a partial bottle that was delicious), and combined and bottled the NB and Cascade dry-hopped porters (9 twelve-ounce bottles, plus a partial). Both promise to be tasty. However, both were a bit thin, and could probably use something additional in the cap next time, such as some oatmeal, dextrine, or additional malty-tasting malt.
UDPATE 2/24/14 – transferred the RIS to a glass secondary, and I’ll let that ride for a few months
UPDATE 4/27/14 – Bottled! and delicious 🙂 bottled with 2.5oz priming sugar, yielded 42 bottles. I added a packet of Lavalin D47 yeast to the bottling bucket before racking the beer, to assure happy carbonation
Brewed on Monday, December 30th, 2013
For this installment, I am testing my new heat sticks (http://www.cedarcreeknetworks.com/heatstick.htm garnered from a few various posts on hbt.com), and using my first ever order of bulk hops!!! I will be doing a partigyle IIPA/English Bitter, capping the Bitter with a few pounds of M-O. I am using Safale 33 for the bitter to make a yeast cake onto which I will pitch the next batch, which will hopefully be an RIS. Woot!
— IIPA —
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: IIPA – WLP004 (from the yeast saved from the starter for Batch 25)
Yeast Starter: 1L
Batch Size (Gallons): 6.5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.086
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~80
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: ~15?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
22# Rahr 2-row
2# Crystal 60
2c sugar (in the boil)
3 oz Cascade Leaf – 60 minutes
5 oz Cascade Leaf continuously added for last 20 minutes (one 1/2c each minute)
1 oz Cascade Leaf at flameout
1 whirlfloc – 10 minutes
2.5 tsp yeast nutrient – 10 minutes
3 oz Cascade Dry Hop for 7 days
I added sugar to the boil in line with descriptions of Pliny, in order to dry out the batch a bit. I drew off more liquid from the mash than I intended (8 gal instead of intended 7 gal), so I added more sugar (2 c instead of the originally intended 1c) to try to compensate for the lower gravity. At the end of the boil, the wort was a bit darker than expected, and the heat stick elements had black marks (… scorch marks?) on them (these wiped off with ease). The elements had hop leaves stuck in them when I pulled them out, and I’m wondering if the hop leaves scorched on the elements.
More than what would reasonably fit in the carboy. I had an extra 1 gallon in my glass jug, into which I pitched S-04.
Blowouts the next day! Horray Fermentation!!
— Bitter —
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: Safale 33
Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.045
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~40
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: ~10?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp):
Mash from the IIPA
2# 6oz Maris Otter
1 oz Cascade Leaf – 60 minutes
1 oz Cascade Leaf – 10 minutes
No scorching on the elements at the end of the boil! Healthy fermentation the next day! Woot!
UPDATE 1/11/14 – checked gravities
1.025 on the IIPA (8%, 69% attenuation). The beer hasn’t cleared yet, and I see some activity in the carboy. Given activity and the low attenuation, I will conclude that this puppy is still cookin, however the taster tastes GREAT. Malty, a hint of sweet (which might go away with more fermentation), and full flavor and aroma of CASCADE. Gonna dry hop this one somethin fierce.
1.010 on the Bitter (4.6%, 77% attenuation). The beer has cleared, no activity in the liquid, and read the next day, it holds. I bottled on 1/12/14. Last bottle tasted quite nice, and quite grapefruity. The testing sample on 1/11/14 also tasted mild but crisp, none too bitter with the malt and hops both present.
I didn’t check the 1 gallon portion of the IIPA, but it had cleared last week, with no apparent activity in the vessel, so I bottled that too. It yielded a growler and (3) 12oz bottles.
update 1/19/14 – IIPA gravity 1.019 (8.8%, 77% attn), it still has not cleared and likely still has a ways to go
UPDATE 2/13/14 – the small beer could have done with more bittering hops, and less carbonation. It also might have done better as-is with a Belgian Saison yeast strain. This would have made a damned tasty saison.
UPDATE 2/18/14 – I dry-hopped with 2oz Cascade leafs for a week starting on 1/27, and I dry-hopped with another 2oz Cascade leafs for a week starting on 2/3 … I believe I bottled the IIPA on 2/10/14 (though obviously none of this is reflected earlier in this post). I cracked a bottle tonight, and after a week and a day or so of bottle conditioning, it has a nice low carbonation, with a slightly rocky, slightly off-white head. On color, I’d call it an imperial Amber rather than an imperial IPA. Lots of fantastic flavor. At slightly-chilled temps, it is super tasty and smooth to drink, but with prominent bitter and cascadey citrus notes. At cellar temperatures (mid-to-high 60s), it is even more complex (hints of cardamom?). Probably boozy (I can never tell anymore), definitely warming. Definitely a winner. Might call this Cascade Nectar (tip-of-the-hat to Troegs)?
Let’s compare Fuggles (batch 26) to Willamette (batch 23)!
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: Safale-04
Yeast Starter: No (1 packets of Safale-04 used)
Batch Size (Gallons): 2.5
Original Gravity: unknown (still haven’t gotten a hydrometer)
Final Gravity:
IBU: 45?
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 7
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days (so far, at ~68*F)
6# Maris Otter
1oz Fuggles for 60 minutes
1 oz Fuggles for 15 minutes (oops, put it in at 10min)
I ran out whirlfloc, so no whirlfloc …
Mash with 1.5 qt/lb (2.25 gallons) at 150* for 60 minutes, sparge (mash out; 2 gallons) at 170*
I ran all of the water SLOWLY through a new 4-micron carbon filter before using it to brew (both mash and sparge water). There was a bit too much wort to fit in the pot, so I topped it up about half-way through the boil. I didn’t pre-heat the mash tun, so it lost some degrees, and to compensate, I took 2 cups of thick mash and decocted, which may change a) the flavor, and b) the color, but hopefully not too much. It was just enough to bring the temps back up after about 30 minutes of mash. Between no whirlfloc, not knowing the gravity, hopping at 10 minutes instead of 15, decocting the mash, and topping-up the boil (ending with a higher volume), this probably isn’t the ideal comparison brew … but it’ll give me some idea of some of the hop profile differences. Next time, I need to be more precise in replicating other elements of the brew day when making SMaSH beers.
I wanted to make this in the style of a Baltic Porter … but it came out a bit too light (might not even count as a porter, maybe rather a brown ale), and a Baltic Porter is traditionally a lager (I’m not lagering yet), so let’s just call this Beer.
My original recipe had 8oz of Amber malt, but Nepenthe didn’t have this. Brian suggested I sub 6oz Amber malt and 1oz Carafa II for the 8oz Red malt, so that’s what ended up in the recipe.
I broke the hydrometer during the boil (not In the boil, thankfully), so I have no idea what the original gravity is. Oh well, still gonna call it Beer!! The first runnings came in at 1.074 at 140*. Extrapolating through Moser’s partigyle tables, that would suggest the final wort would be around 1.06 pre-boil. There’s probably a way to guesstimate what the gravity of the wort was after boiling, but I’m not sure it’s worth it right now. Maybe I’ll do this later!
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP004 (from the starter for Batch 19: Olde Ale)
Yeast Starter: 1.5L starter
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: ???
Final Gravity: ???
IBU: 30
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 28
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): ~73*F
13 # Maris Otter
8oz Biscuit Malt
8oz Chocolate Malt
8oz Flaked Oats
8oz Special B
6oz Amber
1oz Carafa II
1oz Northern Brewer, 60 minutes
1oz Northern Brewer, 10 minutes
1 whirlfloc tab, 10 minutes
Strike with 5 gallons of water at 168*F to reach target 155*F mash (? did I really do this ? I’m going from the settings for the recipe in BrewPal)
Sparge with 3+ gallons of water at 180*F
UPDATE
I bottled this some time during the week of Nov 11th. I’m drinking it now at Nov 25th. It’s hardly carbed, a bit sweet and a little green. It’ll turn out like a dark brown ale by the time it hits it’s stride. If lagered, this might not be a bad candidate for doppelbock or something similar.
UPDATE 1/12/14
malty, rich, and complex. Maybe this needs a few months from the brewdate to mature 🙂 Definitely aging well.
UPDATE 3/21/14 rich, complex, fruit with a hint of plum, warming, similar to a Belgian double in some respects, and definitely worth brewing again. Next time, I need to let it sit and bottle condition for at least three months.