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Unibroue Yeast – Available as Wyeast 3864 Belgian/Canadian Yeast

Currently on special release in Q4 of 2012, Wyeast 3864 Belgian/Canadian Yeast comes from a brewery called Unibroue in Canada, and has some distinctive Belgian like properties you might be interested in.

Discovering Unibroue:

Years before I began to homebrew, we took a trip to Canada. It was a wonderful experience, and a memorable trip. Part of the fun was trying Canadian beers we hadn’t seen before.

A few years after this trip, we were having lunch with friends. It was a relaxing early summer day, and we were eating outside. A beer sounded like a perfect idea (when isn’t it?) . I was looking at the beer menu, noticed a Canadian beer on the menu, and ordered it. Our trip to Canada had been in the summer and the weather was conjuring up those fond memories. That was when I tried a Unibroue beer for the first time – a glass of Blanche de Chambly.

One of the key moments in my craft brew early days was having that glass of Blanche de Chambly. It is a Witbier brewed by Unibroue, a Canadian brewery located near Montreal in Chambly, Quebec.

They specialize in Belgian brews exclusively. I began to seek out all the Unibroue beers I could find. All were full of character and delicious. I still adore their beers.

Brewing With The Unibroue Yeast:

Fast forward a few years and I began homebrewing. I find out that Wyeast is offering the Unibroue strain in their 4th quarter Private Collection. I snatch up a few smack packs and was off to the races. That was 3 years ago. It’s back this quarter. If you like Belgians and you like Unibroue beers, I’d encourage you to try the strain before it’s gone again!

Here’s a link the yeast strain information for Wyeast 3864.

I’ve brewed three beer styles with it: witbier, tripel, and a Maudite clone (the oft circulated Ky’s Maudite recipe). It ferments in a rather civilized fashion, and wasn’t a climber – even on the wheat beer. I will comment that the Maudite clone is NOT a “nailed” clone. It is a delicious Belgian Dark Strong beer, however.

Jamil Z’s Tripel recipe is a fine foil for this yeast. Fermented in the mid of the temperature range, it produced a lot of character but did take awhile to smooth out. This time I’m going to try the lower end this time and see if it will take less aging to round out.

Recipes that work well with the Unibroue Yeast (Wyeast 3864 Belgian/Canadian Yeast):

• Ky’s Maudite clone
• Jamil’s Tripel
• The witbier recipe I use – it is an adaption of an Austin Homebrew Supply recipe. I prefer adding oats in addition to wheat and pilsner.

Here’s a long cellared Ky’s Maudite in a glass. I had a few left in the back of my beer fridge. It is past its prime – the yeast strain character is fading – but it still tastes pretty good:

Unibroue Yeast Character:

I was thrilled to find that much of the “Unibroue character” is their proprietary yeast strain, and I was able to capture some of that essence in my batches. I’d describe the Unibroue strain as having a balanced and not overwhelming presentation of the typical hallmarks of Belgian yeasts: fruity character, spice, esters, and phenolics. At the high end of the fermentation range all these are amplified, especially the phenolics. I have found that if you overshoot the temperature range, aging can tame the flavors. This strain cellars well and retains it’s yeast character for 2 years or more if bottle conditioned and kept at cellar or refrigerator temperatures.

What I like best about the Unibroue strain is that it doesn’t hit you over the head with one particular note: it isn’t lots o’ spice, or lots ‘o fruit. It has these qualities present, but the flavor profile is not a “one trick pony” so to speak. There is also some acidity, which adds some focus and clarity to the Belgian character. Unibroue yeast is not as fruity as the Chimay strain (WLP500), not as spicy as the Achouffe strain (WLP550), and less civilized in character than the Westmalle strain (WLP530). In fact, some have speculated that Unibroue introduced some wild yeast from their Canadian region into a strain the founder brought over from Belgium.

To me the reason the strain is so delicious and also flexible is that it carries so many aspects of Belgian character – a complex flavor profile – but it does it in a refined and balanced manner. If you taste Blanche de Chambly (witbier), La Maudite (dark strong), and La Fin du Monde (tripel) side by side, you will easily detect the “Unibroue character” in each. However different each of these styles are, you will also find that yeast character appropriate and “at home” within that style’s profile.

This strain is very alcohol tolerant, and tastes good kegged or bottle conditioned. The highest gravity beer I’ve brewed with this strain thus far is about 9% – the Maudite clone, and I had no problems getting full carbonation in bottles with the original pitch.

I’ll add that Unibroue tends to carbonate their Tripels, Dark Strongs, etc. at the high end of the Belgian carbonation range. If you bottle condition, make sure you’re using strong bottles – most American bottles are suspect at holding those high carb levels and not becoming a bottle bomb.

I just purchased the equipment necessary for a frozen yeast bank so I won’t have to suffer the absence of this strain in off years. This is my favorite Belgian yeast, and I want to have it available!

If you like Belgians and you like Unibroue beers, I’d encourage you to try the strain. It is a very versatile Belgian strain and confers a strong but pleasant Belgian character in the beers I’ve brewed.

Posted in Beer Styles, Yeast Cultures | 5 Comments »

Wildflower Wheat Tasting Notes

I wanted to follow up with some tasting notes on this recipe and blog post. Here’s a photo of a pint – note that the head had fallen in the time it took to pour from my keezer, bring the glass up from the basement, set it down, and snap a photo.

Appearance – Pours a deep, orangy golden color with a fluffy two finger head and respectable retention. Head retention, however is not like a Hefe. Hazy as a wheat beer should be.

Aroma – First impression is a distinct fruity, floral aroma – not from hops, but from the chamomile. Deeply fragrant, with a nod to a malty wheat background. If you hate chamomile you’d get turned off, fast! No detectible hop presence. Overwhelmingly chamomile. I used a clean American yeast (Pacman), so I don’t detect any yeast character in the nose. Not much honey in the nose, but I wonder if some of the powerful aroma is the honey in the background that isn’t distinctly detectable.

Taste – Rich flavor. A blast of chamomile!  You can taste the wheat beer character behind the chamomile and honey. There is some honey character as you get past the initial blast of chamomile. Pacman is a high attenuator, and my FG was lower than the recipe specified – more of the honey was fermented out. Despite the pleasant dry finish, this is a flavor powerhouse. Serious character – this beer has a definite point of view. If you like chamomile, it is an easy drinking, highly flavorful beer.

Mouthfeel – I carbed to 2.5 volumes and that was sufficient. Mouthfeel is medium – not light and airy, but not heavy, either.

Drinkability & Notes – This beer was warmly received by craft and non-craft beer drinkers alike. Most of the keg was consumed at a big party. People were stopping me and saying how great the beer was. The non-craft beer drinkers guzzled this. I didn’t specify what herbs, etc were used in the beer. Most people who tasted it were completely uneducated on what beer it was and so forth, and it was widely accepted. That said, I was disappointed there was not more honey flavor. I think that was primarily due to using Pacman, which is an aggressive attenuator. When brewing this again, I plan to use a yeast with lower attenuation to see if I can nurse out more honey character in flavor and aroma. I will brew this again, although this recipe will not unseat Belgian Wit as the number one wheat beer in the house. Overall I’m satisfied – I wanted a different wheat beer for a while, and this did fit the bill and turned out to be a good party beer.

Post by Brewer kcpup

Posted in Beer Styles | 1 Comment »

Homebrew Summer Shandy

For a refreshing twist on home brew, try something called a shandy – beer mixed with lemonade, ginger ale, etc.

It has been a blistering summer where we live. I was over at a friend’s house recently. She pulled out a Leinenkugel Summer Shandy out of the fridge and poured me one. It was pretty good – not great – but good. Later that weekend, our next door neighbor handed me a homemade shandy with Boulevard Wheat and lemonade.  Much better! Still a bit sweet, but much better.

I had a keg of wheat beer in the keezer and I had promised to bring some homebrew to a party. Inspired by these weekend quaffs, I set out to craft some homebrew shandy using a wheat beer as a base. (In this case, it was a hefe-like wheat beer.) Here’s a link to the recipe, but I used 2 row instead of pilsner…that’s why I say it was hefe-like…

Often shandys are made with wheat beer. Radlers are made with lager. Not a hard and fast rule, but typically the case. Different countries have different traditions of mixing other liquids/juice with beer. Here’s a link to an interesting article about these traditions and other beer cocktails.

Ok, back to the story…

I’d recommend you start with some lemonade you like. We have a Trader Joe’s around the corner, so we drink a fair amount of their lemonade you get in the frozen section. The price is right and it’s tart and tasty. Don’t skimp too much here…it will be a significant contribution to the flavor.

There are two basic “dials” you’ll be adjusting to get your shandy where you want it:

1. The flavor of the lemonade (how concentrated you mix it)

2. The proportion of beer to lemonade

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on the first “dial.”  This is largely a matter of taste – we typically make ours a bit more concentrated than the instructions on the Trader Joe’s frozen lemonade can. If you try my steps below and you’re still not thrilled, remember that you can modify the lemon flavor with a more/less concentrated lemonade.

I recommend that you work in small quantities to get your desired flavor profile identified. Here’s what I used to dial in my shandy:

After mixing up my lemonade, I began by testing with 1 ounce of beer and then X ounce (or fraction) of lemonade. By using small quantities, I could make up samples quickly, not fill myself up, and most importantly not waste homebrew!

I’d recommend starting at a 1:1 ratio (half beer, half lemonade). Many people like it around that proportion. For this batch of shandy, we preferred a 2:1 ratio (beer to lemonade). We liked it more “beery” than “lemonadey” in flavor. My guess is that when I make it again, I’d likely use this same process. Depending on the batch of homebrew and the batch lemonade the proportions would change.

Here’s a shot of my homebrew shandy:

On to packing for the party – I put the shandy in 64 ounce soda pop PET bottles. Twenty-one (21) ounces was about ⅓ of that measure, so I put that amount of lemonade in the bottle, then filled the beer in on top of it. That mixed the two together nicely. It made it easy to transport, cool, and serve at the party. People who don’t typically like beer liked the shandy. They went through about 3 gallons during the evening. Next time you want to try something different, try your homebrew in a shandy or radler. Cheers!

Posted in Beer Styles, Fun | No Comments »

Black Ale as a Beer Category

Black IPA, Cascadian Dark Ale, Black Ale, whatever you want to call it, the people want it!

Damn that looks delicious!  Rather… it WAS delicious as I drank it after taking the pictures.

Currently Black IPAs, CDAs, Black Ales, Dark IPAs, whatever you want to call them, are categorized under BJCP category 23 – Specialty Beer. Category 23 is the catch all for everything from Australian Sparking Ale, to Malt Liquor, to Black IPA / CDAs. Given continued commercial success and adoption by home brewers, is it time to finally grant this class of beer its own category? BJCP has not acted on this yet. There are a number of issues to sort out.

Issue #1: What to call the category?

For sanity sake, let’s add one new category and not five. Debating the difference between a Black IPA and a Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA) is possible, but it is splitting hairs. Being from Portland, putting ‘Cascadian’ in the name feels right, but that makes it regionally centric which in today’s politically correct world would be a mistake. That leaves Black IPA or Black Ale. Brewer’s Friend recommends naming the category ‘Black Ale’. The reason for dropping IPA from the category name is covered next.

Issue #2: This is not an IPA with ‘food coloring’ added to make it look black.

The point of a beer category is not just based on stats like OG/FG and IBUs. A category is based on flavor, aroma, mouth feel, appearance, and even history. A Black Ale is not hopped up porter or darkened IPA. Could we someday have a beer called Dark Kolsch, just because it has a hint of roasted flavor but uses noble hops, an SRM of 35, and is light in body? What about a Dark Cream Ale??

Issue #3: General profile:

A Black Ale uses Northwest hops (eg – Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Crystal, Simcoe). The citrus hop flavor combined with roasted notes make for unique flavor combinations characteristic to the style. Rich roasted, caramel, chocolate, and coffee flavors can be present.

Aroma: Mix of caramel, roasted malt, and possible hints of chocolate/coffee paired with dry hopped citrus, pine, grapefruit, fruity, floral, and herbal hop notes. Alcohol should not be overly present in aroma.

Appearance: Very dark. Dark brown to obsidian black, with creamy white or tan head.

Flavor: Could be hop forward or malt forward, but bitter and roasted flavors both should be present, and eclipsed by citrus/herbal/spice notes from excessive use of north west hops. This is not a malty beer nor should it be too sweet. The flavor should be crisp, and the finish somewhat dry, but not entirely dominated by the hop profile like in an IPA. Subtle oak notes can be present from barrel aging.

Mouth-feel: Medium body, not overly malty, but not dry or watery. Can (should?) leave lingering flavors on the tongue from dry hopping. Low to moderate carbonation.

Stats:

• OG: 1.060 – 1.075
• FG: 1.010 – 1.018
• ABV: 6% – 8%
• IBU: 60-120
• SRM: 35-40+

Issue #4: What category to put it in?

Does it belong under the IPA category as 14D or the American Ale category as 10D? There are two main themes driving the definition. One is a standard IPA with a dark color and a hint of roasted flavor. The second is a stout or porter with a huge amount of hops. A Black Ale is similar to a barely wine, but not as high in alcohol content and less malty. IPA’s are hoppy beers, but not the only hoppy beers, so Brewer’s Friend recommends putting Black Ale under the American Ales category, as 10D.

Posted in Beer Styles | 4 Comments »

Scottish Light BJCP 9A

A friend of Brewer’s Friend, Niall, wrote in from Edinburgh Scotland about what a real Scottish Light (style BJCP 9A) should look like:

Niall: “Hi, I noticed you feature Scottish Light (60/-) on your colour chart (https://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/02/28/beer-styles-srm-color-chart/), but that it’s shown in the same colour range as 70/- and 80/-. Light is in fact extremely dark coloured, like stout or a really black Dunkel.  I hope this helps!”

Larry: “Check out this page for info from the BJCP:  https://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style09.php Note the SRM (color) is the same for the three you mentioned. … We yanks don’t get around to brewing the Scottish Light style much, and that’s probably part of the misconception to begin with.”

Niall: “I can well imagine the problem – light is left over from the last century, when British brewers were asked to brew weaker beer to conserve ingredients in the post war period, as well as to stop the workforce turning up drunk. Light is getting harder to find here now,  it’s only available in a small minority of pubs.”

Analysis:

In this case the term ‘light’ applies to the gravity (alcohol content) of the beer but not the color. In the US we commonly associate light colored beers with a low gravity, and darker beers with a higher gravity.  We would also associate a session beer with a light colored beer. A session beer being one you can drink 4-5 of in an evening and not get bloated or tired of the flavor.  Scottish Light is dark colored, low alcohol, and easy drinking. Sounds like a summer stout or porter to me.   It would be an interesting challenge to get the flavor balance right, and still have a dark color.

Interestingly enough, some commercial breweries are trying similar things out, like Full Sail’s Black Session Lager (which happens to be a Czech style dark lager). Deschutes even made a Black IPA this year.

There is definitely a lot of room in the US for experimentation with the Scottish Light style.   Thank you Niall for writing in!

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Beer Style Guidelines – What kind of beer is this?

Beer style guidelines are as numerous as the types of beers that you will find around the world. In fact there are different types of beer styles… styles of beer styles if you will. One organization that produces beer style guidelines is the Beer Judging and Certification Program (BJCP). They have a long list of beer style guidelines. Another organization that created beer style guidelines is the American Homebrewing Association (AHA), who publishes even MORE styles than the BJCP. Both offer copious amounts of information pertaining to any beer style that you can imagine.

For the home brewer, learning the details of the beer style guidelines is a natural progression. One of the first things I learned was the difference between ales and lagers. This was quite a fascinating discovery and fueled my curiosity and need for more brewing equipment. From there, I went on to explore the categories and branch out into brewing different styles. I have not tried the Rauchbier (smoked beer) category yet, nor the sour ales or lambics, but there is always something new to try! At this point, when brewing for personal use or a party, what really matters is having fun.

Home brewers should begin to consider guidelines more closely when crafting their own recipes. When it comes to entering beer into a competition, the guidelines must be given careful attention. For most competitions, the judges will be comparing your beer against the standards set forth for the category. One path to becoming a master taster is to become a BJCP certified judge. The best way to start is to join your local home brew club and inquire.

BCJP currently has approximately 70 styles of beer, plus a handful of classifications for meads and ciders. AHA has over 120 styles and gets very intricate with subtle differences between categories.

BCJP guidelines include descriptions of: Aroma (smell), Appearance, Flavor, Mouthfeel, Overall Impression, History, Comments, Ingredients, Vital Statistics (OG, FG, IBU, SRM, ABV). Commercial examples are also provided. I found these useful when I wanted to try a commercial variety.
The following websites will guide you to both BJCP and AHA beer styles. Cheers!

AHA Website: https://www.beertown.org/
AHA Guidelines: https://www.beertown.org/education/pdf/BA_Beer_Style_2009.pdf

BJCP Website: https://www.bjcp.org/
BJCP PDF Guidelines: https://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php (available in web or PDF format)

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Stir Plates and Growing Brewing Yeast Quickly

Creating a simple yeast starter as outlined here at brewersfriend.com will greatly increase your yeast cell count, but there is a way to easily supercharge this process. By using a stir plate you will be able to grow nearly 100% more yeast cells using the same volume of starter in the same amount of time. Basically, for the same investment in yeast, time and starter liquid, you will be able to double your yeast production with a stir plate.

A stir plate is a simple machine consisting of a base which houses a motor with variable speed control. Fig 1. This motor is used to spin two precisely spaced magnets, which in turn will spin a magnetic stir bar inside your flask. The intent here is to use this stirring motion to:

1. Keep the yeast in suspension
2. Release CO2 from the starter solution
3. Continuously aerate the starter liquid

Fig 1.

There are several important guidelines to follow when utilizing a stir plate to create a starter:

1. Ideally, boil the starter wort in the flask that you will be using to create the starter, this will help to sanitize the flask.
2. DO NOT use an airlock on a stir plate starter as it will impede the ability of the stir plate to exchange CO2 from the fermentation for O2, which will help grow yeast.
3. DO use foil to cover the top of the flask instead of an airlock.
4. Ferment the starter at 75F – 80F. While not optimal for flavor production, you are trying to grow yeast, and warmer temperatures will accelerate this process.

By doing the above, you are creating the perfect growing environment for your yeast cells, allowing them to grow at a much greater rate than they would with the use of a simple starter with no stir plate. After the starter has fermented out completely (approx 24 hours), remove the starter from the stir plate and chill so that the yeast may settle. After a short period of time (several hours), the yeast will form a nice thick slurry in the bottom of the flask, allowing you decant the starter wort prior to pitching. Decanting is required since the wort has been oxidized and fermented at a higher temperature than is optimal for most yeasts (75F-80F recommended). Though this temperature is excellent for yeast growth, it does not leave a very favorable flavor in the starter liquid.

Our yeast pitching calculator makes choosing and hitting your desired pitch rate very simple.

Our calculator will allow you to enter all of the vital statistics about your wort so that it can properly calculate the number of yeast cells you will require, the required volume of your starter wort and the volume of yeast slurry that you must pitch to meet your ideal pitching rate.

Below is a side by side comparison of the number of yeast cells created in a 1.5L simple starter (no stir plate) and a 1.5L stir plate starter. The results may surprise you!

Starter volume: 1.5L
Amount of Yeast used in starter: (1) Liquid Smack Pack / Vial – 100B cells
Fermentation Time: 24 hours
Temperature: 75F (recommended to quickly grow yeast)

Using the above criteria, a simple starter will produce approximately:

182 billion yeast cells, pitch rate of 0.71 M cells / mL / °Plato (just below the pro recommended pitch rate)

Using the above criteria, a stir plate starter will produce approximately:

282 billion yeast cells, pitch rate of 1.09 M cells / mL / °Plato (a very healthy pitch rate)

As you can see from the above comparison, utilizing a stir plate you are able to increase by 100% the yeast growth with the same amount of starter wort while using the same amount of yeast pitched into said starter. Conversely, you can also create the same amount of yeast in a stir plate starter as you are able to with a simple starter, with nearly half the starter volume. The latter is of great interest to lager brewers who will routinely need to create very large starters to reach the proper pitching rate for their lager beers. Lagers will routinely require a 3L-4L stir plate starter. If you utilized a simple starter (no stir plate), you would be in the neighborhood of 6L to reach the proper pitching rate.

Posted in Beer Styles, Yeast Cultures | 24 Comments »

Beer Styles – SRM Color Chart

NOTE: This chart has been updated with the latest BJCP style guidelines; please see the new chart here: Beer Styles – SRM Color Chart – 2017 Update

Beer comes in a wide range of colors, from yellow golden to amber to opaque black. This chart shows the BJCP beer styles and their SRM colors in bar graph format. SRM stands for ‘Standard Reference Method’, a scale devised by scientists to describe how light or dark a beer is.

Data for this chart comes from the the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).

Posted in Beer Styles | 5 Comments »

Beer Styles – Original Gravity and Final Gravity Chart

NOTE: This chart has been updated with the latest BJCP style guidelines; please see the new chart here: Beer Styles – Original Gravity and Final Gravity Chart – 2017 Update

Beer comes in a wide range of malt/hop flavor balance and alcohol level. This chart shows the BJCP beer styles and their original gravity and final gravity in bar graph format.

Original gravity (OG) measures how much sugar is present in the wort before it is fermented. The final gravity (FG) is how much sugar is left over when fermentation is done. For a beer to fit into a certain style, each of these numbers must be within the specified range as the chart depicts.

A lower final gravity indicates a dry or crisp flavor, while a higher final gravity indicates a sweet or malty flavor.

The size of the gap between OG and FG can be used to calculate how much alcohol the beer contains.

Data for this chart comes from the the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).

Posted in Beer Styles | 4 Comments »

Beer Styles – IBU Chart Graph (Bitterness Range)

NOTE: This chart has been updated with the latest BJCP style guidelines; please see the new chart here: Beer Styles – IBU Chart (Bitterness Ranges) – 2017 Update

Beer comes in a wide range of bitterness. This chart shows the BJCP beer styles and their international bittering unit (IBU) ranges in bar graph format.

Data for this chart comes from the the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP).

Posted in Beer Styles | 15 Comments »