Recipe essentially based off Steve's Amber Ale but with changes to hops and yeast. The traditional French Strisselspalt hops will hopefully impart a nice, light and spicy/floral aroma and dry-hopping with UK Bramling Cross should give off some blackcurrant notes to play off the slight phenols we should get from fermenting a little on the higher end (about 70 F is what we're aiming for). Should be a nice little beer... a taste of the French countryside with a bit of an American twist.
6/6/15: Added 1 oz Bramling Cross in muslin bag as dry-hop
6/13/15: Just racked and removed dry-hop bag. Took a sample and we got pretty great attenuation (got it down to 1.013 which is slightly better than the calculated 1.016). Color of the sample is fantastic. Smell isn't really spicy or citrusy despite the Cascade and Strisselspalt additions. Instead, the aroma is dominated by blackberry and lemon. We should be bottling it next weekend and will report back with more notes then.
6/20/15: Finally trying a sample of this... should be bottling it on 6/27, so we're a week behind but life gets in the way sometimes. Flavor is very jammy and follows the nose with a lot of black raspberry and blackcurrant notes. The dark fruit mingles with some caramel and earthy rye before finishing rather dry. Ester qualities are surprisingly minimal despite stressing the yeast slightly (fermenting a few degrees above its preferred temp), but the finished beer has a hefty body and a lot of unique and appreciable flavors. Excited to see how it conditions and how it "keeps" considering that is what a biere de garde should do!
