Gabe's Hoppy Belgian "The Målleström"

This monstrosity was born out of a few things. I was not sure what efficiency my friend would get on his first all grain batch, and we wanted to do something Belgiany, boozy with a hoppy flair. So I over built the recipe thinking he would be in the 65% brew-house range. We didn't end up with 65, but north of the 85% efficiency and ended up with a 1.1 SG.

Next was my friends ability to buy the wrong ingredients, and inability to follow the recipe. We were going to use T-85 yeast, but that got subbed for M31. We were also going to use Perle and El Dorado hops, but that didn't happen. The aroma additions of Hallertau Blanc were supposed to be at 15,10,5, and 0 minutes in the boil, but a whole oz was added at 11 minutes.

This beer was brewed in a near constant howling downpour while we drank Westmalle Tripel, so the name of "Mallestrom" was born, and Nordic lettering was added the more we drank.

3 packs of M31 were pitched into a 2L starter, and left on the stir plate for about 36 hours to hopefully give us a pitch of about 500B yeastys. I suggested a blow off tube, but none was to be at at my friends house. I said I expected the airlock to blow off the carboy, but I had no idea of the carnage ahead. At 5am the next morning, I found the airlock had blown off and exploded to the ceiling. I cleaned out the airlock, and put it back on to find there was so much co2 coming out, that was no longer bubbling, but just held the bubbler at the top of the air lock. I made a quick and dirty blowoff tube using the tubing off the racking cane and the rubber bung. It bubbled through that tube with reckless abandon.

All in all, I cannot wait to try this beer.