Provender de Mars- Ambree

Phil Markowski's excellent book "Farmhouse Ales" provides a awesome amount of information regarding the Biere de Garde style of French ales. I highly recommend that if you are interested in Saisons or Biere de Garde to give it a read. And no, you can't borrow my copy.

Based on the book suggestions I created Provender de Mars- Ambree, a Biere de Garde in the vein of Jenlain Ambree. At the time I brewed this the Wyeast Biere de Garde limited strain was not available so instead I used the Wyeast 3655-PC Belgian Schelde Ale limited edition yeast. I'm happy with the muted but funky yeast characteristics it provided for this malt forward brew. I do plan on making another one with the limited edition Wyeast 3725-PC at some point in the near future. 

A critical element to this style is that there is some "cellar character" in the beer from extended aging. As I don't have an ancient Wallonian farmhouse cellar to age this in I was afraid that it would come out too clean. I'm glad that it really didn't clean up like I thought it might. I got a few comments that it had the nose of a sour and certain acquaintances of mine declined to initially try it. I basically had to force it on them. Once tasted though I did generally get good feedback. This beer has a mildly funky yeast nose, but no sour character at all. 

Remember, just because the nose is unfamiliar doesn't mean that the beer is unpleasant. 

Provender de Mars- Ambree 

Brew Date 11/19/2011

5.25 Gallon batch

Mashed at 147 @75 min

OG 1.068

FG 1.006
22 IBU

11 SRM

90% measured attenuation 8.2% ABV

Grains

Briess Pilsner	10 lbs, 8 oz
Caramunich Malt	1 lbs, 8 oz
Aromatic Malt (Bel)	0 lbs, 8 oz
Invert Sugar	1 lbs,0  oz

Hops 

Mt. Hood  6.1%	.85 oz @ 60 mins
Strisslespalt 2.5%	1 oz @ 30 mins

I again made invert sugar syrup and fed after the fermentation was underway. I pitched one packet of yeast with no starter at 66 F and let it rise up to 74F over 10 days. 10 day secondary and I crash cooled out in my winter-cold butlers pantry at about 33 F. I bottled to 2.8 volumes of Co2 in Belgian bottles, corked and caged.

Tasting at bottling: 


Toasted rye bread. Certainly dry. Grainy breakfast cereal and light sweetness which is odd as it finished at 1.006. 

This beer has a very nice lacing, it even laced the carboy when I was filling the bottling bucket.

Tasting on 2-15-12:

I know I said 6  months but I had nothing to take to brew club meeting. Concern as the corks did not mushroom as expected . This is because I inserted the corks too deeply. Check and reset corker before bottling again. 


Sweet caramel and toffee nut flavors. much sweeter than at bottling. No noticable hop nose or taste. This is the most malt forward brew I have made to date. Full and rounded mouthfeel with a slight heaviness. Filling. no noticeable alcohol nose and alcohol little taste.


Perfect amber color. Looks like a warm fireside glow. modest yet lasting carbonation and medium lacing.


Can't wait for 3 more months of cold conditioning!


Now that it's June. I'll chill a few bottles down this weekend and see how well it goes with some ribs from the smoker. Yay, I'm caught up through the end of 2011! Cheers!

Edit: From this weekend. I apologize for the fuzzy shot, I was kind of fuzzy at that point.