Thai Basil Tripel

I've been lucky enough to live within a short drive of The Bruery since they opened in Orange County in 2008 and I've been a big fan pretty much since the beginning. While I love their funky and sour beers, I've also always been a huge fan of their Tradewinds Tripel, a Belgian-style tripel brewed with Thai basil and rice and have been wanting to brew my own version of it for a good while. It kept getting moved to the back burner, but I finally decided to take a stab at it. 

Several years back, Patrick Rue of The Bruery, was on one of the Brewing Network shows and he gave out the recipe. It's a pretty simple grain bill consisting of 2-Row, Dark Munich, and Flaked Rice. For yeast, they use their house strain, so the best option for a clone is to either harvest yeast from one of their bottles and grow it up to a pitchable amount or to use WLP570 (Belgian Golden Ale) from White Labs, which Patrick says that it's the closest commercial option out there. 

The magic in this beer though, of course, comes from the Thai basil. For the first batch of The Bruery's beer, they used Thail basil leaves and blossoms that had been growing in Patrick's back yard. Patrick recommended using a rate of 1/4 oz. of basil per 5 gallons of beer at flameout, with a majority of the addition coming from the blossoms rather than the leaves, as he believed the blossoms were most responsible for the beer's unique character. 

In most Tripels, a fairly large portion of sugar is added to lighten the body, but in The Bruery's Thai-inspired recipe, they use flaked rice instead. Unfortunately, when I went to buy the ingredients for my beer, I found out that my local homebrew shop doesn't carry flaked rice, so I made the decision to go with flaked corn in its place. Both serve the same purpose of lightening the body of the beer, although I've read the argument that flaked rice can provide more of a crispness while flaked corn can provide more creaminess. That may be the case, but I'm going for the flaked corn and I probably won't lose much sleep over it. 

It actually turns out that most grocery stores don't carry Thai basil, so I had to search around a bit to find it. I ended up making the trek to a nearby town that has a couple of Asian markets and found some there with lots of glorious little blossoms on it. (I also saw fish heads for sale, but I opted to pass on those for this beer.) I want the basil character in my beer to be a little more intense, so I decided to go heavy-handed, using close to 1/4 oz. in this little 2-gallon batch, with the ratio being something like 70% blossoms / 30% leaves. 

Same as my last batch, I decided to use the no-sparge process and I also pitched Clarity Ferm along with the yeast to turn this into an essentially gluten-free beer.  I had a small hiccup on this batch where I forgot to update the mash tun deadspace volume in BeerSmith, so I ended up adding more water than necessary which left me with a lower gravity beer than I intended. I increased my boil time which helped a bit, but I still fell pretty short of my target OG of 1.074, instead coming in at 1.065. Not a huge deal - I'll just end up with a slightly more sessionable Tripel. 

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.1 gal
Estimated OG: 1.074 SG
Estimated Color: 5.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 26.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Fermentables:
72% - 2-Row
14.5% - Flaked Corn
10% - Dark Munich
3.5% - Acidulated Malt

Hops:
.15 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 15.8% AA) @ FWH - 22 IBUs
.75 oz. Saaz (Pellet, 3.6% AA) @ 5 minutes - 4.2 IBUs

Yeast:
White Labs WLP570 Belgian Golden Ale

Other:
.23 oz - Thai basil leaves and blossoms (added at flameout)
Clarity Ferm - pitched alongside the yeast

Water:
RO filtered water - added 2.5 grams of calcium chloride and 2.5 grams of gypsum to the strike water.

Mash:
Single-infusion @ 151 degrees (No-sparge)

Notes:
Brewed on 6/12/16.

Used the no-sparge method. 100% RO water with 2.5 grams of gypsum and 2.5 grams of calcium chloride in the mash.

Mash pH came in a little lower than my target at 5.18 pH.

I messed up and forgot to update mash tun deadspace to the correct number in BeerSmith, so I ended up with a higher pre-boil volume and a lower gravity than anticipated. Increased boil time to 100 minutes - still ended up with an OG of 1.065 when I was originally planning for 1.074. I'm hoping high attenuation will still get this beer into the mid-high 7% ABV range.

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Farmhouse Pale Ale

For this one, I set out to create a beer that bridges the gap between a saison and an American pale ale - a brewski that has the phenolic, fruity character and dryness of a traditional saison, but the hop aroma and flavor of a pale ale. I want the beer to be sessionable, easy-drinking, and aromatic, something that would please both the hopheads and the saison geeks. One might call it a hoppy saison or perhaps a Belgian-style pale ale, but I'm going with Farmhouse-style Pale Ale for this one. Don't question me - it just feels right. 

I'm also trying out a couple of new processes with this brew. The first is that I will be trying the no-sparge method. My normal brew process, like many other brewers, is to mash, vorlauf, run off, and then add hot water back into the grain to pull out the remaining sugars (a.k.a. sparging), vorlauf, and run off again. The no-sparge process is awesome in that you can just add the entire volume of water into the mash tun, conduct your mash, vorlauf, run off, and you're ready to start the boil. The benefit is that it saves times and some claim that it gives your beer better malt character. The downside is that you are leaving behind some sugars on the grain, so your efficiency drops, meaning you need to start out with a little more grain than normal. The other downside for me is that I have to do a slightly smaller batch to fit the entire volume of water and grain in my 5-gallon mash tun. This batch will yield around 2.5 gallons of beer in the end.

The other crazy new process I'm trying with this beer is adding an enzyme called Clarity Ferm for its gluten-reducing capabilities. I don't have a gluten-allergy per se, but I do have an intestinal disorder that is greatly helped by not consuming wheat and gluten. And I love beer. Like I really love it. Behind the good Lord, my wife, and my family and friends, it's pretty much my favorite thing. But sadly it hurts me and brings me pain and inflammation. Yeah, it's a sick, twisted world, broheims. Real sick. The beauty of Clarity Ferm though is that it reportedly produces beers that are 10ppm or under in gluten and has little to no effect on the flavor or overall outcome of the beer. That's pretty magical news for a beer lover with a gluten issue, so I'm going to try it out and see how it goes.

I could have used any number of aroma hops for this animal, but I decided to keep it simple and go with Cascade. If the beer turns out to be a winner, I would love to try it out with some of the newer American hop varieties as well. 

Recipe Specifications
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.6 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG
Estimated Color: 3.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 34.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 71.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Fermentables:
86% - 2-Row
11% - White Wheat Malt
3% - Acidulated Malt

Hops:
.75 oz. Cascade (Pellet, 5.5% AA) @ 60 minutes - 32.7 IBUs
1 oz. Cascade (Pellet, 5.5% AA) @ 1 minutes - 1.9 IBUs

2 oz. Cascade (Pellet, 5.5% AA) @ Dry Hop - Adding 4 days into fermentation

Yeast:
White Labs WLP590 French Saison Ale

Other:
Clarity Ferm - pitched alongside the yeast

Water:
RO filtered water - added 2.5 grams of calcium chloride, 3 grams of gypsum, and 1.2 grams of baking soda to the strike water.

Mash:
Single-infusion @ 150 degrees (No-sparge)

Notes:
Brewed on 5/22/16.

First time trying the no-sparge method. Used 100% RO water with 3 grams of gypsum, 2.5 grams of calcium chloride, and 1.2 grams of baking soda added to strike water.

Mash pH was 5.49.

Hit OG of 1.048. 71% efficiency with no-sparge method.

Pitched yeast at around 70 degrees. Ramped temperature up to 78 degrees over the course of 4 days.

6/19/16 - Kegged. Targeting 2.8 volumes of CO2.

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