Autumn Delight

A couple months ago, I was trying to think of a good beer to brew for the upcoming fall season (fall? Florida? Yeah...I know, but humor me). I didn't get much of a chance to brew last fall (the oatmeal stout was about it between August and November, I believe), and the fall before that I tried my hand in a "pumpkin" spiced brown ale ("A Holerin' Brown Ale").  Well, instead of trying another pumpkin beer (the previous one was a bit too heavy on the clove to really be much of a pumpkin beer), I figured it'd be nice to try some other Autumn-esque flavors.  Sticking with a brown ale base again, I planned to brew with maple syrup and oak chips.

While brainstorming some ideas, a homebrew buddy of mine from the club, Dave, mentioned he had used maple in the past and was never really satisfied.  He like my idea, though, so I asked him if he'd be interested in collaborating on a batch.  We planned on doing a 10-gallon batch, splitting it in half, and doing the maple/oak additions at different intervals.  This would allow us to see which one did better, in terms of the final flavor profile, and allow us to adjust as needed for future brews.

We arranged a day and time for the brew session (a few days before the semester was starting up again, so it was a great way to end the summer), and got to work on the ingredients and recipe.  Dave's setup is quite awesome (see pictures below), and brewing all-grain for once was a really nice treat.  From milling the grains to transferring the wort into two different fermenters, we spent the good portion of an entire afternoon and late morning brewing this bad boy.  Dave's 5-gallons were to see a maple and oak addition a few days after fermentation had started (to give the yeast some time to work on the more complex sugars), while mine was to wait until racking to the secondary.

Dave's setup

Chilling the wort

It's been just over a week since we brewed, and I actually just racked yesterday; fermentation had slowed down quite a bit, so this naturally kicked things up again (pure maple syrup is essentially the equivalent of a yeasty dose of steroids).  The plan is for me to bottle as I usually do, and for Dave to keg (with a possible mini-cask set aside as well).  We're both really looking forward to the final results.  Our taste tests from the gravity readings point towards a nice, malty English southern brown ale - I can only imagine how tasty the maple and french oak are going to make it!  Before my addition yesterday, my wife said it smelled like a fresh loaf of bread... Now, that's what I'm talking about! ;-)

Siphoning Dave's 5-gallons

Siphoning my 5-gallons

In other news, the saison is tasting great, the dubbel is currently bulk aging in the secondary, and the braggot is still fermenting.  My wife and I are going to be brewing an espresso stout later this fall - possibly in time for our club's competition (mentioned in previous posts) - and I'll be sure to post the outcome of our lovely little maple/oak in the near future.

Peace and Love!