Kyle's Belgian Warriors, Steeplechase Brewery

So I decided that a mere week and 3 days after bottling the Belgian Warriors, I was going to pop one open. I didn't expect any carbonation, but I heard a nice "chhhahh" sound when I opened the bottle and immediately got excited. The beer poured beautifully with a thick head that held for a while. I took about 20 pictures until I got one that I was happy with and the head didn't change throughout. Usually with my homebrews, I have to be a bit more efficient with the camera phone. By the way, it did not mesh well a shrimp cocktail, but I never claimed to be good at food and beer pairing.

The color you can't really see is a nice brown. It matches a lot of Belgian Dubbels well, but shows some red when held up to the light.

The smell is very complex. There is some maltiness, there is a toastiness, and then there are the hops. The hops are the main character here, but due to the other notes, the cascades and saaz mix doesn't come off as very familiar. There is a cleanness to the hop smell that I dare say might come from the bittering hop: the Warriors. The liquor smell that was there before bottling has faded into the background.

The taste greets with a good balance of bitterness and malt. It stings just a little, and I am surprised at how well it carbonated already. I wasn't patient enough after putting it in the fridge and it's kind of lukewarm. I think it should definitely be served a bit colder. But I am not disappointed. The middle is full and satisfying. This is a pretty big beer after all. The end is bitter, a bit too bitter. A tart Warrior hop finish is not what I was going for, but that only makes me look forward to the next s

ip. Overall I am very happy with the result and would definitely brew something similar again. I think it would be cool if it ended with more of a roasty note instead of the bitterness.

I drank it fast and I only had those 7 shrimp in my belly, but at 9%, I can really feel it.

I am aware that as a brewer, I tend to appreciate my own brews more than other people. Because of that, I will limit myself to a max rating of 8 out of 10. That being said, I give this a 7 out of 8 out of 10 SHRIMP CONFUSIONS!

Homebrew Journal: Kyle's Belgian Warriors

After homebrewing from kits for a while, Mark and I both decided to design our own recipes and try them out. I was going to write my notes about the recipe and the brewing in my brewing notebook, but since this is a new beer that has never been made before, I thought I would share. I'll write a little bit about mine here and I'll let Mark write his own entry about his if he wants. I have not tasted the beer yet so this isn't a review, but I will write a review in a few months when it is done.

I will go the whole thing here, but you can find more details about my recipe here. That is a great website and I highly reccomend it for designing your own recipes. This is an extract recipe.

Malts (all liquid):

6 lbs of Northern Brewer Light Pilsen Extract (75)

6 lbs of Northern Brewer Golden Extract (75)

1 lb. 3 oz. of Munton's Light Extract (60)

If you are a homebrewer you can probably tell that I decided to really go for it with my first recipe. I put in more than 12 pounds of malt, which ended up giving me an OG of 1.085. That is huge. If it drops nicely I should end up with about 9% ABV. Also you might notice that I decided to boil for 75 minutes. This is the first time I have done that and I will explain why in the Hops section. The malts I chose are common in Belgian style dubbels and tripels (even the Muntons which I just threw in cause Mark had it left over) and I wanted to stick to a Belgian style with malts and yeast, but really add a lot of kick with the hops.

Hops:

1 oz. Warrior Hops, 17.2% Alpha (75)

1 oz. Warrior Hops, 17.2% Alpha (60)

1 oz. Cascade Hops, 5% Alpha (15)

1 oz. Czech Saaz Hops, 4% Alpha (15)

1 oz. Cascade Hops, 5% Alpha (5)

1 oz. Czech Saaz Hops, 4% Alpha (5)

WARRIORS COME OUT TO PLAYAYYY!

The Warriors have a very high Alpha percentage which is basically a measure of how bitter they are. However, the amount of bitterness that actually comes out of the Lupulin is a factor of how long you boil it. I want the Warriors to really be the center point so I started an ounce of them at 75 to maximize their bitterness and also added an ounce at 60 where they should be very bitter as well. The massive amounts of maltose in this beer will downplay the bitterness and hopefully strike a nice balance. I don't expect the Terminal Gravity to be much lower than 1.025 so there will still be a good amount of sugar in the final product. It is a lot of both sugars and bittering hops so I don't know if one will dominate, but I hope the warriors only slightly win out over the sweetness. The Cascade-Czech Saaz 15-5 finishing combo is lifted straight from the Northern Brewer Houblonmonstre (Gewurztramonstre) kit that I loved so much. I thought for a long time that I was going to save an ounce of Warriors for either dry hopping or hop bursting (adding to boil at 0 minutes), but Mark and I decided that they might get lost among the Cascades and Saaz so it would be better to just use them for bittering.

Yeast:

Wyeast Belgian Ardennes 3522

I decided on the yeast because it works well against high gravities and it is described as having a complex spicy character and mild fruitiness. I hope that some of that comes through and it is not overpowered to much by the other flavors. Otherwise it won't be very much like a Belgian anything. A yeast starter was made from the smack pack 3 days prior to brewing.

I had originally called this a Belgian Tripel, but according to hopville, it has way too much of everything to be considered for that label. I think Imperial IPA might be a better label, but for now let's just stick with "Kyle's Belgian Warriors!"

The brew is taking off nicely, it is bubbling over like crazy after 24 hours and is making a mess for Mark in his closet.

Questions and comments welcome...