Recipe #60: Where The Wild Things Are: Alexander (Saison turned Belgian Dubbel turned Flander's Red)

The time has changed, the temperatures are slowly rising, the sun comes out to say "Hi!" every so often, there is fresh green growth on many plants that were once shriveled and lifeless, trees are blooming, and our allergies are going crazy.  Spring is here.  So when I considering brewing the Beer Advocate Crowd Sourced American Stout for St. Patty's Day, I was torn as I also wanted to get a Saison going with the 3 month old packet of WY3726 Farmhouse Ale in the fridge.  As I looked at the base grains for the stout recipe: Pale Malt, Munich, Toasted Oats, and medium Crystal, they jumped out as great components for a Spring Saison, a little bigger and darker than I normally would do, with maybe a little sweetness.  All I had to do was double these grains and leave the dark grains from the Stout out of the mash.

I also had quite a bit of Tardif de Bourgenone hops from harvest last year that I really wanted to use, so of course I had to use them as the sole hop in this recipe.  This should impart a light fruitiness with spice and herbs, just right for a good Saison, and I used Calypso as a FW hop for a touch of apple and pear if anything carried through.  Layering this atop the malty, toasty, toffee malts seemed like a great place to showcase the complexity of the Farmhouse's fruity and spicy character.  This beer should be right near the edge of the  for the style, toasty, fruity, spicy, light Noble like hops, malt complexity and a middle ABV should've helped offset the still cool nights of the next few months.  Then the FG stopped at 1.012, too sweet for a Saison.  The hops weren't nearly as expressive as they should be in a Saison either.  I started thinking, it kind of tastes like a Dubbel, maybe I'll just go with that.  Then I just said forget it, I'll steep some Special B, boil it to a syrup, add oak, and hit it with a bunch of sour blends and dregs to make it into a pseudo-Flander's Red, especially since I have wanted to make one for a long time and haven't.  I've got enough beer in the pipeline that I don't need this one, and I want to reuse the yeast cake and do an Americanized Saison soon anyways.

Recipe: #59 Dark World (Beer Advocate Crowd Sourced American Stout)

I really wanted to get a Stout on for St. Patrick's Day.  I've wanted to do this every year and this year was looking like another, "maybe next year" kinda year again.  I had a brew day on the calendar for a Pilsner and a Saison, but saw that I had the chance to make a Stout instead, and still have it ready in time for St Patrick's Day if I used the right yeast, plus I don't really want a Pils right now, I want a Stout.  I had to have it fermented and carbed up in 2 weeks and 2 days.  Using 1968 would give me a quick fermentation and even quicker clearing.  Now I just needed to work up a recipe.

Awhile back Vikeman, a Beer Advocate homebrew forum member, put together a poll to do a crowd sourced Stout recipe.  The popular votes fell on American Stout, and a string of new polls ensued to decide the OG, FG, ABV, IBU, grist composition, yeast, mash temps, hops, etc.  In the end the recipe was compiled and released with multiple brewers around the country brewing the recipe for themselves.  I really enjoyed being a part of the polls, and wanted to brew this beer, so I figured I had my recipe.  This recipe included toasted oatmeal so a few days before brewing I put the oatmeal into the oven set at 350*F for about 40 minutes giving it a couple stirs and letting the kitchen smell like cookies, then I placed it in a paper bag to cool for a few days.