Aleumination batch #1 - The Indoctrinator

[Rob DeNunzio]

I titled this "#1" because I think it has potential to turn into a series, which could be loads of fun for all us homebrewers (and those thinking about becoming homebrewers, to boot). Discussion about putting together an "Aleuminati Special Ale" has been bandied about for the past few months, the last benchmark being "we'll do it when there's 200 members on the site", which actually happened a couple weeks ago. That said, I've collected some of the comments here to get us started on what could be a very entertaining little project...

"This truly special brew would have to have a thick, billowy head at least 2 or 3 inches thick, which would reduce to no less than an inch. There would be lace all the way down the glass. The aroma must be complex enough to keep you guessing about the one element you can't quite place. You would constantly ask yourself "What is that?". The color should be deep enough to hold the light as it passes through, a deep, deep color. Something like a luminous copper bronze.

This beer should be at least 9-10 percent ABV, not a session beer... a single or double per night.

Maybe we should take a look at the truly great beers throughout history and gather their common qualities. "

"It would have to be Belgian-ish of course, double digit ABV."

"We can't discount the nose either ... most of what we taste, after all, is really a function of the nose ... I can't get enough of beers like St. Bernardus Abt 12 or Rochefort 10 ... that warm, sugary malt character dancing with fruity esters and a dash of coconut ..."

"A blend of "perfect" pints. The floating aromatic mystery ingrediant is a must."

"We should get a label design to so folks can package it after they brew and spread the word about craft beer, home brews and the aleuminati... I like the idea of making something even us novice brewers could make though... Should be a craft newbie friendly style/recipe too... Nothing over the top that will scare off the macro-lovers..."

In the spirit of the Open Source Beer Project, let's make this a collaborative recipe, one that could be made by a complete homebrew neophyte or a scaled up for a seasoned pro, and with the idea that the resultant beer could not only satisfy a true beer snob, but also act as a gateway beer for the budding beer snob.

From my own experience, Belgian dubbels and the like are perfect introductory beers for those who have yet to tuck into the stuff we all seem to take for granted. Besides being relatively easy on the palate, they also come with just enough (cue the monk music) solemn mystery to inspire folks to taste a little more deeply on their first take (and by deeply, I do not mean via beer bong). That said, a dubbel seems to fit in with the Aleuminati idea of a good namesake "special ale", Before I chime in with my own recipe ideas, though, I'd love for other, likely more experienced brewers, to get in the game here and start this recipe rolling.

Oh, and art? Who wants to do that? If we all decide to brew this on our own terms, how great to be able to share it in a hip, branded fashion?

And like I said, this is batch "#1". We can do the triple smoked imperial sour wheat stout (with boysenberries (and oak)) next time...

[Shawn, the Beer Philosopher]

I am BIG TIME excited about this! I think a dubbel is a perfect choice for #1, Rob. Good call! I would put myself firmly in the novice/intermediate category when it comes to homebrewing, so I would certainly like to defer to the more skilled and experienced brewers among us for recipe refinement.

Unless we have any takers (and if we do, by all means feel free to take the reigns) I'd be happy to do the label design, as I do have a bit of a background in graphic design. Perhaps we should start another thread when we get a little closer to finalizing a recipe for the label art and go from there ... no reason that can't be a collaborative effort as well. I wonder if there is a web-based label design tool we could utilize? One that everyone could access to print labels for their respective interpretations? Short of that, if I have dimensions I can create a label in whatever format we might want (.eps, .png, .jpg, ) and just upload the file here ...

Please share you thoughts!

[Ray Grace]

I'm in. I've only been brewing for about two years and I just brew extract plus grains but I'm sure we could easily adapt an all-grain recipe to extract or vice-versa easily enough.

[Rob DeNunzio]

Schnabel said that Mozart's sonatas were "too easy for children, too difficult for adults." I think we can come up with a recipe that even the least experienced brewers can succeed in preparing, while leaving it nuanced enough that the pros will have to sweat a little in their quest for success...

Ray Grace said:

I'm in. I've only been brewing for about two years and I just brew extract plus grains but I'm sure we could easily adapt an all-grain recipe to extract or vice-versa easily enough.

[theBryon]

I really love this idea... I'll be happy to give some inputs into the label art, but by all means take the lead...

[Shawn, the Beer Philosopher]

theBryon said:

I really love this idea... I'll be happy to give some inputs into the label art, but by all means take the lead...

Terrific! An input is more than welcome. I'm thinking something "gothic-inspired" in some way ... dark and mysterious, like the beer itself.

[Rob DeNunzio]

Okay, I'm giving this thread until Friday before I just go ahead and pitch in a recipe...

[theBryon]

Not sure why, but I was seeing stained glass as part of the logo...

The Beer Philosopher said:

theBryon said:

I really love this idea... I'll be happy to give some inputs into the label art, but by all means take the lead...

Terrific! An input is more than welcome. I'm thinking something "gothic-inspired" in some way ... dark and mysterious, like the beer itself.

[Ray Grace]

I fiddled around on beer tools and with Brew Like A Monk this weekend and came up with the following recipe. Let me know what you think, any and all suggestions are welcome.

8 lbs ultralight LME
0.25 lbs Belgian Caramunich
0.25 lbs Belgian Aromatic
0.25 lbs Blegian Special B
0.5 lb Clear candi sigar
0.5 lb cane sugar
1 oz tettnanger hops - 60 min
0.50 oz styrian goldings - 15 min

WLP530 Abbey ale yeast.

[Rob DeNunzio]

The Tomme recipe (sans raisins)! I'm eager to take a closer look at this later tonight...

An excellent start. Thank you!

Ray Grace said:

I fiddled around on beer tools and with Brew Like A Monk this weekend and came up with the following recipe. Let me know what you think, any and all suggestions are welcome.

8 lbs ultralight LME
0.25 lbs Belgian Caramunich
0.25 lbs Belgian Aromatic
0.25 lbs Blegian Special B
0.5 lb Clear candi sigar
0.5 lb cane sugar
1 oz tettnanger hops - 60 min
0.50 oz styrian goldings - 15 min

WLP530 Abbey ale yeast.

[Rob DeNunzio]

Okay... After looking at Ray's recipe, I came up with a couple small adjustments. Let me know what you think:

- I replaced the ultralight LME with light LME to make it more accessible (one of the local brew stores has ultralight, the other doesn't, so I figured it was par for the course).

- I thought it could use a little deepening of color, so swapped out the adjunct sugars for a reduced amount of amber candi sugar at less than 6% of the grist.

- I added some pilsner malt to the grain bill, in part so that those who wanted to upgrade to a partial mash (or even a full mash) would have somewhere to go in terms of convertible starches.

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
78.0 8.00 lbs. Generic LME - Light Generic 1.035 7
9.8 1.00 lbs. Pilsener Belgium 1.037 2
2.4 0.25 lbs. CaraMunich Malt Belgium 1.033 75
2.4 0.25 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
2.4 0.25 lbs. Special B Malt Belgium 1.030 120
4.9 0.50 lbs. Candi Sugar (amber) Generic 1.046 75

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 20.2 60 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings Pellet 5.25 3.1 15 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale

Tons of room for the more advanced players to muck about in making this their own baby, but simple enough that a new homebrewer should come out with something they can be proud of. Suggestions? Changes? Anything we can do to make it more like the description at the top of this thread?

[Shawn, the Beer Philosopher]

Rob DeNunzio said:

Okay... After looking at Ray's recipe, I came up with a couple small adjustments. Let me know what you think:

- I replaced the ultralight LME with light LME to make it more accessible (one of the local brew stores has ultralight, the other doesn't, so I figured it was par for the course).

- I thought it could use a little deepening of color, so swapped out the adjunct sugars for a reduced amount of amber candi sugar at less than 6% of the grist.

- I added some pilsner malt to the grain bill, in part so that those who wanted to upgrade to a partial mash (or even a full mash) would have somewhere to go in terms of convertible starches.

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
78.0 8.00 lbs. Generic LME - Light Generic 1.035 7
9.8 1.00 lbs. Pilsener Belgium 1.037 2
2.4 0.25 lbs. CaraMunich Malt Belgium 1.033 75
2.4 0.25 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
2.4 0.25 lbs. Special B Malt Belgium 1.030 120
4.9 0.50 lbs. Candi Sugar (amber) Generic 1.046 75

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 20.2 60 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings Pellet 5.25 3.1 15 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale

Tons of room for the more advanced players to muck about in making this their own baby, but simple enough that a new homebrewer should come out with something they can be proud of. Suggestions? Changes? Anything we can do to make it more like the description at the top of this thread?

I, for one, think this sounds excellent. It would be "above my pay grade" to add anything! As one who will be brewing this fine ale as an extract brew, due to both equipment and skill limitations, it seems to me that everything listed is easily obtained at the local brew supply shop ... or in my case - sans local brew supply shop - Northern Brewer or the like.

I can't wait to dive in! This reminds me, too, I need to get crackin' on the label design mock-ups so we can collectively choose the one we want to go with. I'll start a separate thread on this so we don't clutter up this one with non-brew specific stuff.

[Ray Grace]

Rob DeNunzio said:

Okay... After looking at Ray's recipe, I came up with a couple small adjustments. Let me know what you think:

- I replaced the ultralight LME with light LME to make it more accessible (one of the local brew stores has ultralight, the other doesn't, so I figured it was par for the course).

- I thought it could use a little deepening of color, so swapped out the adjunct sugars for a reduced amount of amber candi sugar at less than 6% of the grist.

- I added some pilsner malt to the grain bill, in part so that those who wanted to upgrade to a partial mash (or even a full mash) would have somewhere to go in terms of convertible starches.

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
78.0 8.00 lbs. Generic LME - Light Generic 1.035 7
9.8 1.00 lbs. Pilsener Belgium 1.037 2
2.4 0.25 lbs. CaraMunich Malt Belgium 1.033 75
2.4 0.25 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
2.4 0.25 lbs. Special B Malt Belgium 1.030 120
4.9 0.50 lbs. Candi Sugar (amber) Generic 1.046 75

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Tettnanger Tettnang Pellet 4.50 20.2 60 min.
0.50 oz. Styrian Goldings Pellet 5.25 3.1 15 min.


Yeast
-----

White Labs WLP530 Abbey Ale

Tons of room for the more advanced players to muck about in making this their own baby, but simple enough that a new homebrewer should come out with something they can be proud of. Suggestions? Changes? Anything we can do to make it more like the description at the top of this thread?

Looks great to me, now I hope I can find the hops!