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Strange Cru… That’s what I’ll call it. After three weeks, this beer is finally in bottles. What took my previous batches of beer 10 days, this one took 28. This brew bubbled pretty steadily for a week, at which point I moved it into the secondary fermenter. I then went away to Camp Kemo for a week and let it sit. Upon my return, I noticed further signs of fermentation (a ring of sediment around the top, the airlock thingy was pushed up, indicating air had escaped).

Whatever this yeast was, it was like awakening a sleeping giant. Not only did it take much longer to get going, it had some fortitude. I am very surprised at how long it stayed alive and kept on bubbling. I just hope it doesn’t go nuts in the bottles and blow up. That would suck.

In the mean time, I’m going to sit back and relax for the next two weeks, awaiting the popping of the first bottle. I’m very excited about this batch, I think it has a lot of potential. So sit tight, and enjoy a few beers while we wait.

After five days and many sleepless nights, I finally see bubbles in the airlock! Vigorous bubbles! This must be some slow activating yeast. I took a hydrometer reading this morning and I don’t think it budged from its initial reading. But when I got home from work, the airlock was hopin’.

I didn’t mention in my initial post on the Grand Cru, but much of my trepidation was caused by the fact that I could not get my wort to cool fast enough before I had to leave my house Saturday morning. I think the wort was around 37 degrees Celsius after nearly an hour and a half, and that was with it sitting in a pale of ice. (It should be around 23 degrees Celsius when you pitch (add – fancy brewing term) the yeast. I was very worried that I had killed all the yeast by putting in the warm wort.

However, a valuable thought came to me through this. Since I don’t have a wort chiller, refrigerate the water I use to brew the beer! Sometimes I am amazed I’ve made it this long in the world.

But now I can enjoy my sister’s great day in peace, knowing that there is hope for my brew!

Who’s in the Garden Grand Cru is a Belgian white style beer. I got the recipe from the Joy of Homebrewing. With the weather warming up, I wanted to brew up a light and refreshing beer, and white ale it is! The end product is supposed to resemble Hoegaarden, which is one of my favorite whites.

White ale is a very light beer, but often has a cloudier and more citrusy taste than regular ales and lagers. They are similar in color and complexion to a hefeweizen (wheat), but this particular style does not contain wheat. Malted barley is the only grain in this recipe.

Highlights of this recipe include Hallertauer (German) hops, honey, crushed whole coriander seed, and dried orange peel. The wort smelled great when I had all the ingredients in there.

I am a little concerned about the fermentation, though. For my first three batches I used the same type of dried yeast. This recipe called for a Belgian Wit beer-type yeast, which I got from the beer shop in liquid form. Being my first experience with liquid yeast, I was apprehensive, yet excited at the prospect of trying something new. I don’t know why, but liquids just seem more natural to me…

Anyway, after a few days, I’m still not seeing bubbles come up through the airlock. This morning I took a look inside and there was a lot of foam on top and a ring of sediment around the edge, both of which are signs of fermentation. My hope is that for whatever reason, the seal may not have been airtight, or perhaps the Belgian liquid yeast works a LOT slower than the dried stuff.

Either way, I’ll find out in about three weeks if it worked :)