New Year, New Beer

Happy New Year to the great fans and followers of C'est Bon Biere! We enjoyed a great evening with friends, both old and new. Many of them got to enjoy our homebrewed beer, where we served Frostbite Winter Warmer, and Hakuna Mahopa Black IPA. I know many of you want to sample some of our delicious home brewed concoctions, so just get in touch with us. We will be more than willing to have people over to enjoy some brews.

At C'est Bon Biere, we decided to start the year off with a brew day. January 1st began with the brewing of our first attempt at a lager. We decided to brew a California Common, also known as a Steam Beer. It is very similar to Anchor Steam, from the oldest craft brewery in America (they claim since 1896)! We are calling this one Common Sense, because everyone can use a little common sense in 2015.

In order to brew a lager, we needed two vital pieces of equipment: a refrigerator and the equipment to make a yeast starter. There are two broad categories of beer, ale and lager. Ales are top fermented and ferment at warmer temperatures, while lagers are bottom fermented at colder temperatures. We are currently using our kegerator to ferment the lager, and keep a constant temperature.

Even after three days, you can already see the result of fermentation in the glass carboy

Another oddity about lagers, is that they require more active yeast cells to fully convert the sugars to alcohol. It seemed like the best time to get some equipment to make a yeast starter.

A 2L Erlenmeyer flask with a magnetic stir plate. The chemical engineer in me is excited!

Usually, we buy packages of yeast from the homebrew supply shop, and pitch those packages directly into the wort. These packages, on the manufactured date, contain 100 million yeast cells. As the package gets older, the number of active yeast cells decrease. A yeast starter is essentially a small batch of beer that is made a day or more before the scheduled brew day in order to activate the package of yeast.

After a day of refrigeration, the yeast cells rest at the bottom of the flask, ready to be pitched into our brew.

The yeast will become active and multiply in the sugary wort. After refrigeration, the yeast cells will settle to the bottom of the flask, ready to be pitched. For Common Sense, we pitched 65 million yeast cells into the starter, and two days later pitched 200 million yeast cells! The number of cells can be controlled based on the amount of starter wort made.

C'est Bon Biere is going to have a busy year, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our brews and educated on beer science and the growth of craft beer in the Louisiana. One of these days, we look forward to moving out of the garage, and become the first microbrewery in Gonzales, LA!

Coming up next, we plan on collaborating with a homebrewing friend of ours to make two beers for the upcoming homebrew competitions, a blonde ale and a saison. Our black IPA will also be entered in the competitions. More information to come when we get these recipes written, creative names are thought of, and the brew day starts.

Until then, drink local. Drink good beer. Cheers!

Consistency is Key (Belgian Missile Crisis II)

When people ask me about homebrewing, I usually say the same thing. "It's easy to make beer, but it's hard to make good beer". I would like to add to this quote right now. I also believe that it is difficult to replicate good beer.

Sam and I cracked open our old recipe book and brought back the Belgian Missile Crisis. We brewed this Belgian wheat ale earlier this summer. In fact, it was the first batch we brewed in Louisiana, and it was a huge hit among friends, family, and beer lovers alike. You might remember reading a previous post about the response we got from this beer at Bayou Beer Fest.

C'est Bon Biere presents the new Belgian Missile Crisis:


Here is a rough sketch of the new label.

 The second batch of this beer has the same aroma with a hint of orange. It is very light, and easy to drink. It has very little hop bittering. The most noticeable difference between the two batches turned out to be the color. The new batch is significantly lighter than the first one.

Beer color can be estimated using a scale known as Lovibond units. The chart below explains:

The original Belgian Missile Crisis had a color around 7.5-8.0. The second batch is closer to 6.0. Now I know this may seem miniscule, but color plays a major role in matching the style, clarity, and whether or not people are willing to try your new beer.

One of the main causes of the color change was the amount of time it took to cool the wort down after the boil was complete. Previously, we immersed the boil pot in our bathtub filled with ice and water. It took about 45 minutes. The second time we used a wort chiller (25 foot copper coil with a hose attachment), which took only 10 minutes! The result is a clearer, lighter colored beer.

 

Think about the last couple of beers that you drank. Where do they fall on the color scale? Now take a look at the website of a local craft brewery. Where do their 5-7 beers fall on the scale? C'est Bon Biere will brew beers ranging from 5-30+.

As always, feel free to comment, share recipes, or talk beer with us. Currently on tap along with the Belgian Missile Crisis is the Double Fault American Pale Ale. Next in line to brew is an Irish Red Ale.

Cheers!