Bootleg Biology Chardonnay Pale Ale
Bootleg Biology is an independent yeast lab out of Nashville, Tennessee and a month or two ago they had a pre-sale of all of their homebrew cultures. The sales model is that they have a pre-sale period and depending on how many people order they prop up that amount of yeast blend/cultures to ship out to people. I ended up buying 7 of them (and two of the Funk Weapon #3), so I've been wanting to work through them as fast as possible.
The yeast blends are a mix of funky, sour, and clean isolates and blends; in this post, I tested out their Chardonnay (Sacch. Cerevisiae boulardii) yeast for the last brew in my old apartment and first kegged beer in the condo I recently bought. It is a strain that was isolated from Chardonnay grapes in Pasco, Washington and Bootleg Biology describes it as:
"Chardonnay is a clean fermenter but produces mild phenolics and a touch of citrusy & banana aroma at normal ale temperatures.
For Beer: Excellent for a unique take on New England Style IPAs using Local Yeast. This yeast greatly accentuates fruit-forward hops, creating a very complimentary ester profile. The lower flocculation characteristic visually matches this style and further enhances hop flavor. Beers with this culture will drop clear with enough time or use of finings."
So I decided to make a Pale Ale with it dry hopped with Nelson Sauvin since some people have described it as having white-wine like characteristics.
I started by building up a starter two days beforehand (Thursday). I used about one cup of DME to roughly 1.2 L of water. I let it spin on my stir plate until Saturday morning, when I then put it in the fridge for a couple hours. After it had settled a bit I divided it into two boiled mason jars, one for the beer and one to save in case I wanted to brew with it again.
Grain
9lbs Golden Promise
2lbs Wheat
2lbs Rye
0.5lbs Acid Malt
0.5lbs CaraFoam
Hops
2oz Zythos @ 60min
2oz Wakatu @ Flameout
2oz Nelson Sauvin Dry Hop 3 days before kegging.
Yeast
Bootleg Biology Chardonnay
OG: 1.053
No notes on mash/sparge/temps unfortunately
Brewed on 8/13/2017
Dry-hopped on 8/23/2017
Kegged on 8/26/2017
CO2 at 30PSI for 3 days, then took it down to 10PSI but it was frozen :(
First glass on 9/7/2017
This was my first beer in the chest freezer I bought and... well I didn't get my temperature controller until a few days later so I actually froze the beer in the keg at first. Whoops. I let it sit out for a day in what turned out to be a record-breaking 106 degree SF day, then my girlfriend put it back in the (unplugged) chest freezer for a week while I went home to visit my family. After a few days she plugged the chest freezer back in (I had set the Inkbird temp controller to 40 degrees before I left) and we let the probe dangle in the freezer instead of being taped to the side of the keg.
Once I got back, I immediately went to pour a glass, of course in my Bootleg Biology Sacch glass. Note: I don't work for them or get any compensation from them haha.
The first taste was verrryyy diesel-y. The flavor had the overwhelming dank-ness I detect and detest in intense DIPAs. I was very concerned about it after that first pour.
But ever since then, it has mellowed out into a really delicious peach bomb of stone fruit, nectarines, and I am really enjoying it. This is a beer I could brew over and over and drink at any time, in foggy SF nights or beautiful sunny Dolores Park days. Having the beer solely mine on tap in the kitchen is dangerous and I've been drinking at least a glass per day. Time to brew some more beer to get on tap and take the pressure off of it!
Rating
I came up with this rating system last night after reading a similar idea on Brouwerij Chugach. My rating system is a hypothetical: In my hypothetical brewery, would I serve this on tap? Would it be a year round, seasonal, experimental batch? Or would this just be a homebrew experiment?
The Verdict: I would serve this year round at my hypothetical brewery. For sure. This is a really good, sweet beer and I would want this on tap all the time if I could. Considering I have a lot of sour, funky beers to brew in the next few months to age long term I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up brewing this again with only slight modifications (perhaps some oats in the grist or a different dry hop).
The yeast blends are a mix of funky, sour, and clean isolates and blends; in this post, I tested out their Chardonnay (Sacch. Cerevisiae boulardii) yeast for the last brew in my old apartment and first kegged beer in the condo I recently bought. It is a strain that was isolated from Chardonnay grapes in Pasco, Washington and Bootleg Biology describes it as:
"Chardonnay is a clean fermenter but produces mild phenolics and a touch of citrusy & banana aroma at normal ale temperatures.
For Beer: Excellent for a unique take on New England Style IPAs using Local Yeast. This yeast greatly accentuates fruit-forward hops, creating a very complimentary ester profile. The lower flocculation characteristic visually matches this style and further enhances hop flavor. Beers with this culture will drop clear with enough time or use of finings."
I started by building up a starter two days beforehand (Thursday). I used about one cup of DME to roughly 1.2 L of water. I let it spin on my stir plate until Saturday morning, when I then put it in the fridge for a couple hours. After it had settled a bit I divided it into two boiled mason jars, one for the beer and one to save in case I wanted to brew with it again.
Grain
9lbs Golden Promise
2lbs Wheat
2lbs Rye
0.5lbs Acid Malt
0.5lbs CaraFoam
Hops
2oz Zythos @ 60min
2oz Wakatu @ Flameout
2oz Nelson Sauvin Dry Hop 3 days before kegging.
Yeast
Bootleg Biology Chardonnay
OG: 1.053
No notes on mash/sparge/temps unfortunately
Brewed on 8/13/2017
Dry-hopped on 8/23/2017
Kegged on 8/26/2017
CO2 at 30PSI for 3 days, then took it down to 10PSI but it was frozen :(
First glass on 9/7/2017
This was my first beer in the chest freezer I bought and... well I didn't get my temperature controller until a few days later so I actually froze the beer in the keg at first. Whoops. I let it sit out for a day in what turned out to be a record-breaking 106 degree SF day, then my girlfriend put it back in the (unplugged) chest freezer for a week while I went home to visit my family. After a few days she plugged the chest freezer back in (I had set the Inkbird temp controller to 40 degrees before I left) and we let the probe dangle in the freezer instead of being taped to the side of the keg.
Once I got back, I immediately went to pour a glass, of course in my Bootleg Biology Sacch glass. Note: I don't work for them or get any compensation from them haha.
The first taste was verrryyy diesel-y. The flavor had the overwhelming dank-ness I detect and detest in intense DIPAs. I was very concerned about it after that first pour.
But ever since then, it has mellowed out into a really delicious peach bomb of stone fruit, nectarines, and I am really enjoying it. This is a beer I could brew over and over and drink at any time, in foggy SF nights or beautiful sunny Dolores Park days. Having the beer solely mine on tap in the kitchen is dangerous and I've been drinking at least a glass per day. Time to brew some more beer to get on tap and take the pressure off of it!
Rating
I came up with this rating system last night after reading a similar idea on Brouwerij Chugach. My rating system is a hypothetical: In my hypothetical brewery, would I serve this on tap? Would it be a year round, seasonal, experimental batch? Or would this just be a homebrew experiment?
The Verdict: I would serve this year round at my hypothetical brewery. For sure. This is a really good, sweet beer and I would want this on tap all the time if I could. Considering I have a lot of sour, funky beers to brew in the next few months to age long term I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up brewing this again with only slight modifications (perhaps some oats in the grist or a different dry hop).
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