The Wort Share

The Zoiglhaus periodically does an event called a wort share: they make the base beer and then for a fee, people can pick that up and a strain of yeast that they want, and then do whatever they like to it. More hops in secondary? Oak chips? Whatever!

So I thought I’d give this a go, using Imperical’s Monastic yeast as my selection.

I’m pretty pleased by how this worked out. The nose has a little Belgian peppery quality, but otherwise isn’t overwhelming. The beer itself follows up on this pepper quality on the finish. The middle of the beer has a caramel and roasted flavor happening but it isn’t cloying or sweet. The finish isn’t extremely clean-the effervescence is strong which is great, but the lingering flavors of sweetness and pepper from the Belgian yeast know how to hang out.

All in all, pretty tasty though.

The brew date was 8/11.

The malt bill worked out like this (from Zoiglhaus’s notes):

60% Vienna, 30% Munich, and 10% Pilsner

The OG is around 1.054. FG was 1.009, so the ABV at 6.1%.

Total IBU is around 20, which was achieved with a bittering addition of Herkules and three flavor/aroma additions of Hallertau Herbsbrucker.

I added Imperial’s Monastic Belgian yeast and in secondary, 1 oz of Chinook on 9/8 and bottled it on 9/10.