Brew Like a Monk (Book Review)
Tuesday, June 16th, 2020
The last year has opened my eyes to the landscape of Trappist and Abbey Ales. And, as any home brewer will confess, the interest in a certain beer category has had a way of sneaking down to my basement and into the fermenters. My interest with Belgian yeast strains is in the pursuit of a complexity of flavour in the beer that I produce. Currently I have a WLP500 Monestary Ale Yeast fermented Imperial Stout ready to be bottle conditioned and another Imperial Stout fermented with WLP575 Belgian Style Ale Yeast Blend that got bottled with a small amount of Brettanomyces bruxellensis and claussenii late last week. I also have two small fermenters of a Cinnamon Cyser fermented with a blend of the WLP500 and WLP575 in one, and good old Lalvin ICV D47 in the other. Next week I’ll be making a Rhubarb Short Mead with the WLP575 at a temperature rising to around 27 Celcius. That will be interesting.
Meanwhile, I’ve been reading Brew Like a Monk: Trappist, Abbey, and Strong Belgian Ales and How To Brew Them by Stan Hieronymus and collecting a few Belgian beers along the way to get an idea of where my flavour intentions are headed.
