Unibroue Ephemere Apple Ale

Unibroue, a brewery based in Chambly, Quebec, Canada brews a plethora of Belgian inspired beers, each of which is unique in its own way. Today's beer is Ephemere Apple, a light summer brew, made with apple juice, coriander, and Curacao (a type of orange). At 5.5% alcohol by volume, it's a tad stronger than the "normal" summer beer, but lighter than many of Unibroue's other offerings. It poured the color of apple juice, with a long-lasting but small white head. The beer is quite effervescent, which makes it nicely thirst-quenching. The apple juice is quite obvious, and makes the beer taste almost like a cross between a witbier and a cider. Hops are very subdued, but the coriander and orange peel give it a Belgian Wit character. Unibroue has also brewed peach, strawberry, cranberry and raspberry versions of this ale. This came in a 4-pack from World Market called the Unibroue Taster Pack. Also included in the pack was a bottle of Chambly Noire, Blanche de Chambly, and Raftman. I'm looking forward to checking them all out.

Homebrewed Apricot Wheat Ale - First Taste

Well, as with all my homebrews, I couldn't wait to give this one a taste test. I put one in the fridge this afternoon so it would be ready for dinner. It's been carbonating for just shy of 2 weeks, and if the gunshot sound of the bottle opening was any indication, it's well carbonated! I think I better get the rest of them in the fridge before I have any bottle bombs.

This recipe was modified from a recipe in Sam Calagione's Extreme Brewing book. He called his beer Kiwit, since it was a Belgian style Wit beer with Kiwi fruit added. I substituted fresh frozen apricots for the Kiwi, to get a little bit different beer. My version is a little too dark to be a Witbier, but anyone who homebrews knows that it's difficult to brew a truly light-colored beer from extracts. After the afore-mentioned "gunshot" opening of the bottle, the beer poured a medium amber with a big fluffy white head. I'm proud of that head - I have had so many commercial beers that have no head, that it frustrates me.

The flavor of the beer was VERY tart - almost a lambic style. It had the typical flavor of the Belgian Witbier yeast, but I think there might have been some other wild yeasts adding their own personal influence. It also tasted like it could be aged a while longer, but that's normal for my homebrews. I enjoyed it a lot, the tartness made it quite refreshing.

Here's the recipe for a 2.2 gallon batch:

3.3lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat LME
4 Oz 2-Row Malt
4 Oz Wheat Malt
2.5 lbs Fresh Apricots - frozen, then thawed
1/4 Oz Crushed Corriander Seed
1/2 Oz Tettnang Hops
1/4 Oz Willamette Hops
Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit Yeast

I used my standard procedure of crushing the grains and letting them heat up to 170 degrees in a gallon of water, and then pulling them out. I brought it to a boil and added the Tettnang Hops. After 45 minutes, I added the malt extract and corriander. At 55 minutes, I added the Willamette hops. At the hour mark, I put the pot in an ice-bath and when it cooled to 80 degrees I added the wort to my Mr Beer fermenter, which already contained a gallon of cold water, and the apricots in a nylon bag. I then topped it off to the 8.5 liter mark and added the yeast. It sat in the fermenter for nearly a month because I got sidetracked by other tasks. I bottled it and primed it with corn sugar, and it sat for 2 weeks, until today. I consider this recipe a success.

Saranac Pomegranate Wheat

When my sister visited me last month, she was generous enough to bring me some beer that I'm unable to get here in Florida, namely Saranac and Otter Creek. Unfortunately, she was unable to find the Saranac summer beers collection, so she brought me their Trail Mix instead - which I have been enjoying immensely. Today, my wife and I made our monthly pilgrimage to Whole Foods to get some of their decaf coffee (which is the best decaf we have ever had) and to my amazement, the beer cooler had a 12 pack of Saranac's "12 Beers of Summer". Now, "12 Beers" is a bit of a misnomer, because there are actually 6 different varieties, 2 bottles of each. Needless to say, the 12 pack landed in the cart, along with a bottle each of Dogfish Head's "Black & Blue" and "Red & White". Those two will be saved for a special occasion - probably Christmas. We landed at Whole Foods just before lunch, which is the worst time to go there. We browsed their amazing meat cooler. and spied their freshly made sausages. They have a great selection of sausages, and we decided to try their English style bangers, some maple apple chicken sausage, and their jalapeno chicken sausage. With the sausages and Saranac in the cart, I could hardly wait to get home to make lunch. $115.00 later, and we were out the door, headed home. We decided on the maple apple sausages which we cooked on the grill, and I grabbed a bottle of Pomegranate Wheat from the 12 pack. Thankfully it was already cold. The sausages were to DIE for! They were just slightly sweet, a little spicy and extremely hot. We ate them on hot dog rolls with no mustard or anything to detract from the flavor of the sausage. The Saranac was a perfect choice to go with the sausage. It's an American style wheat beer, and it poured a slightly hazy gold color with a small white head. The Pomegranate added a tartness that was very refreshing. I know in one of my my last posts I said that I was over the summer beer thing, but this beer was much better than the Sunrye. Then again, maybe it was the combination of beer and sausage....

Virgin Islands Tropical Mango Pale Ale

Another interesting beer I picked up at the local wine and ale store, Virgin Islands Tropical Mango Pale Ale is contract brewed for St. John Brewers by Shipyard in Portland, ME. The beer poured a crystal clear golden color with a medium white head. The aroma is almost all mango, with a little bit of malt underneath. The flavor is definitely mango - much stronger than I expected. I'm assuming that they have added some sort of mango extract to make it stand out like it does. This is not a wheat beer, like most fruit beers tend to be. Underneath the mango, there was a little bit of malt, a very light body, and a slightly bitter finish. This is another nice warm weather beer.

Homebrewed Apricot Wheat Ale

I tasted my Apricot Wheat ale today. It's been in the fermenter for weeks, with the yeast busily working on the apricots. It finally looked about finished, so I decided to see how it tastes before bottling. It's totally flat, since the carbonation is generated in the bottle, but I can tell it has a lot of potential. It's quite tart, almost a lambic-style flavor, and the apricots come through nicely. I think a couple of weeks in the bottle to carbonate will definitely do it some good. I'm thinking of carbonating it using some Apricot nectar, but I'm a little concerned about how much to use. I'd hate to finish up my Apricot Ale by turning it into a bunch of bottle bombs.

With dinner tonight, I had a bottle of my Maple Wheat ale, which has aged nicely. It's smoothed out a lot, but I still think I'll go with a little less maple the next time. I need to lower the alcohol level a bit, and it would be perfect.

Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale

Tonight, I had the 3rd choice from my "Historic Ales of Scotland" assortment - Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale. I had never heard of a gooseberry until I started brewing, and then I noticed some gooseberries in the canned fruit section of our local supermarket. They're canned by Oregon, a very popular brand of fruit favored by brewers due to their lack of preservatives. Based on the picture on the can, a gooseberry looks a lot like a white grape. This was a very mild-flavored ale, and very refreshing as well. It poured a golden color, with almost no head. It didn't have the usual tartness of a wheat beer, but instead had a wine-like quality to it, presumably from the gooseberries. I'm not sure if there are any hops in this ale, because I certainly didn't notice any. So far, this assortment of ales has been a winner. Every one has been very enjoyable.

Sea Dog Apricot Wheat Beer from Pugsley Brewing

Pugsley Brewing is a Maine brewery, and they're known for their fruity wheat beers. This is the first time I've tried their Apricot Wheat. Since I have my own Apricot Wheat Ale fermenting as I write this, I thought I'd try a commercial version. I've also tried the apricot ale that Dunedin Brewery makes. This version has a strong apricot aroma, and pours a golden yellow color with a small white head. The head was a little disappointing for a wheat beer. It has a strong apricot flavor that tastes like it was created using an extract of some kind. Once I got used to the apricot, I was able to taste the tartness of the wheat. This is a very mild beer with very little hop flavor. It's good, but I think my own apricot wheat will be better - no extracts used in that one!

Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale

Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale is part of the "Historic Ales of Scotland" assortment I picked up a while back at Whole Foods. The 4 brews in the assortment were made by Heather Ales in Scotland. Black pretty well describes this ale, as you can see in the photo. When held up to the light, there were some ruby undertones to the beer. It had a small beige head that evaporated very quickly. The beer had a roasty flavor, and a soft creamy mouthfeel. I could smell the fruitiness of the elderberries more than I could taste them. This is another fine ale from Heather Ales. So far, the assortment is two for two - both of the bottles I have tried have been very enjoyable.

Florida Brewing's Hurricane Reef Raspberry Wheat Ale

Forida Brewing is one of the few microbrewers in this beer wasteland of Florida. I've tried a number of their beers, and they have been ok - nothing to brag about, but quite drinkable. This Raspberry Wheat Ale follows in that tradition. It poured a kinda orange-amber, with no head at all. What's up with that? A wheat beer should have lots of head. As a homebrewer, I know that some brewers add some wheat to their brews, simply for that reason. This was a very fruity wheat with lots of raspberry flavor. The raspberry was more pronounced than in Abita's Purple Haze, but I think the Purple Haze tasted a little more authentic. This was good, with a nice hop finish.

Abita Purple Haze - Raspberry Wheat

Abita's "Purple Haze" Raspberry Wheat beer is not purple. There's a slight reddish tint to the golden color, but definitely not purple. It is hazy, however, like most wheat beers. This was a very thirst-quenching smooth American style wheat beer, with a very subtle taste of raspberries. This would make a great summer beer. The raspberry flavor tasted natural, not imitation, which was a nice surprise. I can definitely recommend this beer for people who enjoy wheat beers.