Alright, I'm just posting this here basically for my self to use as a reference. I've been looking for a clone recipe for Wostynje for a while now and just came across this which is about as close as I think I'm going to get. If you've never had this beer try it. It is very interesting. I used to be able to get it all the time but it has disappeared from the shelves in my LHBS. Oh well, i'll just have to brew it myself.

Kent Goldigs hops is added at the beginning of the boil while Challenger hops, dark candy sugar and the crushed mustard seeds are added after about 50min. into the boil. The addition of light candy sugar and fresh top-fermenting yeast to the bottle starts the secondary fermentation in the bottle. After three more weeks Wostyntje is ready to become part of your dinner.

Wostyntje has a unique bitterish finish, which stems from the use of "Torhout's" mustard seeds.

Product Details:
Type: Mustard Ale
Alc./Vol.: 5.0%
Malts: 90 % pilsner malt, 10 % munich malt
Hops: Kent Goldings & Challenger
Spices: Dark & light candi sugar, crushed mustard seeds "Torhout Mustaard"

Bottled 5/Brewed 10

I Finally got to brewing the recipe that I posted about last week. I got up at 5:30 AM Sunday morning and bottled a Belgian Dark Strong Ale (I had to because I ran out of carboys, it was ready anyway). Then I brewed the DeStruise/Paxton Archaic Collaboration Ale. I also doughed in with a Saison at the same time. I staggered my Mashes just a little bit so I could deal with one at a time. It all went pretty smooth for pulling double duty. I've down plenty of 10 gallon days in the past, just not seperate mashes and at the same time. I might do that more often actually. If running partigyles off of those you could end up with 20 gallons of beer in about 7-9 hours of work...not bad. The krausen on the DeStruise/Paxton beer looks amazing. There was a deep brown layer on top and it is now giving way to this white creamy marshmallow like krausen that is working it's way through from underneath. It looks like a huge Mt. Kilimanjaro Chocolate Fudge cookie from Sweet Basil in Marquette, MI. Stop in and get one if you are ever in town.

What's Next?

I came across this recipe one Sunday night while listening to an episode of the The Brewing Networks "Sunday Session". They were intervieweing Urbain and Carlo from De Struise Brewery in Woesten Vleteren which is a "Brew Firm" I believe is the correct term. Basically it means that they don't actually have their own brewery. They brew out of an existing commercial brewery. Whey I say "they" I am referring to the four gentlemen who all have day jobs and collaborate on these amazing beers on the side. Sean Paxton is a chef and fellow member of the Brewing Network and he also frequents the Burgundian Babble Belt website where I like to dwell. http://www.homebrewchef.com/DeStruisePaxtonArchaicbeerCollaboration.html
Be sure to check out this website. You will be drewling all over your computer. Just from looking at this recipe I can tell it is going to be great. I am expecting an awesome mouthfeel from all of the flaked grains. I'll post once I brew this up. Just got my yeast in the mail today.

Struise/Paxton ArchaicBeer
Belgian Specialty Ale


Type: All Grain
Date: 4/1/2007

Batch Size: 6.00 gal
Brewer: Sean Zane Paxton
Boil Size: 7.23 gal Asst Brewer: Urbain Coutteau
Boil Time: 90 min Equipment: My Equipment
Taste Rating(out of 50): 0.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 80.00
Taste Notes:


Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
12.00 lb Castle Pale Malt (2 Row) (3.2 SRM) Grain 63.16 %
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 7.89 %
1.25 lb Caramel Malt - 120L Organic (Briess) (120.0 SRM) Grain 6.58 %
1.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 5.26 %
0.75 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 3.95 %
0.75 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3.95 %
0.50 lb Cara 20 (Dingemans) (23.0 SRM) Grain 2.63 %
0.25 lb De-Bittered Black Malt (Dingemans) (550.0 SRM) Grain 1.32 %
2.50 oz Goldings, East Kent [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 25.0 IBU
1.00 items Servomyces Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1.00 lb Candi Sugar, Dark (275.0 SRM) Sugar 5.26 %
1 Pkgs Pannepot (De Struise) Yeast-Ale
1 Pkgs Trappist High Gravity (Wyeast Labs #3787) Yeast-Wheat


Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.092 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.080 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.026 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.020 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 8.66 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 7.85 %
Bitterness: 25.0 IBU Calories: 368 cal/pint
Est Color: 38.0 SRM Color:
Color


Mash Profile
Mash Name: Abbey Mash Profile Total Grain Weight: 18.00 lb
Sparge Water: 3.09 gal Grain Temperature: 60.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 60.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: FALSE Mash PH: 5.4 PH


Abbey Mash Profile Step Time Name Description Step Temp
15 min Acid Rest Add 25.20 qt of water at 99.6 F 95.0 F
15 min Protein Rest Decoct 7.11 qt of mash and boil it 122.0 F
15 min Gluten Rest Decoct 4.45 qt of mash and boil it 135.0 F
60 min Beta Sacrification Decoct 5.20 qt of mash and boil it 148.0 F
15 min Mashout Decoct 8.19 qt of mash and boil it 165.0 F

Mash Notes:

Carbonation and Storage
Carbonation Type: Kegged (Forced CO2) Volumes of CO2: 3.0
Pressure/Weight: 30.2 PSI Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F


Notes
This is a collaboration recipe with De Struise Brouwers and the Homebrewchef. Working with Urbain on this base recipe, changing some of the ingredients and malt % resulted in this recipe. When yeast was pitched, the dregs of a bottle of Pannepot was added with the 3787.

Getting Hops Going Inside

Hey All, I just got my rhizomes in the mail today along with my "The Homebrewer's Garden" book. I am going to start my rhizomes inside and get them going so they get a nice early start on the season. This will be my first attempt at growing hops so I am not expecting to get a big yield this year. I am only starting two bines this year. I figure I can start small and use this year as a chance to get the feel for growing these and next year I will try and do like six bines or so. I am going to start these in pots and use dowel rods so I can run a string from the top of the rod down to the soil so the hops have something to wind around. I'll update later with some pictures.

Competitions and Sour Beers so it seems

Well lately I've been busy sending beers out to Competitions and keeping a watchful eye on my sour creations I brewed over a year ago now. I've also brewed a few other wild brews since then. Some of the competitions that I have entered over the past few months are the Michigan Brew Festival (Richmond Worthogs), Great Northern Brew Ha Ha (Northern Alestars), Babble Leap Beer Brew-Off (Babble Homebrewers), Drunk Monk Challenge (Urban Knaves of Grain). I am entering as many competitions as possible that are on the Midwest Homebrewer of the Year circuit. I have set that as my annual brewing goal. Here have been my results so far:


Homebrew at the W.E.B. (World Expo of Beer)
*3rd Place -- Biere Bella (Belgian Golden Strong Ale)

Titletown Open:
*1st Place -- Biere Bella (Belgian Golden Strong Ale)

BOSS Chicago Beer Cup:
*Best of Show/1st place -- Biere Bella (Belgian Golden Strong Ale)


Michigan Brew Fest:
*Best of Show/1st place -- Chai Spiced Brown Ale

Great Northern Brew Ha Ha:
*3rd place -- Junk in the Trunkelweizen
*Best Beer Name -- Junk in the Trunkelweizen

Babble Leap Beer Brew-Off
*2nd Winter Survival Weizenbock
*3rd Biere Bella Belgian Strong Golden Ale

Drunk Monk Challenge -- Menace of the Monestary Category
*2nd place -- Biere Bella Belgian Strong Golden Ale
(Damnit, one place away from being able to brew this recipe
at Walter Payton's Restaurant near Chicago)

As for brewing I recently brewed and extract version of a Berliner Weisse.
This is coming along great. It needs to sour up for a few more months but
it should be ready for summer time.

I just brewed Jamil Zanisheff's Belgian Strong Dark Ale and also did a partigyle
brew off of that that I pitched a big slurry of Brett Claussennii into. (100% Brett)
I'm really looking forward to these two beers. I can tell you right now that I am
going to be on a Belgian kick for a while. This happens to me every year. And why not? The temperature will soon be rising so brewing belgians in the summer time is
perfect. The yeast can handle it so there is no sense in trying brew something that needs to be cooler and have the results suffer when I can do something that likes the higher temps and benefit from it......right?

Oh yeah, the biggest update of all. We finally have a frickin' homebrew club. Yeah thats right, and not a little group of people either. The last meeting we had like 30 people show up. We'll have our website up and running soon thanks to Josh Meringer who is handy with that type of thing. We are planning on growing a bunch of hops on an acre of land that was generously handed over for club use by Mike Sattem who is the head brewer at Hereford & Hops in Escanaba. I am really excited to get going on that. So much so that I just ordered a bunch of rhizomes for my own yard. I also have been looking into getting a compost bin so I can dump all my spent grains in there and use them to feed my hops. What came from the earth must return, mine as well be into my hops. That's all for now. Later.

Gettin' Back into the Swing of Things

Hi All, Well it appears I have taken a little vacation from the blogging world (as well as brewing) because I had to move the family and I so I have been busy with that. My wife and I are about to have another baby here like 5 days ago but the little bugger just doesn't want to come out. We are on high alert as the baby could come any second now. Let me pat myself on the back a bit here because I am high on my first "Best of Show" award that I just got last Saturday at the Michigan Brew Fest down in Columbus Twp (Richmond Area). I entered a Spiced Brown Ale under the Christmas Beer category and it did very well. Now I am totally stoked to bet back at it and get brewing again. I have a few brews up my sleave now that I am getting settled in here at my new place. I am planning on switching up my whole brewing repretoire by trying to set myself up with a HERMS system or "Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash" system. I will need to buy a pump in order to do this and probably drill a few wholes in my hot liquor tank (pot that I heat up my sparge/strike H20) but I think it will be worth it. For those of you that aren't sure how a HERMS system works, let me try to paint you a picture for I don't have any pics on hand (although there a a billion of them just google it)
Basically the main thing that makes up a HERMS system is a hot liquor tank with what would appear to be an immersion wort chiller in it. Now a wort chiller is basically a "Heat Exchanger". Typically you run cold H2O through an immersion wort chiller and place in in your hot wort to cool it down. Well you can also use one to heat up your mash. When you place the coil into your hot liquor tank and raise the temp of that water you can recirculate your wort through the "Heat Exchanger" to heat up the wort and return it right back into your mash tun thus allowing you to bring up your temp without placing your mash on a burner or adding a bunch of boiling H20) do the tun diluting it. Brilliant! I am also going to build myself a manifold to place in the bottom of a cooler so I can do my mashes in a large picnic style cooler instead of my 14 gallon pot with a false bottom. My efficiencey has sucked ever since I started using my pot to mash/lauter in. I went from about 75-80% efficiency using plastic buckets to about 55-60% in my big 'ol pot. I have trouble shot and trouble shot and I can't figure it out so it is time to make a change. I will post some pics of the new setup once I get put together. I'll try to keep updating more frequently now the the chaos is coming to an end.

Cheers!

Brian

What's Shakin Homebrewers?

Hey there all, sorry for the delay in updating my blog, I've been extremely busy being it is summer and there are always weddings and trips and beer festivals and what not. Well, I went to the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival in Ypsilanti July 27th and 28th. Holy shit, was that a fun time. I drank more sour beer than I ever thought possible, and many other styles, many worthy of swapping your first born for a barrel. I will be making the trip annually from now on. I got to meet a lot of you beer lovers that I usually only communicate with through e-mail and that was probably the best part for me. It's amazing how you can meet someone face to face and feel like you have known them forever--as was the case with many of you I met at the festival. I haven't been brewing for the past few months because I have been mega-busy with weddings and such but rest assured friends, I have a mental list of recipes that I want to brew that would make Ol' Gambrinus want to do the knuckle shuffle. I think I will be doing another Belgian Strong Golden with a few spices, a Roggenbier, West Coast Red Ale (back by popular demand), Brown Ale with a Chai addition based on one of Randy Mosier's recipe from "Radical Brewing", and another Brettanomyces Claussenni brew because the first one rocked my socks off. Hope everyone who reads this is finding success in their efforts. Brew on!

Brian