Brew Notes: Biere de Miel

Literally “honey beer”, little is actually recorded about this as a style per se. Rather, it most likely represents a variation of a farmhouse beer using whatever adjuncts or ingredients in hand. I was inspired by Jester King Brewery’s take on this beer (a sour), as well as a non-sour honey beer I tasted on tap at Temple Cellars.

At the same time, I had 2 cultures that were waiting for me to try out - Lachancea thermotolerans and Pichia apotheca. L.thermotolerans received a fair bit of media publicity as it is an yeast that produces lactic acid. A strain was reportedly isolated from bees/wasps/something like that, and an attempt made to patent it in commercial brewing. The downside though, is the fermentation temperature - although its specific name is “thermotolerans”, it dies at temperatures above 18C. (What a wuss!) 

P. apotheca is another interesting yeast, very kindly sent to me by the good folks at the University of Washington. It was first isolated from an aged beer, and later found to be an yeast new to science that is of hybrid origins. The lead researcher of the paper tells me that pure fermentation’s using P. apotheca was disappointing, so I decided to use this as part of an alternative, non-Brewer’s yeast (Saccharomyces) beer. 

Biere de Miel’s grain bill was designed to be simple. I wanted to eventually have it as a tart, clean and rather dry beer with floral and honey nuances. Pilsner Malt should contribute a backbone of malt sweetness, while wheat malt provides residual dextrins to support some body. I decided to go with a single varietal honey - Eucalyptus. I bought this stuff during a visit to my sis’ in Melbourne, and it had been patiently waiting in line to star in either a mead or a beer. The honey was added only at flameout and again for secondary fermentation, so as to preserve the volatile aromatics. Likewise, I used noble hops for this brew for their floral qualities. Finally, the beer was aged on French oak staves to lend restrained vanilla and woody notes for contrast and interest.

Grain Bill
71% Pilsner malt
14% Wheat malt
3% Honey malt
1% Carafa Special III
10% Eucalyptus honey
Hops 
20g Galena @ 30mins
20g Tettnanger @ flameout
20g Hallertau Mittelfruh @ flameout 
Secondary Additions 
0.25kg Eucalyptus honey
Medium+ Toast French oak
Yeast
Pichia apotheca - Initial fermentation for 3 days
Lachancea thermotherans - Primary fermentation, 2 weeks

Poof!
 So I left the wort unattended for a few days, due to unforeseen issues - my P.apotheca culture kept getting destroyed by people at home who knocked it over. By the time I was ready to pitch both P. apotheca and L. thermotolerans, the keg was over-carbonated. I believe I had injected it with pure O2 before that, which led to this - but I'm not too sure. In any case, the wort tasted like wort. No off-flavours, no phenols, no sourness, so I cleaned up the mess and pitched the yeast. 






L.thermotolerans chugged along like a beast at 17C! On a sneak tasting 2 weeks in, I'm a little disappointed by the apparent sourness.