Fairview Farmhouse Ale This is a blog of happenings in my family, with my kids, and with the politics of the world. If you don't get satire you should probably stop reading right now. I tend to ramble on, and on, and on...

This is not a beer for the light of heart. It is a beer brewing in the Belgian tradition - high temperature, unfiltered, wheat and high alcohol. As they say in Middle Tennessee, this beer is STOUT. Start with 7 gallons of spring water from the backyard. (If you don't have a spring in your backyard, then you probably don't live on a farm and this might not be the beer for you.) Boil the water to sanitize the ecosystem in which you will grow the yeast. This is especially important if cows may have walked through your spring water earlier that day. Once it's boiled down a bit, you can turn off the heat and prepare the bag of grain to steep. In a muslin bag place the following ground grains: 1 lb Dingman's Belgian Biscuit Malt 1 lb Munton's Carapils 2-Row Barley Malt (10-15 °L) Steep this bag in the water for about half an hour. After removing the bag and squeezing out those last sugar juices bring the wort back up to a boil and add the rest of the malts: Munton's Premium Pilsner (3lbs 5oz) Alexander's Sun Country Wheat Malt Extract (4lbs) Munton's Wheat Dried Malt Extract (1lb) Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.... Next it's time for hops! 1oz Mt. Hood Pellets (alpha acid 4.7) followed by 50 minutes of boil. 1oz Liberty hops (alpha acid 3.0) followed by 10 minutes of boil. 1oz Argentine Cascade Pellets & turn the heat off. I generally brew in the evening and let the wort cool overnight before pitching the yeast. It's something of a Norwegian tradition to only brew at night. The Belgians brew in the heat of the summer as well, which is the best time to brew this beer as the yeast (Saccharomyces bayanus) requires temperatures between 80 and 90 °F. If you're not brewing in midsummer a large warming tray can keep a hot water bath at those temperatures with the wort placed in it. Also, while the wort cools I let the yeast get started in some sugar water. Once the yeast is pitched fermentation should only take 2-4 days, but it's a good idea to wait a week before bottling just in case. For carbonation a few ounces of powdered sugar is added to the beer just before bottling as well.