The concept for this beer came while eating at Asia Cafe in Austin and enjoying several dishes there which make good use of Szechuan peppercorns and decided that they would probably pair well with beer as well.  I had originally thought that it would nicely compliment the already somewhat peppery taste of a Saison.  I still think I’ll try this in the future as well.  The Blonde Ale recipe is a good, simple, clean beer that nicely features other flavors (such as lemongrass in the past), so I thought it would be a good canvas to explore the effect of including Szechuan peppercorns.

10/14/2012 – Brew Day

5 lb – Extra pale extract
1 lb – Brewer’s corn syrup
1 oz – Brewer’s gold hop pellets (60 min)
0.5 tsp – yeast nutrient (60 min)
1 tsp – Irish moss (15 min)
0.25 oz – Black Tellicherry peppercorns, ground  (15 min)
0.5 oz – Szechuan peppercorns, ground (15 min)

Pitched one old tube and one fresh tube of White Labs Kolsch Ale yeast (WLP-029)

Shook to aerate and fermented at 68 degrees F in the fermentation chamber.

This did not start from the finest ingredients.  The malt extract had a patch of mold growing on the surface.  I carefully scooped off all the mold I could see.  It then went into the boil and hopefully killed off a significant amount of what may have remained.  The yeast was also old, and since I didn’t plan ahead far enough to make a starter from it, I bought a new tube to pitch along side just in case the older yeast was not viable enough anymore.

O.G.: 1.040, 9.6% Brix

10/27/2012 – Bottled 9, kegged the rest

F.G.: 1.007, 5.4% Brix

4.3% ABV