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Batch 44: Dorée du Printemps

Brew Date:  April 21, 2018
Bottling Date:  May 13, 2018

 

This batch was a product of the yeast and hop inventory in my fridge/freezer. I need to reduce the inventory of hops, and I had Omega Saisonstein on hand gifted by a friend. I decided to brew what has become my most-brewed recipe to date, Dorée, but effectively double the hopping, both in bittering and flavour / aroma additions. This beer was inspired by very bitter (yet enjoyable) examples of saison I’ve had in the past, such as Dunham’s Saison Reserve and Saison du Pinacle.

The only modification to my typical grist was to use wildflower honey in place of plain white sugar, as I had purchased some at a good price.

70% Floor-malted Bohemian Pilsner (7.00 lbs)
15% Vienna malt (1.50 lbs)
8% Wheat malt (0.80 lbs)
5% Wildflower honey (0.50 lbs) – added at flameout
2% Acidulated malt (0.20 lbs)

I bumped up the gravity a little to balance the additional hop presence:

OG 1.056
FG 1.002
IBU 45
ABV 6.5%

Hopping was as follows:

6g Cascade @ 60 min
18g Azacca @ 60 min
14g Nelson Sauvin @ 15 min
20g Azacca whirlpool
30g Motueka whirlpool
50g Nelson Sauvin whirlpool

Brew Day Notes:

Mashed in at 10:15am at strike temp of 145F on the Grainfather (it quickly equalizes once grain is added, so no need for separate strike temp). Added 1/2 tsp of Calcium Chloride and 1/2 tsp of Gypsum before the grain. Mash water volume 4.1 gallons. Increased temp to 152F at 11:00 am. Mashed out at 11:45 am at 170F, started sparge at 12:00. 3.7 gallons of sparge water at 170F used.

Boil started at 12:40 pm, with 6.5 gallons of 1.036 wort. After a two hour boil (and sugar added at flameout), OG recorded at 1.056 and 4.5 gallons were collected into the fermentor.

Bottled May 13 with 145g of dextrose for 3.0 vols of CO2.

Tasting Notes:

[Sept 9, 2018] This beer turned out well, as expected it is pushing the limits of bitterness for a bone dry beer but it is still drinkable. The hop character was a unique combination of lemon, gooseberry, and white grape which suited the style very well. At this point the hop character has largely diminished but the bracing bitterness remains, and enough character playfully integrates with the yeast character to keep the beer interesting. Carbonation is spot-on, with foamy pours and slow gushing but not overly so.

[Nov 26, 2018] Still hoppy, still bitter – and a pretty well balanced beer considering the intent. Would I make a saison this bitter again?  I don’t think so, but it opened my eyes to the option of pushing some of my go-to recipes a little further with the bittering hops.

Batch 42: Oxford Ale + Woodstock

It’s been a good while since I brewed a barleywine, and I’d like to make this an annual tradition. To get further mileage out of the brew day, half was fermented clean as a barleywine while the other half received a mixed brett culture as well and aged as an old ale. Depending on how things go, the old ale may become a solera or packaged in full.

Brew Date: Dec 28th 2017

OG: 1.091 (Target 1.100)
FG: 1.021 (Target 1.025)
IBU: 55
ABV: 10.0%

90% Floor-malted Maris Otter (16.20 lbs)
7.5% Mecca Grade Opal 44 (1.35 lbs)
2.5% Crystal 120 (0.45 lbs)

Hop Extract to 50 IBU @ 90 min (9 g)
1 oz Centennial at 15 min

Oxford Ale (2.3 gals): Fermented with WYeast 1728 (~160B cells)
Woodstock (2.0 gals): Fermented with WYeast 1728 (~100B cells) + Imperial ‘Suburban Brett’ (~160B cells)

Above: Woodstock drank July 11, 2019 after approximately 6 months in bottle. Carbonation took a long time, but reached the right level.

Brewday Notes:

Started at 4:00pm, later than I’d like to start on a long-boil brew. Originally I was intended to boil for 2.5 hours, but due to poor efficiency I decided to keep boiling until the gravity got high enough. DME would have been a simpler solution. In the end boiled 4 hours on the nose, got OG up to 1.091, still shy of the 1.100 target. I need to stop expecting near-70% efficiency on big grain bills.

Thanks to a big, 3-stage starter split between the two carboys and a good hit of pure O2 after transfer, activity was underway within 8-10 hours. Fermentors were kept in the beer cellar (air temp 58F).

[Jan 15, 2018] – Gravity check on the Oxford carboy, SG is 1.025 currently for 8.8% ABV. Nose is largely toffee and taste follows (other than the yeast character from being so young).  Not a lot of alcohol coming through, seems good so far though a smaller beer than intended.

[Feb 4, 2018] – Bottling day, SG down to 1.021.

[Dec 26, 2018] – Bottled the old ale portion (Woodstock) at an FG of 1.014, with 16g of table sugar. Managed 29 x 375mL bottles.

Tasting Notes (Oxford Ale):

After a few months, Oxford ale was a bit of a fruity malt bomb, which wasn’t really the intent, though it was fine to drink. After around 8 or 10 months though it started to become more caramel-forward and more in line with the desired flavour profile. It’s sneaky for around 9% ABV, and the sweetness and level of carbonation are spot-on for the style.

[March 2019] Oxford Ale received 2nd place at Cowtown Yeast Wrangler’s competition, with scores of 37/50 and 39/50.

Batch 45: Saison Lune

The maltier of my two ‘base’ saisons that I am developing, this beer uses Vienna as the base malt rather than Pilsner. To ensure it still finishes nice and dry, ~10% of the fermentables (by weight) will be clover/alfalfa honey. To start off simple (and because simple, rustic recipes tend to outperform complicated recipes when it comes to saison), that’s all the fermentables being used. Future iterations are likely to include small amounts of wheat and Munich.

Brew date: May 21, 2018
Packaging date: July 23, 2018

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.004
IBU: 30
ABV: 6.0%

Batch size: 5.5 gal
Mash: 145F for 45 mins, 152F for 45 mins
Mash out: 170F for 10 mins
Boil: 90 minutes

Grist:

90.5% Vienna malt (3.80 kg)
9.5% Honey (0.40 kg)

Hopping:

1.75 oz Willamette @ 60 min [27 AAU]
1.00 oz Hallertau Blanc @ 10 min [3 AAU]
1.00 oz Hallertau Blanc dry hop

Fermentation:

WYeast 3724 – Pkg date May 9th
1L starter of 1.035 wort for 48h
Cell count approx. 175B cells
Fermented at 77F during active fermentation
‘Hollowed’ air lock with cheesecloth on top for 24-48h range.

Pitched at 70F, let free rise to 77F

Notes:

Unfortunately, this batch didn’t turn out. I am honestly not sure what the issue was, other than it did exhibit the “Dupont stall” and took 6 weeks to attenuate. Possibly an infection, possibly just poor fermentation. The carbonation was spot on, though!

Batch 41: Old Lanes traditional saison

Brew Date: Nov 13, 2017 Bottle Date: Dec 10, 2017

Yet another saison.  I’ve been wanting to do a saison style beer in a more historically-accurate manner for a while:  lower gravity, very simple malt bill, and a higher hopping rate using lower-AA hops.  I would like to take it a step further next time with a proper mixed-culture fermentation but for now I’d like to brew it on my clean equipment, so I’m using the Fantome strain WY3725, as I have a jar of it in the fridge.

In the future I’d like to push this further into historical accuracy with a turbid step mash process and mixed culture fermentation, but wanted a clean version as a baseline. Strength is based on what I want for this beer, which may be a little higher than many historical examples.

The details are as follows:

Batch size: 5.50 gals
Mash: 145F for 45 minutes, 155F for 45 minutes
Boil time: 150 minutes

OG: 1.042
FG: 1.001
IBU: 30
ABV: 5.4%

7.50 lbs Floor-malted Bohemian pilsner (100%)

3.5 oz Saaz (2.3% AA) at 60 minutes
1.0 oz Saaz (2.3% AA) at 10 minutes
1.0 oz Saaz (2.3% AA) dry hop 5 days

Fermented at 70F ambient for 28 days

Brew day Notes:

Pretty smooth brew day, but a few glitches: I forgot salt additions in the mash and sparge water, so just added 1 tsp of CaCl to the boil for yeast health. Meant to make a starter to wake up the old jar of yeast (though there was 175-200B cells, at least), but did not so I just let it warm up to room temp and pitched. Also realized I’m out of O2, so aerated by shaking instead. Underestimated the coldness of our tap water right now and cooled all the way to 58F. Let rise for a couple hours, then pitched and put beside the heater. Only raised to 64F after 24 hours, activity started sometime between that and 36 hours.  Next to a heater, it got up to 72F before major airlock activity and remained at that temp throughout fermentation.

Bottled Dec 10 – 4.5 gallons of finished beer collected, primed with 5.7 oz of dextrose (3.2 vols).

Batch 40: Dorée Batch 2

Brew Date: Sept 10th, 2017
Bottling Date: Oct 12th, 2017 [Clean version]

This new batch of what I intend to be my ‘flagship’ saison recipe is mostly the same as the first batch, with the following changes:  floor malted Bohemian pils in place of Bohemian pils, Nelson fraction of hopping upped to 50%, Willamette addition dropped.  I am also using a different yeast this time – Omega’s Saisonstein strain graciously received from a friend.  I also increased the bitterness from the low 20’s to the low 30’s.

I brewed a bigger batch so that a fraction would be fermented with a mixed culture in the freshly emptied carboy that contained a brett-conditioned biere de garde. This mixed culture consists of Saisonstein, Upright Anniversary 2017 dreg culture, and Le Castor brett saison culture.

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.000
ABV: 6%
IBU: 33

Recipe:

10.5 lbs Bohemian Pilsner, floor malted [70%]
2.25 lbs Vienna malt [15%]
1.20 lbs Flaked wheat [8%]
0.75 lbs Dextrose [5%]
0.30 lbs Acidulated malt [2%]

 

0.75 oz Nelson @ 45 min
0.75 oz Motueka @ 45 min
0.25 oz Nelson @ 15 min
0.25 oz Motueka @ 15 min
1.50 oz Nelson @ Flame out
1.50 oz Motueka @ Flame out

Mash Schedule:

145F for 45 min
152F for 90 min (had company over)
170F for 15 min

Boiled 105 minutes

Water Additions:

6g Gypsum in mash water (5.5 gal)
2g Gypsum in sparge water (3.5 gal)

 

Clean half – bottled October 12th with 3.5 oz priming sugar in 0.7 gal water (total vol now 4 gal, 1.048 corrected OG).  FG was 1.000, so I get where the name ‘Saisonstein’s Monster’ comes from now!  I wish I had planned better and used a small dry hop but I did not. Next time.

 

 

 

Commercial Pilot Batch – Saison Dorée

After my golden saison took first place at the Vanbrewer Awards, I was given the opportunity to brew it on Faculty Brewing Co’s pilot system with the intention that it would then become an occasional full-size brew in the rotation at Faculty. This was a great experience and wonderful opportunity.

Batch 39: Récolte

This is my fourth iteration of a bière de garde style ale. Having learned what I like (and don’t like) from the past three versions, I feel confident in this grist, however I am trying a different yeast this batch – WYeast’s bière de garde specific strain, 3725. Previous batches have used WLP515 Antwerp, which worked very well in my opinion, and Imperial’s B51 Workhorse, which didn’t work as well for me.

 

My first choice of hop is Strisselspalt, but because of spotty availability I have been using Tettnang instead. Tettnang’s flavour profile is well suited to bière de garde and besides, it’s a background role anyway.

Small amounts of rosemary and sage are being added for additional complexity, since this is a fairly “plain” beer. I was fortunate enough to be gifted some of Mecca Grade’s caramel malt, Opal 44, which I am substituting into this recipe in place of Caramunich II.

Brew Date: Aug 6th, 2017
Bottle Date: Sep 2nd, 2017

OG: 1.066
FG: 1.008
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 23

Batch size: 4.20 gal
Efficiency: 70%

Boil Length: 120 minutes
Mash Profile: 145F for 60 min, 155F for 30 min, 170F for 10 min

The Grist:

35% Bohemian Pilsner malt [1.81 kg]
35% Vienna malt [1.81 kg]
12% Munich II malt [1.00 kg]
8%  Flaked wheat [0.44 kg]
6% Dextrose [0.33 kg]
4% Caramunich II [0.22 kg]

Hopping:

0.5 oz Cascade at 75 min (14 AAU)
0.5 oz Tettnang at 75 min (7 AAU)
0.5 oz Tettnang at 30 min (4 AAU)

Fermentation:

WY3725 – Biere de Garde, 68F pitch temp with free rise to 75F.
Pitch Rate 0.7 B cells / L / Deg Plato
1L starter of 1.040 wort w. shaking [Est. 165B cells]
Pitched at 71F, fermented at 78F ambient.


Extras:

1/2 tsp CaCl in mash water
1/2 tsp Gypsum in sparge water
2 x 10″ branches of rosemary in mash
5x sage leaves at 10 min left in boil

Brew Day Notes:

What I thought was 3 oz of Tettnang was in fact 1 oz, so the first addition was supplemented with Cascade to get up to target IBUs. Otherwise a pretty seamless brew day. Added sugar early (about 40 min left in boil) in order to see where gravity was at. Forgot to add a Whirfloc tablet. Boiled about 130 mins. Mash took a bit longer than usual to clear up (45 min?) due to low temp. Scooped more protein out of the boil than I usually bother with. Chilled to 71F into 7 gallon Brew Bucket, transfer took about 25 min. Used up the last of my O2, hard to say what got in there but definitely some.

Activity at 12h, never saw really aggressive CO2 activity but remained steady for several days.

Tasting Notes:

The beer turned out well. The photo below is from Nov 23, 2018 – quite some time after brew day. The herb level was pretty spot-on and matched the malt profile pretty well. I would ditch the Caramunich going forward, as I think it was clashing a little with the dry finish of the beer.

 

Batch 43: Burton Ale

I find it both gratifying and dangerous that as a homebrewer, any beer style that I am able to find some information on and find appropriate ingredients for is something I can brew for myself, including styles I may not be able to find commercial examples of.

Burton ale is one of those historic styles that I find very interesting, and isn’t one that lines store shelves anymore. Like many historic styles, there is a lot of differing opinions of what a classic Burton ale should be, thus I have taken some liberties to define what I want my own version of Burton ale to be: Made with 100% British pale malt, boiled for an extended period and heavily bittered with English hops.

Brewed: January 7th, 2018
Bottled: Feb 12th, 2018

OG: 1.091
FG: 1.027
ABV: 8.5%
IBU: 80

Batch size: 5.5 gallons
Mash: 90 min @ 156F, 10 min @ 170F
Boil: 150 minutes

Water Additions:

20 g Gypsum
10 g CaCl
5g chalk

Grist:

100% No.19 Floor malted Maris Otter (17.5 lbs)

Hopping:

55 AAU Extract at start of boil (0.35 oz)
0.75 oz Nugget at 30 min

Fermentation:

Imperial A01 House – 2mo. old package
Created 1.75L starter w. 8 oz light DME
Pure O2 for 20 seconds

Fermented at 66F for 5 days, then ramped up to 72F

Brew Day Notes:

Brew started at 10:00am. Mashed 1.5 hrs to try to help efficiency, knowing it’ll be low with so much grain in the Grainfather. Pitched yeast at 62F and put in the cellar with 60F air temp. Fermentation underway within about 12h, sat around 67F at peak activity. Removed from cellar on day 4 as the airlock activity had slowed considerably.

[Jan 21 Primary pull] – Down to 1.027, bitterness is assertive but not overly powerful.  Further attenuation may bump it up. Nice English yeast character thus far.

[Feb 12 2018]  Bottling / transfer day. Primed the whole batch with 0.5 oz / gal dextrose.  Moved about 0.4 gals into Woodstock to top it up to the neck.  Transferred about 3 gals into glass & pitched Brett C (WLP).  The rest was bottled – 12 x 375mL.  FG was 1.026, taste is pretty sweet, not as bitter as expected, and quite nice.

Batch 38: Alpaca II

Brew Date: July 3, 2017
Bottled:  July 19, 2017
ABV: 5.2%
IBU: 35

I’ve brewed two iterations of this recipe previously (the first being simply called “Citra”) and both have worked out extremely well. It is a simple and light hoppy beer where Citra plays a central role. No darker malts are used, instead relying on the rich character of Maris Otter, and a little wheat is used to accentuate the hop flavour. I consider this a “blonde ale” based on the low bitterness though it is more in-line with an IPA in most regards.

The last batch’s dry hop was split between Citra and Galaxy, while the boil was 100% Citra. This iteration employs Motueka instead with a 75/25 split on whirlpool and dry hop additions. Future batches will see some further experimentation on the secondary hop but this beer is built around Citra.

Batch size:        5.75 gallons
OG:    1.048
FG:    1.008

Boil Length: 60 minutes
Mash Profile: 155F for 60 minutes, mash out at 170F for 10 minutes
Brewed on Grainfather system

Grist:

90% Maris Otter (9.0 lbs)
8% Wheat malt (0.8 lbs)
2% Acidulated malt (0.2 lbs)

Hopping:

25 AAU of Citra at 60 minutes (0.5 oz)
10 AAU of Citra at 10 minutes (0.75 oz)
3 oz Citra – whirlpool
1 oz Motueka – whirlpool
1 oz Citra – dry hop at high krausen
3 oz Citra – dry hop final 5 days
1 oz Motueka – dry hop final 5 days

Additional:

2.5 g  Calcium chloride added to mash water

Fermentation:  

Safale US-05 dry yeast, re-hydrated

Brew Day Notes:

Pretty trouble-free brew day. Top screen dropped during mash which let a bit more grain material into the boil than usual (not husks, though). Added 2/3’s of minerals to mash water, remainder in sparge water. Mashed with 4.2 gal, sparged with 3.6 gal of 170F water. Used remainder of 2015 Citra on boil additions and used inherited 2016 Citra and Motueka on whirlpool. Recirc’d to 195F then whirlpooled with the chill water off for a few mins.  Then began chilling while continuing whirlpool. Started transfer after 15 min of whirlpool. Transfer took about 15 min, collected 5.25 gal of 1.048 wort. Aerated with 15-20 sec of pure O2. Pitched US-05 direct onto wort, no re-hydrating. Pitch temp 68F, put into wine cooler set at 61F ambient.

Tasting Notes:

[July 19, 2017]  Bottling day sample. Nice orange-juice like hop flavour with pretty minimal bitterness. Seems on-track.

 

Batch 37: Gramarye

Brew Date: June 10, 2017     Bottled:  June 30, 2017

ABV: 4.5%   IBU: 22

Gramarye is a table-strength saison style ale. In order to provide character and body in the low-ABV package, it is made with Vienna as the base malt and both malted and flaked rye. Kazbek hops were chosen for their combination of noble character as well as bright citrus flavour. Imperial’s B56 yeast strain is quickly becoming my go-to base for farmhouse ales as I really enjoy its ester/phenol character.

I’m fermenting 5 of the 7.5 gallons as a clean version using B56, while the 3-gallon glass carboy recently emptied (failed bière de nöel batch) will be fermented with a mixed culture propogated from two Holy Mountain saisons (The Seer & Grey Tower Blend 3). I’ve propped up the Saccharomyces content of this mixed culture with a vial of B56 I have in the fridge, saved from my Feburary brew of Dorée.

Batch size:    7.50 gallons (split per below)
OG:    1.038
FG:   1.003 (1.000 for Reserve)

Grist Details:

40% Vienna malt (4.00 lbs)
23% Rye malt (2.30 lbs)
23% Pilsner malt (2.30 lbs)
8% Flaked rye  (0.80 lbs)
4% Dark Munich  (0.40 lbs)
2% Acid malt (0.20 lbs)

Hopping:

2.25 grams CO2 extract at 90 min (15 AAU)
0.50 oz Kazbek at 40 min (6 AAU)
1.00 oz Kazbek at 10 min (3 AAU)
0.50 oz Kazbek – dry hop

Additional:

7.5 g  Calcium chloride added to mash water
5 g Gypsum added to mash water

Fermentation:  

5-gal “Clean” version:  Imperial B56 Rustic (200B cell can, no starter), pitch at 65F, let free rise in 72F ambient room.
Liquid temperature 75F at 24h, strong CO2 activity.

2.5 gal “Reserve 2017” version:  Mixed culture of saved Imperial B56 plus propped dreg cultures from Holy Mountain bottles.
Liquid temperature 73F at 24h, high krausen (fall started by 30-32h).

Brew Day Notes:

Made a 250mL starter for the Holy Mtn dregs with 0.5 oz of DME on Monday.  By Wednesday there was some activity, though pretty low intensity. No krausen formed.

Brewed on patio with Grainfather. Started heating 4.25 gal of mash water at 10:00am. Added 3/4 tsp of Gypsum and 1/4 tsp CaCl to mash water. Added further 1/4 tsp each Gypsum and CaCl to 5.00 gals sparge water. Definitely noticed the lack of flow through the grain bed for the first 15-20 minutes of mash recirculation, despite the rice hulls. Sparge drained well, though.

Boiled for 105 minutes before recirculating through the counterflow chiller to sterilize. Collected 2.5 gallons of 1.039 wort into the glass carboy and 4.0 gallons into the Ss bucket. Hit each with 10-15 seconds of O2. Pitch temp was 68F and kept at ambient temps (about 72F).

Taste test at 2.5 wks (Tuesday evening) in primary tasted pretty good although those volatile aroma compounds I’m starting to associate with this yeast were there at first. Dry hopped with 0.5 oz Kazbek on Wednesday morning. Gravity down to 1.003.

Tasting Notes:

[July 14, 2017] First bottle, good carbonation. I carb’d this higher than most (3.5 volumes CO2) since it finished quite dry. Fruity yeast esters and a noble hop character lead the way, though are balanced. Despite the Vienna base and fair amount of rye, the malt character is subdued. However, they do help mask the low gravity of this beer – it drinks like it is 6%.