Batch 62: Bière de Nöel

Originally brewed for the Vanbrewers Advent calender, this didn’t end up making the cut due to needing more conditioning time. It is a dark farmhouse ale, with a judicious amount of sage added at flameout.

Brew Specs:

Batch size: 21L into the fermentor
Equipment: Grainfather (Est 72% BHE)
Brew date: October 14, 2019
Bottling date: November 3, 2019

Target OG: 1.060
Actual OG: 1.054
Target FG: 1.005
Actual FG: 1.006

ABV: 6.5%
IBU: 31

Water Adjustments:
6g gypsum
4g CaCl
2g epsom
1g baking soda

Grist:
3.75 kg Bohemian Pilsner
0.75 kg Munich II
0.50 kg Flaked wheat
0.45 kg D-90 candi sugar
0.15 kg Special B

Hopping:
25g Boheme @ 60 min
20g Boheme @ 5 min

Other:
4 sage leaves @ 5 min
Whirfloc @ 5 min

Fermentation:
Escarpment Labs ‘Spooky Saison’ gen 3 pitch (approx 250B cells)
Temp SP: 78F for first 24h, raised gradually to 85F at 72h.

Bottled with 2.6 vols (125g of sucrose) in generic 12oz bottles.

Brew Day Notes:
Forgot the salts until 50 min into the mash! Doh. Checked pH, 5.58. Added salts and 4g of 88% lactic acid, checked after 10 min and pH settled down to 5.26. Mashed an extra 20 min to account for loss of performance from higher pH.