Batch 63: Quiet Light

Like many homebrewers, I have an imaginary brewery I have been refining in my mind for a couple years now. It’s separate from Sandbox, though of course it shares many similarities and many of the beers I make are in an effort to hone in on what I’d want to brew in said brewery.

At the present moment, Quiet Light is one of three core beers of this imaginary brewery. It’s a golden saison style ale, hoppy and bright when fresh, and bottle conditioned with a subtle brettanomyces strain for further complexity over time. My magic combo for primary and bottling strains is currently Escarpment’s Spooky Saison and Berliner Brett, respectively. I’ll be trying this combination in the two other core beer prototypes, which will be brewed over the coming months.

Brew Specs:

Batch size: 20L into the fermentor
Equipment: Grainfather (Est 72% BHE)
Brew date: November 11, 2019
Bottling date: December 4, 2019

Target/Actual OG: 1.042 / 1.041
Target/Actual FG: 1.005 / 1.006
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: 30

Water Adjustments:
6.5g gypsum
4g CaCl
1g epsom

Grist:
2.80 kg Bohemian Pilsner (70%)
0.60 kg Vienna malt (15%)
0.60 kg Flaked wheat (15%)

Hopping:
25g Boheme @ 60 min
40g Perle @ 5 min
Dry hop: 10g Perle for 7 days

Other:
Whirfloc @ 5 min

Fermentation:
Escarpment Labs ‘Spooky Saison’ gen 1 pitch (approx 130B cells)
Temp SP: 80F for first 24h, raised gradually to 84F at 72h.

Bottled with 3.0 vols (152g of sucrose).

Brew Day Notes:
Forgot the salts for the second brew day in a row, resulting in a mash pH of 5.66 at midway through. Whoops. Added alongside some 88% LA to bring it down to the happy zone.