French Saison

Start that Yeast!

Mad Fox's new Saison DuWha? has inspired me to attempt brewing my first Saison. Since this will also the first time I've used a liquid yeast I want to try my hand a making a yeast starter. I won a stir plate in a raffle during the Bell's Homebrew Competition kick-off and I've been waiting to put it to good use.

I created the starter on 1/18, the day before brew day. I smacked the smack pack and waited a few hours for the package to swell. Then I boiled 70 grams of light DME in 600ml of water for 10 minutes. Boiled in an Erlenmeyer with the stir stick in. After cooling the starter wort to 70 degrees I pitched the yeast packet into the starter, covered with a sanitized foam stopper, and set the stir plate to aerate overnight. 

The next morning I saw a bit more foam than the night before much not much other visible change. Kept the stir plate going until right before pitching. According to Mr. Malty this should increase the cell count from about 100 billion cells out of the package to almost 200 billion out of the yeast starter. I'm looking forward to fermentation kicking off pretty quickly, finishing fast, and finishing low.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 1/19/2014
Style: Saison
Batch Volume: 5.0 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 7.7 SRM
Target Bitterness: 45 IBU
Target OG: 1.058
Estimated FG: 1.008
Yeast Cells Needed: 202 Billion

Grist

8.5 lb. Pilsner

1.5 lb. White Wheat

8 oz. CaraMunich

8 oz. Flaked Oats

0.5 oz. Sorachi Ace @ First Wort (11.9% AA)

0.5 oz. Fuggles @ First Wort (5.3% AA)

0.5 oz. Fuggles @ 30 min. (5.3% AA)

1.0 oz. Fuggles @ 5 min. (5.3% AA)

1 lb. Orange Blossom Honey @ 5 min.
1.5 tsp Ground pepper corn @ 5 min.

French Saison Yeast (Wyeast 3711)
- 1 L yeast starter

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5 gal
Measured OG: 1.064
Brewhouse Efficiency: Hard to tell w/honey addition

Update 2/1/14 - Racked almost 5 gallons of the saison to secondary. The yeast tore through this beer drying it out to a low 1.004 SG after two weeks. Tastes pretty good so far even though the fermenter smelled like butt. I guess that's just the saison yeast doing its thing. Tastes a little dank and farmhouse-y. Very cloudy.

After racking, I sanitized two 16oz. mason jars and funneled in a bunch of the yeast left in the fermenter. Tried just scooping it in w/o using a funnel and there was stinky yeast all over the place. Use a funnel! I plan on using this yeast to do a SMaSH saison in a couple weeks to use up the Hallertauer hops I got from the Bell's homebrew competition.

Kegging Notes
Measured FG: 1.004
ABV: 7.9%
Calories: 206

Carbonation: 2.26 Volumes CO2


Update 3/13/14 - Kegged my first batch of beer today! Set the keezer temperature to 45F and the CO2 pressure to 12 psi. In seven days I should have a saison carbonated to 2.26 volumes. Tastes a little bit cider-y but definitely has the saison aroma.

Centennial IPA

Delicious Centennial Hops

First brew of the new year, and 'tis the season for rebrews. Today I'm brewing up a second batch of the Bell's Two Hearted clone but with some minor changes. First, I'll be dropping the OG just a bit for a target ABV of around 5.5%. I'm becoming a big fan of these 'session IPA' type beers and find myself gravitating toward brewing them. However, I want to keep a little malt backbone around for the Two Hearted clone to hold up the big Centennial hops flavor. The second change is moving from an English to an American ale yeast, S-04 to US-05, possibly resulting in a cleaner flavor than the last brew. Lastly, I'll be jacking up the dry hopped additions from 0.5 oz to a big ole' 3 oz. The Centennial hops I've had since March of last year are burning a hole in my freezer and I gotta use 'em up so it's time to go big. No, bigger than that. BIG! YEAH!

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 1/5/2014
Style: American Pale Ale
Batch Volume: 5.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 5 SRM
Target Bitterness: 49 IBU
Target OG: 1.055
Estimated FG: 1.014

Grist

7 lb. Two Row

2 lb. Vienna

8 oz. Crystal 20L

8 oz. CaraPils

1.0 oz. Centennial @ First Wort (8.7% AA)

1.0 oz. Centennial @ 15 min. (8.7% AA)

1.0 oz. Centennial @ 5 min. (8.7% AA)

1.0 oz. Centennial @ 0 min. (8.7% AA)

3.0 oz. Centennial Dry Hop

1 pkg. US-05 American ale yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 152 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Fermenter Volume: 5.25 gal.
Measured OG: 1.050
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72%
Measured FG: 1.007
ABV: 5.6%
Calories: 162

Soaked mashed grain bag in ~2 gal of 170 degree water. Stirred around and added most back to boil kettle to get 5.5 gal pre-boil. Didn't need quite that much sparge water. Maybe 1-1.5 gal next time. Pitched yeast at 70 degrees. Brew went off without a hitch.

Update 1/12/14 - Racked to secondary. Gravity sitting at 1.008. Plan to dry hop in a week with 3-4 oz. of Centennial. Tastes a little dry and base-malty but hope it forms a solid foundation for the dry hopping. This was fermented during the DC cold spell when temps dropped to single digits. Basement was pretty cold, possibly affecting ferm?

Update 1/19/14 - Dry hopped with 3 oz. of Centennial pellets. Swirled the carboy around a bit to mix them in. Smelling pretty dandy.

Update 2/1/14 - Bottled today with 3.5 oz. of priming sugar. Yielded 30 12oz. bottles and seven 22 oz. bombers. Smells and tastes terrific. Very centennial grapefruity. Covered both ends of autosiphon with hop bag to prevent dry hops from getting into bottling bucket. Had to restart siphon several times but the bottling bucket ended up very clear. Final gravity was 1.007.