Summer is hot

Batch #105

Apricot Saison

8.5 gallons

5.5 lbs Maris Otter

6 lb White Wheat

8 oz American CaraPils

0.5 oz Columbus (14.9%aa), 60 minutes

1 oz Nelson Sauvin, 1 min

Wyeast 3711 French Saison  - 1.5L starter

Mash in with 20qts to 152F, hold one hour. Batch sparged to collect 10 gallons. One hour boil. Split into two batches.

Batch A - 3.5 gallons. Will go on tap fresh in August. Possibly with apricot puree to bring up to ~4.5% ABV or apricot extract if already close enough in range.
Batch B - 4.5 gallons. For souring. Will get apricot puree and White Labs Belgian Sour Blend. Might have to blend in a small batch of beer with residual sugars. We'll see how it goes.

OG: 1.036

FG: 

ABV: 

IBU: ~20-25

Plum Sour the First

7/13/17 -- SG at 1.007. Tart, a little spice, a little fruity hop aroma. Racked just under 3 gallons into a small carboy with 1 oz HBC-438 (Ron Mexico). Added 4.5lbs frozen plums and a small handful of oak cubes (Med+ American) to the remainder. Likely adds 0.006 to SG - watching for refermentation.
7/9/17 -- SG at 1.010.

Someone brought plums to work from their tree. I asked for more, he delivered - like, easily 20 pounds, maybe not the 30 he claimed. Even so, that's a lot. Building a bigger kettle soured beer (remember this one)

Batch #99
Plum tart
5 lbs Belgian Pale Ale
5 lbs White Wheat Malt
0.5 lb Chateau Monastique ("Abbey") Malt
0.5 lb CaraRed
1 oz  Mosaic (11.2%aa), 15 minutes
WLP566 - Belgian Saison II, 1 L starter
Soft water. Built from RO with a little chalk, epsom, and table salt.

Save a fistful of crushed grain. Mash in at 125F in about 2 gallons water, rest 15 min. Add ~1.5 gallons water near boiling to bring to 155F. Rest one hour.

Lazy, so batch sparged to collect 7 gallons.

One liter stolen to boil for a starter.

Throw the saved grain in with the wort and keep warm (100-115F) overnight.

Boiled (sorta...lost temp for a bit) for 45minutes, cooled and pitched yeast starter. Allowed warm fermentation to bring out all the fun of the yeast

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.006
ABV: ~5-6%
IBU: 10-15

Brew to the weather.

Update 6/9 - Kegged with 3.5oz table sugar, should give effervescent carbonation to balance the final gravity of 1.004. Will condition in keg 20L keg and probably split into bottles and 10L keg.
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I want something dry, summery, and ready fast.

Batch #79
4.5lbs Golden Promise
4.25lbs White wheat malt
4 oz Belgian Biscuit malt
1 oz N Brewer, 8.6%AA (60m)
0.5 oz Cascade (5m)
Whirlfloc 10m
Wyeast 3711, French Saison yeast
OG: ~1.040
FG: ~1.004
ABV: ~4.7%
IBU: ~35

Mash-in at 148-150F, hold for 1 hour. Batch sparge to 7 gallons wort at ~1.032. Boil down to 5.5 gallons. Fermenting 5 gal around 70F.

Yeasty experiments

Update 8/29 - It's all bottled now. The small batch was in bottles last week, and I finally had some time to rack the other 4 gallons today. It didn't taste sour, but the gravity sure reads like it.
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More Saisons today...this batch was split into two fermenters, ~4 gallons in one carboy, and the rest in a gallon jug. The idea is to compare WLP565 Saison with Wyeast 3711 French Saison. I also added the sugar during the boil to make less work for myself since I'll be bottling the scotch ale and making root beer this week, too.

Batch #42 (and 42.5)
The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything
--10.5lbs Ger. Pilsner
--1lb White Wheat Malt
--0.5lb Amer. Munich Malt (mostly, a little CaraPils to round out the half pound)
--1lb Cane Sugar (15min)
--2.25oz Hallertauer 3%AA (60min)
--0.75oz Hallertauer 3%AA (15min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--Wyeast 3711 French Saison, 1L starter (for carboy)
--WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast, vial saved from previous batch (for jug)
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.000+ (Read ~0.999, but hydrometer tube is unreliable below about 1.008)
ABV: ~8.5-9%
IBU: 20ish

Mash in 16qts at 150F, allow to fall as low as 145F over the course of 90min. Batch sparge to 7 gallons wort. Boil for 90 minutes. Ferment at 68F for 2-3 days, then allow to rise into mid to high 80s F.

...and we're back.

Update 9/1 -- 2nd Place ribbon in Belgian/French Ales at 5th Annual MoreBeer Forum Comp. Rest of results here: http://morebeer.com/themes/morewinepro//forumresults.htm
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Update 7/19 -- Added 500mL active starter of WLP001 and 1lb table sugar as thick syrup to help dry out the beer.
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How novel, a few consecutive hours of free time in one day. I started this batch around 6pm, finishing up just before 11, although I batch sparged to help speed things up a bit. This was the first run on my propane burner that I picked up from a Worts of Wisdom member who recently packed up and moved out of state (thanks, Jim!) and I've learned I need to pull more wort from my mash thanks to a higher evaporation rate outside - I lost 2 gallons in 90 minutes versus the roughly 1 gal/hr rate in the kitchen. Stupid wind. Saison! Saison, saison, saison,....dry, crisp, effervescent summer farmhouse ale. It's hot out, so it's the right time. But there's a trick...fermentation needs to start at normal temperatures (~68F) and then slowly come up to 80F or higher. The latter is a piece of cake in July here, but the former requires some cooling. I'll talk about that in the next post. On to the recipe. Pretty close to JZ's Raison d'Saison ("Brewing Classic Styles"...or the Jamil Show, which I recommend giving a listen), but with a smaller volume, so slightly higher gravity. I'm also going to skip the sugar if my yeast brings the gravity down far enough.

Batch #39
Saison d'Jason
--10lbs Ger. Pilsner
--0.75lb Ger. Pale Wheat Malt
--0.75lb Belg. Aromatic Malt
--1lb Cane Sugar (after primary winds down)
--1.5oz Liberty 4.5%AA (60min)
--0.5oz Liberty 4.5%AA (15min)
--1/4tsp supermoss (15min)
--1/4tsp gypsum (mash water addition)
--pinch of grains of paradise, whole - not cracked (5min)
--WLP565 Saison Ale Yeast, 1L starter.
OG: 1.059 (1.068eff)
FG: 1.012
ABV: ~7.3%
IBU: 20ish

Mash in with 16qts at 147F, hold for 90 minutes. That's what I intended. Instead, it was in at 149, fell to 142, came back up to 145, fell to 142...annoying. Oh well, close enough for my first outdoor mash at home, at night. I hit ~76%, so I'm happy. Collect 7 gallons wort, boil 90 minutes. I had more boil off than expected and ended just shy of 5 gallons. I felt like it, so I threw in some grains of paradise...the yeast will probably give more pepper flavor than a few uncracked peppercorns, though. IBUs ended on the low end...another AAU on each addition would probably help. Ferment starting ~68F, bring up to 80s after a couple days (to avoid fusels during early alcohol production)