Saison 05/2012

Today I'm brewing up a Saison.  This style is associated with farm workers in the French speaking region of Belgium.  It's said the workers would receive up to five liters per day during the harvest season.  The thing I like about this style is unlike a lot of other styles, the definition is pretty broad which means there's lots of room for experimentation.

I've been wanting to brew a Saison for quite a while but I didn't really have a way to accurately control the warm fermentation temps needed for this style.  Now that I have my fermentation chamber, I figured it was time to give it a go.

Like many Belgian styles, this recipe calls for Belgian candi sugar.  Belgian candi sugar is highly fermentable and helps lighten the body and dry out the brew.  It's pretty easy to find in at just about any brew shop, but you can also make it at home which is what I chose to do.  As far as equipment, you'll need a candy thermometer, a saucepan, and a foil-lined cookie sheet (for cooling).  The Cliff's Notes version of making it is:

One pound of home-made Belgian Candi Sugar

• Dissolve about 2-3 pounds of granulated table sugar in about a cup of water.  
• Heat in a saucepan until the sugar is dissolved
• Add a food-grade acid (e.g. cream of tartar) then raise and hold the temp between 260F and 275F for at least 20 min
• Once the desired color is achieved, raise the temp to 302F then pour onto a cookie sheet and allow to cool.

 I'm not sure who deserves credit for first documenting the process, but here's a link to the instructions I followed to make my candi sugar.  Candi sugar generally comes as either clear, amber, or dark.  I wanted a little bit of color contribution, so mine is towards the dark end of amber.  It's cheap and easy to make...about a dollar per pound compared to store-bought which is typically around five to six dollars per pound.

The recipe I'm making today is as follows:

9.0 # Weyermann Pilsner Malt
3.0 # Briess White Wheat Malt
0.5 # Weyermann Vienna Malt
0.25 # Weyermann Acidulated Malt
1.0 # Belgian Candi Sugar (5 minutes)
1.75 oz Styrian Goldings (60 minutes)
2 oz Saaz (5 minutes)
0.25 t Black Pepper, coarsely crushed (5 minutes)
0.25 t Coriander, coarsely crushed (5 minutes)
0.25 t Bitter Orange Peel (5 minutes)
Zest from a navel orange (5 minutes)
Wyeast 3711 French Saison

Mash at 147F for 90 minutes, 90 minute boil, start fermentation at 68F then raise to 78F over a couple days.

Brewing notes:  It was a pretty uneventful brew day up until the last two minutes.  I added all my 5 minute additions including the Belgian candi sugar.  The boil looked a little weak so I turned the heat up a little bit then ran inside to grab a spoon.  I was gone all of 30 seconds but that was just long enough to have a boil-over...good times.  Unfortunately a lot of the Saaz hops found their way to the garage floor courtesy of the boil over, so this may be lacking a bit of hop flavor/aroma.  It also added at least an hour to my cleanup because of the mess it made.  Word to the wise, never increase the heat right after an addition unless you're there to keep an eye on it.

Two changes I made on the fly: I originally planned on using the zest from half a navel orange but I ended up using the whole orange.  The other change was I added 1/4 teaspoon of bitter orange peel as well.

Update:
I bottled this one back on 5/27/2012.  Most of it was bottled in heavy Belgian bottles and corked using the Colonna Capper/Corker that my wife got me for Christmas.  This was the first time I've used it for corking and although there is a bit of a learning curve, it went well.  It's definitely a little more involved than capping so I wouldn't want to do it with every batch, but it makes for a very nice presentation.

Sampling one during a brew session

So we cracked one of these open on the 4th of July.  This beer turned out fantastic.  It has dried out wonderfully but isn't watery or thin.  There's a hint of orange in there but it does not dominate the palate.  Same with the other spices, they compliment the overall flavor profile without dominating.  I'm really interested to see how this brew changes over time, and I can't wait to try the brett version.

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Big Brew for National Homebrew Day

Today I'm having some friends over to celebrate National Homebrew Day.  We're brewing up Bucksnort Brown Ale which I suspect is supposed to be a clone of Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula Montana.  I haven't brewed a Brown Ale for quite a while and I enjoy Moose Drool so I'm looking forward to this brew.  This is a hands on brew session for our guests and hopefully everyone will have a good time and maybe some will leave with a new found interest in homebrewing.

The recipe as we'll brew it:

10 # Briess Pale 2-row Malt
8.0 oz Briess Crystal Malt 80L
8.0 oz Briess Crystal Malt 60L
6.5 oz Briess Organic Chocolate Malt
1.0 oz Briess Black Patent
0.75 oz Willamette 80 min
0.75 oz Willamette 30 min
1.25 oz Mt Hood 15 min
0.75 oz Willamette 5 min
White Labs WLP001 California Ale
1 Whirfloc

Mash at 154F for 60 minutes.  80 minute boil.  Ferment at 66F then ramp up to 68F after activity begins to subside.

Update 5/7/2012:  Normally I I start brewing pretty early in the morning (7-8am).  On this batch we started after 1PM.  I also don't usually drink more than one beer while I'm brewing.  Since this was also a "party" the beer was flowing.  Despite it not being a typical brew day, everything went pretty well and it seemed that everyone had a good time.  The only thing I know I screwed up on was I forgot to add yeast nutrient.  Fermentation seems to be doing fine though, so I'm not too worried.

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Flanders Red #2

My first attempt at a Flanders Red has been coming along really well so I decided to get started on batch #2.  I brewed this batch on 4/6/2012 and the brew session was fairly uneventful.  

The recipe itself was basically the same as the first batch, but some of the grains were from different maltsters.

One other note, I bought two Roesalare blends back in October when I brewed the first batch, but only used one.  I used the second one for this batch but ran into some issues.  The smack pack didn't swell at all and after a couple days there was no visible signs of fermentation...no krausen, no positive pressure in the airlock, nothing.  I suspect the viability of the saccharomyces strains must have diminished quite a bit.  I had some WLP001 that I'd saved from a previous batch so I went ahead and pitched it and the brew showed signs of active fermentation later in the day.  It'll be interesting to see if this one develops differently than batch #1.

5.25 # Weyermann Pilsner Malt
5.25 #  Weyermann Vienna Malt
1.00 # Weyermann Munich II Malt
0.5 # Briess Red Wheat Malt
0.5 # Castle Aromatic Malt
0.5 # Weyermann CaraMunich II
0.5 # Dingemans Special B
0.8 oz Aged hops** (60 minutes)
1.0 oz Oak cubes (French Medium Roast) soaked in a couple ounces of Cabernet Sauvignon
Wyeast 3763 Roesalare Blend (no starter)

Mashed at 154F for 90 minutes.  90 minute boil.

** The aged hops are my homegrown hops from the 2009 harvest.  This was when my hops were in their temporary locations, so it's a mix of varieties resulting from intertwined bines.  For sour beers you don't really want any hop flavor or aroma; that's where aging comes in.  I aged these hops by placing them in brown paper bags above my kegerator.  The changing temperatures over the years has completely stripped them of any hop aroma.

Fermentation Notes
As noted above, the start of fermentation was sluggish until I added the WLP001.  Fermentation picked up but it wasn't quite as active as the first batch (no threat of pushing up through the airlock).  Things slowed down after a week then picked up again after a couple weeks (much like batch #1).  I've already added some dregs from commercial sours (e.g. Petrus Aged Pale).

Update 5/4/2012
Fermentation is still chugging along.  I've been fermenting it in my ferm chamber at 70F.  I'm going to move it to the basement utility room next to batch #1 today because we're doing a Big Brew tomorrow and I need to set the ferm temp at 66F for that.  There are mild seasonal temp changes in the utilit room, but overall the temps stay pretty stable so it's a good place for aging.

Update 5/27/2012
Pitched dregs from Russian River Supplication and oak soaked in Cabernet Sauvignon.

Update 6/8/2012
Added dregs from Petrus Aged Ale.  I noticed the airlock had some positive pressure and there was a burp before I removed the bung

Update 9/15/2012
Added dregs from Sophie from Goose Island.

Update 9/22/2012
This beer is much more sour than the last time I tasted it (forgot to log the date but it was probably 6/24), but it's still much more of a mellow sour compared to the October Flanders Red.  There is a small pellicle.  My refractometer shows 10.4 brix down from 12 brix on 6/24/2012.

Update 10/30/2012
Added dregs from Duchesse De Bourgogne.

Update 1/29/2013
Checked this one again today and it's down to 10.2 brix. It's tart but still not quite as tart as batch #1. It still has a dusty looking pellicle, although it doesn't cover the entire top. Seems to be progressing nicely.

Dusty pellicle on Flanders #2

Update 4/6/2013

Pulled a sample today. It still has a little bit of a dusty pellicle. The gravity hasn't changed at all since the last reading (10.2P) but the tartness level has increased significantly and is on par with batch #1. I think I'll try to bottle this later this month.

Update 8/22/2013

So I just barely got around to bottling this batch. It's tart but it's definitely different than batch #1. I'd say it's much more fruity or at least the fruity character is more complex. I get pie cherries like #1, but there's also some darker stone fruit character. This is still carbing in the bottle so I'll prob give it another month before cracking one open.

Update 8/26/2014
This beer just took a gold medal for Category 17 in the 2014 Beehive Brew-Off! Pretty excited and happy that a more acidic example was chosen by the judges. Pretty much all my sours tend to be really sour and they haven't done all that great in competition. They usually score well, but time after time I've gotten comments like "I really like this beer but it's too sour for the style." At some point they'll add an American Sour category that will allow for higher intensity sours.

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