Sunday, April 24, 2011

l'Etranger Saison


Having done the Table Saison a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to brew something a little bit more substantial. This is a pretty straightforward saison with Brett. I've been looking forward to using some of the Al B/East Coast Yeast bugs. I would have loved to get a hold of the Farmhouse Brett blend or use the Brett blend #9 (which broke open during shipping). Brett Blend #1 is described as "Three individual Brettanomyces isolates from lambic producers combined to give an aggressive brett presence in any beer. Vigorous, funky and acid-tolerant, the blend can be added at any stage of fermentation and is excellent for priming or re-yeasting." I'm assuming that there's some Brettanomyces lambicus and probably some bruxellensis, though I'm not sure and don't know the proportions. Also, I've read that his blends are pretty assertive so I'm going to pitch the Brett in the secondary when the gravity is around 1.010-1.012. Hopefully this one is ready to drink in a couple of months.


l'Etranger Saison

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Total Grain: 11.44 lbs
Anticipated OG: 1.050
Anticipated SRM: 3.3
Anticipated IBU: 17.3
Anticipated Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
-------
85.0% - 9.73 lbs. Castle Pilsener
10.0% - 1.14 lbs. Weyermann White Wheat Malt
05.0% - 0.57 lbs. Rye Malt

Hops
-------
1.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 4.00% AA) @ 60 min.

Extras
--------
1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.50 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

Yeast
-------
White Labs WLP565 - Belgian Saison
East Coast Yeast ECY04 - Brett Blend #1

Water Profile
-----------------
Profile: Carbon filtered Waco

Mash Schedule
-------------------
Sacch Rest 30 min @ 149 F

Notes
-------



Brewed on 24 April 2011 by myself

Mashed in with 4.7 gal (1.8 qt/lb) and rested at 149 for 20 minutes

Yielded ~7.5 gal of 1.043 wort (calculated efficiency 75.0%)

Boiled for 90 minutes yielding 6.26 gal 1.051 wort (evaporation rate 11%)

Chilled to 85 degrees F in 33 minutes, racked to carboy and chilled to 72 degrees F in chest freezer.

Pitched 1.55 l starter into ~4.8 gal and aerated with aquarium pump and stone for 15 minutes

Moved to closet with ambient temperature of 76 degrees F

28 April 2011 - Gravity 1.015

30 April 2011 - Gravity 1.010. Racked to secondary and added Brett. Stored in closet with ambient temperature of ~75 degrees F.

23 May 2011 0 Gravity 1.003. Aroma is perfume, some very faint Brett character (more pie cherry than funky barnyard). Odd grainy/cereal aftertaste, maybe some green apple.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

A Little Lunch


Yesterday's lunch. Chicken Caesar salad with some bleu cheese. Would have preferred a Bam Biere or maybe a Weizen Bam since at 8.00% ABV Oro de Calabaza was a little too big for a light salad, but it was tasty nonetheless. Cheers!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Simple Hefeweizen


I have to admit that I wasn't a huge fan of weissbiers when I first started drinking good beer. Like many converts, I was enamored with palate wrecking imperial IPAs and dark, chewy imperial stouts. The balance and simplicity of a hefeweizen was completely lost on me. Michelle (fiancée, beer buddy, expert mash stirrer) has always loved weissbiers and, though it took some time, her enthusiasm for the style rubbed off on me. Really, what beer is more perfectly suited for a sunny afternoon on the patio?

We brewed a hefeweizen last year that was just right; nice bready malt backbone with banana and some clove, a dry fullness, and appropriately effervescent carbonation. We used that beer in a dinner we hosted and paired it with a lemon grilled chicken Caesar salad. It was my favorite pairing of the day by far. I figured that with the 90+ degree days fast approaching, it was time to brew another weissbier.

I decided to keep the recipe from the last time. The only change I'm going to make is fermenting it in a loosely covered plastic bucket to mimic the open fermentation used by many traditional weissbier producers. I'm not entirely convinced that open fermentation makes much difference on a home brew scale, but at the very least I can skim the "braun hefe" and even top crop some yeast for a future batch.

Simple Hefeweizen

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Total Grain: 10.86 lbs
Anticipated OG: 1.048
Anticipated SRM: 3.0
Anticipated IBU: 11.7
Anticipated Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
-------
50.0% - 5.43 lbs. Castle Pilsener
50.0% - 5.43 lbs. Weyermann White Wheat Malt

Hops
-------
0.75 oz. German Hallertau (Pellet, 4.30% AA) @ 60 min.
0.15 oz. German Hallertau (Pellet, 4.30% AA) @ 5 min.

Extras
--------
1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.25 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

Yeast
-------
White Labs WLP300

Water Profile
-----------------
Profile: Carbon filtered Waco

Mash Schedule
-------------------
Sacch Rest 30 min @ 151 F

Notes
-------
Brewed on 23 April 2011 by myself

Mashed in with 1.8 qt/lb water to grain

Yielded ~7.25 gal of 1.039 pre boil wort (calculated mash efficiency 68.7%)

Aerated ~4.7 gal of 1.048 wort with aquarium pump and stone for 20 minutes

Pitched 1.65 l starter into ~4.75 gal of 1.048 wort at 64 degrees F at 2:00 pm

Raised temperature to 72 degrees F over 8 hours.

24 April - Very active fermentation. Blowing through the airlock of a 8 gallon bucket. Top cropped ~1 quart of active yeast and "braun hefe" at 8:00 am. Replaced cover with aluminum foil.

Gravity 1.016 on 28 April 2011

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Table Saison


Having just come off of an involuntary 8 month hiatus from home brewing , I wanted to ease back into it with something simple that would turn around relatively quickly. Given my bias towards saisons and the warm weather (I don't care what the calendar says, Texas summers start in April), the choice was easy: a crisp session strength saison.

I wanted to keep this beer under 4% ABV, dry, and refreshing. I didn't want to get bogged down with complex grain bills or hopping schedules so I decided to use the SMaSH (Single Malt and Single Hop) method. The grist would be 100% Castle pilsener malt and a modest charge of Czech Saaz primarily for bittering, but also some flavor and aroma.

I originally wanted to use Wyeast's WY3711 because it tends to ferment quickly (many report that they reach terminal gravity within 3 or 4 days), but because of its highly attenuative nature and the low starting gravity, I was worried that the resulting beer would be too thin and watery. I decided to use White Labs' WLP565. The last time I used this yeast it took over 4 weeks to reach my final gravity. With the low starting gravity of this beer and some more attention to fermentation temperatures, hopefully this beer will turn around a little quicker.

Table Saison

Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Total Grain: 8.06 lbs
Anticipated OG: 1.035
Anticipated SRM: 2.5
Anticipated IBU: 19.0
Anticipated Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain
-------
100.0% - 8.06 lbs. Castle Pilsener

Hops
-------
1.25 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 4.00% AA) @ 60 min.
0.50 oz. Czech Saaz (Pellet, 4.00% AA) @ flameout

Extras
--------
1.00 tablet Whirlfloc @ 10 min.
0.25 tsp Wyeast Yeast Nutrient @ 10 min.

Yeast
-------
White Labs WLP565

Water Profile
-----------------
Profile: Carbon filtered Waco

Mash Schedule
-------------------
Sacch Rest 60 min @ 149 F

Notes
-------
Brewed on 10 April 2011 by myself

Mashed in with 1.33 qt/lb and added another gallon to thin out mash

Forgot to close ball valve when adding sparge water. Ended up with some husks in the boil. Attempted to filter out with strainer.

Yielded ~8 gal of 1.031 pre boil wort (calculated efficiency 82.1%)

Removed ~1 gal and boiled for 90 minutes

Pitched .8 l starter into ~4.9 gal of 1.038 wort at 3:00 PM @ 72 degrees F

Raised temperature to 90 degrees F over 4 days

Gravity reading: 1.004 on 16Apr11 @ 5:05 am