Table Saison II

I brewed a low gravity saison in early April and it didn't turn out very well. There were a number of problems both in recipe design and during the brew day. I hate to drain pour a good beer, but this wasn't turning into a good beer so no harm, no foul.

When designing the recipe for the first Table Saison, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. I went overboard with that idea and used only pilsener malt for the grist. Now, for a higher gravity saison like Saison duPont, which purportedly uses 100% pilsener, that works. For a beer with a starting gravity of 1.038, however, I ended up with a thin, watery mess with no body.

The revised recipe (really a whole new recipe all together) has some Belgian pale malt for depth, wheat, and Carapils for body. I also added Styrian Goldings and decided to go with Wyeast 3711 - French Saison.

Table Saison II

OG 1.041 FG 1.002 ABV 5.1% IBU ~26 SRM 3.4

Assumed Efficiency: 70%
Target Volume: 7.75 gal
Target PBG: 1.030
Target OG: 1.036
Total Grain: 9.0 lbs.

39.0% - 3.52 lbs. Castle Pilsener
39.0% - 3.52 lbs. Belgian Pale Malt
13.7% - 1.23 lbs. Weyermann Wheat Malt
08.3% - 0.75 lbs. CaraPils

2.00 oz. Czech Saaz (4.0% AA) @ 50 min.
1.00 oz. Styrian Goldings (2.6% AA) @ Flame out

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

Wyeast 3711 - French Saison

50% Carbon Filtered Waco, 50% Distilled

Mash at 154

Notes:
Brewed on 16 June 2011 by myself

Mashed for 60 minutes at 154 @ pH ~5.2. Had to add 1/4 tsp phosphoric acid to adjust pH

Collected 7.5 gal of 1.035 wort (mash efficiency 78.4%). Overshot target preboil gravity by 5 points. Need to adjust anticipated mash efficiency on low gravity beers to around 75%.

Removed .25 gal wort and added .5 gal filtered water for 7.75 gal of 1.032 wort

Boiled for 90 minutes and yielded ~6.12 gal of 1.041 wort (evaporation rate 14%). Usually average 11-12% evaporation, don't know what happened. Could have diluted with distilled water to adjust gravity, but decided to leave it.

Chilled to 70 degrees F and pitched smack pack of WY3711 without starter. Shook for ~2 minutes to aerate. Let free rise to 78 degrees F

22 June 2011 - Moved to fireplace. Ambient temperature ~75 degrees F.

30 June 2011 - Gravity 1.002. Bottled 4.6 gal of 75 degrees F beer with 4.28 oz table sugar for a target of 2.5 vol CO2. Yielded 19 12oz and 2 750ml bottles. Had trouble capping some 12 oz bottles (wider rim on Hacker-Pschorr bottles?) and didn't have larger size caps on hand for the rest of the 750ml bottles (Bruery bottles). Ended up dumping about 2.25 gal.

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.

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