Demeter Sinis (Batch 02): Recipe

This was my second time brewing Demeter Sinis.  The first time I brewed this beer was nearly a year ago.  Overall, I was quite pleased with that batch, and still have a few bottles left.  My one complaint is that while I like what the blend of mixed-ferment saison dregs has done to the beer over time, the body has gotten a bit too thin.  To counteract that, this time I'm adding some additional chloride and sodium to the beer to emphasize the malt a bit more, and have also upped the mash temperature a bit to see if I can retain a bit more body.

Finally, last time I aimed for 3 volumes of CO2, and that made the mouthfeel a bit crisper than I would like.  While I think I'll be kegging most of this batch, I'll likely go down to 2.5 volumes, a target I'll probably stick to in the future when conditioning dark saisons, and keeping the 3.0+ volumes solely for blonde saisons, and particularly ones with Brett.

I also have a few more ideas for this beer, including a version aged on red wine-soaked oak cubes.  Since my mash tun can only handle about 20 pounds of grain, my limit for this run is about 7.5 gallons.  I decided to do 5 gallons with pomegranate, and then do 2.5 gallons on the side with cranberries.  Soon enough, I'll do a thicker mash to see if I can get to 10 gallons and do half straight and half with red wine oak cubes.

Winter brew day.  Photo courtesy of Thorpette.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 74

Brew Date: December 14, 2013

Bottle/Keg Date:

Batch Size: 7.5 gallons

OG: 1.065 (estimated)

FG:  1.004 (estimated)

Fermentation Temperature: 65* F

IBU: 31.7

ABV: 7.8% (est.)

SRM: 24.5

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 153* F.

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

7.5 lb Briess 2-Row

4.5 lb White Wheat Malt

3.0 lb Wheat, Flaked

1.0 lb Acidulated Malt

12oz Rye, Flaked

12oz Wheat, Torrified

8oz Oats, Flaked

8oz CaraMunich

9oz Carafa II

4oz Chocolate Malt

Salts & Water

8.0g Calcium Chloride (all added directly to the kettle)

7.0g Baking Soda (all added directly to the kettle)

2.0g Gypsum (all added directly to the kettle)

All of the salts are added directly to the kettle to achieve the ultimate water profile that I am looking for.  Acid malt is being used to get the mash pH where I want it.

Resulting water profile (based on EZ Water Calculator v3) is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.35

Calcium: 89

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 47

Chloride: 95

Sulfate: 51

Hops

2.0oz Willamette (7.5 AAU), leaf, at 60 minutes

1.0oz Willamette (7.5 AAU), leaf, at flameout

Other

Whirlfloc (2) at 10 minutes

1.5 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

6g Lavender, dried, at flameout*

2.5 pounds of pomegranate juice and seeds,
along with a glass of Demeter Sinis (Batch 01)

1.0g Black Cardamom, at flameout

Pomegranate for 5 gallons of the batch.  For this, I took the seeds and juice from 10 pomegranates, which came to about 2.5 pounds of fruit/juice.

Cranberries for 2-2.5 gallons of the batch.  I juiced the cranberries, which yielded approximately 300mL of juice.

Both types of fruit were added to primary, with the pomegranate going into the bucket with 5 gallons, and the cranberries going into the 3-gallon Better Bottle.

* I wanted 20g of Lavender, but ran out.  I ordered more for the straight batch that I'll do in a few weeks.  I'm not as worried about this batch, since the fruit will provide plenty of background.

Yeast

Blend of Wyeast 3725, Crooked Stave, and miscellaneous mixed-fermentation saison dregs using the cake from Demeter Spectre.

I also added the dregs from a bottle of the first batch of Demeter Sinis.

Notes

12.14.2013: Gave the smaller portion 30 seconds of pure O2, and the larger portion got 60 seconds.  The gravity was lower than expected, coming in at 1.055.  I'm guessing this goes back to the sparge, where I was in a bit of a hurry due to the chilly weather and snow, which created additional obligations.  For yeast calculations, I kept the gravity at 1.065, as I'm not sure how high the fruit took each batch.

Based on Mr. Malty's calculator, I used 110mL of the Farmhouse Mild cake for the 5 gallon portion, and 45mL of the Farmhouse Mild cake for the 2 gallon portion.

12.15.2013: Strong fermentation for both portions of the batch.  Each one sitting at about 65* F.  As you can see in the picture below, the critters have already sucked the pomegranate seeds dry and they've been taken up into the krausen:

01.25.2014: Bottling day for the cranberry portion.  The pomegranate portion previously went on draft.  I haven't done a separate write up for it as of yet, as I feel like the pomegranate just added a bit of tartness, and the blend I'm using already adds some tartness, so it's difficult to tell it's there.  One thing is that as the beer warms, there is a slight hint of the pomegranate membrane, some of which inevitably got into this.  If I was doing this again, I would definitely use either pomegranate juice (store bought or self-juiced), as that would be quite a bit easier, even though it was cool watching the yeast strip away all the flesh from the pomegranate seeds.

Cranberry portion bottling: Two and a half gallons. FG of 1.006. Final pH of 3.5. Aiming for 2.75 volumes of CO2. Added sugar directly to bottles, uses 5.5g for each 750mL bottle and 2.75g for each 375mL bottle. Ended up with ten 750mL bottles and three 375mL bottles.

One thing to add is that this was also my first chance to use my custom "ambrosia" caps, which Amy got me for Christmas:

Difficult to see, but ambrosia "a" logo caps on the left.

Calculating Slurry Volume for Starters

Earlier tonight -- two days prior to my upcoming Namur brew day -- I made a starter using a portion of the cake harvested from Batch 02 on November 23, 2013.  As I don't have the proper equipment for properly measuring cell counts, I did a workaround that should hopefully be sufficient for now.  To do this, I utilized YeastCalc.

First, I put in my harvest date and OG into YeastCalc, which told me that I needed 175 billion cells.  I then changed my initial starter volume (no aeration) to 1.0 L.  After fiddling with the numbers in the "Liquid Yeast Properties" box, which is where I initially found my viability percentage, I discovered that having an initial cell count of 160 billion would give me 131.19 billion viable cells, which would then yield 175 billion viable cells with the 1.0 L starter.

Once I knew that I would need 160 billion cells from my population, I used the measurements provided by Wyeast for repitching to determine my cells per mL of slurry.  This indicated that there are 1.2 billion cells per mL when the slurry is 40-60% solids.  I estimated my slurry (below) to be 75% solids, so I figured that I had roughly1.8 billion cells/mL.  Doing the math to get to 160 billion cells, I determined that I needed 88.89 mL of slurry from the jar, and that's what I pitched into the starter.

Slurry from Namur (Batch 02) in a 500mL mason jar.

I realize that this method is pretty crude and relies on a lot of estimates, so I have some bigger plans for the future.  My initial thought, and we'll see how this works out, is that I will take two test vials of White Labs yeast.  Given that these purportedly contain roughly 100 billion cells, I will empty these into a coffee filter to drain out the liquid.  I'll then take measurements of the weights of the resulting yeast, and determine the weight of 100 bill cells without any trub, averaging the weights from each vial.  From there, I can then drain out my yeast cakes in the same manner and determine pitching rates based on weight.

Science & Art #1: Tasting Notes

Below are the tasting notes for Science & Art #1, a blend that I created by using approximately 85% Farmhouse Mild and 15% Citrine (Batch 4).  I've wanted to start blending my saisons and wilds, and this seemed like a good place to start.  I had both beers on hand and ready to go, so I decided to mix at various ratios to get to an easy-drinking blend.  I wanted the fruit and wheat notes from Farmhouse Mild to dominate, following up with just a bit more acidity and minor funk from the Citrine.

At that point, all I needed to do was come up with a name.  I wanted something that I could keep around for awhile, as with these blends, I thought it would be easier to go with a standard name followed by numbers or years, such as Lost Abbey Veritas, Hill Farmstead Civil Disobedience, and Cantillon Zwanze.  Given that these beers will be blends of wilds and saisons, I thought "Science & Art" would be appropriate.  One of the things I love about brewing, and particularly about saisons, is that there is so much room for creativity.  However, at the same time, there's still the base science behind beer making and, most importantly for my purposes, fermentation.  

Appearance: A bright, faint yellow color with a large, fluffy white head. Great retention, with the head eventually falling down to a thin cap. Plenty of lacing on the glass. Pretty clear with visible carbonation.

Aroma: The initial nose has a touch of sulfur. Enough to be noticeable, but not distracting. This is something I actually like to have a bit of in my wild beers, similar to what I've found in Sahalie from Ale Apothecary. With that said, I know that this is often heavily present in my Berliner Weisse beers and then dissipates, so I'll have to find out the cause and whether that will be true here. Maybe it's something caused by the bottle conditioning process, as neither of the beers used in blending this beer had any sulfur.

Aside from that, there's a light bit of lemony citrus and some faint barnyard funk.

Flavor: The flavor continues from the nose, with a nice zesty acidity carrying through the finish. Some lactic, but more of a citric acid feel. A bit of wheat there, as well as a very mild tropical fruit note. While Farmhouse Mild was quite tropical and Sweet Tart-like, this takes on more of the citric feel of Citrine, even with Citrine only being 10-15% of the blend.

Mouthfeel: Lingering dryness after a light body and spritzy carbonation. Similar to Farmhouse Mild, this is very easy drinking. The acidity keeps the quaffability a little bit in check, though the lighter body makes this more drinkable than the slightly-fuller body of Farmhouse Mild.

Overall: I'm pretty pleased with the blend, and am curious to see where it goes over time.  Right now it's fairly bright, fruity, and lactic.  I'm curious if it'll become a bit more rustic and funky over time.

Demeter Spectre: Tasting Notes

At this point, the bottles of Demeter Spectre are carbonated well enough and I had a chance to snap a picture and record some thoughts. Overall, I like the beer and will definitely do it again with a few alterations.

Appearance: Slightly-hazy light copper with an orange hue. Big, fluffy white head with good retention and lacing. It's a bit darker, which I was hoping for, as that somehow seems to be a bit more rustic. I think a lot of this color is attributable to the fruit juice addition, as the grain bill was pretty light. The fruit accomplished what I wanted in that regard, especially as there isn't anything that would indicate that there is juice from peaches, raspberries, and strawberries in this.

Aroma: Faintly peachy with a bit of underlying fruit and lemon. There is a bit of generic spice there as well. It's not quite phenolic, more of a very light citrus perfume, perhaps the grains of paradise. Either way, nothing specific is identifiable, which was the goal with the spice and fruit additions.

Flavor: Mildly lactic with a generic fruitiness underneath peach. Some peach pit in the finish. Would reduce peach amount by half and instead substitute apricots. Raspberry and strawberry are not specifically identifiable. Generally faint spice and fairly light on the tongue.

Mouthfeel: Body is light to medium with good carbonation. Could use a touch more wheat and grain emphasis, perhaps upping the chloride and sodium a bit. Bitterness is not particularly noticeable; probably right where I want it. Finish is lingering fruitiness with a touch of citric and lactic acid.

Overall: I think I would mess around with the water chemistry just a bit and swap the peach for apricot, but otherwise I think this is a good start and could be a pretty good beer. I think I may also add a bit more lemon zest, and a just a bit (maybe 25mL) of juice as well.

Farmhouse Mild: Recipe (Version 3)

This is now my third time overall brewing Farmhouse Mild, and the second time in the past few months. The first keg on the last batch kicked way too quickly, and the other half was blended with my blonde sour (Citrine) and bottled. For this round, I kept almost everything the same, changing up the hops a little bit and also added a bit more acidulated malt.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 73

Brew Date: December 1, 2013

Bottle/Keg Date:

Batch Size: 10 Gallon

OG: 1.043 (measured)

FG:

Fermentation Temperature: 67 F

IBU: 44.5

ABV: 4.1% (est.)

SRM: 4.1

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 154 F.

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

8lb French Pilsner

4lb White Wheat Malt

2lb Wheat, Flaked

1lb 8oz Munich Malt

12oz Acidulated Malt

8oz Oats, Flaked

8oz Rye, Flaked

Salts & Water

5.5g Calcium Chloride (all added directly to the kettle)

2.8g Gypsum (all added directly to the kettle)

As referenced above, this time I upped the acid malt to get to the proper mash pH, and then added these flavor adjustments directly to the boil kettle.  Given the batch size, I did a double batch sparge, with the second sparge using only distilled water to make sure I wasn't pulling the pH up too high.  I wanted to add a bit of lactic acid, but wasn't able to quickly find a good calculator to use online.

Resulting water profile (based on EZ Water Calculator v3) is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.40

Calcium: 70

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 7

Chloride: 59

Sulfate: 53

Chloride / Sulfate Ratio: 1.11 (Balanced)

Hops

2.0oz Citra (12.9 AAU), leaf, at 45 minutes

2.0oz Amarillo (6.9 AAU), leaf, at flameout

1.0oz Citra (12.9 AAU), leaf, at flameout

1.0oz Simcoe (12.4 AAU), leaf, at flameout

Other

Whirlfloc (2) at 10 minutes

2 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

Yeast

Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde (x2)

Miscellaneous saison dreg blend

Crooked Stave dreg blend

I built up a starter from the Demeter Spectre cake starting two days before the brew.  It was a 1.5 L starter, and prior to pitching, I also added dregs from Crooked Stave Saison Vieille and Surette Provision Saison.  I did not decant the starter.  While I normally do, here I didn't have too much time, and given the volume of the cake that was being reused, the starter was quite thick even after going for a few hours without being shaken.

Notes

12.01.2013: After the boil, I chilled to 68* F and added 30 seconds of pure oxygen to two separate buckets, which will each serve to ferment half the batch.  I placed the buckets in the basement with the lids on loosely.

12.02.2013: Both buckets showing strong fermentations, with the internal temperature of each sitting right around 67* F.

12.08.2013: Most of the activity appears to have stopped and the beer is around 1.010.  After taking the sample, a fastened the seals on the lids of the buckets.

01.05.2014: Kegged into multiple batches.

After going on tap, one has a bit of diacetyl after being on for about a week; I think there's likely pedio in this blend, so maybe it kicked back up?  Taking it off tap and going to add lemon guavas and some additional Brett to see if it will take care of the diacetyl.

The other half was later also blended with some Citrine to create a second blend of Science & Art #1 to go on tap.

05.21.2014: Tasting notes for the 5-gallon portion that sat on 5 pounds of lemon guavas for two months.

Farmhouse Mild: Tasting Notes

I had really been delaying writing down some tasting notes for Farmhouse Mild, as while I really enjoyed the beer, I was having quite a bit of difficulty figuring out exactly how to describe it.  When I finally got around to taking some notes last Sunday during the Bears-Ravens weather delay, it proved to be fortunate timing, as the keg kicked that evening.

Appearance: Pale yellow-golden color with an initial fluffy white head.  Slightly hazy body with visible carbonation bubbles.  Fairly decent head retention with a bit of lacing.

Aroma: The nose has an initial whiff a faint lemon alongside what I can best describe as a Sweet Tart candy-type flavor.  It's unquestionably fruity, though it's difficult to describe what's there aside from the lemon.  I guess it's faintly tropical, perhaps including guava and a bit of tart apricot.

Flavor: Lightly tart with a hint of background wheat.  The main flavor is a generic fruitiness similar to Sweet Tarts when considering the combination of fruit and mild acidity.  Again, guava and apricot are probably the best I can do, though neither would be particularly prominent.

Mouthfeel: The body is light and airy with some background wheat to help prevent it from being too boring.  It's dry with just a touch of residual sweetness.  Moderate carbonation and overall very drinkable with a lingering acidity.

Overall: One of my favorite beers that I've brewed to date.  It's very light and easy drinking, but has enough complexity to keep it captivating.  The acidity is faint and adds an interesting twist, without being to the level where it detracts at all from drinkability.

In the end, 5 gallons wasn't nearly enough of this.  I made 10 gallons of the base beer, though half of that was blended with some Citrine in what became Science & Art #1.  I will have a post up on that as soon as I have time to open a bottle and take some notes.

Namur: Recipe

I have heard very good things about White Labs Saison III offering; specifically, that it's pretty low on the spice profile while putting off quite a bit of fruit and just a bit of tartness.  I finally grabbed two vials from Northern Brewer earlier this month.  Unfortunately, since it's a summer platinum strain, the vials were a bit dated.  I ended up doing a 2L starter for each vial, based on the output from MrMalty's pitching calculator.

The first time I brewed Namur, it was a test of a variety of saison strains, including some strains pulled from bottle dregs.  Unfortunately, I forgot to adjust the mash pH during that brewday, and ended up pulling far too many tannins for the mash, making the beer unpleasant.  I plan to retry the experiment sometime in the near future.

Batch Number: 72

Brew Date: November 9, 2013

Keg Date:

Batch Size: 5 Gallon

OG: 1.064

FG: 1.008

Fermentation Temperature: 68 F

IBU: 29 (Tinseth)

ABV: 7.4% (est.)

SRM: 4.3

Mash: Single infusion for 90 minutes at 151 F (targeted 150).

Boil: 90 minute

Fermentables

12.0 lb Dingeman's Belgian Pilsner

0.44 lb Acid Malt

Salts & Water

6.5g Calcium Chloride (all into the kettle)

3g Gypsum (all into the kettle)

5.5g Baking Soda (all into the kettle)

The acid malt was used to adjust the mash pH.

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.47

Calcium: 104

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 49

Chloride: 100

Sulfate: 73

Chloride / Sulfate Ratio: 1.37

Hops

3mL HopShot at 90 minutes

1.0 oz. Citra (12.9 AA) at flameout

Other

1.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes (double the normal amount to provide extra FAN, per the suggestion in Phil Markowski's Farmhouse Ales)

1.0 ea.  Whirlfloc tablet at 10 minutes

Yeast

WLP585 (2 older vials build up via 2L starters two days in advance)

Notes

11.09.2013: Gave 45 seconds of pure oxygen prior to pitching the yeast.  Fermenting in a 6-gallon bucket in the main unfinished portion of the basement, closer to the boiler to provide a bit of extra heat.

11.14.2013: Beer has never developed a thick krausen, but is still going along.  Measured fermentation temperature this morning is 72 F.

11.23.2013: Beer at 1.010.  In general, the phenol to ester balance was a bit too high for me, so I decided to add Brett and white wine-soaked oak cubes to this portion of the batch, letting the Brett work with the phenols.  I'll use this cake to make another batch, fermenting at a higher temperature, and also provide less oxygen and some simple sugars.  According to White and Zainasheff's Yeast (pp. 12, 35), lower oxygen levels and increased simple sugars should provide more esters than I achieved this time around.

Given my plans, I racked to a purged keg that included 1 ounce of Verdejo-soaked Hungarian oak cubes, which were boiled prior to being soaked in the Verdejo.  They had been soaking since March 2013.  I also added a vial of White Labs Brett Brux Trois.  

Demeter Spectre: Recipe

For a while now I have wanted to do a version of the "Demeter" series playing off of the lactic acidity and fruity character of Fantôme Saison.   I've been intrigued by how Dany at Fantôme gets that "Fantôme-y" character in his beers.  Even though he claims not to use fruit, plenty of people believe he does.  As for the lactic character of the beer, that fits within the traditional farmhouse roots of the style, and is not at all surprising given Dany's generally whimsical character, aside from the fact that the brewhouse itself doesn't appear to be the most sanitary.  It is, however, a gorgeous place:

Brasserie Fanôme.  Picture from our trip to Belgium in September 2011.

With all that in mind, I went with a pretty basic recipe (full below) and added hints of various spices, and then went with my standard for doing quick citrus-laden, somewhat-lactic saisons, which is a blend of dregs from various Hill Farmstead bottles.  What I had on hand here was also actually mixed with Wyeast 3725, which is reportedly the Fantôme yeast.  I decided to use some fruit, but in a way that wouldn't be as noticeable, either via the color or ultimate flavor, as detailed below.

For the water, I went with distilled plus additions of calcium chloride, gypsum, and baking soda to get the ions where I wanted them, with baking soda only in the mash, and the other two used both in the mash and sparge water.  Baking soda was only used in the mash to get the final sodium content I wanted for the full volume of the wort, as using it in the sparge water would increase the alkalinity and pH, potentially pulling tannins from the grains during the sparge process.  Finally, I also used acid malt to get the mash pH where I wanted it.

In naming this installment of the Demeter series, I wanted to play off of Fantôme Saison being the inspiration for this beer, and since Fantôme is ghost in French, I went with spectre, which is another word for ghost or phantom.

While the wort was chilling, I went inside and sliced up the peaches and prepared the strawberries and raspberries.  I juiced all of them together.  I know that Dany at Fantôme claims that he doesn't use fruit in his Saison, but many have speculated otherwise  Here, in addition to the spices, I decided to go with fruit, but opted to use freshly-juiced fruit in the primary. 

The reasons for this are twofold.  First, even though I haven't used that much fruit, I'd like the fruit to involved throughout fermentation, losing flavor and aroma during the process, producing a lower overall character.  The second reason for using juice is that I recall an episode of Basic Brewing Radio where an experiment showed that fruit juice had less flavor and particularly, color, impact compared with whole fruit.  Based on these two factors, I expect the fruit to lend flavor and aroma properties that could be expected to come from yeast and/or hops, to the point where there would be plausible deniability that fruit was used at all.

I also used double Wyeast's recommended yeast nutrient amount based on comments in Farmhouse Ales that increased FAN from extra yeast nutrient may help saison yeast perform.  Markowski was talking about the Dupont strains, but I don't think it's going to hurt anything with the 3725 / Hill Farmstead dreg blend I'm using here, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

After the beer had chilled to 70 F, I added 30 seconds of pure oxygen.  I then pitched the blend of Wyeast 3725 and Hill Farmstead dregs that was used to ferment my latest batch of Farmhouse Mild.  I had collected a pint of that slurry in a mason jar, and used the whole thing.  The yeast pitching calculator at mrmalty.com recommended 125mL of yeast slurry, though with the amount of liquid I had in the jar, the leftover cake was pretty thin.  I then wrapped a FermWrap around the bucket and set it at 65 F, with the probe wrapped inside bubble wrap on top of the bucket. 

Given that the temperatures in the low 40s at night in October in Chicago and the fact that our garage isn't (yet) insulated, I want to make sure it's basically just fermenting at room temperature.  I've had great experience using this blend in this manner, getting nice notes of apricot and lemon with mild lactic acidity.  The phenols have been quite low at this temperature, which is something I'm shooting for here, as I would prefer the fruitiness, mild spices, and acidity to shine through.

Beer while brewing: Ambrosia Farmhouse Mild (Batch 068) and Logsdon Oak Aged Bretta.  I also snagged a sample of Ambrosia Wallonian Pale Ale (Batch 069), which has been dry hopping for 5 days and will get kegged in two more.

Batch Number:70

Brew Date: October 12, 2013

Keg Date:

Batch Size: 5 Gallon

OG: 1.061

FG: 1.004 (est.)

Fermentation Temperature: 65 F

IBU: 28.3

ABV: 7.5% (est.)

SRM: 6.2 (BeerSmith estimate; not including any coloration from the fruit juice)

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 154 F.

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

6lb 8oz French Pilsner

3lb 0oz Munich Malt

3lb 0oz Wheat, Flaked

0lb 8oz Acidulated Malt

Salts & Water

7.4g Calcium Chloride (split between mash and sparge)

3.4g Gypsum (split between mash and sparge)

6.0g Baking Soda (mash only)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.52

Calcium: 77

Magnesium: 0 (though plenty comes from the malt itself)

Sodium: 46

Chloride:99

Sulfate: 52

Chloride / Sulfate Ratio: 1.89 (malty)

Hops

3oz HopShot at 60 min.

Other

1.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 15 minutes

Yeast

Cake from Batch 068 Farmhouse Mild (Hill Farmstead dreg blend and Wyeast 3725)

Notes

10.14.2013 - Temperature reading of the probe, which is sitting wrapped in bubble wrap on top of the fermenting bucket, is sitting at 65 F and there's a healthy krausen going.

10.27.2013: Bottled, aiming for 2.7 volumes of CO2.  Final gravity is 1.006.

12.09.2013: Tasting notes.

Wallonian Pale Ale: Recipe

Yesterday I brewed my first batch of what I'm calling a Wallonian Pale Ale, using a generous amount of American hops alongside a mostly pilsner malt base plus French Saison yeast.  The idea is to have a beer that's quite dry and hop forward, but with a bit of yeast complexity.  The plan is to keep the yeast at the lower ends of its range (approximately 65-68 F) to minimize its contribution, while still getting something out of it in addition to the large degree of attenuation.  With the high attenuation, I also used a decent amount of flaked wheat and kept the chloride to sulfate ratio relatively high to emphasize the malt and body a bit.

Practically speaking, this is something I also wanted to try with the idea of potentially opening a taproom or brewpub down the line.  Being able to do pale ale strength and IPA strength (in terms of alcohol and hoppiness) saison would be a great thing to be able to offer to customers without the brewery having to utilize another yeast strain, as the house saison strain would, according to plan, handle most of the load.  As a homebrewer, of course it's also easy to deal mostly with a single strain, though I normally vary it up quite a bit, though this usually takes the form of trying out different saison strains.

Preparing the mash.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 69

Brew Date: September 22, 2013
Keg Date: October 14, 2013
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.055
FG:
Fermentation Temperature: 65 F
IBU: 69.6
ABV: 6.6% (est.)
SRM: 4.1

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 155 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

7lb French Pilsner
2lb Wheat, Flaked
2lb Munich Malt

Salts & Water

4.15g Calcium Chloride (split between mash and sparge)
1.75g Gypsum (split between mash and sparge)
3mL Lactic Acid

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.45

Calcium: 77

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 7

Chloride: 70

Sulfate: 55

Chloride / Sulfate Ratio: 1.27 (very near the malty end of balanced)

Hops

1oz Columbus (19.3 AA), leaf, first wort hop
1oz Columbus (19.3 AA), leaf, at flameout
2oz Citra (12.4 AA), leaf, at flameout
2oz Citra (12.4 AA), leaf, dry hop for 7 days

Other

Whirlfloc at 15 minutes
0.5 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 15 minutes

Yeast

Wyeast 3711 French Saison (x2)
White Labs Brett C.

Notes

09.22.2013: After chilling, gave the wort 30 seconds of pure oxygen and then pitched both packets of 3711, which were manufactured on August 22, 2013. Took a temperature reading and realized the beer had not chilled enough, getting a reading of 87 F. Immediately put the bucket into the chest freeer at 32 F, where it slowly got back down to the appropriate temperature. I don't think this should be an issue, as not much flavor (or ethanol) is produced during the lag phase, and it was down to temperature within an hour of pitching, whereas the lag phase should last roughly from hours 3-15. See this excerpt from Brew Geeks:

The lag phase can be carried out at a higher temperature than the rest of fermentation because very little flavor compounds are produced. Ethanol production is also very limited, therefore ester formation is not a concern. Some brewers begin the lag phase for ales at 72-75F, and complete the fermentation at 68F. This can be done with success for lagers too, with starting the lag phase at 72-75F and lowering the fermentation temperature to 50-55F.

The Life Cycle of Yeast, available at http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html.

In the end, a lot of this may have been an equipment malfunction, as I measured with a new thermometer (fresh out of the package), and got a measure of 63 F where the old one was reading 75 F, so changes are the original pitching temperature was more toward 75 and didn't need too much alteration. Serves as a reminder to ensure that I'm updating thermometers more often, as I've been using the old one for nearly three years now.

10.07.2013: Added 2oz. of Citra whole leaf hops as dry hops in a muslin bag.

10.14.2013: Transferred the beer to a CO2 purged keg an sealed the lid.  Saved the 3711 cake for a future saison.

11.05.2013: I really wasn't a huge fan of the way the 3711 completely overtook this one, even with a pretty hefty dose of late addition and dry hops, so I decided to add a vial of White Labs Brett C to the keg and let that go for a bit.  I'll taste it in two months or so, and see how I like it then.  If the 3711 is still too strong, I'll have to consider adding some additional dry hops, or maybe some fruit (pineapple?).  I loved the idea of the WPA and will try it again, but won't be using 3711.  I'm thinking that if I use one of my "wild" saison blends that are relatively clean for saison strains, I can keep the lacto in check with high IBUs and get a more complete beer.

Farmhouse Mild (Batch 02): Recipe

This is my second time doing a Farmhouse Mild, and my second batch (first was Bitter Beer Face Pale Ale) since moving back to Illinois. The first batch of this beer was split and mostly treated with separate strains of Brettanomyces, so I'm looking forward to having a full 10 gallons. The plan is to keg 5 gallons straight, and then blend the other 5 gallons with a portion of my blonde sour (Citrine) and then bottle.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 68
Brew Date: September 15, 2013
Bottle/Keg Date: October 4, 2013
Batch Size: 10 Gallon
OG: 1.043
FG:
Fermentation Temperature: 70 F
IBU: 46.1
ABV: 4.1% (est.)
SRM: 4.1

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 154 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

8lb French Pilsner
4lb White Wheat Malt
3lb Wheat, Flaked
1lb 8oz Munich Malt
9oz Acidulated Malt
8oz Oats, Flaked
8oz Rye, Flaked

Salts & Water

5.5g Calcium Chloride (split between mash and sparge)
2.8g Gypsum (split between mash and sparge)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.50

Calcium: 70

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 7

Chloride: 59

Sulfate: 53

Chloride / Sulfate Ratio: 1.11 (Balanced)

Hops

8mL HopShot (~40 IBU) at 60 minutes
4.5oz Amarillo (6.9 AAU) at flameout*
4.5oz Citra (12.4 AAU) at flameout*

* These hops were refrigerated rather than frozen during the period from May to August while we were in temporary housing, so I added quite a bit more than I otherwise would have based on their aroma, which was not cheesy or oxidized, but was weaker than normal.

Other

Whirlfloc (2) at 15 minutes
1 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 15 minutes

Yeast

Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde (x2)
Crooked Stave dreg blend
Miscellaneous saison dregs

Notes

09.15.2013: Smackpacks of 3725 are dated June 30, 2013. Also adding 500mL worth of saison dreg blend slurry from the Demeter Auran cake from March 30, 2013. Also added a mixed thin slurry of dregs from Crooked Stave Hop Savant, Crooked Stave St. Bretta (Spring), and Crooked Stave St. Bretta (Summer). The total of this thin slurry was approximately 250mL. Initial pitching temperature was 72 F. Provided 25 seconds of pure oxygen to each 6-gallon bucket. I placed the lids loosely on the buckets instead of sealing tightly.

The hops are a bit dated and don't smell as pungent after being in the chest freezer at 35-40 F from May through August at my parents' house in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. Thus, used double what I normally would.

09.16.2013: Both buckets have a healthy krausen and are fermenting at 67-68 F at 7:30 PM. Current outdoor temperature is 57 F.

09.20.2013: This morning the krausen was down to a very thin layer of film, so I sealed the lids on the tops of the buckets.

10.04.2013: Kegged half the batch. The other half was blended at a 4:1 ratio with Batch 04 of Citrine and bottled, aiming for 2.7 volumes of carbonation.

11.20.2013: Tasting notes posted.

Monnik Sauvage: Recipe

Here is my first true attempt at an Orval-style beer.  I've previously done a Belgian single, Monnik Blonde, though that was split and fermented separately with a standard Trappist yeast, and then also with Brett Trois.  This time, I'm going with the White Labs Bastogne strain, and then will secondary for a few months with Orval dregs.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 64
Brew Date: March 16, 2013
Bottle Date:
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.050 (est.)
FG: 1.002 (est.)
Fermentation Temperature: Ambient (~65 F)
IBU: 41.6
ABV: 7.8% (est.)
SRM: 8.1

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 153 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

4lb French Pilsner
4lb Pale Malt
12oz Caramunich 

Hops

1.5oz Hallertauer (4.6 AAU) at 45 minutes
1.0oz Styrian Goldings (4.6 AAU) at 20 minutes
1.0oz Styrian Goldings (4.6 AAU) at 5 minutes
1.0oz Styrian Goldings (4.6 AAU) dry hop (7 days)
0.5oz Hallertauer (4.6 AAU) dry hop (7 days)

Other

1 Tbsp 5.2 buffer in mash 

Yeast

White Labs WLP510 (Bastogne Belgian Ale): 2L starter made several days beforehand
Orval dregs (secondary)

Notes

Biere de Nord: Recipe

After brewing the second batch of Demeter Auran this past Sunday, I'll also brewed my first attempt at a biere de garde.  This will be more of a farmhouse version of the style, not being entirely controlled other than in the initial stages.  I went with a standard European Ale yeast at low temperatures for primary, and then will lager for about a month.  After that, I plan to get the beer into a keg for long-term aging with red wine-soaked oak cubes and Brettanomyces Lambicus, along with dregs from Citrine.  The hope is that the initial fermentation will take the beer to a fairly low gravity, and from there I can get some earthy and cherry character from the Brett, along with a bit of acidity from the Citrine dregs.  The red wine will hopefully add a nice touch, and I'll probably keep it to a relatively-small amount for a longer period of time.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 63
Brew Date: March 10, 2013
Bottle Date: October 6, 2013
Batch Size: 5 Gallon
OG: 1.072 (est.)
FG: 1.005 (est.)
Fermentation Temperature: Ambient (~65 F)
IBU: 25.1
ABV: 7.9% (est.); 8.2% (act.)
SRM: 15.7

Mash: Single infusion for 90 minutes at 148 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

12lb French Pilsner
12oz Caramunich Malt
8oz Aromatic Malt
4.2oz Amber Malt
2oz Brown Malt
2oz Carafa III

Hops

1.75oz Fuggles (4 AAU) at 60 minutes

Other

1 Tbsp 5.2 buffer in mash
Red-wine soaked medium toast French oak cubes (.75 ounces in secondary)

Yeast

White Labs WLP011 (European Ale): 2L starter made several days beforehand
Wyeast Brettanomyces Lambicus (secondary)
Ambrosia Citrine dregs
BFM Sq. Rt. 225 Historical Saison dregs

Notes

03.10.2013: Brewday.  Everything went off without a hitch.  The batch got 30 seconds of straight oxygen, and then went into a corny with a blowoff tube for fermentation.

03.11.2013: Strong fermentation after 24 hours.

Unrecorded (lost to computer glitch): After lagering, added a smackpack of Wyeast Brettanomyces Lambicus.  Assume based on date for bottling below that the beer started lagering after 2-3 weeks and then lagered for 4 weeks, so was on the wine-soaked oak cubes and dregs for about 5 months.

10.06.2013: Bottled to achieve approximately 2.4 volumes of CO2. Given that the beer is somewhat inspired by BFM Abbaye de Saint Bon Chien, I also added the dregs of a bottle of BFM Historical Sq. Rt. 225 Saison before bottling.

06.30.2014: Tasting notes.

Demeter Auran: Recipe (Round Two)

This past Sunday I decided to go with another round of Demeter Auran.  This time I went with blood orange zest instead of clementine zest, and Mosaic instead of Citra.  I also upped the rose hips just a bit.  Aside from that, I split the 7.5 gallon batch with 5 gallons getting the mixed-ferment saison dreg blend, which was the cake from the original Demeter Auran.  The remaining 2.5 gallons got some white wine-soaked oak cubes and the cake from the portion of the Namur saison experiment that was done with grown up dregs from Tired Hands HandFarm.

I also increased the amount of blood orange zest, as I'm planning on sending the main 5-gallon portion to a keg to age with a good amount of white wine-soaked oak cubes.  I'll probably bottle one gallon of the base just to get a good comparison.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 62
Brew Date: March 10, 2013
Bottle Date:
Batch Size: 7.5 Gallon
OG: 1.050 (est.)
FG: 1.002 (est.)
Fermentation Temperature: Ambient (~65 F)
IBU: 29.2
ABV: 5.8% (est.)
SRM: 3.6

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 148 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

8lb 10oz French Pilsner
3lb 0oz White Wheat Malt
3lb 0oz Flaked Wheat

Hops

1.5 oz Mosaic (12.5 AAU) at 20 minutes
1.5 oz Mosaic (12.5 AAU) at flameout

Other

1 Tbsp 5.2 buffer in mash
21 grams of blood orange zest at flameout
6 grams of rose hips at flameout
White-wine soaked medium toast Hungarian oak cubes (amounts below)

Yeast

Saison Blend (5 gallons; oak cubes contained in the cake of the Demeter Auran batch)
Tired Hands Blend (2.5 gallons; half an ounce of white wine-soaked oak cubes)

Notes

03.10.2013: Brewday.  Everything went off without a hitch.  Each portion of the batch got 30 seconds of straight oxygen, with the saison dreg portion getting fermented in a 5-gallon bucket, and the Tired Hands dreg portion going into a 3-gallon Better Bottle.

03.11.2013: Fairly good initial fermentation from the Tired Hands portion after about 24 hours.

03.14.2013: It took the saison dreg portion quite awhile, and I was getting worried, but it's finally going really strong after 3.5 days.  If it wasn't going this morning, I was planning to take a good portion of the krausen of the Tired Hands dreg portion and also a thief or two from Citrine, and just see what happened.

06.02.2013: The saison portion, which was transferred to a keg after primary fermentation before our move, was hit with 1.0oz of boiled oak cubes that had been soaked in Nisia Old Vines Verdejo since 03.30.2013.

10.08.2013: The batch has been with the wine-soaked oak cubes for just over four months.  There was no blow-off assembly in place, so the beer continued to condition in the keg at room temperature, creating plenty of carbonation.  Placed into the kegerator and set at 20 PSI.

Ambrosia Namur: Recipe

I've wanted to do a saison yeast experiment for a while now. Yesterday I finally had the opportunity to brew 8 gallons of saison, which I separated into nine separate 1-gallon jugs. The goal of this is to eventually develop a house saison for Ambrosia Ales. The name of this beer is Namur, after the Belgian province in the Wallonian half of the country.

Batch Number: 59
Brew Date: February 18, 2013
Bottle Date:
Batch Size: 8 Gallons

OG: 1.050
FG: 1.004 (est.)
IBU: 30.1
ABV: 6.0% (est.)
SRM: 3.3
Mash: Single infusion for 90 minutes at 150 F.
Boil: 60 minutes

Fermentables

8lb 8oz French Pilsner
2lb 8oz Red Wheat, Torrified
2lb 8oz Wheat, Flaked
1lb 0oz Oats
0lb 12oz Rye, Flaked
0lb 6oz Rice Hulls

Hops

1.25 oz Calypso (12.8% AAU) at 60 minutes
1.75 oz Calypso (12.8% AAU) at flameout

Yeast

See below

Notes 

02.18.2013 - Brewday. Hit the smack packs of 3711 and 3724 at 8:30 am. Both of these got a bit slushy during the shipment here, so hopefully they swell. The Tired Hands HandFarm dregs mostly froze in the mini fridge when I put them in to crash. The bottom of the vessel was not frozen, so hopefully the yeast there were fine. The top layer with Brett may have suffered. I'm still going to use all three since it's only three quarters to a gallon of wort for each, and I can always redo the experiment with these in the future as this recipe shouldn't be difficult to replicate.

Mashed for 90 minutes. Initial mash pH looked to be around 5.5 based on pH strips, so I added a tablespoon of 5.2 buffer. This is my first time using the new false bottom. Had to vorlauf much more than was typical with the stainless steel braid. Ended up vorlaufing three times for about 1.5 gallons. After that, mash ran clear. Got approximately 8 gallons to be divided between the 9 jugs. OG measured at 1.050. Going to use Mr. Malty to determine the approximate pitching rates given the small batches. Gave each jug 6 seconds of pure oxygen. Finally, each jug got two drops of Fermcap.

Set the chest freezer to sit between 69 and 75 based on dual temperature controls. One is on the chest freezer and the other is on Fermwrap. The chest freezer is set at 74 with a differential of 1 degree. The Fermwrap is set at 70 F with a differential of 1 degree.

Yeast Rundown:

• Wyeast 3711 French Saison: Manufactured November 18, 2012. Decided to use the whole package since it partially froze in transit.
• Wyeast 3724 Belgian Saison: Manufactured December 19, 2012. Decided to use the whole package since it partially froze in transit. 
• Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde: Harvested from Demeter Auran (3725) on February 2, 2013. Mixed with a bit of water and used approximately 50mL of slurry.
• White Labs 565 Saison I: Best before May 9, 2013. Used about half of a vial after clearing with sanitized water and mixing in a Pyrex container. 
• White Labs 566 Saison II: Best before April 12, 2013. Used about half of a vial after clearing with sanitized water and mixing in a Pyrex container. 
• White Labs 568 Belgian Style Saison Ale Blend: Best before May 9, 2013. Used about half of a vial after clearing with sanitized water and mixing in a Pyrex container. 
• White Labs 670 American Farmhouse Blend: Best before April 5, 2013. Used about half of a vial after clearing with sanitized water and mixing in a Pyrex container. 
• Tired Hands HandFarm Dregs: Harvested from Tired Hands HandFarm bottle on January 15, 2013. Ended up with approximately 60 mL of thick slurry after pouring out all the beer (which smelled quite sour and oxidized). Hopefully this works out.
• Miscellaneous Saison Blend Dregs: Harvested from Demeter Auran on February 2, 2013. Mixed with a bit of water and used approximately 50 mL of slurry.  Coming from Demeter Auran, this makes this a third generation use for the blend.

02.19.2013 - Temperature 12 hours after pitching continues to sit at 70 F ambient. One of the jugs has a good krausen on it, while a few others have a bit of foam. Will check back at 24 hours.  At 24 hours, all but the Tired Hands and saison dreg blends were going strong.

02.20.2013 - At 36 hours, Tired Hands blend is going strong as well.  Saison dreg blend still hasn't done much.  At 48 hours, everything is going strong, with the temperature holding between 70 and 71.

02.21.2013 - At 60 hours, all still going well.  Some appear to be near completion of active fermentation.  Temperature holding between 71 and 72.

Wood Aging Project

For awhile now I've been aging pre-boiled oak cubes in white wine and red wine.  Pre-boiled oak cubes are preferable to leech out some of the harsher aspects of the fresh wood.  I've mostly used these cubes in saisons and wild beers.  (I've also used a 3-gallon whiskey barrel for my Vesuvius Imperial Stout.)  I've had moderate success with this method, and have decided that I'd like to expand my use of these cubes.

Inspired by beers that use more exotic barrels, I decided to pull some things out of our liquor cabinet and will eventually try some of the new oak variants in small batches of beer.  First, I've restarted a bourbon jar.  The bourbon cubes can be used in stouts, but I also plan to use them with some dark saisons, inspired by beers such as Tired Hands Guillemot Nebula and Prunus, as well as Stillwater Barrel-Aged Existent.  Another option would be a wild quad with fruit, along the lines of Lost Abbey Cuvee de Tomme.

I also went with brandy, which will initially be used in a gallon of my whiskey barrel aged imperial stout.  I'm interested in how the double barrel character will work out.  Aside from that, I'm thinking it could also work well with a dark saison, or even with a portion of Citrine.  This would fall along the lines of the cognac barrel-aged lambics that Cantillon has done, 50N4E and LH12.

After that, my choices are a little more obscure.  I went with some oak cubes in Tanqueray gin.  I think a blonde saison with lime peel could be a nice twist on the gin and tonic concept.  I think the level of gin cubes would need to be lower than other beers, or could perhaps be split with some white wine soaked cubes.  Upright in Portland has had success doing gin barrel saisons, e.g. Sole Composition Jaune Quatre.  I think a key to this would also be to use a relatively mild saison strain at a lower temperature.

Finally, I'm aging some oak cubes in Jagermeister.  This isn't traditional at all, and I'm not aware of any breweries using this, but I thought the anise/black licorice character could go well with a stout, or perhaps even with a dark saison or wild ale in small doses.  Since I'm not sure what else I might do with the Jagermeister that's been sitting around since college, this seemed like it'd be worth doing a single gallon experiment with at some point.

Orval's Brewmaster to Retire

Orval's brewmaster, Jean-Marie Rock, is set to retire after nearly 30 years at the brewery. He will be opening his own brewery, producing a beer utilizing "a method that brewers today have forgotten." An English translation of the interview (not that there are clearly some errors):

BROTH - Jean-Marie Rock is a little Elvis Trappist. It is he who in effect since 1985, gives the Orval taste we know it.He now wants to open a brewery. 

At nearly 65, he intends to make her childhood dream to create his own brewery Noirefontaine (Bouillon) and recreate a beer with a recipe forgotten all the brewers. The man, who has over 40 years of experience, develops a secret beer that Americans and the British were able to test and they are already fans. 

Jean-Marie Rock, why embark on this "adventure" when the time of retirement will ring?
I believe that as long as there different brewers, beer remains a flagship product of Wallonia. If I break my head to start this business, it is because I want to do something for our region. 

When your brewery open she? 

It takes six months to build. I hope that in a year and a half, we can drink the first beer.The project is on track for a long time. I am associated with a friend 15 years my junior.It sells equipment for breweries. We want to install on the N89, on the set of Noirefontaine, adjacent to the garage Arnould. 

This road is a beautiful showcase.At peak times, we calculated an hourly flow of 6,000 vehicles. Because of red tape, we lost a year. 

Your beer will she with a remote Orval? 

No. I'll just say this will not be a lager, but a special beer. I once made brews with a method that brewers today have forgotten.

UPDATE: Orval's new brewmaster will be Anne-Francoise Pypaert (link), who has been in charge of Orval's lab for the past twenty years.

Ambrosia Demeter Sinis: Recipe

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 57
Brew Date: January 21, 2013
Bottle Date: February 10, 2013

Batch Size: 5 gallons

OG: 1.061 (est.)
FG: 1.006 (est.)
IBU: 0
ABV: 5.2% (est.)
SRM: 23.2
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 151 F.
Boil: 60 minutes

Fermentables

5lb 0oz French Pilsner
3lb 0oz White Wheat Malt
2lb 0oz Wheat, Flaked
0lb 8oz Red Wheat, Torrified
0lb 8oz Rye, Flaked
0lb 4oz Carafa II
0lb 4oz Roasted Barley
0lb 4oz Special B Malt
0lb 2oz English Chocolate Malt

Hops

1.5oz East Kent Goldings (5.8 AAU) at 60 minutes
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (4.5 AAU) at 5 minutes
0.5oz East Kent Goldings (4.5 AAU) at Flameout

Other

14g Lavender at 2 minutes
0.75g Black Cardamom at 2 minutes
1.5oz Red Wine-Soaked Medium Toast Hungarian Oak Cubes during primary

Yeast

Hill Farmstead Blend (Dregs from Hill Farmstead Arthur, Clara, and Vera Mae).  This is the third generation for this blend, after previously having been used in Repeating Numbers and then Demeter Auran.

Notes

01.22.2013 - Fermentation is active after approximately 12 hours.  At 24 hours, the airlock is bubbling away.  Used approximately 4 large spoonfuls of the cake from Demeter Auran, which was still showing a bit of activity after 9 days.  Fermentation is at approximately 65 F ambient.

02.10.2013 - Bottled approximately 5 gallons with 150 grams of table sugar, aiming for 3.0 volumes of CO2.  Tastes great out of the fermenter.  The cardamom was a bit strong a week ago, but has faded, and should be at about the right level by the time carbonation is complete.

Ambrosia Lucky Charm (Batch 3): Recipe

This is my third time brewing Lucky Charm, my Berliner Weissbier series, the name of which comes from the fact that my wife, Amy, loves woodruff syrup in Berliners and thinks it tastes like the marshmallows from Lucky Charms.  I can't say that I disagree.

For this batch, I decided to do a sour "mash" for the first time.  Mine isn't traditional in that it's not really the mash that's being soured.  Instead, I plan to sour the runnings.  The procedure is to mash as normal, run off from the mash run into my pot, chill to ~100 F, and then fill two CO2-purged corny kegs.  From there, I put a grain bag filled with a quarter pound of pilsner malt in each keg.  Those are placed in a chest freezer using FermWrap to keep the kegs at 85 F for about a day, at which point I then remove the grain bags and pitch starters of White Labs Berliner Blend.  This "mash" is done to allow the lactobacillus that naturally resides on the raw grain to start to acidify the beer.  From there, the Berliner Blend goes to work.

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 56
Brew Date: January 21, 2013
Bottle Date:

Batch Size: 10 gallons

OG: 1.029 (est.)
FG: 1.004 (est.)
IBU: 0
ABV: 3.6% (est.)
SRM: 2.6
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 150 F.
Boil: None

Fermentables

5lb 8oz French Pilsner
5lb 8oz White Wheat Malt

Hops

None

Yeast

Lactobacillus (present on raw grain)
Berliner Blend

Notes:

01.21.2013 - Brewday.  After mashing, transferred straight into two corny kegs, and also into a single gallon jug.  All three vessels were placed in a chest freezer with dual stage temperature control, which was set between 85 and 90 F.  The cornies each got a bag with 4 ounces of pilsner malt to soak overnight as a sour mash.

01.22.2013 - After 16 hours, each of the corny kegs had a layer of white film when opened.  I removed the grain bag from each, pitched from a starter of White Labs Berliner Blend, and lowered the temperature range to 68 - 72 F, which is White Labs' recommended range for the blend.  At the 28 hour mark, both kegs and the jug were showing plenty of fermentation activity.

02.16.2013 - Added the juice of 18oz of blueberries (~500mL) plus the juice of one lemon (~50mL) to the jug, along with 1/2 Tbsp of lemon zest.

02.24.2013 - Added fruit to one of the kegs, which contains approximately 4.5 gallons.  I added the juice of 72 ounces of raspberries plus the juice of three limes.  I also added 3 Tbsp. of lime zest.

Ambrosia Citrine (Batch 4): Recipe

This is the fourth batch of Citrine that I have brewed. Citrine is my blonde wild ale. The first three batches were all inoculated with dregs, so I wanted to take this one in a different direction and bring a bit of spontaneous fermentation to this batch. With that in mind, I decided to brew an 8-gallon batch. The first five gallons were chilled and went to a 6-gallon Better Bottle, and then received dregs and oak cubes from Citrine batches 1-3.

For the spontaneous portion, the plan was to use lasagna pans from a grocery store. After brewing, I laid out three in our screened in porch to sit overnight. The next morning, I transferred each to 1-gallon jugs. There was quite a bit of evaportation overnight, so I ended up with approximately two-thirds of a gallon in each jug. One jug would ferment without any assistance. The other two would receive dregs that I had built up from bottles in addition to whatever was picked up from the air.

Base Recipe

Batch Number: 55
Brew Date: January 20, 2013
Bottle Date:
Batch Size: 8 Gallons

OG: 1.047 (est.)
FG: 1.000 (est.)
IBU: 28.9
ABV: 6.0% (est.)
SRM: 3.5
Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 156 F.
Boil: 90 minutes

Fermentables

7lb 4oz French Pilsner
7lb 4oz French Pilsner
3lb 4oz Flaked Wheat

Hops

4.5 oz Liberty (Aged) at 90 minutes

Yeast

Citrine Dregs (5 gallons)
Spontaneous Yeast and Bacteria (1 gallon)
Spontaneous Yeast and Bacteria + dregs of miscellaneous wild saisons (1 gallon)
Spontaneous Yeast and Bacteria + Allagash Coolship Dregs (1 gallon)

Notes

01.20.2013 - Brewday. Brewed 8 gallons. The first 5 gallons went into a 6-gallon Better Bottle and got the mixed cake from batches 1, 2, and 3 of Citrine, which had been in a growler in the fridge for a few months. It also got the leftover oak cubes that were included in that growler.

The other three gallons were split evenly between three aluminum lasagna pans and allowed to sit out overnight after being filled around 3 PM. The high on January 20 was 61 F, and the overnight low was 37 F.

01.21.2013 - Each pan was racked separately into a one gallon jug. There was a good amount of evaporation loss, so each jug ended up with approximately 2/3 of a gallon. The first jug is being left as is for a completely spontaneous fermentation. The second jug received the grown up dregs from some "wild" saison bottles. The third jug received the grown up dregs from bottles from the Allagash Coolship series. Those dregs had been sitting at the bottom of a starter for several months.

01.22.2013 - The spontaneous plus Flora jug has really taken off and has a nice krausen. I had to add a few drops of Fermcap to be safe. The other two jugs have some spotty foam on top as of 8 AM. The 5-gallon portion is not showing any real activity at this point. At approximately 30 hours, the 5-gallon portion now has a nice foamy layer atop the brew. Some foam atop the Spontaneous + Coolship jug, but nothing in the purely spontaneous jug. Fermentation for all is occurring at approximately 65 F ambient, though this will fluctuate with room temperature as fermentation continues through the next year or more.

01.24.2013 - This morning there is now a bit of foam on top of the 100% spontaneous portion, and the Spontaneous + Coolship portion has a very light layer of bubbly foam covering almost the entire top of the wort.

01.26.2013 - The Spontaneous + Coolship has a very nice krausen, and the 100% spontaneous has a layer of foam on the top.

01.27.2013 - The 100% spontaneous portion is started to krausen.




10.06.2013 - One gallon of this batch was taken from the main, non-spontaneous portion of the batch and used to blend with 4 gallons of Farmhouse Mild.


11.23.2013 - Put the keg in the kegerator to start carbonating.

Demeter Auran: Recipe

"Demeter Auran" will be my second use of a mixture of saison yeast and bugs. It was originally my intention to name my saisons as part of the Demeter line, after the Greek goddess of the harvest, so I'm getting back to that. Auran is the beginning of the Latin word for orange. I know I'm crossing over a bit there, but I liked the sound of it, and -- at least according to Google Translate -- there is no Latin word for clementine.

The first time I used this blend was a "clone" of the Stone 02.02.02 Vertical Epic that I switched up to saison yeast because I didn't want 5 gallons of an imperial witbier.  Based on how the aforementioned "clone" -- aptly named Ambrosia Repeating Numbers -- is doing, this blend creates a nice, expressive saison profile along with mild funk, citrus, and tartness. 

Aside from the yeast, this beer is spiced with rose hips and clementine zest, and contains a not inconsequential amount of Citra at 20 minutes and flameout. I'm hoping the citrus, tropical, and floral notes will combine well with the yeast. I'm also going to ferment the batch on medium toast Hungarian oak cubes that were pre-boiled and have been soaking in white wine since Thanksgiving. The amount of zest should lead to roughly 500 International Citrus Units ("ICUs") based on Embrace the Funk's interview with Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead. 

The remainder of the batch will be split into separate one gallon portions. The first gallon will get some reused Wyeast 3725, and the second gallon will get a "funky blend" of dregs I've saved from Russian River Sanctification, Russian River Temptation, Fantome Saison, Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza, and Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 53
Brew Date: January 12, 2013
Bottle Date: February 2, 2013
Batch Size: 7.5 Gallon
OG: 1.050 (est.)
FG: 1.005 (est.)
IBU: 28.9
ABV: 5.4% (est.)
SRM: 3.6

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 148 F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

8lb 10oz French Pilsner
3lb 0oz White Wheat Malt
3lb 0oz Flaked Wheat

Hops

1.5 oz Citra (12.4 AAU) at 20 minutes
1.5 oz Citra (12.4 AAU) at flameout

Other

1 Tbsp 5.2 buffer in mash
14.2 grams of clementine zest at flameout
5.25 grams of rose hips at flameout
White-wine soaked medium toast Hungarian oak cubes (amounts below)

Yeast

Saison Blend (5 gallons; 1 ounce of oak cubes)
Wyeast 3725 (1 gallon; 3 oak cubes)
Random Funky Blend (1 gallon; 3 oak cubes)

Notes

The main 5 gallons were transferred into a bucket for fermentation. The other two portions each went into a one gallon jug. The main portion of the batch got 30 seconds of oxygen, and the smaller portions each got ~8 seconds. They were left to ferment at ambient, which was around 65 F.

UPDATES

01.15.2013: Each of the batches has been very slow to start fermenting. After about 36 hours, I placed the 3 vessels into the chest freezer with fermwrap set at 72 F.

02.02.2013: Bottling day. Estimated that there are 4.25 gallons of beer in the fermentation bucket accounting for what will be lost to the trub and cake. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2, I'm adding 105g of table sugar. Beer racked into flushed keg on top of sugar. Headspace flushed with CO2 and then gently shaken to mix in sugar. Filled with Beer Gun. Ended up with 22 750mL bottles.

I also bottled the 3725 and "Funk Blend" portions. Each of these was estimated at 3/4 of a gallon. Aiming for 2.5 volumes of CO2, each one got 17 grams of table sugar. Ended up with 8 375mL bottles of each.