Wallonian Pale Ale (Batch 02): Recipe

This is my second time trying out this recipe, with the theory that this is a fairly hoppy pale ale with saison yeast. The first attempt didn't go over that well, as I really didn't like the French Saison yeast. This time I'm going with the third generation of Ambrosia Blend 05, which is a blend of saison yeast and various Brettanomyces strains. Based on my experience with Demeter Vert (Batch 03), this is also picking up some lactic acid bacteria from the buckets I'm fermenting in, which is a good way to transfer some bugs from batch to batch since I don't have a barrel, though I do plan to make use of oak cubes for the same purpose soon. (I don't worry about the contamination, as anything I do that's "clean," which isn't all that often, is fermented in stainless steel kegs.)

I went pretty simple on the grain bill, and then hopped fairly intensely with Belma, Citra, and Mosaic at flameout. I'll also be looking to dry hop heavily as well.

Here are the full details on the batch:

Batch Number: 91

Brew Date: July 27, 2014

Keg Date:

Batch Size: 10 Gallon

OG: 1.042 (est.); 1.044 (measured)

FG: 1.003 (est.)

Fermentation Temperature: 70-74* F

IBU: 53.0 (modified Tinseth from BrewCipher)

ABV: 5.2%

SRM: 5.0

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 154* F

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

10.44 lb Dingemans Belgian Pilsner

4.00 lb Munich Malt

2.00 lb Flaked Wheat

0.88 lb Acid Malt

0.69 lb Flaked Oats

Salts & Water

Calcium Chloride (2.6g in the mash and 4.0g in the boil kettle)

Gypsum (2.8g in the mash and 4.3g in the boil kettle)

Sodium Chloride (2.5g all in the boil kettle)

5.9mL lactic acid added to the sparge water to get that pH to approximately 5.3. 

This time I added the salts to the mash and the boil kettle, aiming to get the full water profile in line, except for the sparge water, which is just acidified.

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.25; measured at ~5.35 (pH meter drifting between 5.3 and 5.4)

Calcium: 94

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 24

Chloride: 95

Sulfate: 96

Hops

9mL of HopShot (~3 AAU) at 60 minutes

4oz of Mosaic (11.6 AAU), pellet, 30 minutes after flameout

2oz of Belma (11.6 AAU), whole leaf, 30 minutes after flameout

2oz of Citra (12.9 AAU), whole leaf, 30 minutes after flameout

Let the hops sit in the wort for about 1.5 hours total, as I was busy bottling a few new beers in the Science & Art series and figured some additional exposure to the wort wouldn't hurt.

Dry Hops

Per 5 gallons:

2oz of Amarillo, whole leaf, 7 days

1oz of Citra, whole leaf, 7 days

1oz of Columbus, whole leaf, 7 days

After tasting the beer at two weeks, I decided that it was quite tropical/fruity from the flameout editions, and I wanted a little bit backing earth and floral character, as well as some additional citrus. Given that, I went with the combination above, with each 5-gallon portion getting a total of 4 ounces of whole leaf hops. 

Other

2.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

Yeast

Full batch used Ambrosia Blend 05 (now the third generation) from the cake of Farmhouse Mild (Batch 05). Each 5-gallon portion got 100mL of dense slurry from that cake.

Notes

07.27.2014: Removed chiller at 72*F, but let hops sit in the wort for 90 minutes or so before transferring to two buckets, each of which received 30 seconds of pure oxygen to each half just before pitching. Will plan to dry hop in 1-2 weeks. The temperature controller is set at 72*F with a 2*F differential, so should sit right in that range unless the garage gets really warm.

08.04.2014: Smell and taste are really nice. Didn't take any readings, but will soon. Temperature is at 74*F after a few days that were quite warm, though the water bath still keeps the temperature from swinging too drastically (also, just as important, from swinging too quickly).

08.10.2014: At two weeks, added the dry hops per the above after transferring 5 gallons to a keg, and leaving the other half in its bucket on the yeast. I had a bit of trouble weighing the hop bag down enough in the latter (even with plenty of stainless steel bolts!), so I may need to leave those ones in for a bit longer than a week.

09.01.2014: For the second half of the batch, I decided to bottle condition with fruit juice. For volume, I guessed that there were around 3 gallons in the keg, and shooting for 3 volumes, I used 26oz of Ceres fruit medley (guava, pineapple, papaya, mango, peach, and passion fruit), aiming for around 95g of sugar. Yield was 27 500mL bottles.

09.09.2014: Tasting notes for this batch.

11.08.2014: Two months later, and the fruit conditioned portion still doesn't seem to be conditioning properly. The fruit juice also didn't add much flavor, though it did add a TON of sediment. I don't think I'll be replicating that experiment again and, if I do, will make sure to filter any juice first.