Saison Faible (Batch 02): Recipe

This was my second time brewing Saison Faible, which is intended to be a light, fruit- and hop-forward saison without the funk and light acidity of Farmhouse Mild. For this one, I wanted to experiment with a few different yeasts, so half the batch was fermented with non-saison Belgian yeasts. It was a 20-gallon batch, so I ended up with around 5 gallons of portions fermented with each of the following: Wyeast 3724 (Dupont, Wyeast 3726 (Blaugies), White Labs 510 (Bastogne, which is Orval's primary-fermentation strain), and White Labs 550 (Achouffe, which is, or at least was, Jolly Pumpkin's primary strain).

After this, I plan to start experimenting a little bit more with European and old-school American hops, as I'd like to see how much of the fruity profile of many of my beers is a result of the yeast and bacteria strains I use, and how much is related to the generally-copious amounts of American and Southern Hemisphere hops I use at flameout.

Here are the full details on the batch:

Batch Number: 99
Brew Date: June 15, 2015
Keg/Bottle Date: See notes below
Batch Size: 20 Gallon
OG: 1.040 (est.)
FG: 1.003 and the 3724 and 3726; 1.008 for the 510 and 550 (measured, prior to Brett/dreg additions)
Fermentation Temperature: See notes below
IBU: 32.0-66.0 (wildly-different estimates from BrewCipher based on the hop stand, and I also don't know how much the aged 60-minute hops affected things)
ABV: 4.9% (est.) for the 3724 and 3726; lower for the 510 and 550 (until I decided to add dregs to each)
SRM: 3.0

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 152* F
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

14lb 8oz Dingemans Belgian Pilsner (46%)
9lb 8oz Flaked Wheat (30%)
2lb 0oz Munich (6%)
2lb 0oz Flaked Oats (6%)
1lb 11oz Acid Malt (5%)
1lb 0oz Flaked Rye (3%)
1lb 0oz Honey Malt (3%)

Salts & Water

1.0g Calcium Chloride (all in the boil kettle)
13.1 Gypsum (all in the boil kettle)
17.5g Sodium Chloride (all in the boil kettle)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.30
Calcium: 67
Magnesium: 12
Sodium: 75
Chloride: 123
Sulfate: 99

Hops
8.0oz Styrian Bobek (pellet, 3.9 AAU, 2.5 years old), at 60 minutes
1.0oz of Galaxy (pellet, 15.0 AAU), after flameout*
4.75oz of Mosaic (pellet, 11.6 AAU), after flameout*
4.25oz of Calypso (leaf, 12.0 AAU), after flameout*

* No hops right at flameout. Turned the burner off and let it cool to 190*F. Added the hops at that point for a 90-minute hop stand, with final temperature around 150*F.
Other

4.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

Yeast

• Wyeast 3724: Pitched into a water bath at 72*F. At 12 hours, bumped to 74*F. At 72 hours, bumped to 76*F. All temperatures are setting on controller with a 1*F differential. At 5 days, bumped to 78*F. Removed temperature control at 8 days.

• Wyeast 3726: Pitched into a water bath at 72*F. At 12 hours, bumped to 74*F. At 72 hours, bumped to 76*F. All temperatures are setting on controller with a 1*F differential. At 5 days, bumped to 78*F. Removed temperature control at 8 days.

• White Labs 510: Fermented in the basement at room temperature, generally 67-68*F.

• White Labs 550: Pitched into bath at 72*F. At 12 hours, bumped to 74*F. At 72 hours, bumped to 76*F. All temperatures are setting on controller with a 1*F differential. At 5 days, moved to ambient garage temperature, generally 70-75*F.

Notes

06.19.2015: Starters:

06.15.2015 - 06.23.2015: See "Yeast" section above for temperature adjustments.

06.15.2015: Bastogne finished at 1.008 after sitting for 15 days at 67-68*F ambient temperature. Pint of slurry harvested.  Very clean with little sediment.  Flavor is a bit leafy and earthy in the background with some faint phenolics.  Apricot and peach up front. 

550 finished at 1.008.  Lighter profile than the Bastogne.  A bit of pear and honey with a light touch of bread dough.  Very faint fruity notes, quite a bit less than the Bastogne in that area.  Fuller mouthfeel than the Bastogne despite finishing a bit drier.

Blaugies is extremely carbonated for coming out of primary.  Sitting at 1.004.  Dupont is also sitting around 1.004.  Both are fairly tropical and have notes of peach and apricot, but the Blaugies is more subdued.  Many of the fruity aspects are likely coming from the hops.  

07.06.2015: Transferred the Bastogne version to a keg to begin carbonation.  Not sure I like the combination of the fruity hops with the more floral, earthy, and leafy yeast.  I'll have to try this again with Noble hops, as those will complement those yeast aromas/flavors.

07.07.2015: Decent pellicle already going on the Blaugies fementor not too many days after it was removed from the hot water bath.  (Obviously, even filling these buckets with StarSan solution and letting them sit for a while doesn't get rid of all the bugs I have in the buckets and lids.)  My theory on the sudden Brett takeover is that the saison yeast really takes over at higher temperatures, but as the temperature is lowered and the gravity drops, it becomes more dormant and the Brett takes over.

07.09.2015: Added the dregs from two year-old 375mL bottles of Bam Biere to the WLP550 version, as I wasn't terribly happy with the profile, and it has been a long while since I've used Jolly Pumpkin dregs.

07.18.2015: The Bastogne version was on tap, but I'm still not happy with how the yeast character clashes with the hops, so I pulled the keg and plan to add some Orval dregs to let those go to work over time, which will also allow for the hop aromatics to fade a bit.

11.09.2015: Added Orval dregs to the Bastogne keg.

03.04.2016: Added dregs from a bottle of 03.11.2014 Jolly Pumpkin Luciernaga to the Bastogne keg.

05.31.2016: Was never happy with the 550 version, so that one ended up going down the drain, as I didn't have anything to blend it with that I thought would actually work out.  I'm likewise not particularly pleased with the Bastogne version, but I'm still holding out hope for further development with that one.

Farmhouse Mild (Batch 06): Recipe

This was my sixth time trying out this recipe, a petit saison with Brettanomyces and miscellaneous bacteria, plus a slew of saison strains.  This was also my first beer brewed since my wife and I had twins in November, and I was also testing out quite a bit of new equipment, including a Blichmann 30-gallon kettle and a 13.20-gallon oak barrel!  The vast majority of this beer headed to the barrel.  I can't wait to have that around on tap and in bottles for a long time to come as soon as it's ready.

Since I'm not writing this four months after the beer was brewed (not to mention that it's the sixth iteration of the recipe), I'll keep the post fairly short and straightforward.  However, now that I'm brewing regularly again, I should hopefully have a steady stream of recipe posts.

Here are the full details on the batch:

Batch Number: 98

Brew Date: March 15, 2015

Keg/Bottle Date: 

Batch Size: 20 Gallon

OG: 1.035 (est.)

FG: 1.004 (est.)

Fermentation Temperature: 65-70* F (room temperature)

IBU: 30.0 (modified Tinseth from BrewCipher)

ABV: 4.2%

SRM: 3.0

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 154* F

Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

10lb 0oz Dingemans Belgian Pilsner

7lb 0oz Flaked Wheat

3lb 0oz Vienna 

3lb 0oz Flaked Oats

1lb 12oz Acid Malt

1lb 8oz Flaked Rye

Salts & Water

9.3g Calcium Chloride (all in the boil kettle)

7.6g Gypsum (all in the boil kettle)

11.0g Sodium Chloride (all in the boil kettle)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.24

Calcium: 82

Magnesium: 12

Sodium: 50

Chloride: 125

Sulfate: 70

Hops

2.0oz Mosaic (pellet, 12.0 AAU) at 60 minutes 

3.0oz of Galaxy (pellet, 15.0 AAU), at flameout

3.0oz of Mosaic (pellet, 11.6 AAU), at flameout

4.0oz of Belma (leaf, 11.6 AAU), at flameout

Other

4.0 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

Yeast

Portions of the batch split between Ambrosia Blend 005 (10 gallons at room temperature), along with 5 gallons fermented with Wyeast 3724 (Dupont) and 5 gallons fermented with Wyeast 3726 (Blaugies).  The latter two were ramped up from 70*F to 84*F over a period of 11 days (see below)

Rather than chill before pitching, I set the beers out in my brew pots to chill overnight:

Cage to keep out all the raccoons and other critters near our house, and the box as it was supposed to drizzle a bit that night, and I didn't have a clean tarp.

Notes

03.15.2015: Into the Coolship at 138*. Hops were sitting in beer for 2.5 hours. Used spigot to drain 10 gallons into other pot. Total of 21 gallons. Current temperature is 57* (9:45 PM)

03.16.2015: At 8:00 AM, beers around 60*. Each got 30 seconds of O2. Accidentally left Mosaic bittering bag overnight in Blichmann kettle.

Set water bath to 72*F.

650mL total of AMB005. 50mL to 750mL of wort for continuing culture. 300mL to each 5 gallon batch.

10 hours after pitching, basement bath doing well. Both have airlock activity and bath sitting at 70*F due to the 2* differential.

03.18.2015: 2 days after pitching, good activity in basement water bath. Was down to 69* and heat turned back on. Bumped setting up to 74* with 2* differential.

03.19.2015: Three days after pitching, bumped to 76*.

03.21.2015: 4.5 days after pitching, at 75*. Bumped controller to 78*.

03.23.2015: 7 days after pitching. Probe said 77* and actual temp of each was 76*. Bumped to 80*. Each at 1.010. 3726 more mild with some light fruit and hints of spice. 3724 a fruit bomb with pineapple and juicy fruit.

03.24.2015: Bumped to 82*. For wild portion, one at 1.008 with beginning of bubbles for pellicle, and other at 1.006 with bubbles covering almost the entire surface.

03.25.2015: Bumped to 84*.

03.26.2015: Bumped to 86*. Differential still at 2*, so beer currently at 84* with heater on.

04.06.2014. Water bath below the probe level, but beers still at 80*F. Removed the temperature control.

June 2015: Of the 20 gallons, some was blended into Science & Art #8 (a future post), and the rest was added to a newly-acquired 13.2-gallon Hungarian Oak barrel.