Recipe: Demeter Auran (Batch 5; Barrel Fermentation Batch 1) [Batch #103]

This post relates to my fifth edition of Demeter Auran, a blonde saison brewed with citrus zest, rose hips, and citrusy American hops.  This batch features blood oranges along with Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo hops. For the malt bill, I added a little bit of honey malt, as I really enjoy the character that brings out in a blonde saison assuming I'm not going for something that's more floral and grassy, leaning toward a more-traditional phenolic base.  More importantly, this was my first time doing barrel fermentation. This beer went into the barrel for primary fermentation right after I cleared the barrel of Dionysus #3.  See this post for background on the barrel and the beer that was in the barrel prior to this batch of Demeter Auran.  

With the barrel fermentation, I'm really hoping to pull out a bit of oak over the three to four week fermentation period.  Furthermore, I want to gain additional experience working with barrels, as when I eventually open up a commercial brewery, I plan to start with everything being fermented in oak.  From there, perhaps I'll eventually get some stainless fermentors for saisons without any sort of Brett or lactic acid bacteria, but from the start I think barrels will be the best way to showcase the kind of beers that I want to make, and there's the added bonus of barrels being significantly cheaper to work with compared to stainless fermentors.

Blood oranges ready to be zested.

The recipe for the full batch is as follows:

Batch Number: 103
Brew Date: February 6, 2016
Bottle/Keg Date: See notes below.
Batch Size: 20 Gallon
OG: 1.032 (est.)
FG: 1.002 (measured)
Fermentation Temperature: Fluctuating around 65*-70*F.
IBU: 43.0 (modified Tinseth)
ABV: 4.0% (est.)
SRM: 4.0

Mash: Single infusion for 60 minutes at 150*F.
Boil: 60 minute

Fermentables

16.00 lb French Pilsner (46%)
6.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (17%)

5.00 lb Oats, Flaked (14%)
3.00 lb Munich (9%)
2.81 lb Acid Malt (8%)
2.00 lb Honey Malt (6%)

Salts & Water

10.0g Calcium Chloride (all added directly to the kettle)

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

11.0g Sodium Chloride (all added directly to the kettle)

Resulting water profile is as follows:

Mash pH (est.): 5.33
Calcium: 69
Magnesium: 12
Sodium: 40
Chloride: 102
Sulfate: 61

Hops

3.0 oz Mosaic (11.6 AAU), leaf, at 60 minutes

3.5 oz Citra (13.0 AAU), leaf, at flameout

3.5 oz Amarillo (8.8 AAU), leaf, at flameout

3.0 oz Mosaic (11.6 AAU), leaf, at flameout

Other

4 tsp. Wyeast Yeast Nutrient at 10 minutes

56g blood orange zest at flameout

21g dried rose hips at flameout

400mL blood orange juice at flameout

Yeast

See notes below.

Transferring the wort into the barrel.

Notes

02.03.2016: Created a starter with 7.75oz DME into 4L of water with 2 tsp of yeast nutrient.  

Yeast:

3724 manufactured 12.06.2015 (x2)
OYL Saisonstein's Monster manufactured 12.15.2015

3724 manufactured 08.26.2015
3726 manufactured 07.22.2015
WLP645 expired 06.19.2015
WLP644 expired 07.19.2015

1 cup Farmhouse Mild thick slurry (at least 50% yeast) from 03.16.2014 (kept in fridge since then)

Added all the old stuff to 1 L of the starter wort.  It was about 500ml of yeast in total.  I then added the two new packets of 3724 and Omega Saisonstein's Monster to 3L of starter wort.

02.07.2016: Heavy fermentation 24 hours after pitching.  At 48 hours, bumped the temperature to 70*F for the carboy version.  Sitting previous to this at ambient at 65*F.  Barrel remains at 65*F.

Fermentation.

02.10.2016: At 60 hours, the carboy is at 69*F.  Raised to 72*F with a differential of 2*F.  At 72 hours, raised to 76*F with differential of 2*.

02.11.2016: At 84 hours, I raised the carboy temperature to 78*F with differential of 2*F.

02.14.2016: Added dregs of 2012 3F Golden Blend to the barrel

02.16.2016: Barrel sitting at 66*F.

03.23.2016: Carboy finished at 1.002.  Transferred 5 gallons from the carboy to a  keg with 2.0 oz of Hallertau Blanc.  Transferred 3 gallons of the barrel to a carboy with 14oz of passion fruit pulp.  Transferred 5 gallons to a keg without any dry hops.  Finally, I bottled 5 gallons with 7oz raw sugar aiming for 3.5 volumes (probably under as CO2 escaped from the barrel during the fermentation process).  Yield of 23 750ml bottles.

Transferring from the barrel into the bottling bucket.