Thursday, December 3, 2015

Tasting Notes of Autumn Pumpkin Saison

I have the idea that I'm going to brew an Autumnal Saison every year and trade off ingredients each time.  This year I went with pumpkin and butternut squash.  I'm already wanting to do another with some acorn squash and maybe sweet potatoes.  I'll hold off until next year for that one!  Until then, here are the tasting notes for the pumpkin and squash Saison brewed here.

I keep forgetting to break out the camera.  I promise I'll get
better pictures!

Stats:
ABV: 7.0%
SG:  1.060 or 14.74°P
FG:  1.006 or 1.54°P
Apparent Attenuation:  90%
Actual Attenuation:  73%


Trying to get the light to shine through.  The cold beer kept
fogging the glass but it was crystal clear.
Appearance:  Golden ruby in color.  Off white head that sticks around for a good while.  During the course of the glass there was decent lacing and a cap of the head stuck around until I refilled the glass.  The second pour kept an island of bubbles around the entire time.  Carbonation streams up the side of the glass.  Great look for a fall beer.

Aroma:  First whiff you pick up hints of the spices.  There isn't a big standout in the spices which is exactly what I wanted.  The spices blend well with the yeast.  There is a hint of sweetness in the form of a light caramel.  I am sure this is from the grains.  Little bit of a bready note in there too.  After all of that (and the glass warms a bit) you can pick up the gourd notes.  Much better aroma of pumpkin in this one than my last pumpkin beer.  I'm sure the butternut squash helped with that.  Nothing to vegetal at all.  I think the nose could be improved.  Maybe more butternut squash and maybe adding some to the boil would help.


Flavor:  The first flavor I pick up when tasting is a bready sweetness.  The Golden Promise and Golden Naked Oats definitely shine here I believe.  Some cinnamon and ginger notes come in as well.  There is a brown sugar flavor almost like maple without being to sweet.  The beer did dry out very nicely so the flavors are there without a cloying sweetness.  I really like that.  After I swallow I again pick up the pumpkin flavors.  It's not super prominent but it is there.  There is also a subtle tartness to it.  Almost like a tart green apple or maybe tart grapes.  Extremely subtle though.  I'm sure that comes from the yeast.


Mouthfeel:  The mouthfeel is medium with the prickling of carbonation helping to move it through the palate.  I think if the carbonation was lower it would seem like a much fuller mouthfeel.  Glad I kept the carbonation up around 2.8 vols.  


Overall:  I think the nose could be improved.  Maybe more butternut squash and maybe adding some to the boil would help.  That would help to add more gourd aroma and flavor I believe.  I'm pretty happy with this beer overall but there is always room for improvement.  I think I nailed the spice additions.  They are there but they are subtle.  I definitely didn't want this beer turning into a spice soup.  If I brew this again, when I brew this again, I'll add more butternut squash and maybe try it with my French Ale yeast for a Biere de Garde take.  That will be a great project for next year.

The next version of my Autumn Saison will probably take a different direction.  I plan on doing more seasonal brews and changing up some things while keeping the base idea intact.  It should be fun to see what comes from the experimentation!  If you've ever thought about doing a pumpkin beer, try a Saison yeast with it.  You can definitely brew a great beer with US-05 or even an English Ale yeast, but I think the Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde (actually a Saison yeast from Fantome) did a great job.  I've passed some of these out to friends and co-workers to get their thoughts.  My girlfriend was impressed with the beer and enjoyed it.  If anyone makes some standout comments I'll post back with them.

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Kathleen Saison - Four Grain Saison - Round 2! - Batch 4

Today I'm brewing my house Saison again with a few tweaks.  This time I'm going to ferment the beer with a clean yeast and add some brettanomyces and maybe lactobacillus in the secondary.  My last version, you can find brew day here and the tasting notes here, is still evolving in the bottle.  I'm happy with how it turned out but I feel it's more of a Wild Ale than a Saison.  I will change up some of the process and see if I can tweak it to fit the beer I am imagining.

I take a lot of inspiration from some of my favorite breweries on this beer.  Tired Hands SaisonHands is one of the most fantastic beers I've ever had.  They use four grains in their recipe so I decided I wanted to go that route as well.  I will have some rotation in what exact grains and what hops I use until I nail what I'm looking for.  I'm also inspired by Casey Brewing and Blending as well as Hill Farmstead.  Both of those breweries release fantastic Saison and Farmhouse style beers.  I know Shaun isn't keen on using the Saison name but his Farmstead Ales are things of pure magic.  The previous Kathleen used dregs grown from Anna and Arthur with Wyeast 3726.  I still have that culture saved but I believe adding it to secondary will yield better results.  Maybe I can use that and the Emptiness culture from Tired Hands that Daniel from In Search of Saison was kind enough to send in secondary down the road.  So many possibilities!  I've actually been struggling with what brettanomyces strains I'm wanting to use in my beers.  I guess it will just take more brewing!

Here's the recipe for Kathleen Round 2:

Recipe: Kathleen (Round 2) - Batch 4 11-22-15
Brewer: Gus
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 9.26 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.11 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal   
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 2.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.2 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.8 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt           Name                                 Type      #    %/IBU
7 lbs 8.0 oz  Pilsen Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.0 SRM) Grain     1    73.2 %
1 lbs         Rye Malt (Briess) (3.7 SRM)          Grain     2    9.8 %
1 lbs         Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM)           Grain     3    9.8 %
12.0 oz       Oats, Flaked (Briess) (1.4 SRM)      Grain     4    7.3 %
1.00 oz       Saaz [3.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop       5    13.8 IBUs
1.00 oz       Amarillo [8.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min    Hop       6    11.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg       Saison Brasserie (#ECY08)            Yeast     7    -


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification  Add 16.14 qt of water at 161.1 F        150.0 F       60 min
Mash Out          Add -0.00 qt of water and heat to 168.0 168.0 F       10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 6.65 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------


You'll notice I changed to the Pilsen malt this time instead of the Pale Ale from Dingmans.  I'll be using this for pretty much all my pale beers going forward.  The Pale Ale malt is great but leaves a bit too much sweetness for me.  It will be great for any darker or amber beers I think.  I also removed the Vienna and added in a small portion of rye malt.  I thought about switching wheat out for some spelt but I can do that in the next brew.  Then I changed the hop schedule to something more classic instead of a single bittering addition of the Aramis hops.  Amarillo is a perfect finishing hops for something like what I'm trying to do.  We'll see how it plays with the yeast and malt bill in time.

The day before I made a 1200mL starter and pitched in the fresh vial of East Coast Labs ECY-08.  I've been wanting to work with this blend for a while now so I was excited when I saw it available.  I plan on keeping it around so I left about 200mL in the flask to build up and store.  If I like the results, I'll have some available to use again.

FastFerment assembled and ready to go!
I went to my LHBS last week to pick up a few more Better Bottles.  I was informed that they had halted production and didn't know when they were going to fire back up.  I looked around a bit and saw the FastFerment from the guys at FastRack.  I had heard about these but hadn't heard much about the performance.  I scooped it up and decided I would give it a go.  In the mean time I'll be ordering some Vintage Shop PET carboys.  I'm really needing to pick up some more with all the beer I have going right now.

I soaked all the smaller parts in PBW then gave them a rinse.  Assembly of the FastFerment is really easy and intuitive.  I didn't find any leaks after I had it together so I then filled it with a PBW solution.  After the soak I drained the PBW and kept it for cleaning after my brew day.  Then I filled the conical with a StarSan solution to sanitize.





Brew day went great.  I still ground my grain the same as last time on Batch 3, but I didn't add the grain until after the water this time.  I didn't run into the clog or stuck mash so that was great.  My mash temp stuck around 150-151F for the entire hour and then I cranked it up to 166F for my mashout.  I shot for 168F but just didn't reach it.  It took about 45 min to fly sparge and collect my 9.5 gallons for the boil.

Got to drink Saison while brewing Saison!  Great beer from Kane.
A tad sweet for me but super refreshing!  Check out Nom De Plume.

After the 90 minute boil I checked the gravity and saw that I had hit my target starting gravity of 1.048.  With the use of Saison yeast and the brettanomyces yeast I usually add, this will dry out and produce a beer in my target range of 5.5-6.5% ABV.  I want it to be an easy drinker but also be a base beer for blending, barrel aging, adding fruit and souring as well.  I pumped the wort through my heat exchanger and into the conical.  I pitched my starter and set it in the edge of the kitchen where the ambient temps will stick around 86-72F for the next few weeks.  I'll have a heater on hand in case it's needed.

In it's temporary home for a couple weeks.

I've heard some things that the FastFerment can be hard to clean.  I haven't gotten to that stage yet but I"m not sure I see how it will be difficult.  Remove the bulb and give it a good spray then re-assemble and let some PBW or something else soak and clean it.  I'll report back on that when the time comes.

After this beer finishes I'll be bottling some clean then transferring the other to secondary with a few brettanomyces strains.  I recently acquired ECY-04 Brett Anomala and ECY-30 Brett Naardenensis from East Coast Yeasts so maybe one of those will go in the running.  I also have a Lochristi Blend from The Yeast Bay I need to use.  I may throw that on a low rpm stir plate to build it up while the beer is in primary then add that in.  SO many choices now days!

I'll post back with updates and eventually tasting notes of the clean portion and the portion I secondary with brettanomyces.




Updates:

11-22-15:  6 hours after pitching the active starter.  No oxygenation after transferring to the conical.  Saison yeasts are beasts!


11-25-15:  Used a space heater to keep the conical above 75F.  It has been averaging 78-80F and fermentation is still steady.

11-27-15:  It looks like fermentation is coming to a halt.  I'll let it sit a few more days and then take a gravity measurement before moving forward.

11-30-15:  Everything seems to be settling out now.  I took this picture of the bulb on the bottom of the FastFerment.  I whirlpool after boiling for about 10 minutes and I also use a stainless steel hop spider.  The yeast cake looks clean and seems to be settling well.  This FastFerment may just be the ticket for easy re-pitches of the yeast.  I'll let it sit for a little while longer and then transfer some to be bottled and the other I'll add some brettanomyces and maybe an oak spiral to.

That line about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom is the yeast cake forming.
12-20-15:  Gravity reached 1.002 after checking twice to confirm stable.  I bottled one gallon of this clean and then blended the remaining four gallons with a sixteen month old Lambic style blonde sour.  Results of the blend were very fruity with a slight tartness and funk. I think the sour blonde really complimented the Saison well.  Tasting notes to follow after carbonation!

2-18-15:  Tasting notes posted here.

Cheers!

Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Bière de Garde - Avant Garde Style - Batch 3

Well I did say I was becoming obsessed with this style.  Here's another brew day involving the Bière de Garde style.  This time a lighter approach based off of the Lost Abbey Avant Garde clone from the American Sours book by Michael Tonsemire.  I want to get a lot of these done and in bottles so I can send some out and also do as much research as I can.

There just isn't much information out there on the style and everywhere you read, you see something like "musty" or "cellar like" qualities.  Every description says this is hard to do on the homebrew level and I'm beginning to understand why.  I have a theory that it isn't the cork or even a cellar that's giving these flavors.  I'm thinking it has something to do with wild yeast and brettanomyces that may be present.  I'm going to experiment with some different strains to try and replicate this or even develop something I enjoy the most.  It may be that these beers need to be corked and forgotten for a while.  I'll definitely be brewing more of them to find out!

Here's the recipe:

Recipe: BdG - Avant Garde
Brewer: Gus
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Bière de Garde
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 10.31 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.11 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal   
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.060 SG
Estimated Color: 8.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.8 %
Boil Time: 120 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt           Name                                     Type      #    %/IBU
12 lbs 3.0 oz Vienna (Avangard)                        Grain     1    89.9 %
1 lbs         Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess)          Grain     2    7.4 %
6.0 oz        Honey Malt                               Grain     3    2.8 %
2.00 oz       Strisslespalt [1.20 %] - Boil 60.0 min   Hop       4    8.9 IBUs
1.00 oz       Fuggle [4.20 %] - Boil 25.0 min          Hop       5    10.8 IBUs
1.0 pkg       French Ale (White Labs #WLP072)          Yeast     6    -


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs 9.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification  Add 21.11 qt of water at 161.3 F        152.0 F       60 min
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 6.85 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------


Happy starter after being stepped up from a 800mL
starter the day before.
Primary fermentation is going to be carried out by WLP072 French Ale from White Labs again.  I've really enjoyed how the first BdG I did with this yeast turned out and how it has changed in the keg over time.  I think it's the perfect clean base for the beer to let the malt shine through.  This was my last vial of this yeast so this time I decided to take a few 50mL vials of the starter to keep back and I'll also have about 400mL or so left from the starter to propagate again.  If this one turns out as well as the first one, I'm going to want to keep using this yeast.


After primary fermentation is complete, I'll move the Big Mouth Bubbler to the lagering phase and let it sit for 4 weeks.  After that I plan on adding GigaYeast's Sweet Flemish Brett to the secondary.  I really like the description of that yeast from their website and I think a Bière de Garde or something that needs to remain malty will be a perfect base for this brettanomyces strain to add it's subtle nuances.  I'm going to do a good starter before hand since the packet is right at 8 months old now.  Plus then I can pull some of it out and keep for future use.

Hops and GigaYeast Sweet Flemish Brett.

The hops are Strisslespalt and Fuggle hops.   I don't want a good bit of hop presence but I do want the preservative factor and the bitterness to be present.  I kept it simple here going with the classic Strisslespalt for bittering and the one ounce of Fuggle at 25 minutes.

I've been a little low with my efficiency lately so I decided to adjust my grain mill again.  I tightened it up just a bit and sent the grain through it.  (Spoiler: I hit my numbers on the nose this time!)  My last brew day (Dark Saison here) I decided to underlet the mash like I've seen on Tony Yates' YouTube videos.  Check his channel out for a TON of great information.  It really does make for a better mix of the grains and water for me.  My mash has had no dough balls and I just give it a quick stir before starting the re-circulation.  I did notice this time though that I had to use some water from the HLT to blow through the valve and get rid of a small clog in the beginning.  Maybe next time I'll put a small amount of water in under the false bottom before adding in the grains.  I did do a little better with the pH of my mash this time.  I checked it before adding anything and it was at 5.5.  I then added food grade lactic acid to bring it down to 5.26 and called that good.

Love the sight of a tasty grain bed!

The mash went smoothly and the wort really cleared up nice during the re-circulation.  I was able to keep the temperature at 152-154F during the entire hour and I mashed out at 167-168F for 15 minutes before starting my sparge.  I collected 10.5 gallons or so after about 45 minutes and then started my boil.  The boil is something key to a good Bière de Garde I believe.  You need a good long boil to caramelize some of the sugars and keep those sweet flavors after fermentation is complete.  Two hours is what I did for the last one and what I did for this one.  I think that's probably the minimum.  The first attempt, I was able to keep the malty flavors even though the beer dried out around 1.004.  Easy to drink and dry with the sweet malty flavors needed for the style.

After the boil I whirlpooled for 15 minutes to bring any hop particles that had gotten out of the hop spider and then I sent the wort through the plate chiller and into my carboy.  One pass I was able to get the wort from 200F to 68F by using a prechiller in ice for the water side.  I'm loving this plate chiller!  Took one of the longest parts of my brew day down to the shortest.  Took a sample to confirm my refractometer findings with a hydrometer and we were sitting right on the nose at 1.060 for a starting gravity.  I pitched about 1200ml of the WLP072 starter and set the carboy in the fermenter with the temperature set on 64F.  I'll bump it up in the next few days a bit but I really want this to ferment clean.

I'm using the Big Mouth Bubbler again for primary since I'll be lagering this one then transferring to secondary.  I love the spigot feature on the bottom.  Still not happy with the seal on the top but I'll make sure to keep tightening it as I pass by each day.

Updates:

11-9-15:  5:30AM full krausen had formed and she was bubbling away!




11-20-15:  Lowered temps for cold storage period.

12-30-15:  Raised temps back to 65F and added in the Brett from GigaYeast.

1-6-16:  Visible activity from the brettanomyces.  Set temperature to 68F.

2-19-16:  Gravity stable at 1.004.

2-25-16:  Bottled.  Tasting notes here.

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Dark Saison/Saison d'Hiver - Batch 2

What?? Another post on HBW??  I won't always have posts for HBW but I've been brewing  a lot lately so I have a few posts scheduled to release.
_______________________________________________________

If any of you have read Michael Tonsmeire's blog, and I'm sure a lot of those reading this has, then you've seen his yearly post about a Dark Saison he and some of his buddies brew.  I took some inspiration from that and decided I wanted to do a Dark Saison or what can be called a Saison d'Hiver.  Close to two years ago I brewed one very similar to this recipe from Maltose Falcons and it was okay, but nothing special (due to me not the recipe).  I changed the grist up just a bit and I fermented it with White Labs WLP585.  I then aged it in secondary on a vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick.  Young, it was way too much spice from the cinnamon..  As it aged, it just seemed to turn into a Belgian Dark Strong Ale.  A good beer but nothing great and definitely not dry enough.  This year I wanted to take another stab at it and get something funky added in the mix.

I took to his book and his blog to go through each recipe and find something I could build my brew from.  Here are some links to each of his beers.

Funky Dark Saison #1 - Rosemary, Orange Peel, Raisins
Funky Dark Saison #2 - Black Cardamom and Caramelized Dates
Funky Dark Saison #3 - Fig, Honey, Anise
Funky Dark Saison #4 - Currants
Funky Dark Saison #5 - More sour and split a couple ways
Funky Dark Saison #6 - Aged with Cranberries and Orange Peel
Funky Dark Saison #7 - Mostly English grist and Citrus added

As you can see there is a ton of information on his blog about these dark farmhouse beers.  There is a plethora of other information there as well.  I took what I gathered from him and developed the recipe below with what I had on hand at the house.


Recipe: Dark Saison Round 1 - Batch 2 10-25-15
Brewer: Gus
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Belgian Specialty Ale
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 9.26 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.11 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal   Actually close to 6.5 gallons
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.070 SG  Actual OG:  1.060 SG  -  Way over sparged.
Estimated Color: 23.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 25.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 75.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt           Name                                     Type      #    %/IBU
11 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Ale (Dingemans) (3.3 SRM)           Grain     1    80.7 %
1 lbs         Caramunich I (Weyermann) (51.0 SRM)      Grain     2    7.0 %
8.0 oz        Rye, Flaked (Briess) (4.6 SRM)           Grain     3    3.5 %
4.0 oz        Midnight Wheat (750.0 SRM)               Grain     4    1.8 %
1 lbs         Brown Sugar, Dark (50.0 SRM)             Sugar     5    7.0 %
1.00 oz       Bramling Cross [5.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min  Hop       6    17.3 IBUs
1.00 oz       Bramling Cross [5.10 %] - Boil 15.0 min  Hop       7    8.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg       Biere de Garde (Wyeast Labs #3725)       Yeast     8    -


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 14 lbs 4.0 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification  Add 17.32 qt of water at 165.4 F        152.0 F       75 min
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 6.71 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes: Added Dark Brown Sugar at the end of the boil.  Pitched GigaYeast Sour
Cherry Funk with the Wyeast Biere de Garde 3725.
------

The recipe just seemed to fit the bill of what I was wanting.  I got to use some of the Dingeman's Pale Ale malt that I still have.  That malt just seems a bit too sweet for my liking in lighter Saison brewing.  But when I'm wanting something dark and to have a residual malt character, this could be a great base.  I was thinking about using Vienna or Maris Otter for my base malt but, I had the Pale Ale on hand.  I added some Caramunich I for color and the caramel/malt flavors, flaked rye for the body and mouthfeel, and then Midnight Wheat for more color addition.

For the hops, Bramling Cross just scream dark farmhouse beer to me.  Spicy with hints of black currants was the description.  I added enough to get right around 25 IBUs and called it good.


Wyeast 3725 may be called Biere de Garde but there are many folks saying it's actually a Saison yeast.  Either way, it should work for me in this beer.  I wanted to give it something extra too though.  I added in GigaYeast's Sour Cherry Funk.  With the IBUs where they are, it may take some time for it to sour.  That will be ok as it will give the different brettanomyces strains in there a head start.  It will also test to see if the lacto there will drop the pH over time.  I've got a theory that even with hopping at a rate like I did that the pH will drop given enough time.  I didn't take a starting pH for this beer but I will see where the pH is after primary fermentation.  I'll check it periodically as I'm waiting for this to mature.  I'm still not sure on fruit additions either.  Maybe some cherries will play nicely.  I'll decide that when the beer is finished and see what will compliment the best.


Sorry for being that guy and videoing this portrait instead of landscape.  I'll fix that on future videos if I film with my phone!  I've gotten a new camera recently to start filming most of my brew days with.

Drinking farmhouse while brewing farmhouse!  Existent is a great example of the style from Stillwater.

Some things to note that happened on this brew day.  I ended up way over sparging  and having a boil volume close or just over 10 gallons.  For this new system I've been trying to get somewhere around 9.25-9.5 gallons.  My last brew efficiency was spot on.  I'm attributing this miss of starting gravity to the over sparge.  I could have boiled longer but that would have off set all my hops and additions so I didn't worry about it.  I'm still pretty green with the new system but I'll get better.

Cooling went much, much better this time around.  I made sure all my connections were good and tight and did a re-circulation through the heat exchanger while the wort was still close to boiling temps to sanitize.  Then I turned on the hose and let it drop to 125F before dumping ice in the pre-chiller.  I was able to run 72F and eventually 68F wort into the carboy.  I collected probably just over 5 gallons and then pitched the two yeast packets.

This was a much better brew day overall.  I still made some mistakes and I'm sure I'll continue to have some while dialing in the system.  Preparation and sanitation are key for me.  I like to have everything laid out in front of me to be ready when I need to use it.  I'll do a good detailed write up about my system and my process while brewing soon.  There have been a few folks asking for that lately.


Updates:

10-26-15:  Didn't see a lot of activity in the AM but by 4PM she was rocking and rolling!



Updates:  Picked up some tart cherry juice to bottle this one.  Will be bottling soon.

3-7-16:  Bottled with 48oz of tart cherry juice.

Tasting notes found here.

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

American Farmhouse Ale - Batch 1

Happy HBW!  Today's post is about the first brew on my new brewing system.  This has been a long time in the making.  I didn't know what exactly I wanted to start with but I knew it would be Saison.  Now that my system is complete I plan on brewing a lot more sour beers since I can get them brewed and split multiple batches.  I'll also be able to test a lot more yeast strains that I've been wanting to and do the big Saison yeast experiment.

The single tier brew system I've built took a long time.  I knew I wanted to start building it about two years ago.  I started getting things for it then and just hanging on to everything until I got where I wanted to get the big pieces like the controller and the kettles.  I went back and forth on the size of the kettles but ultimately ended up going with 15 gallon kettles from Bru Gear.  The experience with them could be a complete post by itself but I'll just say, the kettles are great.  I would change a few things on them if I could but they work great.  I also picked up a PID controller from eBrewing Supply and those guys there are fantastic.  All my other components pretty much came from Bobby at www.brewhardware.com.  I love the cam-lock system and everything is always delivered fast.

Now on to the brew day!  Below is the simple recipe I decided to use for Batch 1.  2oz of low AA Strisslespalt for bittering and a late addition of Equinox to give it something extra.  I've been wanting to use this hop for a while.  Simple malt base of 90% Pilsen and 10% Torrified Wheat.  Fermentation will be carried out by the White Labs WLP670 American Farmhouse Blend.


Recipe: American Farmhouse - Batch 1 10-17-15
Brewer: Gus
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 9.26 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.11 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal   
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.047 SG  Actual: 1.046 SG
Estimated Color: 2.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 29.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.8 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt           Name                                     Type      #    %/IBU
9 lbs         Pilsen Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.0 SRM)     Grain     1    90.0 %
1 lbs         Wheat, Torrified (1.7 SRM)               Grain     2    10.0 %
2.00 oz       Strisslespalt [1.20 %] - Boil 90.0 min   Hop       3    9.9 IBUs
1.00 oz       Equinox [13.60 %] - Boil 10.0 min        Hop       4    19.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg       American Farmhouse Blend (WLP670)        Yeast     5    -


Mash Schedule: Temperature Mash, 1 Step, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time
Saccharification  Add 13.26 qt of water at 163.0 F        150.0 F       60 min
Mash Out          Heat to 168.0 F over 10 min             168.0 F       10 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 7.34 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:  No starter for the WLP670.
------

Being the first brew day I did expect to have some complications or issues through the process.  The were minor, but worth noting.

First the mash temperature was managed much easier with the HERMS coil than I expected.  When I ran just water through the system to test it, there was about a 6-8 degree difference between the two kettles.  When the mash tun was full of grain, the difference was only 1-2 degrees.  This is good but during this brew day my temperature evened out to 154F for the majority of the mash.  In the end I'm sure it won't matter.  There will just be a few more longer chains for the brettanomyces to chew on.  I still feel the beer will dry out appropriately.

Second issue was the plate chiller.  I fitted each of the openings on the hose side with some quick disconnects I use around my house and for the wort side I added the cam-lock connections with a ball valve on the out.  The cam-locks worked great but I guess I didn't get the quick disconnects tight enough.  REALLY hot water sprayed everywhere from the out.  I was able to kill the flow and get it fixed but just as a PSA to others out there... Make sure everything is tightened very well!  In the end I had the wort cooled to 75F and pitched the vial of WL670.  Next time I need to do a much better job of maintaining the flow if I want it to get any cooler.  I used a bag of ice and pre-chiller to get the hose water cold.  I feel like I can get it down in the high 60s no problem next time.

During the brew day the pumps worked great, temperatures were accurate and everything was controlled really well.  I'm pretty happy with how Batch 1 turned out.  The starting gravity was just a bit off at 1.046 but that's very acceptable for my first brew being that my target was 1.047.  I'm also excited that now I'll be able to keep a record of each batch.  I wish I had done that with all my beers from the beginning but... oh well.  I can now!  Unfortunately, I don't have a ton of photos from the brew day.  I was really focused on making sure everything went well and everything was safe.  I do have a new camera that I'll be using to video some brew days and take better pictures of everything.  I do have a parting shot (or video) of the vigorous boil.  I'll leave you with that.  Follow me on Twitter to know when I'm brewing and watch when I stream on Periscope!




Updates:

10-18-15:  Full krausen and fermenting away at 9AM the next morning.



10-25-15:  Moved from fermentation freezer to room temp in kitchen on concrete floor.  Ambient temp is around 70-72F.

2-20-16:  Gravity is 1.000 and beer has developed a pellicle after taking the sample a few days ago.  Definitely ready to bottle.

3-17-16:  I've been busy with other projects so I just now dry hopped this beer with 1oz of Equinox.  I will bottle next week.

Tasting notes still to come but here is a bit from Dan Pixley in the Saison group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1517563441866109/permalink/1751609811794803/

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Monday, October 19, 2015

Tasting Notes of Four Grain Saison (Kathleen) Round 1

After getting ready for my first brew day on my new system I decided to pop a bottle of the beer I'm calling Kathleen.  While I envisioned this beer as being my provision style Saison that is aged for a while to bring out more character of wild yeast an bacteria, the culture I used in this beer acted extremely fast.  The pH dropped substantially, despite having almost 20 IBUs, in just a few short weeks.  This had me thinking the process again and how I would approach it each time.  I already know I don't want to use Pale Ale malt for the base next time.  Traditional Pilsen malt is much better as it won't leave as much residual sweetness.  You can find the recipe and info on the beer here.  My tasting notes are below.


"Kathleen"



Stats:
ABV: 6.5%
SG:  1.054 or 13.3°P
FG:  1.004 or 1.03°P
Apparent Attenuation:  92%
Actual Attenuation:  75%

Appearance:  Pours deep golden almost orange.  Really clear on the first pour as well.  A white head forms about one and half fingers thick.  Quickly dissipates to just a thin ring around the glass.  There are bubbles streaming up the sides and they do so almost the entire time I drink.  I had feared the carbonation was way too low but it seems there is more than I had expected.  It's still a bit lower than I want but it's not flat and I'm glad of that.  Little bit of lacing on the sides of the glass but nothing excessive.  I did ferment this on an oak spiral so I'm wondering if that has any effect on the head retention.  Most barrel aged beers I have tend to be lacking in that department.  Overall I'm pleased with the appearance but look forward to it being a bit lighter with the Pilsen next time.




Aroma:  The first bottle of this beer I opened had a very muted aroma.  It smelled very "young" as well.  This bottle has opened up to showcase a lot of tropical aromas.  Mango and pineapple are pretty prevalent.  There is also some acidity in the form of lemon rind tartness as well.  Just a hint of sweetness but it's a fruity sweetness and not something malty or like caramel.  It has a slight hint of acid bite as well but not too bad.  It seems to be just a little bit young still.  Being that this was brewed in July and that it's just three and half months old, it may be still just a bit too young.  The aroma is more wild ale than Saison.  Not getting a ton of the great pepper and spice that 3726 usually delivers.  I seem to have this reoccurring when I use a good portion of grown up bottle dregs.  Still, it smells nice and I'm interested to see how it progresses.  Maybe with time it will give a bit more funk from the brettanomyces in the dregs.  Even with the shorter boil, I detect no DMS or anything like that.


Flavor:  First sip brings the lactic tartness and mango out.  After you swallow and let it settle a bit, then some of the pineapple comes out.  A little bit of green apple and some fruity sweetness are left on the palate.  Definitely acidic but pretty pleasant overall.  There is a bit of pepper and spice that I didn't pick up in the aroma but not as much as the sample before bottling.  Still no caramel or malty flavors and I'm glad of that.  I had worries using the Pale Ale malt that it would leave too much.  There is some still there even though the beer finished very dry at 1.004.  I believe the change in base malt will be much better.  Reflective of the nose, I think this one is still a bit young.  The dry hop of Aramis hops is detectable as well.  I'm picking up the lemony, grassy notes from them.

Again, I'm pleasantly surprised that I don't detect any DMS.  I'm not always the best at picking it out but if there was a substantial amount from the short boil, I believe I would have gotten it.  The brettanomyces may have converted it to something else.  


Mouthfeel:  Medium to almost medium full body on the beer.  I think higher carbonation would help with that.  Over time that may happen.  Just a bit of something left in the back of the throat after swallow as well.  This too would be fixed with more carbonation.  I bottled with 4.5oz of dextrose but going forward I believe I'll be using table sugar and in a little bit higher amount to get the carbonation levels I'm wanting.


Overall:  This is a very tasty brew.  I can definitely detect the Hill Farmstead character in there.  It tastes like a slightly sweeter, well aged Anna or Arthur character.  Since I've brewed the last few beers with the dregs and the Saison yeast pitched at the same time, I've come to realize I like the character of adding dregs after primary fermentation.  I do like pitching strains of brettanomyces with the Saison yeast but I think that when you use dregs that have been built up, they tend to take over and dominate the profile of the beer.  While this one is still young in the bottle, I feel it is still a great brew.  I'll report back periodically with how this one changes over time and see if we can find the sweet spot for age.  This beer could have sat in primary a little longer but honestly I liked how it tasted and the gravity and pH had been the same for a while.  Time will tell how this one changes.


Parting shot of the new system for those who don't follow on IG or Twitter.  First run this past Saturday went great and I think I'll be able to produce a lot of great beer using this!  Still have to get the panel mounted and add a few more things but right now she runs smooth!  Follow on Twitter to see me Periscope and brew live.

Updates:

This beer definitely went through a couple of changes.  A couple weeks after this tasting I pulled another and it had lost the mango and pineapple flavors.  it was more subtle and plain it seemed.  Then after a few more weeks in the bottle the tropical fruit flavors returned to balance out the tartness.  Something else had shown up as well.  There was a good amount of funk in the nose.  It was like wet hay, old wet wood, and a bit of leather.  It had an amazing balance and I really enjoyed it.  It was tasted by another sour beer that was in the style of Lambic and this beer's nose rivaled that in the funk department.  I can't wait to see how it further develops in the bottle!

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Tasting Notes of a Homebrew Saison with Tired Hands Emptiness Culture

Today I'm giving some more tasting notes from a beer sent to me by Daniel Rohm.  Daniel was nice enough to offer some of Tired Hands Emptiness culture he had grown up and blended with Wyeast 3726 and even sent a beer with it!  He included a couple great beers I was really happy I'd get to try.  I'll be sending a return box back soon!

You can find his brewing post here and his tasting notes here on his blog.  Keep checking back for more updates from him!

He took a good base grain bill of a saison and then fermented it with a starter of 3726 and his grown up Tired Hands Emptiness culture.  If anyone has ever had any of their Emptiness beers, you know that is some pretty amazing stuff.  Those beers tend to have great stone fruit character and some pretty nice acidity.



Poured into the glass it left me with about a finger to a finger and a half of nice white head and tons of different sized bubbles.  Carbonation rolling up the side of the glass.  The head dissipated pretty quickly.  This was probably due to the acidity in this beer.  When I popped the cap I got an initial whiff of acidity.  Just a tad hazy but I'm not one to look for crystal clarity in the beers I brew or drink.  Golden orange in color similar to some of the beers I've been rolling out lately.  Looks great.

Head after I poured.  I'll have better pictures soon!  I've gotten a much better camera than my phone.
First dive into the aroma I pick up the acidity in a lemon flesh and rind tartness.  There is a big of pear skin and what smells like unripened peaches.  The pear skin almost has a tannic quality but nothing off putting at all.  There is a hint of funk that I'm sure will grow over time.  Slight bit of acetic bite but nothing overpowering or even supremely noticeable.  Could be perceived as a hint of vinegar but I'm not one to find this completely offensive.  I actually like a little bit of that character if it isn't overboard.

For the flavor, I pulled out some pear, maybe a bit of tart green apple, ripe peaches and apricot, very much Tired Hands character.  Medium mouthfeel, and a little hangs on in the back of the mouth for the finish.  Carbonation is nice and helps to clean the palate.  There is a bit of malt flavor but nothing overly sweet at all.  There is just a twinge of something shinning through remnant of ethyl acetate.  It's highly possible that this is just the beer being young in the bottle.  I'm sure that will age out.  It's not offensive like nail polish or rubber at all.  Just a hint of something I'm not able to put my finger on.  I'm not sure what the ABV is but there is no trace of alcohol at all.

Overall this is really nice stuff from what I think was, Daniel's second beer maybe?  That's very impressive.  He dove straight into all grain brewing and if this had been my second all grain beer I would have been stoked!  Talking with him about fermenting with bottle dregs in saison I think we are both on the page of using the dregs more in secondary instead of co-pitching them with the saison yeast.  What I'm finding is just what he has said to me, that makes a beer more of a wild ale instead of the saison with a touch of tartness and brettanomyces funk.

Thanks again for sending it my way, Daniel!  Keep the brewing up and feel free to send more to sample!  I'll have a box back to you with my HF dregs saison as well as some others.

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Monday, September 28, 2015

Autumn Saison - Pumpkin Saison???

It is HERE!!! Pumpkin mania is here and everywhere you look pumpkin beers, pumpkin spice lattes, and pumpkin everything is everywhere you look.  I'm going to fuel the fire with another pumpkin beer.  This time though I'm going with a pumpkin and butternut squash Saison.  Lighter on the spices and more on the squash flavors.

I used to love pumpkin beers.  I got excited every year and would always stock up.  Now I tend to avoid them as they all seem to mesh and become the same beer.  Nothing really exciting comes out.  Jolly Pumpkin's pumpkin sour, La Percela, is one that I will try to pick up each year but it it is totally different than most of the pumpkin beers that come out each year.  There may be a few other examples but for the most part I'll have a few Pumkings and I'm good.

I developed the below recipe as a base for my squash Saison.  I brewed this on 9-25-15.


Recipe: Inscrutable Scarecrow
Brewer: Gus
Asst Brewer: 
Style: Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.50 gal (about)
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal   
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.068 SG
Estimated Color: 12.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 21.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.00 %  (Actually about 65.4%)
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.8 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt           Name                                     Type      #    %/IBU
6 lbs         Golden Promise (Simpsons) (2.0 SRM)      Grain     1    46.2 %
3 lbs         Pale Ale (Dingemans) (3.3 SRM)           Grain     2    23.1 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz  Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM)               Grain     3    11.5 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz  Oats, Golden Naked (Simpsons) (10.0 SRM) Grain     4    11.5 %
1 lbs         Brown Sugar, Light (8.0 SRM)             Sugar     5    7.7 %
1.00 oz       EKG [7.20 %] - Boil 60 min               Hop       6    21.6 IBUs
1.0 pkg       Biere de Garde (Wyeast Labs #3725)       Yeast     7    -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 13 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In           Add 15.00 qt of water at 165.9 F        154.0 F       60 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.46 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:  Added baked flesh of two pie pumpkins and one butternut squash to the mash.
Also added .5 teaspoon all spice, .5 teaspoon cinnamon and, .5 teaspoon of ginger
at the end the boil.
------

Back in 2013 I had the idea to do a pumpkin beer with a Belgian Dubbel.  Everything went great except that the beer fermented down to 1.004 or so leaving no residual sweetness at all.  I'm hoping the grain choices will leave some sweetness there for the beer to have balance and drink a little easier.

Got to drink Saison while brewing Saison.  This was a great offering from Burial Beer Co.  Nice and dry while being a little malty as well.  Great fall Saison IMO.


I've been wanting to use Golden Naked Oats in a beer and I've got about 15# of the Golden Promise laying around needing to be used.  I'll brew this again before the year is out if it turns out well.  I can always use them in another brew if this isn't to my liking.

This will also be my first brew with Wyeast 3725 Biere de Garde yeast.  It's been reported that this is actually Fantôme's Saison yeast and not an actual Biere de Garde yeast.  The description really fit the bill of what I was looking for and I grabbed a few Smack Packs this year so I figured an Autumn Saison would be nice.

I cut the pumpkins and squash in half then quartered the squash.  I roasted them in Pyrex dishes at 350F for an hour.  I ended up putting the top half of the butternut squash back in for about 15 minutes to soften it up more.  After they cooled I scraped the flesh from the skins and set it aside in a bucket.  When I doughed in the mash I added a bit of water to the pumpkin and stirred it to blend it all together.  I added to the mash and let it equalize.  My mash temp ended up right at 153F at the beginning and fell to 150F by the end.

Roasty!  Disregard the terribly dirty oven, I'm due a cleaning!

My house smelled like Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin and butternut squash innards.

The mash was tough, of course, with all the pumpkin and squash in there.  I ended up using 1/2lb of rice hulls at the beginning but had to add another 1/2lb when I started the first sparge.  Plus, I believe the Golden promise was almost a year old.  That and the pumpkin really played with my efficiency.  But in the end I hit a nice number for this beer that I'm happy with.  Moving to my new system I'll be able to dial in my efficiency much more.  With my pot and cooler I've been averaging 65-75%.

Boil process was normal and I added my spice combination of .5 teaspoon of all spice, ..5 teaspoon of cinnamon, and .5 teaspoon of ginger. with 5 minutes remaining.  I left out the nutmeg and clove as I was wanting some of the saison yeast spice to shine through.  I added one pound of light brown sugar after I turned off the burner.  I left the wort for about 10 minutes while the spices steeped.

Hot break!!!

I went a little lighter on the suggested spices and took out a few as well.  I wanted the all spice, cinnamon, and ginger but I wanted the Saison yeast to do the rest.

I cooled the wort to 75F and set my fermentation chamber to 68F.  The day before brewing I made a 1000mL starter and I pitched that while it was still showing a bit of activity.  The wort tasted amazing and smelled very nice.  I know some of the spice characteristics will be driven off during fermentation and honestly, I'm counting on that.

I've been playing with the idea of adding bretta to some portion of this.  I think the RVA Orchard Brett would be great in this.  I may try that out.  During bottling I'll pull off 2.5 gallons or so and add the bretta to it and let it work.  We'll see closer to time.

I'll post updates as the process moves along.

9-26-15:  7:30AM the beer had full krausen going.  Really white krausen with a bit of brown speckled around.  Airlock did have activity but I tightened the top down on the Big Mouth Bubbler and there was more bubbles then.  That's something I'm noticing on these.  You can tighten it but over time it seems it slips.  During fermentation I have to tighten them a few times before the seal sits completely tight.  This may be due to the StarSan I use to sanitize the lid. After it dries fully it tends to seal better.  Just something to be aware of for those who have purchased.  I plan on using these as my open fermenters for my clean saisons.  Nothing for extended aging as the pellicles that are formed in it are monstrous.  It has to be letting O2 in.



9-29-15:  Bulk of fermentation looks to be complete.  Still a small layer of krausen and a few bubbles every now and then.  I plan on taking a gravity reading this Friday.  I'll let the beer mellow and completely finish for another week probably if the gravity is not stable.

10-10-15:  Pulled sample and the gravity was 1.010 down from 1.060.  It tastes really great but there was some yeast still in suspension.  I'll look again in the next week and see if it's ready to bottle.

10-12-15:  Gravity was down to 1.006.

10-16-15:  Gravity stable at 1.006.  Bottled with 4oz table sugar.


Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Reviewing a Buckwheat Saison!

This will be a brew review.  I will pepper these in every now and then.  I'll keep most to homebrew but if a commercial example stands out I may put that on here as well.  This one was sent to me by a fellow farmhouse officionado, Amos from Browne and Bitter blog.  His blog is on my list of frequently visited sites and you can check it out here.

Popped this one in my brewery/garage while looking over some of my beers.

This is a saison he brewed with buckwheat in the grist and then blended with a pale sour.  Amos has been working with buckwheat for a few brews.  He has some great write ups about it you can check out on his blog.  This one in particular is one that started me down the path of brewing with this crazy seed.  You can check out his most recent post on brewing and more with buckwheat here.  All of his blog has some great info about all kinds of brewing and even more!

On to the beer!


 Appearance:  Pale straw in color and a little hazy.  Love the hazy look.  Soft white head full of tiny bubbles that when poured, stood about two almost two and a half fingers tall.  Pretty great retention as well.  It stuck around for a while and when it finally settles it kept a cap on the brew with small holes forming as your drank but then closed back up.  Carbonation streamed up the glass the entire time I drank it.

Light through the glass.
Brew system in the background.
(junk also in the background!)

Aroma:  First sniff I get a lemon/lactic tartness and then a soft pineapple.  A little bit of grain and definitely some barnyard funk.  Not a goat-y funk from caprylic acid though.  I was wanting to see if that showed up from the buckwheat and it doesn't.  There isn't anything offensive about this nose.  It's pretty fantastic actually!  When it warmed it had a green banana and citrus soda aroma.  Lemon-lime type thing with the acidity mixed in.  Really great and complex nose.



Flavor:  Right at the front of the mouth you get pineapple and a lemony tartness.  As you swallow the tart lemon follows through the back of the throat.  There is an underlying acidic note that I can't place.  I'm getting this out of my saison I brewed with buckwheat as well.  It's not unpleasant at all.  It accentuates the lactic acidity nicely.  There is just a hint of sweetness that seems to be like a grain or fruit sweetness.  Not cloying at all.  Adds in the complexity of the beer.  

As it warms a almost honey like flavor comes out.  Still has the pineapple but more of the green banana in the flavor like the nose when it warmed.  A lemon grass type flavor and aroma come out as well.  I noticed more of the grassy type note as I swirled my last glass to drive out some carbonation.



Really nice bubble formations!

Mouthfeel:  The carbonation was perfect to me.  This is what I want in my beers.  It was prickly on the tongue but not filled with carbonic acid that it altered the flavors.  Medium to medium-light in mouthfeel.  Super easy to drink and refreshing.




Overall:  This is exactly what I envisioned a buckwheat saison to be.  It has some flavor and aroma notes that you don't get from just using normal brewing grains.  Amos's technique of blending the pale sour beer in with the saison works perfectly.  I think both beers made there presence known without losing what the beer was intended to be.  The soft lactic acidity and a bit of funk from the sour beer blended with the saison base really well.  I was still able to tell it was a saison.  I'd drink this beer over a ton of commercial examples I've had.  This would also be a PERFECT summer beer.  Amos wasn't positive on the ABV but he suggested around 5-6% and I think it drank closer to a 4% beer.




Thanks again to Amos for sending it out for me to try.  I've got a couple others from him and I'll be sending a return box for him to sample.  I look forward to more exchanges in the future!

Parting shot of the beer as I neared the end of the first glass.  The head stuck around the entire time.  Any movement stirred the carbonation up and brought it right back!


Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Tasting Notes for Squeegee

Squeegee is a session IPA that I decided to brew at the end of the summer.  I wanted something I could have on tap that would also broaden/sharpen my brewing skills.  It's nice to keep other things going along side all my farmhouse beers.  You can find the original post and recipe here.


Stats:
ABV: 5.45%
SG:  1.050 or 12.39°P
FG:  1.008 or 2.05°P
Apparent Attenuation:  84%
Actual Attenuation:  68%

Appearance:  Light straw and hazy as can be!  You can't see through it at all.  It's like a pale orange juice color.  Soft white head full of tiny bubbles.  It's streaming up the sides of the glass from what you can see on the outside.  Very reminiscent of the Northeast IPAs I've had.

I really need a better camera and better lighting!

Aroma:  Wow... Super pungent.  Definitely get the citrus notes.  Really big grapefruit.  There is also a good bit of tropical fruit notes.  Some mango maybe and a bit of a fruit punch. There is also a white grape juice hint.  Basically it smells like white grape juice infused fruit punch with bits of grapefruit rind/flesh floating in it!  One of the best noses I've had on one of my homebrews.

Flavor:  Yup, grapefruit to follow the nose.  A bit of sweetness in the mid palate.  It's again like a fruit punch sweetness.  Not overly cloying at all.  Finishes nice and dry with a bit of a grapefruit pith acidity.  Nothing acidic about the beer really just has the dryness one would expect with acidity.  I could drink this for days.

Mouthfeel:  Medium mouthfeel with maybe a touch on the medium heavy side.  The oats and spelt give it a super creamy feel.  Really nice and pleasant to drink.

Overall:  I'm very happy with how this turned out.  It's been a long while since a brewed an IPA or even a clean hoppy beer really.  It was nice to visit this and know that I can do it to keep something on tap for everyone who comes to my house.  I intended on taking this tailgating at the last MSU home game but all 3 growlers were taken down the night before.  Even folks that aren't big fans of craft beer liked this one.  Not having an early addition of bittering hops really played a part in this I think.  It has all the hop aroma and flavor your could want without being overly bitter.  It also doesn't overplay the malt or low alcohol level.  It's balanced but has a "hit you in the face" aroma.  I loved the hop combination as well.  Galaxy is such a crazy hop that does well when paired with others.  Amarillo is just one of the best hops ever produced.  Rakau was the new comer for me but I definitely think it added to the whole package.

This is definitely one to be repeated!

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
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Something not so Farmhouse-y! Here comes Squeegee!

So I know this blow is about farmhouse brewing and my obsession with brewing these fantastic beers.  But it is also going to serve as an easy to access brew journal for me.  From time to time there may be posts that aren't about just farmhouse beers being made.  This is one of those.

I like to drink low ABV beers more than I like big 8+% offerings.  I don't always like to catch a buzz or deal with what can come from having too many of those higher alcohol offerings.  Every now and then I'll have them but I prefer a low ABV, session-able beer.  I also like hoppy beers.  I like them to be well hopped but not overly bitter.  So today this entry is about a hoppy beer I brewed that took some of my farmhouse techniques of developing the grist.  I'm using some of the really popular IPA/Pale Ale hops and trying to develop something I can turn around quickly and keep on tap.

Here's the recipe I brewed 8-29-15.  I've deemed this beer, Squeegee.


Recipe: Squeegee
Brewer: Gus
Asst Brewer: 
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30.0) 

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.52 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.98 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal   
Bottling Volume: 4.60 gal
Estimated OG: 1.052 SG  Actual OG: 1.050
Estimated Color: 4.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 58.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 % Measured: 67.9
Est Mash Efficiency: 80.5 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt           Name                                     Type      #    %/IBU
1 lbs         Spelt (3.0 SRM)                          Adjunct   1    10.0 %
8 lbs         Pale Ale (Dingemans) (3.3 SRM)           Grain     2    80.0 %
1 lbs         Oats, Flaked (Briess) (1.4 SRM)          Grain     3    10.0 %
0.25 oz       Amarillo [8.20 %] - Boil 20.0 min        Hop       4    4.3 IBUs
1.00 oz       Rakau  [9.40 %] - Boil 10.0 min          Hop       5    11.7 IBUs
1.00 oz       Galaxy [15.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop       6    10.3 IBUs
1.00 oz       Galaxy [15.00 %] - Whirlpool  20.0 min   Hop       7    15.6 IBUs
1.00 oz       Rakau  [9.40 %] - Whirlpool  20.0 min    Hop       8    9.8 IBUs
0.75 oz       Amarillo [8.20 %] - Whirlpool  20.0 min  Hop       9    6.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg       London Ale III (Wyeast Labs #1318)       Yeast     10   -
1.00 oz       Amarillo [8.20 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days     Hop       11   0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz       Galaxy [15.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days      Hop       12   0.0 IBUs
1.00 oz       Rakau  [9.40 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days       Hop       13   0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                         Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In           Add 12.50 qt of water at 164.9 F    150.0 F       75 min

Sparge: Fly sparge with 4.85 gal water at 168.0 F
Notes:
------


I have been wanting to try out Wyeast 1318 since it's gaining a lot of favor with brewers.  It's also rumored to be the house ale yeast for one of my favorite breweries, Hill Farmstead.  I love using their farmhouse dregs so I thought I'd use this for some pale ale/IPA and English beers I plan on brewing.

I used food grade lactic acid to get the mash pH to 5.2 with this beer as well.  My preboil gravity was a little low so I had to boil the wort a little longer.  Even with this I missed my target starting gravity by .002.  Still working out kinks!

I used a hop spider for the boil hops then put the whirlpool/steeping hops in a hop bag to help with the transfer after the boil.  I've started doing this and it's lead to much easier transfers and better quality beer over all.  If you notice, I didn't have any bittering charge of hops in this beer.  I started adding my hops with 20 minutes left in the boil.  Hoping to accentuate hop flavor and aroma while limiting the bitterness.  I used a good bit of hops in steep/whirlpool and I believe that adds a good bit of bitterness.  I don't think it will last as long as a beer that has a good bittering charge but we will see.

I used malted spelt and flaked oats in the mash to add a bit of head retention and establish the creamy mouthfeel of the northeast IPA/Pale Ales I've had.  Ed Coffy from Ales of the Riverwards has a great running recipe on his blog about using oats in the mash to create this mouthfeel.  He, like I, loves Tired Hands Brewing Company's HopHands beer.  Check out his cloan/tribute attempts here.  While you are there, check out all his posts.  They are all super informative and great reads!

The beer fermented to 1.008 in about 6 days.  I tossed the dry hops in and waited as patiently as I could.  I had a work trip to Boston and Long Island so that helped out with the wait.  The tasting notes will follow soon.  You can check them out here.

I like brewing hoppy beers.  I like drinking hoppy beers.  And they can be very exciting.  I'm always trying to sharpen my brewing skills in all areas!  I'll be sprinkling in a few different styles every now and then.  Some funky and some hoppy.  Thanks for reading!

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Tasting Notes for My First Bière de Garde

On 5/31/15 I brewed my first attempt at a Bière de Garde.  I  developed the recipe you can find here by reading and researching the web and various books.  Very simple first attempt.  I used a yeast I hadn't used before and fermented it at cool ale temps.  I think my next attempt will be with a lager yeast.  After fermentation I moved it to cold storage for 6 weeks.  I kept it around 38-42F for the entire time.  After that I decided to keg it and see what the results were.

Stats:
ABV: 8.0%
SG:  1.065 or 15.9°P
FG:  1.004 or 1.03°P
Apparent Attenuation:  94%
Actual Attenuation:  77%



Appearance:  Really clear, dark amber color.  Nice carbonation streaming up the glass.  Pours with about two fingers of a white/off white head.  That settled out to a thin puck that hung around as a drank.  Really tight bubbles.  Really happy with the clarity.  Not something I thrive on but glad to see it.



Aroma:  Light caramel and toffee with just a slight hint of spice and hay.  More of a dead grass, earthy thing but, it's actually really clean smelling.

Flavor:  Right up front you get the caramel flavors.  Not too sweet but there is a touch of underlying sweetness.  It finishes with a some spice, almost cinnamon maybe?  It's dry but still has a bit of residual sweet flavors like burnt sugar in there.  I bet that's from the long boil.  Mouthfeel is medium, medium-light.  A bit of alcohol sweetness but it's not much at all.  No real warmth from the alcohol present.  

Overall:  Although I enjoy the beer and it's a very easy drinker for an 8% beer, I want a touch more of a wild factor to it.  I believe there had to be some form of brettanomyces in the Bière de Gardes of old.  Keeping those beers stored as long as they did as well as using the equipment they had in the farms of the day had to introduce some form of wild yeast and/or bacteria.  I'd like to introduce a bit of funk to it.  Either by blending some old beer or by adding brettanomyces to the primary fermentation.  I've never done a lager fermentation with brettanomyces (or a lager fermentation at that!) but I think I may experiment with that.  Pitch my lager yeast and the bretta at the same time then let the beer then condition on an oak spiral from a previous mixed fermentation.  I could then blend if needed or keg/bottle as is.

I'll have a good many more Bière de Garde posts.  I'm becoming quite obsessed with this style as well.  Thanks for reading!

Cheers!


Andrew "Gus" Addkison
gusaddkison@gmail.com
@aaddkison on Twitter
MDBC
on UnTappd:
Gus_13
on Instagram:
mdbc_saison