Tag Archive: saison
Brettanomyces Saison using 50 West Dregs
A few months ago, I bought a pair of bottles of 50 West’s first (I think) bottle release, Brett is my Copilot. I was fermenting a saison at the time, and pulled a gallon aside and pitched the bottle dregs in it. Looks like this happened on April 8, because Twitter says I posted the pic below on April 9th at 7:47 AM… which was probably after I arrived at work the following morning.
I went far down the #homebrew rabbit hole by pitching some of the Brett from a @FiftyWestBrew to a Saison. pic.twitter.com/KbHLlzTROr
— Andrew Rohne 🍺🏃🍕 (@HamBrew807) April 9, 2015
The initial recipe is below:
Recipe Details
| Batch Size | Boil Time | IBU | SRM | Est. OG | Est. FG | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.5 gal | 90 min | 31.2 IBUs | 8.0 SRM | 1.058 | 1.004 | 7.1 % |
| Actuals | 1.051 | 1.01 | 5.4 % | |||
Style Details
| Name | Cat. | OG Range | FG Range | IBU | SRM | Carb | ABV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saison | 16 C | 1.048 - 1.065 | 1.002 - 1.012 | 20 - 35 | 5 - 14 | 2.3 - 2.9 | 5 - 7 % |
Fermentables
| Name | Amount | % |
|---|---|---|
| Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) | 8.5 lbs | 79.07 |
| Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) | 12 oz | 6.98 |
| Caramunich Malt | 8 oz | 4.65 |
| Sugar, Table (Sucrose) | 1 lbs | 9.3 |
Hops
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Form | Alpha % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tettnang | 0.75 oz | 60 min | Boil | Pellet | 4.5 |
| Tettnang | 1 oz | 15 min | Boil | Pellet | 4.5 |
| Amarillo | 0.5 oz | 15 min | Boil | Pellet | 9.2 |
Miscs
| Name | Amount | Time | Use | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Irish Moss | 0.25 tsp | 15 min | Boil | Fining |
Yeast
| Name | Lab | Attenuation | Temperature |
|---|---|---|---|
| French Saison (3711) | Wyeast Labs | 80% | 65°F - 77°F |
Mash
| Step | Temperature | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Mash In | 148°F | 75 min |
Download
| Download this recipe's BeerXML file |
I essentially let it ferment out (it was about a 4 gallon batch after a little disaster). I then racked a gallon to another carboy and swirled the dregs from the bottle and pitched it into the carboy.
It’s been a while (six weeks?) and I tried some.
Dat clarity!
It has some tartness and a lot more mouthfeel. It’s getting bottled today and the yeast/brett mix will be saved for another.
Cheers!
Saison + Brett from a 50W Brett Is My Copilot Bottle
I like the idea of experimenting.
First, I saw this on Twitter:
Some dude posted this on Twitter…
@CffmBeech is Country Fresh Farm Market on Beechmont Avenue. It’s about 1/4 mile away from my LHBS, Paradise Brewing. I needed to drop by Paradise for a hop rhizome. And I’m a beer explorer, so I couldn’t resist wanting this. So I dropped by CFFM and after finding the bottles.
I sought some help from a friend that is going to (or just graduated from) the Seibel Institute. He was asking if I used brett for the Saison, since that’s the traditional fermentation ‘method’.
The other person’s name has been removed since I didn’t ask him if I could post this.
So I thought about something…
Oh look, what do we have here?
Note the 100% Brett fermented…
So while I was stopping by Paradise picking up that hop rhizome, I got a 1-gallon carboy to try this out. My Saison was nearly done fermenting, but I racked about a gallon into the second carboy (which was washed and sterilized, of course!), sprayed sanitizer around the cap of Brett is my Copilot, and poured all but about 3/4″ of it into a glass, and swirled the rest and pitched it into the second carboy.
In secondary!
Within 5 minutes, the airlock was bubbling, but I don’t know if that was because of the Brett or if it was because of other reasons. There is no pellicle yet (a few days after pitching), but there’s still time. And I’m going to save the yeast/brett mix for my next Saison.
Oh, and this happened too:
🙂
Cheers!
PS: Brett Is My Copilot is a pretty good beer, too! It’s tart and citrusy. I can definitely see this as a beer to enjoy while sitting outside on a warm Cincinnati summer day.
The Wortsplosion and Lessons Learned
The title of this, coupled with last week’s post is chilling.
Brew day was not without hitches and major issues. It started with me not hitting my mash temp. The grain was cooler than I thought, so after making adjustments in BeerSmith, I set the temperature controller for the new temperature. I learned something…
Lesson 1: before believing that the temperature is correct, stir the HLT
I added water to bring the temperature up, but probably only partially successfully. My gravity was lower than I wanted by sparge, so I actually re-circulated the wort through the sparge again.
Boil went off mostly without a hitch, but I learned something else…
Lesson 2: it is possible to have too much of a boil
I didn’t get a mess (yet), but the wave caused by the over-active boil was a little scary. I found that 212.6F was a pretty good boil without causing a wave.
Lesson 3: Ventilation is important
The condensation caused minor issues, but allowed to go too long, this could become dangerous (mold?). Better work on a ventilation system. In the meantime, I’m running a dehumidifier.
Lesson 4: Barbed connectors shouldn’t be connected to pumps used for hot wort
Yeah, this is where the wortsplosion happened. I have a barbed connector going from my boil tun to and from the pump, to and from an immersion chiller in a bucket of ice water (I’m using it backwards, the heating element is in the way of using it normally, yes I cleaned it!).
Lesson 5: Wortsplosions are bad, especially where electricity is involved
Wort spraying everywhere means that it got on everything.
The pic doesn’t do it justice – there was wort on the side of the boil tun, the switches, the transformer, the PID controller, and me.
Somehow I managed to not get electrocuted in all this. The switches are not waterproof, and 24V AC and DC wiring is exposed. Everything had to be disassembled for cleaning.
One thing I did not own is a mop. I had to run out and get one, and I used some extra-strength purple Simple Green cleaner I had in my garage to remove the half-dried wort from the floor.
Total wort loss was about 3 quarts. 1 quart in my jeans, the rest to the floor. Not a total loss.
I did end up hitting about 70% efficiency, which I partly blame on adding the grain to the mash water in the cooler as opposed to the other way around. I also drained and sparged much slower.
Anyway, I’m going to consider buying a plate chiller. And new fittings (fuck the barbed hose fittings). Probably cam fittings.
The Saison that I brewed is fermenting.
Cheers!