Hoppy Brett Saison

Belgian Session IPA, Hoppy Brett Saison, American Farmhouse.....I'm sure there are plenty of other ways to name this concoction. Call it what you will, either way, it is delicious, refreshing, and sessionable, just like a solid Saison should be.

My intention was to have this be a table saison with awesome hop flavor and brett for complexity and fruitiness. Most saisons you see around these days don't drop below the 6.5% ABV mark. It's a shame because there is something awesome about a session beer with great flavor and complexity, which is what a saison was historically. Sometimes you just want to drink down a few glasses and not be on your ass. I think this brew has achieved my goal, although I think the half that I intend to bottle will meld together much better overtime compared to this fresh version.

Anyways, here's the stats:

Hoppy Session Saison - (brewed 12/18/13)
Size: 10.5 gallons
Boil: 13.0 gallons
OG: 1.042
Yeast: Repitch of WLP Sasion Blend, + WLP Brett B & C, WY Brett L

Grist12 lbs. 2-Row (78.7%)
2 lbs. Wheat Malt (13.1%)
1 lbs. Flaked Oats (6.6%)
1/4 lbs. Caramunich I (1.6%)

Water - (Corvallis, OR)
Treated water for chloramines with Potassium metabisulfite. Added 10 g gypsum/6 g CaCl to mash. Strike water pH = 6.825

Ca: 70.4 ppm            Cl: 51.9 ppm            RA: -27.5 ppm (as CaCO3)
Mg: 2.0 ppm             SO4: 106.8 ppm      Cl:SO4 = 2.1
Na: 17.6 ppm            HCO: 17.2 ppm

Hops
2 oz. each Sorachi Ace (14.7% AAU), Simcoe (14.5% AAU) & Mosaic (11.5% AAU) @ Hop Stand
IBUs calculated @ 10% utilization = 64.19 IBUs

Details
-Mashed at 154F @ 2qts./lb. Mash pH = 5.28. Stuck sparge PITA. New filter is too good, clogged easily. Chilled to 55F accidentally with plate chiller (ground water was really cold already).
-Stuck wort in fermentation chamber for a couple hours and pitched at 65F.
-Aerated 60 second pure O2. Set chamber to 72F.
-OG: 1.042. Initial pH = 5.25
-12/19/13: raised to 75F
-12/20/13: Raised to 78F
-12/21/13: Left for vacation, turned chamber down to 72F
-1/04/14: Brought inside to 68F
-1/07/14: Dry hopped with 2 oz. of Multihead in primary
-1/15/14: Brought outside to cold crash overnight
-1/16/14: Kegged. Aroma is fantastic, funk mixed with tropics, punched me in the face


Tasting - (1/26/14)
Appearance: Hazy yellow corn, white head, good lacing & retention.

Smell: Complex. Pineapple, lemon, barnyard (mostly hay/grass), black pepper, earth, rustic brett b quality, and bitter citrus rind.

Taste: Lemon & Pineapple dominant, with bitter citrus (grapefruit) rind in the finish. Light pepper, rustic, refreshing.


Mouthfeel: Medium high carbonation, medium light body, slightly prickly, dry, refreshing, lightly silky & tart.

Overall: Never had anything like this. Interesting play between the fruity hops (citrus rind/tropical fruit) and the yeasts. I love the aroma, tons of depth. The dry brett/saison yeast character mixed with the expressive hops creates a unique complexity. This does not carry as well into the taste, although the taste is still great, dry, refreshing, rustic and fruity, a great beer. I will definitely rebrew and tweak this recipe. I'm excited to see where bottle conditioning the other 5 gallons takes this beer.

3/1/14: Ran out of beer, so I kegged the other half rather than bottle it. ph = 3.98. Taste similar to the above, except a bit more barnyard in the nose as the hop aroma has faded (mostly right after you pour it). It has become more tart (as expected) and is now bone dry. Will probably loose the brett b next time.

Cell Counting With A Hemocytometer

Thanks to Mad Dog and Lib I have a brand spanking new binocular compound microscope with a mechanical stage! One of the main things I will be using this for is doing accurate cell counts so I know what my pitching rate and viability is for every batch. I also scored two hemocytometers for about $25 and some methylene blue for staining and checking viability for another $12.

Even though my schooling is science lab heavy, I had yet to use a hemocytometer, so I used the tutorial here for a quick rundown on the calculations and protocols. A hemocytometer has two small wells (0.10mm deep each), along with a grid etched into the glass in which you count the cells. You count only a few squares, usually five, then take the average and then extrapolate the count to the size of your total volume (usually a starter for homebrewers, 1-2 liters). It will become more clear with my example.

Hemocytometer diagram

The picture to the right shows a diagram of the entire hemocytometer. For my sample I drew off a few milliliters of a fermenting beer. I swirled up the sample real well before every step to make sure the yeast was evenly distributed in solution (homogeneous). Next, I took 1 ml of the sample and diluted it with 10 ml of DI water. From this, I used a pipette to draw a small amount of the newly diluted sample and put the sample in the counting chamber. To do this, you must first cover the chambers with a cover slip, then place the pipette tip on the edge of the counting chamber. You don't even need to squeeze the sample in, or else the wells will overflow, it should go in easily through capillary action.

Below is an image of the hemocytometer grid. For yeast, you only need to use the large middle square out of the 9 large squares (since yeast a so small). Inside of the large middle square, you count 5 of the 25 smaller squares. I counted the corners and the very middle one, which is the norm.

Grid specifications

One thing to note is that cells on the border of each square are not always counted. The counter chooses two sides of the square to include in the count. For my count, I chose to not include cells that were on the right side and bottom borders of the square, and include those on the top and left borders. Also, those cells which are budding are usually only counted as one. I did read in Yeast, however, that brewers usually count a budding cell as two cells if the daughter cell is at least half the size of the mother.


After I finished counting the squares, I averaged my count per square, which ended up at 10 cells/square.

Next, I found the volume of a single square:

Volume = (W)(H)(D) = (0.25 mm)(0.25 mm)(0.10 mm) = 0.00625 mm³

Next, I found the dilution factor from diluting my sample:

Dilution Factor = (Final Volume)/(Sample Volume) = (10 ml)/(1 ml) = 10 Dilution Factor.

Next the cell density:

Cell Density = [(Average cells per square)(Dilution Factor)]/(Volume of square)
                   = [(10 cells)(10)]/(0.00625 mm³)
                   = 16,000 cells/mm³

The sample I drew was from 5 gallons of fermenting beer, which I thought I definitely under pitched in a rush from a top cropping to get an IPA done for a competition.

5 gallons = 19,000 ml.

There are 1,000 mm³  in 1 ml, so that yields (1.60 x 10^7 cells/ml)(19,000 ml) = 3.04 x 10^11

or 304 billion cells.

Note worthy is that my 1.060 OG IPA = 15 degrees plato needed 15 million cells/ml, and I had 16 million cells/ml, not bad for eye balling.

Below is my sample on the counting grid. This is exactly what you want; a sample evenly distributed across the grid, representative of the population.

Picture of the counting grid taken with my phone, I'm surprised at how well it turned out