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.

Split Batch Wild Farmhouse

The next for or five posts will be a backlog of brews, as I have been busy with school, work & interning. The first things to get cut when you are this busy are blogging and laundry.

The goal for this beer was to create a pretty standard saison grain bill, then split the secondary fermentation. Primary fermentation yeast was the same for both beers, Wyeast 3711 French Saison, which I feel results in a really nice, rustic, peppery farmhouse profile. Batch 1 fermentor would get a pitch of White Labs Brettanomyces claussenii in secondary and Batch 2 would also get Brett c. along with a smack pack of Wyeast Pediococcus.

Enjoying one of Ivan's outdoor open fermented farmhouse

Brett c. gives off awesome tropical aromas and flavors, with pineapple & mango usually most prominent from my experience with it. Pediococcus is a lactic acid producing bacteria, which also throws a lot of diacetyl (butterscotch off flavor/aroma) as a by-product. Luckily, brett will take that diacetyl and turn it into wonderful flavors and aromas.

I'm interested to see how Batch 2 will result for a sour beer. Up to this point, all my sours have had a plethora of different organisms, whether it be a sour blend from one of the big yeast companies, or from bottle dregs. I really wanted to see the results of a pitch of only pedio and brett.

I'm not yet sure what the long term plan is for both beers. Batch 2 will definitely require a year of aging for the pedio and brett to work on the souring process. I think Batch 1 will most likely be bottle conditioned, and savored for a few years to come.

Recipe - Split Batch Wild Farmhouse (brewed 9/19/13)

Size: 11 gal
Boil: 13 gal
IBUs: 37
OG: 1.050

16 lbs. 2-row (Rahr)
2 lbs. Wheat Malt (Weyerman)
1/2 lb. Caramunich III (Weyerman 55L)
1/4 lb. Acid Malt

3/4 oz. Sorachi Ace (14.7% AAU) @ 60 min, 1 1/4 oz. @ 20 min, and 1 oz. @ Flameout

-Mashed at 154 F for 60 minutes. Double batch sparged with 4 gallons each after collecting 5 gallons first runnings.
-Aerated 60 seconds with oxygen stone.
-Fermented in chamber at 80 F.

9/27/13: Moved inside at 65F ambient.

10/19/13: Racked both to secondary. SG: 1.004, fermented dryer than intended. Will add some malto-dextrin to feed the brett/pedio.

• Batch 1 got 3 cups of Brett C. starter into secondary.
• Batch 2 got smack pack of pedio and 3 cups of Brett C. starter.

10/23/19: Pelicles formed on both.
1/17/14: Batch 1 w/ Brett C only: pH = 4.12. SG: 1.002. Typical bright tropical Brett C. aromatics with pineapple dominant, slightly tart. Planning to bottle this sometime this week to open up some space for other batches.

Prunus Cerasus (Kriek) Tasting

I brewed this farmhouse beer at the end of June of 2012. A month after primary fermentation I racked 4 gallons of it onto fresh tart cherries harvested locally (for free!). The 10 lbs  were frozen to break the cell walls, no sanitation step otherwise. This gives us 2.5 lbs./gal, which I feel ended up close to perfect for this beer. Final gravity was 1.006 when racked onto fruit, giving this a dangerously drinkable 8.53% abv. The ABV was probably further boosted by the sugar from the cherries, though how much, I do not know.

Prunus Cerasus

Appearance: Fluffy, rocky head that almost looks tinted pink in the right light (I might be imagining things). Deep ruby red with orange highlights when held up to the light. Perfect amount of haze and glow for a farmhouse beer. A few centimeters of head last until the end. This is a damn attractive beer.

Smell: Complex. Mixture of bright citrus fruits from the brett and tart cherries, followed by a distinctive spiciness, maybe from the saison yeast. They all meld to give a distinct pie like aroma, over-ripe/cooked fruit.

Looks great in this Duchesse glass!

Taste: Similar to the smell. Great tart brett flavors melded with the cherries. Not as much spice as the nose, nor as much of the freshly cooked pie. Mostly tart cherry/brett up front with a slight sour/lactic finish. Unsure if this is solely from the fruit, or if there were some contributions from surviving microbes on the cherries. A definite pucker, with low tannin in the finish, fits well.

Mouthfeel: Medium light body, not thin. Medium high carbonation with a slight prickle.

Overall: Really impressed at how this turned out. The distinct pie like spice and fruitiness is a mystery to me. I think I will chalk it up to a combination of brett, saison yeast, and it being on fresh fruit for 8+ months (with possibly the latter contributing the most). It has a great balance of fruit and beer, the cherries do not over power the base, and the brett really comes through.

It will be hard to keep this one on for long, I will probably bottle most of it.

Dozered - American Farmhouse

Today I had big plans to brew a low strength, pale, dry American Farmhouse. My plans took a turn when I mistakenly added one pound of Carawheat malt instead of a quarter pound to my grist. I decided to just go ahead with the brew anyways, and increased the base malt up to Super Saison status. Basically, the whole brew day morphed into a weird chance for experimentation, so reserve judgement. Who knows, this could be the best damn beer anyone has every tasted!

I have used WLP670 a number of times in the past, and really liked the results. It is a saison yeast (saison II?) with a brettanomyces strain (brett C?) and supposedly hails from Lost Abbey. My soon to be tapped kriek is tasting awesome at 10 months and used this strain.  I made a couple other Saisons last year with it and they all turned out great.  The one I bottled continues to get better and better. Your patience will be rewarded with this strain.

I had been fermenting in the 68-70F range in the past with this yeast, but decided to ferment high this time, being that this has turned experimental. The final change to my normal habits came in my brewing water. I jacked up the bicarbonate level to about triple what I normally use, but not nearly as high as historic Saison brewing water.

Saison with WLP Saison Blend

Dozered - American Farmhouse - (4/22/13)

Size: 5.5 gal
Boil: 7.0 gal
Yeast: WLP670 - American Farmhouse Blend, ~ 217 billion cells

Water

Ca: 125.0 ppm            Cl: 89.8 ppm                
Mg: 2.0 ppm                SO4: 188.4 ppm
Na: 42.0 ppm              HCO: 110.26 ppm
Cl to SO4 ratio: 2.1

Grist

12 lbs. Pale US 2-Row (1.7L)
1 lb. Wheat Malt (2L)
1 lb. Carawheat (45L)
1 lb. Wheat, Flaked (1.6L)

Crazy hot break from all that wheat!

Hops

0.50 oz. Chinook @ 60 mins
1.00 oz. Chinook @ 15 mins
2.50 oz. Chinook @ 0 mins

-Mashed @ 146F for 75 minutes. Mash pH 5.2. Aerated for 60 seconds with pure O2. Pitched at 74F. Temperature control set to 74F.
-OG: 1.071.

A rare bluebird brew day in Corvallis, OR