Brewday: Business Time Saison

I've brewed several saisons over the last couple of years and aside from this one, I've been more disappointed than pleased with how they turned out. Some of it has been bad luck, some of it bad decision making and some of it is that Fantôme and Dupont set an impossibly high standard for saisons. The feedback I got from my mate Nick G about the good one was that it was a nice saison but lacked an 'x factor'. I think he was spot on about that so this year I'm going to be brewing a few different versions of it to try and see whether I can find that x factor.

That's easier said than done. It's hard to know what will give it that hook that turns it from a nice beer to a truly compelling one. Will incremental changes be enough or does the whole recipe need a makeover? At the moment my incremental ideas are to increase the gravity, to try different hops or different yeast management. I'll also bottle several bottles of each with some different strains of brett as another potential x factor.

My first attempt is pretty simple, just brewing a higher gravity (1.050 compared to 1.040) version of the original. I would have kept everything else the same but since I harvested my hops a day before brewing I thought I'd use some fresh ones for the late hops.

WY3725 has become one of my favourite strains of yeast. It works quickly and at relatively high temperatures, gives a lovely lightly apricot and strawberry lolly and leaves a soft malt flavour. I pitched a very healthy dose of yeast and oxygenated for 60 seconds. Fermentation kicked off nice and quickly at 23C and after 36 hours I allowed it to rise to 25C and plan to increase it one degree each day after that until it is finished.

The actual brewing went nice and smoothly so there's not much to report on that front. I'm comfortable with how my process is working and the beer seems to be turning out well.

Check out the fresh hops and the not so
creative photography!

Business Time Saison (21L batch)
OG: 1.050 (measured)
FG: 1.005
IBU: 22
EBC: 6.3
ABV: 5.9%


Recipe
82% Dingemans pilsner malt
11% Weyermann rye malt
7% Best Malz wheat malt

20g Aramis @ 60 min
100g fresh Hallertau @ 15 min
150g fresh Hallertau @ 0 min

Wyeast 3725


Method
Mash:

• 3g CaSO4, 5g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4 for a balanced water profile with calcium increased for yeast happiness
• 4ml lactic acid for mash pH correction
• Stepped mash: 62C (45 minutes), 72C (15 minutes) and a mash out at 78C

Boil:

• 90 minute boil
• 20g Aramis @ FWH
• 100g Hallertau @ 15 minutes
• 1/2 tab of Whirlfloc @ 10 minutes
• 150g Hallertau @ 0 minutes
• 10 minute steep post-boil

Fermentation:

• Oxygenated for 60 seconds
• Pitched an estimated 210 billion cells
• 23C increased to 30C over the week

15/02/14 - Brewed

22/02/14 - Bottled, ~2/3 straight and 1/3 with Brett II

Double Brewday: Saison and Export Stout

Some more brewing today. Thanks to merging my brewing equipment with my brother's, we can easily do two batches at once when fermentation space permits. It's a bit late to get getting going but I'm hoping to get a few different beers ready for a brewing competition. There's no brewing club in Tasmania so I'll be entering the ACT one. Of course I'd like to do well but getting good written feedback will be useful either way.

I'm looking forward to the Saison because I've stepped up a starter from the dregs of a bottle of Saison Dupont. The fermentation will kick off at 22C and I'll step it up to the mid 30s over the course of the week. Can't wait to see what comes of this one.

The Stout is more or less the same recipe as I've brewed twice before. I've gone for flaked barley this time instead of rye and I used Aramis hops instead of the Northern Brewer and Fuggles I've used in the past. I've upped the gravity a little. It's a recipe I know fairly well and I'd like to continue to work on it with different varieties of yeast.

The Tripel I brewed last week has been tasting delicious out of the fermenter. I've added sugar in two stages and it should be ready to bottle in a day or two.

A quiet drink, a great view and a sour I brewed last year

Saison (23L batch)
OG: 1.056
FG: 1.008
ABV: 6.4%
IBU: 27
Colour: 9 EBC

97.5% Belgian Pilsner
2.5% Caramunich II

25g Aramis @ 90 min
25g Saaz @ 20 min


Export Stout (19L batch)
OG: 1.068
FG: 1.013
ABV: 7.3%
IBU: 55
Colour: 83 EBC

83% Maris Otter
8% Flaked Barley
5% Roast Barley
2% Chocolate Malt
2% Black Malt

66g Aramis @ 90 min
15g US-05

Quick tasting notes: Playoffs IPA 2.0, Export Stout 2.0 & Camp de Brains Saison

After another lull there's now heaps of stuff happening in my brewing world and I've got a bit of a backlog of posts to catch up on. First, the trip to Bruny Island. It was awesome as always. Relaxing, fun times catching up with mates and plenty of food and drink. The beers went down well and it was nice to be able to execute my plan and take 3 decent if not perfect beers to share.

Quick tasting notes:

The Playoffs IPA 2.0 was a bit disappointing. Not bitter enough and much darker than it should have been thanks to a shortage of light crystal malt at my local home brew shop. I also way overdid the flavour hops and they completely obscured the rye and other malt flavours. It wasn't awful to drink but it was a long way from what I wanted.

The Road Trip Export Stout was another re-brew. This time the changes I made really benefitted the beer. It was much more dry than the first one but still had heaps of body thanks to the flaked rye I used. Big and bold.

Camp de Brains Saison probably the crowd favourite. It turned out really nicely I think. It had a pleasant, soft malt flavour from the pils, wheat and rye malts to go with a smooth bitterness. A sweet malt aroma merged with something like strawberry and a little hop aroma. I'd like to try it again fermented at a higher temperature to give it a little more yeast character.

The beer was nice, the view didn't hurt either

Tasting: Belgian Saison aka Pale Ale

Bron brewed this one for me and she did a great job! It started out being intended as a Pale Ale but I ended up using WY3725 so it turned out more along the lines of a Saison.

Bultman's Reserve

Aroma: Light aroma, yeast and a slightly sour tang. Some hop aroma as it warms slightly.

Appearance: Cloudy yellow with a pillowy white head. Some lacing down the glass.

Flavour: The aroma carries over to the taste. There's a pleasant tartness from the yeast and a mild hop flavour. The bitterness is present but not overwhelming. It lingers on the palate in a pleasant way. I'm attributing this to the first wort hopping. The malt backing could be stronger and I'd like the hop flavour and aroma to be a bit bigger, especially since it's morphed into a Saison.

Mouthfeel: Light bodied. Dry. Medium carbonation.

Overall: Refreshing and pleasant. It's a pretty subtle beer, something of a departure for me. If I brewed it again I might mash it a little higher and definitely hop it a bit more too. Still, it's a really pleasant beer and I think it's a good start to the Reserve. Now I've got to get going for the next couple of releases.

The beginning

My 'Baby IPA', low alcohol & stuffed full of hops

Welcome to my blog about brewing and beer related shenanigans in Tasmania.

I've been brewing on and off for quite a few years using kits but began getting into it more over the last 18 months, first with extract, then going on to all grain and coming up with my own recipes.

Over this year I'm keen to experiment by brewing styles and using techniques I'm not familiar with. I'd like to try my hand at sour and funky beers, saisons and messing with some other unusual styles. This blog is primarily meant for me to distill the things I'm learning and keep a record of the beers I've brewed. There's so much I want to learn and try out.

I'd also like to check out some of the best Tasmanian microbreweries and learn more about how they do things.